"Do you think I am wailing for my crown?" demanded the fallen majesty, looking hard at her. "Do you believe that if this blood were mine"—here she showed her dyed foot—"I should not have washed it off?"
Andrea became lividly pale.
"Then you know where his body is?" she said.
"I could take you to it, if I were allowed to go forth," said the prisoner.
Andrea went out at the door by which Pitou was waiting.
"Captain," she said, "one of my friends, a lady of the queen's, offers to take me where the count's body is. May she go out with me?"
"On condition that you bring her back whence she came," said the officer.
"That will do."
"Comrade," said Pitou to his sentry, "one of the queen's women wants to go out to help us find the body of a brave officer of whom this lady is the widow. I will answer for her with my head."