count's chateau. I am sure he will be happy to know that I have been able to save you. He has stopped on the way, and he ordered me to wait for him here, but in such a case, I am sure he will reward me for disobeying his orders."
"Ah, my friend," said the princess, "what a service you are doing us."
"Milady," said Bathilda, "I am not sure I should go with you."
"Dear girl, would you abandon me in such circumstances?"
"No, Milady, do not fear anything like that. My attachment to your service is already so great that I will sacrifice all to it."
They got into the carriage immediately, and in a few hours arrived at the chateau of the count which was situated in one of the most uninhabited corners of his estates.
"I am lost," cried Major Kreutzer when calm was finally established. "Never will such negligence be pardoned, and they will think that it was I who lit the fire in order to promote the escape of the princess."
Such was the frightful state of the unfortunate Kreutzer when Mersburg arrived. One can imagine the violence of the reproaches which he made to the major.
Kreutzer assured him that he could convince the prince of his innocence, and he added that his daughter should not be blamed too much for having aided her sovereign, since the latter had almost certainly taken advantage of her youth, and persuaded her that it was her duty to do as she was ordered.
The count had dinner with the major; he visited the scene of the fire and returned promptly to Fredericksburg.
It is easy to imagine the sorrow of the prince when he heard this report.
"I will never see her again," he cried. "She is fleeing from me. And why would she want to return to a man whose treatment of her would give her so much reason to complain? I can only be a monster in her eyes. I am not even sure that I want to find her again because I would not be able to stand her just reproaches. Oh, how guilty I have been in this unhappy adventure!"
The count tried in vain to console his master; all his efforts
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