"Keep away from the bell-rope, gentlemen," said Fitz. "I shall not hesitate."
The secretaries halted indecisively beside their chief, and as they did so Coverdale left his post by the nearer door and, revolver in hand, solemnly mounted guard over the bell-rope.
"I am afraid, gentlemen," said Fitz, "you have no choice other than to respect the wishes of the Princess. And she desires that you stay in this room until she has left the Embassy."
However, with all his coolness, Fitz had made two important miscalculations. On the right there was another bell-rope, and there was also the lady of the silver hair, the Margravine of Lesser Grabia. I sprang from my post and literally wrenched the rope from her fingers, but not before she had pulled it as hard as she could.
Escorted by Fitz, the Princess passed out of the room, while the friends of her Royal Highness assumed an aspect of quiet, but determined hostility, in order to prevent the Ambassador, his secretaries, the Margravine, who looked furious, and the fair player of Schumann, who appeared to be consumed with mirth, from following her.
Hardly had the Princess passed through the farther door, which Brasset and Jodey had the honour of holding for her, before the Countess Etta von Zweidelheim collapsed upon a convenient sofa.
"It is petter than Offenbach!" she said, beginning to weep softly.
Whether it was actually better than Offenbach, I am not competent to affirm, but I can answer for it that for all except that charming but risible lady it was a great deal more serious. The Ambassador was a brave man, and he had strength of will, but as becomes one of his calling he was in no sense a fool. He had seen that in the eyes of Fitz which had assured him that a too-punctilious regard for the will of his Sovereign would not only be futile, but indiscreet. And no sooner had Fitz and the royal lady vanished from his ken, than there were Coverdale and the rest of us to contend with.
The Chief Constable with his back to the wall, even without a firearm in his stolid fist, is a very considerable figure of a man who will not brook nonsense from anybody. Then Alexander O'Mulligan, by the farther door, had a personality by no means deficient in persuasiveness.
Scarcely had the Princess departed before O'Mulligan's door was tried from without. The amateur middle-weight champion of Great Britain set his back against it with great success.