Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/16

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Yet Sapt was in the right about him. Helpless as he seemed, he did not for an instant abandon the contest. He lived in the faith that his chance would come, and from day to day was ready for its coming. He schemed against us as we schemed to protect ourselves from him; if we watched him, he kept his eye on us. His ascendancy over Luzau-Rischenheim grew markedly greater after a visit which his cousin paid to him in Paris. From this time the young Count began to supply him with resources. Thus armed, he gathered instruments round him, and organised a system of espionage that carried to his ears all our actions and the whole position of affairs at Court. He knew, far more accurately than any one else outside the royal circle, the measures taken for the government of the kingdom and the considerations that dictated the royal policy. More than this, he possessed himself of every detail concerning the King's health, although the utmost reticence was observed on this subject. Had his discoveries stopped here, they would have been vexatious and disquieting, but perhaps of little serious harm. They went further. Set on the track by his acquaintance with what had passed during Mr. Rassendyll's tenure of the throne, he penetrated the secret which had been kept successfully from the King himself. In the knowledge of it he found the opportunity for