"Have you seen anything," he asked Malcolm, "of two seeming craftsmen,
a man and a boy, journeying along the road?"
Malcolm shook his head. "I have seen no one on foot since I started
an hour since."
Without a word the soldiers went on. They had no reason, indeed,
for believing that those for whom they were in search had taken
that particular road. As soon as Thekla's disappearance had been
discovered by the waiting woman she had hurried to the governor, and
with much perturbation and many tears informed him that the young
countess was missing, and that her couch had not been slept on. The
governor had at once hurried to the spot. The count and countess
resolutely refused to state what had become of their daughter.
The sentries had all been strictly questioned, and it was found
that the mender of clocks had, when he left, been accompanied
by an apprentice whom the sentry previously on duty asserted had
not entered with him. The woman was then closely questioned; she
asserted stoutly that she knew nothing whatever of the affair. The
count had commissioned her to obtain a craftsman to set the clock
in order, and she had bethought her of a young man whose acquaintance
she had made some time previously, and who had informed her in the
course of conversation that he had come from Nuremberg, and was a
clockmaker by trade, and was at present out of work.
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