"I wish I was quit of it," he moaned at last. Rupert stopped
before him.
"You repent of your misdeeds?" he asked. "Well, then, you shall
be allowed to repent. Nay, you shall go and tell the king that
you repent. Rischenheim, I must know what they are doing. You
must go and ask an audience of the king."
"But the king is--"
"We shall know that better when you've asked for your audience.
See here."
Rupert sat down by his cousin and instructed him in his task.
This was no other than to discover whether there were a king in
Strelsau, or whether the only king lay dead in the hunting lodge.
If there were no attempt being made to conceal the king's death,
Rupert's plan was to seek safety in flight. He did not abandon
his designs: from the secure vantage of foreign soil he would
hold the queen's letter over her head, and by the threat of
publishing it insure at once immunity for himself and almost any
further terms which he chose to exact from her. If, on the other
hand, the Count of Luzau-Rischenheim found a king in Strelsau, if
the royal standards continued to wave at the summit of their flag
staffs, and Strelsau knew nothing of the dead man in the lodge,
then Rupert had laid his hand on another secret; for he knew who
the king in Strelsau must be.
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