The Prince took the letter that was offered him and flashed a look at M. Bentinck.

“M. Fagel come to his senses, I believe,” he said, and tore the seal.

Mr. Bromley explained.

“The Assembly has just risen, Highness; the messenger came here at once he said—from M. Zuylestein.”

A swift colour had come into the Prince’s thin cheeks.

“Yes, it is from M. Zuylestein.”

He glanced over the letter, then handed it to M. Bentinck.

“Read it, William; it is as I thought it must be.”

M. Bentinck cast his eyes over the writing; the ink of it barely dry, the sweeps of the quill blotted in the writer’s haste.