After having
heard you I agree that the Countess was unjustly imprisoned. She was
accurate in her estimate of your character."
"I think not, my Lord, I do not regard myself as burglar, incendiary,
thief, or robber. I call myself rather a restorer of stolen property. I
shed no blood, which in itself is a remarkable feature of action so
drastic as mine. The incendiarism was merely incidental, forced upon me
by the fact that the Red Margrave tied up eighteen of my men, whom he
proposed presently to hang. I diverted his attention from this execution
by the first method that occurred to me, namely, the firing of his
Castle. In my letter to you yesterday, my Lord, I promised to clear away
certain obstacles from your path. I therefore remove one, by saying that
an object of this conference is my own renunciation of the Emperorship,
thus while I thank my Lord Count for his proffered franchise, I quiet
the mind of my Lord of Treves by assuring him his defection has no
terror for me. And now, my Lord of Mayence, will you listen carefully to
my suggestion?"
"Prince Roland," replied his Lordship, almost with geniality, "I have
never heard so graphic a narrator in my life.
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