"
"Is there any way to the roofs?"
"None that would serve you."
"Mr. Carmichael," said the king, offering his hand, his handsome face
kindly and without rancor, "I should be an ungrateful wretch if I did
not ask your full pardon. I am indebted to you twice for my life, little
as it amounts to. And in my kingdom you will always be welcome. Will
you accept my hand, as one man to another?"
"With happiness, your Majesty. And I ask that you pardon my own hasty
words."
"Thank you."
"He is only young," sighed Ludwig.
The king emptied the drawer, put the contents in his pack, tied the
strings, and put it under his arm.
"What are you going to do?" asked the uncle, vaguely perturbed.
"I am going down to the soldiers. I am no longer a vintner, I am a
king!" And he said this in a manner truly royal.
"_Gott!_" burst from the prince regent. "This boy has marrow in his
bones, after all!"
"As you will find, dear uncle, the day after the coronation. You will,
of course, go down to them with me?"
"As I am your uncle! But the incarceration will not be long," Ludwig
grumbled. "There are ten thousand troops on the other side of the
passes, and they have been there ever since I learned that you had gone
a-wooing."
"Ten thousand? Well, they shall stay there," said the king
determinedly.
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