are a noble race, my late subjects."

"Bah!" exclaimed the German. "I didn't know we were dealing
with a home for old women."

The Baron laughed comfortably. "It is like taking money from
a blind beggar's hat," he said.

"Why, with two hundred men that I could pick up in London,"
Erhaupt declared, contemptuously, "I would guarantee to put
you on the throne in a fortnight."

"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed his Majesty. "So they surrendered
as quickly as that, did they?" he asked, nodding toward Madame
Zara to continue.

The Countess glanced again over her shoulder and bit her lips
in some chagrin. Her eyes showed her disappointment. "It may
seem an easy victory to you," she said, consciously, "but I
doubt, knowing all the circumstances, if any of your Majesty's
gentlemen could have served you as well. It needed a woman
and----"

"It needed a beautiful woman," interrupted the King, quickly,
in a tone that he would have used to a spoiled child. "It
needed a woman of tact, a woman of courage, a woman among
women--the Countess Zara. Do not imagine, Marie, that we
undervalue your part. It is their lack of courage that
distresses Colonel Erhaupt."