Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/105

 young baron. All three of them were too moved by events to do much talking along the way. They finally reached Innsbruck where they stopped to spend the night.

"How happy I am, Milady," said the baron, "to have been able to snatch you from the horrors which awaited you. It is possible that you might have come out of it with only the loss of your honor, but knowing the margrave as I do, and since he would be fearing the results of your complaints, I feel sure that he would have killed you. Fortunately, I was warned about the whole plot, and I did not hesitate to foil his projects. I am sorry not to have asked your opinion as to the place where you wished to be taken, for I was sure that you would be safe wherever I was. I am taking you to my family, and once there I am going to ask you to recompense me for the slight service which you have been willing to accept from me."

"How well you merit it, Sir," answered Adelaide, "and you can be sure of receiving from me all that it will be possible for me to give you."

But it was written in the Book of Destiny that the unfortunate Princess of Saxony was to get out of one danger only to fall into another. Misfortune followed her everywhere and one might have said that she was only to have peace after reaching the tomb.

On leaving Innsbruck, our travelers went toward Brixen, a small town in the Tyrol situated at the foot of Brenner mountain. This town was well known at that time because of a band of thieves who operated in the neighborhood. They were ruled by Krimpser, a chief as bloody as he was thieving, who lived on the slope of the mountain which faces in the direction of Italy. The carriage was two miles from this mountain, about six o'clock in the evening, when it was suddenly stopped by four of the men of Krimpser.

"Where are you going?" asked one of these bandits.

"To Brixen," answered Dourlach. "Let us travel in peace or this dagger will make gush from your breast the impure blood which causes you to live in crime."

"What! A man all by himself and two miserable women dare to speak to us in this manner," said one of the bandits. "Get out of the carriage. Let these prisoners be chained and