When they come, the bird'll be flown."
"But the King?"
"The King will be in the wine-cellar. I'm going to carry him there now."
"If they find him?"
"They won't. How should they? Josef will put them off."
"But--"
Sapt stamped his foot.
"We're not playing," he roared. "My God! don't I know the risk? If
they do find him, he's no worse off than if he isn't crowned today in
Strelsau."
So speaking, he flung the door open and, stooping, put forth a strength
I did not dream he had, and lifted the King in his hands. And as he did
so, the old woman, Johann the keeper's mother, stood in the doorway.
For a moment she stood, then she turned on her heel, without a sign of
surprise, and clattered down the passage.
"Has she heard?" cried Fritz.
"I'll shut her mouth!" said Sapt grimly, and he bore off the King in his
arms.
For me, I sat down in an armchair, and as I sat there, half-dazed, Josef
clipped and scraped me till my moustache and imperial were things of the
past and my face was as bare as the King's. And when Fritz saw me thus
he drew a long breath and exclaimed:--
"By Jove, we shall do it!"
It was six o'clock now, and we had no time to lose. Sapt hurried me into
the King's room, and I dressed myself in the uniform of a colonel of the
Guard, finding time as I slipped on the King's boots to ask Sapt what he
had done with the old woman.
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