"I go to save you from this peril, to deliver you from the ever-threatening shadow of the Czar. I have a scheme in mind,--a scheme so daring that it seems madness to attempt it; and yet better to dare and fail than not to dare at all. My plan, if it succeeds, will make Czernova so strong that it will no longer fear the arms of Russia. And then," added Paul hopefully, "and then it may be that in return for such service your ministry will regard me with more favorable eyes." Love is proverbially blind, and therefore it will not seem matter for wonder that the princess in her passionate attachment to Paul should place more reliance upon his promise than upon the united wisdom of her cabinet. But what his plan was she could not learn; to all her questions he smiled pleasantly and mysteriously; the sooner he set off the sooner would come its realization. But each time he turned to depart Barbara pleaded so sweetly for delay that he was forced to stay a few minutes longer; and they continued to sit in the moonlight, Paul radiant with the hope of coming success, Barbara puzzled, yet confident in his ability to fulfil his word. They were a long time in parting, and often after saying what they intended as their final farewell they turned again to repeat it. Paul at length tore himself away, and had not proceeded very far when he was met by Marshal Zabern. "You are leaving Czernova?" "Since the cabinet decrees it." "But you must return." "When?" "On the eve of the princess's coronation." "Why on that day?" Zabern bent his head and whispered. The communication was such as to cause Paul's eyes to sparkle and his hand to seek the hilt of his sabre. "Is that the plan of the duke, then?" "Such is my belief. And you alone, Captain Woodville, can defeat it. You will be there?" "Can you doubt it? If I be living." "Good! You will have the laugh of these fools," returned Zabern, referring to his colleagues in the ministry. "They will not deny you the hand of the princess then." And Paul and Zabern parted on an understanding eminently satisfactory to both. On the following day the ministry learned with relief that Captain Woodville had quitted Czernova, though none knew, not even Barbara, whither he had betaken himself. The coronation ceremony was now but two months distant, and Zabern ventured to remind the princess that some of its most important details still awaited settlement. "The great question is who shall have the high honor of crowning your Highness?" "Abbot Faustus, for he is a good man," replied Barbara; and, noting Zabern's look of surprise, she added, "He, and none other. The cabinet have had their way in the matter of Captain Woodville; I will have my way in this. Let the council meet again to-day. When this point comes to be discussed, do you, marshal, propose Abbot Faustus for the office, and I will assent." Though wondering much at her choice, Zabern refrained from comment.