“The very nearest, I can assure you, madam.”
“You are taking me to prison?”
“My faith! a prison that some would like,” he said, showing his teeth.
I struggled with him. “Let me out! I will raise the country else!”
He released me at once.
“As madam wills. Madam will claim protection of her friends the Jacobins? For me, I consult only her safety.”
“What!” I panted at him, sinking back. “Tell me who are you?”
“Luigi de’ Medici, at madam’s service,” he said, with a bow; “a name, at least, that should be a guarantee of some worth.”
“No doubt, sir; but, as a stranger, at your mercy”—
“I have the honour to be, madam, the chief of the police.”