"I'll carry the news and make the best of it." Sapt raised his hand.
"Tell me," said he.

"Do you think the King was drugged ?" "I do," said I.
"And who drugged him ?" "That damned hound, Black Michael," said Fritz between his teeth.
"Ay," said Sapt, "that he might not come to be crowned.

Rassendyll here doesn't know our pretty Michael.

What think you, Fritz, has Michael no king ready?
Has half Strelsau no other candidate?
As God's alive, man the throne's lost if the King show himself not in Strelsau today.

I know Black Michael." "We could carry him there," said I.
"And a very pretty picture he makes," sneered Sapt.
Fritz von Tarlenheim buried his face in his hands.