The enterprise of the King’s rescue being thus prosperously concluded (операция по спасению короля =
The enterprise of the King’s rescue being thus prosperously concluded, it lay on Colonel Sapt to secure secrecy as to the King ever having been in need of rescue. Antoinette de Mauban and Johann the keeper (who, indeed, was too much hurt to be wagging his tongue just now) were sworn to reveal nothing; and Fritz went forth to find – not the King, but the unnamed friend of the King, who had lain in Zenda and flashed for a moment before the dazed eyes of Duke Michael’s servants on the drawbridge. The metamorphosis had happened; and the King, wounded almost to death by the attacks of the gaolers who guarded his friend, had at last overcome them, and rested now, wounded but alive, in Black Michael’s own room in the Castle.
There he had been carried, his face covered with a cloak, from the cell (туда его перенесли из темницы, укрыв лицо плащом); and thence orders issued, that if his friend were found (и оттуда исходили приказания, что если его друг найдется), he should be brought directly and privately to the King (он должен быть немедленно и без излишнего шума: «частным образом» доставлен к королю), and that meanwhile messengers should ride at full speed to Tarlenheim (а тем временем посыльные должны во весь опор скакать в Тарленхайм), to tell Marshall Strakencz to assure the princess of the King’s safety (и передать маршалу Штракенцу, чтобы /тот/ заверил принцессу в безопасности короля) and to come himself with all speed to greet the King (и как можно быстрее прибыл сам поприветствовать короля). The princess was enjoined to remain at Tarlenheim (принцессе повелевалось оставаться в Тарленхайме), and there await her cousin’s coming or his further injunctions (и ожидать там прибытия ее кузена или его дальнейших указаний). Thus the King would come to his own again (так король снова вступил в свои /права/), having wrought brave deeds, and escaped, almost by a miracle (совершив отважные деяния и избежав, почти чудом;