Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/180

166 at Zenda, she said; but it drove her mad. She could not rest; she did not know how we fared, nor those in Strelsau : for hours she had lain awake; then at last falling asleep she had dreamed. "I had had the same dream before. Now it came again. I saw him so plain. He seemed to me to be King, and to be called King. But he did not answer nor move. He seemed dead; and I could not rest." So she wrote, ever excusing herself, ever repeating how something drew her to Strelsau, telling her that she must go if she would see "him whom you know" alive again. "And I must see him—ah, I must see him! If the King has had the letter, I am ruined already. If he has not, tell him what you will or what you can contrive. I must go. It came a second time, and all so plain. I saw him, I tell you I saw him. Ah, I must see him again. I swear that I will only see him once. He's in danger—I know he's in danger; or what does the dream mean? Bernenstein will go with me, and I shall see him. Do, do forgive me: I can't stay, the dream was so plain." Thus she ended, seeming, poor lady, half frantic with the visions that her own troubled brain and desolate heart had conjured up to torment her. I did not know that she had before told Mr. Rassendyll himself of this strange dream; though I lay small store by such