“But they bring him to Bender!” exclaimed Karl.
M. Grothusen averted his face.
“I do not think that your Majesty will stay at Bender.”
At this reminder of his captive position the King, who had not allowed a single impatient word to escape him since he had been made prisoner, colored and made a haughty movement with his head.
“Where do they propose to take me?” he asked haughtily.
“I cannot discover, sire. I think to Adrianople.”
Karl glanced at M. Fabrice whose face was still further overcast.
“Well,” he remarked, “perhaps we shall yet get our 200,000 men from the Porte. See if you can get a message to King Stanislaus to say that we are still unshaken in our designs.”
He was silent a moment, and then added in an impetuous manner, rare for him:
“If they take me to Adrianopole I will punish Mahomet Baltadgi—I will disclose to the Sultan that my letters were intercepted and that Count Fleming was corresponding with the Khan.”