"Then guard against an incautious step, but advance boldly forward in the interests of his Imperial Majesty, and be assured that Ferdinand will prove himself to be a grateful and a gracious lord. And now, count, you know all that I came to communicate to you, and it is time for me to set out again." "Will you set forth again so soon, Count Lesle, before you have done me the honor of taking a little breakfast and drinking a glass of wine with me?" "Thank you, count, thank you most cordially. You know well, however, that the master's business is before all things else. My imperial master awaits me at Regensburg, and I shall then have the honor of being permitted to accompany him to Vienna. His Imperial Majesty is a strict and punctilious lord, and has calculated to the very day and hour when I may again reach the imperial palace. For our interview here he allowed me one hour; and, lo! the cock of your great wall clock had just stepped out and crowed eleven as I entered your room, and is already here, crowing twelve as loud as he can. It is therefore time for me to depart. I have briefly made you acquainted with the Emperor's intentions and desires, and your wise and fertile brain will know how to enlarge and construe. Farewell, Sir Stadtholder in the Mark, farewell, and may every blessing attend you!" Count Lesle had risen and drawn his fur cap once more far over his brow. Schwarzenberg assisted him to don his ample and heavy wrappings, and then escorted him to the door. "Permit me at least to conduct you to your carriage, Count Lesle," he said. "Impossible, count; that would excite remark among your people, and give rise to conjectures on all sides. I gave myself out on entering as one of your officials from Sonnenburg, and your dignity does not suffer you to act toward your officials as toward an equal. Farewell, then!" Count Lesle stepped out briskly, and hurriedly closed the palace door. Schwarzenberg stood listening to the retreating footsteps of the imperial legate until they died away in the long corridor. Then he slowly turned away and sank with a sigh into the armchair which Count Lesle had recently occupied. "Strange tidings those," he muttered to himself. "I must now then adopt a wholly different line of action--must derange and newly model all my plans. What I would altogether avoid I must now do--must recall the Electoral Prince; must yield to him the precedence at court, both in rank and position; must--" All at once he started up and shrank, as if a sudden flash of lightning had interrupted his train of thought. "If it must be," he said quite softly to himself, "if nothing else is left for me, and I see myself in danger, then I will do it. I shall resort to this last expedient."