John took off his cap, saluted and despite the fierce
beating of his heart stood calmly before him.
"What does this mean?" demanded the prince.
John was saved a reply by young Pappenheim, who came up running.
"It was my fault, Your Highness," he said. "We met him in the road
coming to the castle, where he said he wished to be employed as a
hostler. I told him to prove his skill by riding my horse, which
hitherto has tolerated no one but myself on his back. He rode him like a
Cossack, and here he is! The fault, sir, was mine, and I crave the
pardon of Your Highness, but this man has proved himself a horseman."
The prince combed his great forked beard with his fingers, and looked at
the young peasant with a contemplative eye. John surmised that
Pappenheim stood well with him, and would be forgiven.
"The test was, perhaps, severe," he said, "but the young man seems to
have endured it well. I might say that in his own little world he has
achieved a triumph. Send him to the stables, and tell Walther, the head
groom, to give him work."
After the one examining glance he no longer looked at John who had now
disappeared from his own world. John had no fear of detection. He had
let his semblance of a young beard grow again, and Prince Karl of
Auersperg would not dream of his presence there in the mountains of
Austria.
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