“Answer me, or I’ll scatter your brains here on the floor.”
He shrank and groaned as he felt the cold steel on his forehead.
“To arrest the Princess, Excellency. Oh, my God, my God,” he cried and burst into tears.
I went back to my seat. “You are a faithful servant to your mistress. Do you know what’s going to happen to-night—the night you’ve chosen for this infamy?”
“N—no. Yes,” he changed his words almost eagerly as he caught my eye.
“Give it words then.”
“They told me it was for her safety, Excellency. They did, they did, I swear they did, on my soul. When the King and Queen and the others are taken from the Palace, the Princess would be in danger in her house, and they mean to put her in a place of safety.”
This was news, indeed; and in my consternation at hearing it, this coward and his treachery became of little importance. I did not doubt he was speaking the truth about that, whatever his own motives may have been for his act. And then a plan occurred to me.
“How many men were to carry out the arrest?”
“I don’t know—only a few; four or five at most, we have no means of resisting them in the house.”