Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/80

72 "No, but you will be at eight if you don't sleep now."

"Is the Queen coming out, Colonel?"

"In a minute, Lieutenant."

"I should like to kiss her hand."

"Well, if you think it worth waiting a quarter of an hour for," said Sapt, with a slight smile.

"You said a minute, sir."

"So did she," answered the Constable.

Nevertheless it was a quarter of an hour before Rudolf Rassendyll opened the door and the Queen appeared on the threshold. She was very pale, and she had been crying, but her eyes were happy and her air firm. The moment he saw her, young Bernenstein fell on his knees and raised her hand to his lips.

"To the death, madame," said he in a trembling voice.

"I knew it, sir," she answered graciously. Then she looked round on the three of them. "Gentlemen," said she, "my servants and dear friends, with you, and with Fritz who lies wounded in Wintenberg, rest my honour and my life; for I will not live if the letter reaches the King."

"The King shall not have it, madame," said Colonel Sapt.

He took her hand in his and patted it with a clumsy gentleness; smiling, she extended it again to young Bernenstein, in mark of her