“Willingly, if I can, Guardian.”

“Very well.  I must first inform you that your imprisonment is likely to be very short.  You are to know that the harmony supposed to exist in Stolzenfels is largely mythical:  I left behind me the seeds of discord.  I proposed that the glum niece of Treves, whom you met at our historic lunch, should be the future Empress.  This nomination was seconded by Mayence himself, and received with unconcealed joy by my brother of Treves.”

“Then for once the Court was unanimous?  I think your choice an admirable one.”

“The Archbishop of Mayence does not agree with you, my dear.”

“Then why did he second your nomination?”

“Because he is so much more clever than Treves, who a few minutes later would have been the seconder.”

“Why should his Lordship of Mayence think one thing and act another?”

“Why is he always doing it?  No one can guess what Mayence really thinks, if he is judged by what he says.  Were Treves’ niece to become Empress, her uncle would speedily realize his power, and Mayence would lose his leadership.  Could Mayence to-day secretly promote you to the position of Empress, he would gladly do so.”

“But won’t he at once look for some one else?”

“Certainly.  That choice is now occupying his mind.  His seconding of the nomination was merely a ruse to gain time, but if he proposes any one else he will find both Treves and myself against him.  His only hope of circumventing the ambition of Treves is that something may happen, causing you to change your mind concerning Prince Roland.”

“You forget, Guardian,” protested the girl, “that his Lordship of Mayence said he would not permit me to marry Prince Roland after the way I had spoken and acted.”

“He said that, my dear, under the influence of great resentment against you, but Mayence never allows resentment or any other feeling to stand in the way of his own interests.  If you wrote him a contrite letter regretting your defiance of him, and expressing your willingness to bow to his wishes, I am very sure he would welcome the communication as a happy solution of the quandary in which he finds himself.”

“You wish me to do this, Guardian?” she asked wistfully.

“Not until you are satisfied that Prince Roland is innocent of the charges you make against him.”

“How can I receive such assurance?”

“Ah, now you come to the object of this apparently purposeless journey.  I have had much experience in the world you are so anxious to renounce, and although I have seen the wicked prosper for a time, yet my faith has never been shaken in an overruling Providence, and what happened last night set me thinking so deeply that daylight stole in upon my meditations.”

“Oh, my poor Guardian, I knew you had not slept, and all because of a worthless creature like myself, and a wicked creature, too, for I did not see the hand of Providence so visible to you.”