“God knows you have hindered us enough already.”
“How?”
“You say she saved your life... then you were in danger... Heron and his spies have been on your track; your track leads to mine, and I have sworn to save the Dauphin from the hands of thieves.... A man in love, Armand, is a deadly danger among us.... Therefore at daybreak you must leave Paris with Hastings on your difficult and dangerous task.”
“And if I refuse?” retorted Armand.
“My good fellow,” said Blakeney earnestly, “in that admirable lexicon which the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel has compiled for itself there is no such word as refuse.”
“But if I do refuse?” persisted the other.
“You would be offering a tainted name and tarnished honour to the woman you pretend to love.”
“And you insist upon my obedience?”
“By the oath which I hold from you.”
“But this is cruel—inhuman!”