to be strung up to the nearest tree must have what they call a
fair trial; and we feared that, if Rupert were handed over to our
police and arraigned before the courts at Strelsau, the secret
which we guarded so sedulously would become the gossip of all the
city, ay, and of all Europe. So Rupert went unpunished except by
banishment and the impounding of his rents.

Yet Sapt was in the right about him. Helpless as he seemed, he
did not for an instant abandon the contest. He lived in the faith
that his chance would come, and from day to day was ready for its
coming. He schemed against us as we schemed to protect ourselves
from him; if we watched him, he kept his eye on us. His
ascendency over Luzau-Rischenheim grew markedly greater after a
visit which his cousin paid to him in Paris. From this time the
young count began to supply him with resources. Thus armed, he
gathered instruments round him and organized a system of
espionage that carried to his ears all our actions and the whole
position of affairs at court. He knew, far more accurately than
anyone else outside the royal circle, the measures taken for the
government of the kingdom and the considerations that dictated
the royal policy. More than this, he possessed himself of every
detail concerning the king's health, although the utmost
reticence was observed on this subject. Had his discoveries
stopped there, they would have been vexatious and disquieting,
but perhaps of little serious harm. They went further. Set on the
track by his acquaintance with what had passed during Mr.
Rassendyll's tenure of the throne, he penetrated the secret which
had been kept successfully from the king himself. In the
knowledge of it he found the opportunity for which he had waited;
in its bold use he discerned his chance. I cannot say whether he