The caretaker flung his arms around the young prisoner.

“Oh, thank God, thank God!” was all he could cry, and “Thank God!” again he repeated.  “Never before have I felt my head so insecure upon my shoulders.  Had you not been here when they came, Highness, their Lordships would have listened to no explanation.”

“Really you were in little danger with such a clever son.  The Archbishops would never have suspected that he was not I, for none of the three has ever seen me.  I am quite sure Heinrich would have effected my signature excellently, and answered to their satisfaction all questions they might ask.  So long as he complied with their wishes, there would be no inquiries set afoot, for none would suspect the change.  Indeed, custodian, you have missed the opportunity of your life in not suppressing me, thus allowing your son to be elected Emperor.”

“Your Highness forgets that my poor boy cannot write his own name, much less yours.  Besides, it would be a matter of high treason to forge your signature, so again I thank God you are here.  Indeed, your Highness, I am in great trouble about my son.”

“Oh, the danger is not so serious as you think.”

“’Tis not the danger, Highness.  That it is his duty to face, but he takes advantage of his position as prisoner.  He knows I dare refuse him nothing, and he calls for wine, wine, wine, spending his days in revelry and his nights in stupor.”

“You astonish me.  Why not cudgel the nonsense out of him?  Your arm is strong enough.”

“I dare not lay stick on him, and I beg you to breathe nothing of what I have told you, for he holds us both in his grasp, and he knows it.  If I called for help to put him in a real dungeon, he would blurt out the whole secret.”

“In that case you must even make terms with him.  ’Twill be for but a very short time, and after that we will reform him.  He was frightened enough of my sword in the forest, and I shall make him dance to its point once this crisis is over.”

“I shall do the best I can, Highness.  But you must have been on your way to Ehrenfels.  Had you heard aught of what is afoot?”

“Nothing.  ’Twas mere chance that Heinrich and I met in the forest, and he was within a jot of impinging himself upon my sword in his hurry.  I stood in the darkness, while he himself held a light for the better convenience of any chance marauder who wished to undo him.”

“Unarmed, and without money,” said the custodian, “I thought he was safer than otherwise.  But you are surely hungry, Highness.  Advance then within, and I will see to your needs.”

So presently the errant Prince consumed an excellent, if early breakfast, and, without troubling to undress, flung himself upon a couch, sleeping dreamlessly through the time that Greusel and Ebearhard were conjuring up motives for him, of which he was entirely innocent.

When Roland woke in the afternoon, he had quite forgotten that a score of men who, nominally, at least, acknowledged him master, were wondering what had become of him.  He called the custodian, and asked for a sight of the parchments that his Lordship of Mayence had sent across the river for his perusal.  He found the documents to be a very carefully written series of demands disguised under the form of requests.