"Eight days?"

There was a stir throughout the room; a murmur began and ceased. Wogan
wiped his forehead and crushed his handkerchief into a hard ball in his
palm. It seemed to him that here in this room he could see the Princess
Clementina's face flushed with the humiliation of that loitering.

"And why eight days in Augsburg?"

"The Princess's mother would have her jewels reset. Augsburg is famous
for its jewellers," stammered Hay.

The murmur rose again; it became almost a cry of stupefaction. The
Chevalier sprang from his chair. "Her jewels reset!" he said. He
repeated the words in bewilderment. "Her jewels reset!" Then he dropped
again into his seat.

"I lose a wife, gentlemen, and very likely a kingdom too, so that a lady
may have her jewels reset at Augsburg, where, to be sure, there are
famous jewellers."

His glance, wandering in a dazed way about the room, settled again on
Hay. He stamped his foot on the ground in a feverish irritation.

"And those eight days gave just the time for a courier from the Emperor
at Vienna to pass you on the road and not press his horse. One should be
glad of that. It would have been a pity had the courier killed his
horse. Oh, I can fashion the rest of the story for myself. You trailed
on to Innspruck, where the Governor marched out with a troop and herded