“Ah,” he exclaimed with another very grave shake of the head.
“You would do it?”
“I am different; but I would not do it for money. I have been in similar troubles before; and for those who resist the soldiers at such times, there are many roads to death and all short and pretty certain. Men know this, Excellency. Belgrade is not like the hills in the Gravenje district. I might count on five or six, as I say; but what are they against the troops in the city?”
I thought a moment. “Could you trust them absolutely?” I asked.
“Yes; as you may trust me. But, I beg your Excellency’s pardon, why cannot the Princess remove to a place of safety?”
“She will not, for reasons I cannot explain to you. For one thing she does not know of her danger, and will not believe in it.”
“Mademoiselle has a strong will, we know,” he said, with a shrug of his broad shoulders.
“She has, therefore, to be saved despite herself. Stay, I have it,” I exclaimed as a thought struck me. “You say these five or six men are to be relied upon. Could you procure half a dozen uniforms for them to wear?”
“I could get half a hundred, but——”
“This is my plan then. Get the other men, fifty or a hundred of them—as many as you can—to be available if the only trouble comes from the mob. The six we will make up as soldiers, and at the worst we will force our way with them into the house and bring off the Princess as though she were our prisoner.”