‘It concerns your Majesty’s life,’ said Vincente bluntly, and calm in the certainty of his own theory that good blood, whether it flow in the veins of man or woman, assuredly carries a high courage.
‘Ah!’ said the Queen Regent, whose humour still inclined towards those affairs which interested her before the affairs of State. ‘But with men such as you about me, my dear General, what need I fear?’
‘Treachery, Madame,’ he answered, with his sudden smile and a bow. ‘Treachery.’
She frowned. When a Queen stoops to dalliance a subject must not be too practical.
‘Ah! What is it that concerns my life? Another plot?’ she inquired shortly.
‘Another plot, but one of greater importance than those that exist in the republican cafés of every town in your Majesty’s kingdom. This is a widespread conspiracy, and I fear that many powerful persons are concerned in it; but that, your Majesty, is not my department nor concern.’
‘What is your concern, General?’ she asked, looking at him over her fan.
‘To save your Majesty’s life to-night.’
‘To-night!’ she echoed, her coquetry gone.
‘To-night.’