"And your Highness pardons that little affair of the shooting?" The princess with a smile extended her hand for Zabern to kiss. "Without your constant vigilance, marshal, the princess were nothing." CHAPTER XIV NEARING A CRISIS A few nights after the defeat of the Appropriation Bill, Paul Woodville at a late hour strolled forth into the gardens of the Vistula Palace, with no design of meeting Barbara, but drawn thither chiefly by the extreme beauty of the moonlight. He sat down in solitude by the margin of a tree-girt lake, watching in an abstracted manner the silvery path of light on its surface, and musing over the strangely romantic turn his life had taken. A sudden rustling among the foliage put an end to his reverie, and on turning he found Barbara by his side. She was excited, if not angry. There was a defiant expression upon her face, and a lovely color burned on her cheek. She was habited as if for a journey, for her figure was concealed by a cloak with the hood drawn around her head. Her appearance reminded Paul of their first meeting in the Illyrian forest; and, as if responsive to his thoughts, Barbara's first words recalled that time. "Paul, do you remember those happy days in Dalmatia? Come and let us renew them." "I am not quite sure that I understand." "Let us leave Czernova this night--this hour--now. Take me with you." For a moment Paul doubted whether he could have heard aright. Then recovering from his surprise, he asked,-- "What has happened to make you take this wild resolution?" "There is no other course left us if we are to be united. Listen!" She proceeded to explain the cause of her agitation. It appeared that at a cabinet council held earlier in the evening Barbara had announced what had for some time been suspected, namely, that the projected match between herself and the duke had been dissolved by mutual consent. Thereupon the Greek Archpastor, Mosco, whom Barbara suspected of acting as the mouthpiece of the duke, rose and boldly, yet respectfully, asked the princess to define her attitude towards her secretary, Captain Woodville; he invited her to contradict the growing rumors as to the relationship existing between herself and the Englishman. Perceiving that other members of the cabinet were in sympathy with Mosco's questioning, Barbara put aside her first impulse, which was haughtily to ignore the subject, and gave answer that it was her firm resolve to make Captain Woodville the Prince-consort of Czernova. The council were united in maintaining that this could not be. "Zabern among the number?" asked Paul.