Manchurian Books

"
"But, Guardian, you are surely entrapped, with Coblentz thus held?"
"Not so, my child, while I command three thousand men to their eight
hundred."
"But that means a battle!"
"A battle that will never take place, Hildegunde, because I shall seize
something much more valuable than any town, namely, the persons of the
two Archbishops. With their Lordships of Treves and Mayence in my
custody, cut off from communication with their own troops, I have slight
fear of a leaderless army. The very magnitude of the force at my command
is an assurance of peace."
They now arrived at the branching hill-road leading up to the gates of
Stolzenfels just above them, and conversation ceased, but the Countess
was fated to remember before the afternoon grew old the final words
Cologne spoke so confidently.


VII
MUTINY IN THE WILDERNESS

It was a lovely morning in July when Prince Roland walked into the
shadow of the handsome tower which to-day is all that survives of the
Elector's palace at Hochst, on the river Main.


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