“The Princess will probably demand to see us; and as neither you nor I can go to her without being recognised, two of these must go. Pick them out.”
He chose two, and I told them what to say. That we had been selected to protect the Princess and take her to a place where she would be safe until the trouble in the city had passed.
The maid came back and her message was pretty much what I had anticipated.
“Her highness will see you in a minute, sir. She wishes to know from whom you come; and declares she will not leave the house.”
“Our orders are peremptory. In five minutes she must go with us,” I replied, and she carried the message.
While we waited for the reply I went into the room where I had once before been, and saw that my fears as to the unguarded window were only too well justified. I called Karasch’s attention to it.
“If we have to remain in the house that window must be barricaded, or we may as well throw open the front door,” I said; and we were discussing it when I heard one of the maids say to the other servants that the street in the front of the house was getting full of people.
We went and looked out. It was only too true; and that it probably had a very sinister meaning for us all I knew to my infinite concern.
The city was indeed awaking to a knowledge of the dread doings of the night of terror, and the crowd was beginning to gather here in expectation that the house would become the scene of some stirring and exciting act of the tragedy.
I noticed with relief, however, that no troops were present. None had been sent yet under the belief that Gatrina would be made prisoner by the handful of men whose parts we were now playing. But how long this belief would continue it was impossible to conjecture.