Sapt smiling into his beard, but he shook his head at me. If I had been killed in open day in the streets of Streslau Sapt's position would have been a difficult one.
Perhaps I ought to say that I was dressed all in white, except my boots. I wore a silver helmet with gilt ornaments, and the broad ribbon of the Rose looked well across my chest. I should be paying a poor compliment to the king if I did not set modesty aside and admit that I made a very fine figure. So the people thought; for when I, riding alone, entered the dingy, sparsely decorated, somber streets of the Old Town there was first a murmur, then a cheer, and a woman, from a window above a cookshop, cried the old local saying:
"If he's red he's right!" whereat I laughed and took off my helmet that she might see that I was of the right color, and they cheered me again at that.
It was more interesting riding thus alone, for I heard the comments of the crowd.
"He looks paler than his wont," said one.
