4. CHAPTER IV.
THE AWFUL REVELATION.
Time passed on. A settled sadness rested once more upon the countenance of
the good Duke's daughter. She and Conrad were seen together no more now.
The Duke grieved at this. But as the weeks wore away Conrad's color came back
to his cheeks, and his old-time vivacity to his eye, and he administered the governmment
with a clear and steadily ripening wisdom.
Presently a strange whisper began to be heard about the palace. It grew louder;
it spread farther. The gossips of the city got hold of it. It swept the dukedom.
And this is what the whisper said—
“The Lady Constance hath given birth to a child!”
When the lord of Klugenstein heard it he swung his plumed helmet thrice around
his head and shouted—
“Long live Duke Conrad!—for lo, his crown is sure from this day forward!
Detzin has done his errand well, and the good scoundrel shall be rewarded!”
And he spread the tidings far and wide, and for eight-and-forty hours no soul in
all the barony but did dance and sing, carouse and illuminate, to celebrate the
great event, and all at proud and happy old Klugenstein's expense.
