Clementina

"Her Highness will breakfast here, no doubt?" said Gaydon.

"Misset will have seen to it," cried Wogan, "that the berlin is

furnished. We can breakfast as we go."

They waited no more than ten minutes at Nazareth. The order of

travelling was now changed. Wogan and Gaydon now travelled in the berlin

with Mrs. Misset and Clementina. Gaydon, being the oldest of the party,

figured as the Count of Cernes, Mrs. Misset as his wife, Clementina as

his niece, and Wogan as a friend of the family. O'Toole and Misset rode

beside the carriage in the guise of servants. Thus they started from

Nazareth, and had journeyed perhaps a mile when without so much as a

moan Clementina swooned and fell forward into Wogan's arms. Mrs. Misset

uttered a cry; Wogan clasped the Princess to his breast. Her head fell

back across his arm, pale as death; her eyes were closed; her bosom,

strained against his, neither rose nor fell.

"She has fasted all Lent," he said in a broken voice. "She has eaten

nothing since we left Innspruck."

Mrs. Misset burst into tears; she caught Clementina's hand and clasped

it; she had no eyes but for her. With Gaydon it was different. Wogan was

holding the Princess in a clasp too loverlike, though, to be sure, it

was none of his business.

"We must stop the carriage," he said.

"No," cried Wogan, desperately; "that we must not do;" and he caught her

still closer to him. He had a fear that she was dying. Even so, she

should not be recaptured. Though she were dead, he would still carry her

dead body into Bologna and lay it white and still before his King.

Europe from London to the Bosphorus should know the truth of her and

ring with the wonder of her, though she were dead. O'Toole, attracted by

the noise of Mrs. Misset's lamentations, bent down over his horse's neck

and looked into the carriage.

"Her Highness is dead!" he cried.

"Drive on," replied Wogan, through his clenched teeth.

Upon the other side of the carriage, Misset shouted through the window,

"There is a spring by the roadside."

"Drive on," said Wogan.

Gaydon touched him on the arm.

"You will stifle her, man."

Wogan woke to a comprehension of his attitude, and placed Clementina

back on her seat. Mrs. Misset by good fortune had a small bottle of

Carmelite water in her pocket; she held it to the Princess's nostrils,

who in a little opened her eyes and saw her companions in tears about

her, imploring her to wake.