"Did it make any stir in the palace?"
"No. I saw one man hurrying past us. But nobody heard of the arrest except Eagle."
"How did she get out?"
"Out of what?"
"The queen's closet."
"She was in the garden. She said she went down the private stairway to avoid the gendarme. She must have done it cleverly, for she came in on the arm of Junot and the matter was not noticed. There stood my emergency facing me again. You had deserted. What made you imagine you were threatened with arrest?"
"Because a gendarme in court dress laid his hand on my shoulder and told me I was to come with him."
"Well, you may have drawn the secret police upon you. You had been cutting a pretty figure. It was probably wise to drop between walls and get out of France. Do you know why you were arrested?"
"I think the groundless charge would have been an attack upon Napoleon."
"You never attacked the emperor!"