She touched up her horse. "Sure I will not detain Your Highness——" He took off his hat. "I have writ to M. Bentinck," he said earnestly; "but tell him yourself what a great concern I am under as to your sister her health—and that he must send a messenger with news." Elizabeth Villiers bent her head, smiled rather sadly, and they parted; he towards the house at the end of the long avenue, and she through gold-red glittering woods into the hazy autumn distance. When he reached the steps of his villa he saw another woman awaiting him—the Princess, standing in the full last light, with a light cloak about her. As soon as she beheld his approach she came forward, and was at his stirrup before he had dismounted. "There is a galloper from Flanders with news," she said; her voice was strained, and she clasped her hands tightly together to steady them. A broken exclamation escaped the Prince. "If the French are marching on the frontiers I cannot go!" The grooms came forward and took his great horse; he sprang from the saddle and went with the Princess up the shallow sun-flooded steps. "Oh, my dear!" cried Mary under her breath, "if there are ill advices——" He pressed her hand fiercely. "I cannot leave the country if they are invading Flanders——" In the simple vestibule was the impatient messenger—a young Spanish officer, who went, very courtly, on one knee when the Prince entered, and handed a packet from M. de Castagnana. "News of the French?" demanded William swiftly. "I do believe so, Highness." The Stadtholder broke open the dispatch, glanced down the close lines of Spanish, and turned instantly to his pale wife, whose eyes were fixed on him with a piteous intensity. "The French have abandoned Flanders!" he cried; "their troops are pouring into Germany—the States are safe, thank God! thank God——" CHAPTER XIII THE GREAT ENTERPRISE All difficulties were overcome. Louis, angry at the English King’s rejection of his advices, and perhaps hoping that his great enemy would run on disaster in his audacious undertaking, or perhaps believing that it was now too late in the year for any such expedition, had suddenly diverted his troops into Germany, where in a few days he had taken every fort along the Rhine; successes celebrated with great pomp in Paris, but worthless indeed to Louis should William accomplish what he was now free to attempt, and bring England out of her shackles into the alliance against France. The Prince’s preparations were complete; his Declaration had been published and circulated in England by the arts of his friends, his ships and troops were ready, even to the embarking of the soldiery, and he himself had to-day taken his farewell audience of the States; for now the south-west wind had changed, and the great fleet gathered at Goree was free to sail.