Carry this note to madame--oh, it's in French, you can't read it--and charge her, for the sake of all our lives, not to fail in what it orders." The man was trembling but I had to trust to what he had of courage and to what he had of honesty.

I dared not wait, for I feared that the King would die.
When the fellow was gone, I called Sapt and Fritz to me, and unfolded the plan that I had formed.

Sapt shook his head over it.
"Why can't you wait ?" he asked.
"The King may die." "Michael will be forced to act before that." "Then," said I, "the King may live." "Well, and if he does ?" "For a fortnight ?" I asked simply.
And Sapt bit his moustache.
Suddenly Fritz von Tarlenheim laid his hand on my shoulder.
"Let us go and make the attempt," said he.
"I mean you to go--don't be afraid," said I.
"Ay, but do you stay here, and take care of the princess." A gleam came into old Sapt's eye.
"We should have Michael one way or the other then," he chuckled; "whereas if you go and are killed with the King, what will become of those of us who are left ?" "They will serve Queen Flavia," said I, "and I would to God I could be one of them." A pause followed.

Old Sapt broke it by saying sadly, yet with an unmeant drollery that set Fritz and me laughing: "Why didn't old Rudolf the Third marry your--great-grandmother, was it ?" "Come," said I, "it is the King we are thinking about." "It is true," said Fritz.
"Moreover," I went on, "I have been an impostor for the profit of another, but I will not be one for my own; and if the King is not alive and on his throne before the day of betrothal comes, I will tell the truth, come what may." "You shall go, lad," said Sapt.
Here is the plan I had made.

A strong party under Sapt's command was to steal up to the door of the chateau.