If not then he stands convicted of treason, and we
shall know how to conduct ourselves."
Together the party rode to the cathedral, the majority of the older
nobility now openly espousing the cause of the Regent.
At the palace Barney was about distracted. Butzow was urging him to
take the crown whether he was Leopold or not, for the young
lieutenant saw no hope for Lutha, if either the scoundrelly Regent
or the cowardly man whom Barney had assured him was the true king
should come into power.
It was eleven o'clock. In another hour Barney knew that he must
have found some new solution of his dilemma, for there seemed little
probability that the king would be located in the brief interval
that remained before the coronation. He wondered what they did to
people who stole thrones. For a time he figured his chances of
reaching the border ahead of the enraged populace. All had depended
upon the finding of the king, and he had been so sure that it could
be accomplished in time, for Coblich and Maenck had had but a few
hours in which to conceal the monarch before the search was well
under way.
Armed with the king's warrants, his troopers had ridden through the
country, searching houses, and questioning all whom they met.
Patrols had guarded every road that the fugitives might take either
to Lustadt, Blentz, or the border; but no king had been found and no
trace of his abductors.
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