"No one but your highness. You do not employ me as a tale-bearer, I trust."
"I did not mean to question your honor," she said. "Would you mind going before the heads of the war department and tell them just what you have told me? I mean about the weak spots."
"If it is your command, your highness," he said quietly, but he was surprised.
"You may expect to be summoned then, so hold yourself in readiness. And, Baldos—"
"Yes, your highness?"
"You need say nothing to them of our having talked the matter over beforehand—unless they pin you down to it, you know."
CHAPTER XV — THE TESTING OF BALDOS
A few hours later, all was dark and silent within the castle. On the stone walks below, the steady tread of sentinels rose on the still air; in the hallways the trusted guardsmen glided about like spectres or stood like statues. An hour before the great edifice had been bright and full of animation; now it slumbered.