You are
as startled as if I had said: 'I arrest you in the name of the
Emperor!'"
"Who told you that Furstenberg Castle was burned?" demanded the young
man sternly.
"Yesterday morning there came swiftly down the river, with no less than
twelve oarsmen, a long, thin boat, traveling like the wind. It did not
pause at Pfalz, but the man standing in the stern hailed the Castle, and
shouted to the Pfalzgraf that Furstenberg had been burned by the outlaws
of the Hunsruck. He was on his way to Bonn to inform the Archbishop of
Cologne, and he carried also Imperial news for his Lordship: tidings
that the Emperor is dead."
"Dead!" breathed Roland in horror, scarcely above his breath. "The
Emperor dead! I wonder if that can be true."
"Little matter whether it is true or no," said the girl indifferently.
"He doubtless passed away in a drunken sleep, and I am told his drunken
son will be elected in his place."
"Madam!" said Roland harshly, awakened from his stupor by her words, "I
must inform your ignorance that the Emperor's son is not a drunkard,
and, indeed, scarcely touches wine at all, being a most strenuous
opposer to its misuse.
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