He knew it.
That knowledge like the little poisoned needle had punctured the triple-plate of his complacency and pride and left him no relief from pain, a pain that would have become intolerable had he known that of all the bars that stood between her and him the one that nothing could move was a young peasant in his employ, who watered and fed horses, and who often led them up and down the road within his plain view.
And yet knowing what he did, knowing that she would not marry him, he had no thought to give her up.

Hope will often spring anew in the face of absolute knowledge itself, and deep in his heart a belief would appear now and then that he might yet break her to his wish.

He knew that von Arnheim, Pappenheim and Kratzek knelt at the same shrine and he laughed harshly to himself because he was sure that they knelt in vain.
They were young, handsome, attractive, men of the world, men whom any girl might love but she did not love any of them.

He knew the signals, and Julie certainly hung out none for von Arnheim, nor for Kratzek nor for Pappenheim.
He ran his fingers through his great brown forked beard, just such a beard as many a robber baron might have worn, and thought deeply of what he should do with her, before the great council of princes and generals assembled in his castle.

She must not be there then.