"Could you not endure my service, sir?" "In that I shall now live and die, madame," said he, and she felt his eyes upon her. Again in silence they rode on; it was evening now, and had grown dark, and presently the lantern in the tower of the keep of Zenda became visible. Then Osra drew rein. "For my sake," said she, "rob no more." "What you command, madame, is my law. And here is your ring." "Keep the ring," she said. "But when I can serve you, you shall send it back to me, and ask what you will in return for it." "There is nothing," said he, very low, and looking away from her, "that I would take in exchange for it." "A foolish man or only a foolish speech?" she asked as lightly as she could, with one fleeting glance at his face. "A foolish man, madame, it may be, but a true speech," and he bent bareheaded in his saddle and raised her hand to his lips. And, still bareheaded, he turned away and rode back at a canter into the forest. But the Princess Osra rode on to the Castle, wondering greatly at what she had done that day. Yet she could not be very sorry that she had saved his horse for him, and she trusted that Otho and Lotta would be happy, and she thought that one man was, after all, as good flesh and blood as another, and then that she was a Princess and he a robber, and that his eyes had been over bold. Yet there was deference in them also. "It is a great pity that he should be a robber," sighed the Princess, as she reached the Castle. * * * * * The Princess Osra's carriage was within two miles of Strelsau when she put her head out of the window and asked the officer who rode by the wheel why such a throng of people hastened to the city. [Illustration: "SHE ASKED THE OFFICER WHY A THRONG OF PEOPLE HASTENED TO THE CITY."--_Page 118._] "It is nothing, madame," answered he, saluting. "It is only that two rogues are to be hanged to-day." "What pleasure is there in seeing men hanged?" asked Osra scornfully. "I wish I had not come to-day." And she drew her head back in disgust. Then she called: "Go slowly, and do not let me get into the middle of the wild beasts who go to gloat over men being hanged." So the horses were checked to a walk, and thus the carriage proceeded slowly towards Strelsau. But presently the Princess put her head out of the window again and asked: "Who are to be hanged to-day, sir?" "The noted highwayman, Sigismund Kohl, madame," said the officer. "He robbed the Archbishop's coach in the forest of Zenda; but they pursued him over the frontier and tracked him to the cottage of the other rogue, who had a part in many previous robberies, though not in this. The second fellow hid Kohl, and tried to put off the officers, but they caught them both, and both are to be hanged." "It seems hard," said Osra, "to hang the one who only sheltered his friend. He could do no less."