Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN
torrents, at their hand : and far below them, green
melting into sapphire on the plains.
They walked at first in silence ; for Otto's mind
was full of the delight of liberty and nature, and
still, betweenwhiles, he was preparing his interview
with Gondremark. But when the first rough pro-
montory of the rock was turned, and the Felsenburg
concealed behind its bulk, the lady paused.
' Here,' she said, ' I will dismount poor Karl, and
you and I must ply our spurs. I love a wild ride
with a good companion.'
As she spoke, a carriage came into sight round the
corner next below them in the order of the road.
It came heavily creaking, and a little ahead of it a
traveller was soberly walking, note-book in hand.
' It is Sir John,' cried Otto, and he hailed him.
The Baronet pocketed his note-book, stared
through an eye-glass, and then waved his stick ;
and he on his side, and the Countess and the Prince
on theirs, advanced with somewhat quicker steps.
They met at the re-entrant angle, where a thin
stream sprayed across a boulder and was scattered
in rain among the brush ; and the Baronet saluted
the Prince with much punctilio. To the Countess,
on the other hand, he bowed with a kind of sneering
wonder.
' Is it possible, madam, that you have not heard
the news ? ' he asked.
* What news ? ' she cried.
' News of the first order,' returned Sir John : ' a
revolution in the State, a Republic declared, the
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