The light seemed to
fall upon her, as one turns it in a flood upon a picture, and her figure
was in the center of a glow that brought out the coppery touches in the
wonderful golden hair, that was the marvel of everybody. She seemed to
be gazing wistfully over the misty mountains, and John's heart was full
of yearning.
"I can't believe," said Ilse, "that she is a spy or has ever been a spy.
She has not the look, nor the manner. When the Prince von Arnheim was
here they gave a great dinner, and Prince Karl bade her come to it. I
took her a beautiful dress of his niece, who is away in Vienna. I
thought she would refuse, but she said that she would come as Prince
Karl requested. I was her maid, I dressed her and she was very
beautiful. She went to the dinner, and the aged Lady Ursula, the cousin
and dependent of the prince, sat with her."
"What happened?" asked John in a low voice.
"I think it was their intention at first to remind her that she was a
prisoner. Prince Karl is a hard and stern man, and he would bend her to
his will, but the Prince Wilhelm frowned upon them all, and the Count
Kratzek was also most respectful."
"They had brought her to complete their triumph and instead the triumph
was hers," John could not keep from saying.
"It is so," admitted Ilse. "They were abashed before her, and at the
last when they drank a toast to the glorious victory of our German race,
she withheld her glass, and then, taking a sip of the wine, she said she
wished with all her heart, as long as it should beat in her body, for
the triumph of France.
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