"It might be worse; and I thank you, Princess."
"Ajo, Marc'antonio! Since the stranger approves of it so far, go carry his friend within."
"Your pardon, Princess," I interposed; "the place is something too dirty to house a sick man, and until it be cleaned my friend will do better in the fresh air."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Your subjects, O King, have left it in this mess, and they will help you very little to improve it."
I walked over to the palisade and looked across it upon an unsightly area foul with dried dung and the trampling of pigs. For weeks, if not months, it must have lain uninhabited, but it smelt potently even yet.
"My subjects, Princess?"
"With Giuse lying sick, the hogs roam without a keeper: and my people have chosen you in his room." She paused, and I felt, rather than saw, that both the men were eyeing me intently. I guessed then that she was putting on me a meditated insult; to the Corsican mind, doubtless a deep one.
"So I am to keep your hogs, Princess?" said I, with a deliberate air.
"Well, I am your hostage."
"I am breaking no faith, Englishman."
"As to that, please observe that I am not accusing you. I but note that, having the power, you use it. But two things puzzle me: of which the first is, where shall I find my charges?"