A few days later, Count Seilern himself, provided, thanks to Princess M----'s influence, backed up by the collaboration of Count von G----and Baron A----, with passports, crossed the frontier. He had shaved off his moustache and had all the appearance of a young man little more than twenty. His extremely youthful physiognomy enabled him to pass as the secretary of the Archduchess Valeria, who, when she heard that Princess M---- was disposed to facilitate the escape of her lover to Switzerland and thence to the United States, where he could remain until after the war, when things would have blown over, insisted on accompanying him into exile. It was at Zurich that the romantic couple found their first hiding-place, arranged with Count von G----'s usual genius for intrigue. But the Austrian Court was on the watch. The plan so astutely arranged by Princess M---- had saved Count Seilern from the condemnation which hung over his head. Unfortunately, the hatred of the Hapsburgs and the vengeance of Conrad von Hoetzendorf followed him to Switzerland. Whilst at Zurich, Count Seilern frequently received messages from Princess M----, who, with her love for adventures of this sort, began to take more and more interest in the welfare of the couple, who had come to be known by Count von G----'s cynical phrase of "the turtle-doves." There was hardly an occasion on which the Imperial messenger left Vienna with diplomatic correspondence for that cunning official but he carried confidential letters for both the Count and the Archduchess. I have often wondered whether Seilern, living happily in his retirement at Zurich and looking forward to the still more free life of the United States, ever realized the tremendous hatred he had aroused against him. Probably not, judging by his trustful attitude and what followed. He appears, as far as I have been able to learn, to have been so wrapped up in himself and his Archduchess that he had not the slightest suspicion of the snare which the Austrian Court had determined to set for him. This, then, was what happened, according to Baron A----, to whom I owe the rest of this narrative. VII--THE HYPOCRITICAL DIPLOMATIST SETS DEATH TRAP Von G----, in spite of his scrupulous care to avoid incriminating evidence of complicity with Princess M----, soon discovered the danger of "running with the hare and hunting with the hounds," and accordingly made his choice. I strongly suspect that pressure was brought to bear upon him and that, in order not to lose his post, and at the same time to gain favour at Court, he was obliged to give his assistance to the Hapsburg and Hoetzendorf parties, which had made up their minds to punish severely the man who had dared to turn an Archduchess from her duties and to set military laws at defiance. So he entered without delay on his double game.