‘I propose to do so. You were kidnapped—it is a horrid word, but we must use it—in Ostend.’
‘True.’
‘Do you know why?’
‘I suppose because that vile old red-hatted woman and her accomplices wanted to get some money out of me. Fortunately, thanks to you, they didn’t.’
‘Not at all,’ said Aribert. ‘They wanted no money from you. They knew well enough that you had no money. They knew you were the naughty schoolboy among European Princes, with no sense of responsibility or of duty towards your kingdom. Shall I tell you why they kidnapped you?’
‘When you have done abusing me, my dear uncle.’
‘They kidnapped you merely to keep you out of England for a few days, merely to compel you to fail in your appointment with Sampson Levi. And it appears to me that they succeeded. Assuming that you don’t obtain the money from Levi, is there another financier in all Europe from whom you can get it—on such strange security as you have to offer?’
‘Possibly there is not,’ said Prince Eugen calmly. ‘But, you see, I shall get it from Sampson Levi. Levi promised it, and I know from other sources that he is a man of his word. He said that the money, subject to certain formalities, would be available till—’
‘Till?’
‘Till the end of June.’