"
The count looked at the countess and at Thekla, who sat pale and
still.
"We can trust you, Malcolm Graheme," he said after a pause. "There
are few, indeed, into whose hands we would thus confide our daughter;
but we know you to be indeed, as you say, a Scottish gentleman
and a Protestant soldier. Moreover, we know you to be faithful,
honourable, and true. Therefore we will, seeing that there is no
other mode of escape from the fate which awaits her, confide her
wholly to you. And now tell us what are your plans?"
CHAPTER XXI FLIGHT
I THANK you, count, and you, dear lady," Malcolm said gratefully,
"for the confidence you place in me, and will carry out my trust
were it to cost me my life. My plan is a simple one. The guard will
be changed in half an hour's time. I have brought hither a suit
of boy's garments, which I must pray the Countess Thekla to don,
seeing that it will be impossible for her to sally out in her own
garb. I show my pass to the sentry, who will deem that my companion
entered with me, and is my apprentice, and will suppose that, since
the sentry who preceded him suffered him to enter with me he may
well pass him out without question. In the town I have a wagon in
readiness, and shall, disguised as a peasant, start with it this
evening. Thekla will be in the bottom covered with straw. We shall
travel all night.
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