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216 if time pressed at Tarlenheim, it pressed none the less fiercely at Zenda. For the king was very sick; Johann had seen him, and he was wasted and hardly able to move. "There could be no thought of taking another for him now." So alarmed were they that they had sent for a physician from Strelsau; and the physician, having been introduced into the king's cell, had come forth pale and trembling, and urgently prayed the duke to let him go back and meddle no more in the affair; but the duke would not, and held him there a prisoner, telling him his life was safe if the king lived while the duke desired and died when the duke desired—not otherwise. And, persuaded by the physician, they had allowed Mme. de Mauban to visit the king and give him such attendance as his state needed, and as only a woman can give. Yet his life hung in the balance; and I was yet strong and whole and free. Wherefore great gloom reigned at Zenda.; and save when they quarreled, to which they were very prone, they hardly spoke. But the deeper the depression of the rest, young Rupert went about Satan's work with a smile in his eye and a song on