well spent. Your highness will accompany us."

"I?" cried the girl. "You certainly cannot be serious."

"And why not, your highness?" asked the officer. "We had strict
orders to arrest not only the king, but any companions who may have
been involved in his escape."

"I had nothing whatever to do with his escape," said the girl,
"though I should have been only too glad to have aided him had the
opportunity presented."

"King Peter may think differently," replied the man.

"The Regent, you mean?" the girl corrected him haughtily.

The officer shrugged his shoulders.

"Regent or King, he is ruler of Lutha nevertheless, and he would
take away my commission were I to tell him that I had found a Von
der Tann in company with the king and had permitted her to escape.
Your blood convicts your highness."

"You are going to take me to Blentz and confine me there?" asked the
girl in a very small voice and with wide incredulous eyes. "You
would not dare thus to humiliate a Von der Tann?"

"I am very sorry," said the officer, "but I am a soldier, and
soldiers must obey their superiors. My orders are strict. You may be
thankful," he added, "that it was not Maenck who discovered you."