in fact , none of his lifetime of training could have ever prepared him for any of the events that had transpired in the last twenty-four hours : not for the emperor demanding that he find the lady catherine and mete out her death sentence , nor for the fruitless search that brought him into the kingdom 's furthest reaches or for discovering a cottage , rotting away in the woods where he came to rest - only to find the old witch woman tending to the lady catherine herself in the midst of giving birth .