Now he stopped abruptly before Rudolf, and pointed with his finger at the queen.
"I make a rogue of you ?" he exclaimed.

"And what do you make of our queen, whom we all serve?
What does this truth that you'll tell make of her?
Haven't I heard how she greeted you before all Strelsau as her husband and her love?
Will they believe that she didn't know her husband?
Ay, you may show yourself, you may say they didn't know you.
Will they believe she didn't?
Was the king's ring on your finger?
Where is it?
And how comes Mr.Rassendyll to be at Fritz von Tarlenheim's for hours with the queen, when the king is at his hunting lodge?
A king has died already, and two men besides, to save a word against her.

And you--you'll be the man to set every tongue in Strelsau talking, and every finger pointing in suspicion at her ?" Rudolf made no answer.

When Sapt had first uttered the queen's name, he had drawn near and let his hand fall over the back of her chair.

She put hers up to meet it, and so they remained.