"Yes, madame; and yet"—
"Come, do you want me to write dead or alive after the words order to arrest?"
"I confess, madame, that that would do away with my scruples."
"Well, it must be done, of course, since you do not think the order can be carried out without it."
And Catharine shrugged her shoulders, unrolled the parchment with one hand, and wrote with the other: "dead or alive."
"Now," said she, "do you consider the order all right?"
"Yes, madame," replied Maurevel; "but I beg your majesty to leave the carrying out of the entire affair to me."
"What have I said that will interfere with it?"
"Your majesty told me to take a dozen men."
"Yes, to make sure"—