“You mistake me greatly, General Kolfort, if you think your soldiers will be needed for work like this,” cried the Princess. “Pray what is the explanation of what I saw when I arrived?”
I thought I could best give that, and said:
“General Kolfort had arrested me, and when I refused to give up my sword had ordered these men of his to shoot me.”
“Is this possible?” she cried, her indignation flaming in her face. “And yet of course it is. I have heard within the last few minutes of what was done last night and of this visit of yours, Count Benderoff, and I hurried here, fearing mischief. Thank Heaven, I arrived in time; but I did not dream such an infamous act would ever be attempted.”
“Infamous is a strong word, Princess,” said Kolfort sternly.
“I use it because I can find no stronger,” was the quick, spirited retort. “By what right, and in whose name, do you contemplate such an outrage?”
“The General declared that I was a renegade officer plotting against the reigning Prince, and that I therefore deserved imprisonment in the fortress of Tirnova. The General himself being, of course, so zealous a loyalist, the thought that anyone should so conspire was naturally repugnant to him.”
I threw as much irony into my tone as I could, and ended with an intentionally aggravating and somewhat insolent sneer. I wished to put as ugly a complexion as possible on his conduct.
“The matter is one which you and I had better discuss in private, Princess,” said the old man, who was now fast recovering his habitual self-restraint.
“Why in private?”