Delange and I shuddered. But de Morin, without a tremor, still pursuing his own idea alone, asked the King when they were to die.
"In an hour," said Munza. "The executioners are getting ready now."
We breathed again; we were in time.
The King took our friend by the hand and led him towards an adjoining apartment, and we followed him.
In a corner of this room, on a species of dais, were displayed massive copper salvers, the pride of the Monbuttoos. Munza pointed to them and, with the utmost coolness said—
"This evening each of those salvers will hold a head, and I shall send them all to the Sultana, your sister, so that she may see for herself that I have not one wife left."
Nothing could exceed the gallantry of this resolution, nor could any sacrifice, either of himself or other people, have been proposed with a better grace.
Fortunately for the royal wives, we were blind to all this forethought, and bent upon saving them.
"Our sister," resumed de Morin, "has commissioned us to ask you to spare the lives of these women."
"She is not jealous of them, then?" asked the King, turning pale.