"She was taken prisoner at Magdeburg and sent under escort of Colonel Charteris to Erfurt! I saw her and had some words with her."
"She bore a singular likeness to your Highness! I was wondering if you had any relative of that name!"
"I have never heard of one!" said the Archduchess.
"A mere coincidence, doubtless!" said the general.
"By the way, Count, I am thinking of leaving Halberstadt."
"Leaving Halberstadt! Does your Highness propose to ride with me to raise an army?"
"I might be of less use elsewhere!" she said, smiling, to tease the old general, whose dislike of petticoats was well known.
"Impossible! You would want six battalions to fight off the rearguard of Gustavus, or the left wing of the Saxons."
"But you have just let Colonel Charteris go with a mere handful!"
"He will ride the faster! Colonel Charteris is a soldier, and the very devil for getting into trouble and out of it."
"Your Highness, were you the daughter of twenty emperors it would still be impossible."
"You think that I should not arrive at Vienna in safety!"
"Except as a prisoner. But your Highness came hither of your own choice."
"Assuredly! I intend to leave it of my own choice too."
Count Tilly tugged at his long moustaches in despair. "Princess!" And in addition to all his other cares! There was really only one princess, but she appeared to him by reason of her self-will to be at least half a dozen. She still stood there gazing at him out of those wonderful dancing black eyes. ("Confound her eyes," Tilly said to himself.)
"Perhaps Gustavus or John George might give me a safe-conduct if I required it."
"There are more unlikely things, your Highness! Particularly if your Highness made your request in person!"
"They could not be more obdurate than Count Tilly!"
"At the present time, your Highness, they are in better posture to afford courtesies than I am to spare men."
Her Highness pouted and went in search of her uncle, the Bishop. She thought to win him over before Count Tilly had seen him.
But her uncle Leopold, now that it seemed as if the tide of war was to sweep away from Halberstadt, was not willing to part with his niece. Even a Bishop of the Holy Roman Church, vowed to celibacy as he was, was not indifferent to ties of familial affection, and Stephanie's beauty and youth and intelligence were all living and pleasant things, not to be lightly set aside.