At Caub they were met by a bearded, truculent-looking ruffian, who
introduced himself to the Archbishop as the Pfalzgraf von Stahleck.
"You take us rather by surprise, Prince of Cologne," he said. "It is
true that my overlord, the Archbishop of Mayence, called upon me several
days ago while descending the Rhine in his ten-oared barge, and said
there was a remote chance that a prisoner might shortly be given into my
care. This had often happened before, for my Castle covers some gruesome
cells that extend under the river,--cells with secret entrances not
easily come by should any one search the Castle. It is sometimes
convenient that a prisoner of State should be immured in one of them
when the Archbishop has no room in his own Schloss Ehrenfels, so I paid
little attention, and merely said the prisoner would receive a welcome
on arrival. This morning there came one of the Archbishop's men from
Stolzenfels, and both my wife and myself were astonished to learn that
the prisoner would be here this evening under your escort, my Lord, and
that it was a woman we were to harbor.
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