"Yes, I understand you, sir; but who guarantees that the Count will not have escaped before the four days to which you refer?"
"Oh! With a governor like yourself, Major, such an eventuality seems to me highly improbable."
"Well, well," the Major observed, "very extraordinary tales are told about the escape of prisoners."
"That is true; but another thing reassures me against this escape."
"And what is that, sir?"
"Merely that the Count himself declared that he would never consent to escape, and was not at all anxious about liberty."
"Well, sir, that is the very thing that deceives you; it seems that he has now changed his opinion, and is eagerly soliciting through his friends to obtain his liberty."
"Ah! Have we come to that point?" the stranger said, fixing on the Major a glance which flashed through the gloom.
The governor bowed.
There was a silence, during which no other sound was audible, save that of the heavy flight of the nocturnal birds in the ruins.