Maximilian shuddered. He imagined the terrors she must have encountered. “But, mademoiselle, the bandits? You did not come alone through that terrible coast country?”
“Of course not, sire. And that’s why I reveal myself to Your Majesty. You are to save the person that brought me.”
“Have mercy, mademoiselle. One must leap too far who hopes to understand you.”
“But there’s nothing to understand. Your Majesty has only to keep Colonel Dupin from shooting him.”
Maximilian frowned heavily at the Frenchman’s name.
“On the porch just now,” Jacqueline explained, “when you finished speaking, he–the man I am speaking of–announced that he wanted to see you, but the Tiger drew his pistols to shoot him if he moved.”
“Then naturally your friend did not move?”
“Your Majesty does not know him. But he stopped for me.”
“Were you so afraid Dupin would lose his prisoner?”
143“I had no desire to see the prisoner commit suicide. But I had to promise him that he should see Your Majesty later.”