He came forward and approached Rudolf; then he fell on one knee, and kissed Rudolf's left hand that was extended to him.
"I'm very glad to see you, Lieutenant von Bernenstein," said Rudolf Rassendyll.
For a moment the thing was done, ruin averted, and safety secured.
Everything had been at stake; that there was such a man as Rudolf Rassendyll might have been disclosed; that he had once filled the king's throne was a high secret which they were prepared to trust to Helsing under stress of necessity; but there remained something which must be hidden at all costs, and which the queen's passionate exclamation had threatened to expose.

There was a Rudolf Rassendyll, and he had been king; but, more than all this, the queen loved him and he the queen.
That could be told to none, not even to Helsing; for Helsing, though he would not gossip to the town, would yet hold himself bound to carry the matter to the king.

So Rudolf chose to take any future difficulties rather than that present and certain disaster.

Sooner than entail it on her he loved, he claimed for himself the place of her husband and the name of king.

And she, clutching at the only chance that her act left, was content to have it so.