"And I am not to give you your liberty until you do hand over those papers."
"It is a question of confidence, Sire. I should have considered myself quite as much bound to produce the papers if I had been free on leaving prison; and Your Imperial Majesty may be sure that I should not have walked off with them. The only difference is that they would now be in your possession. For we have lost a day, Sire. And a day, in this business . . . is a day too much. . . . Only, there it is, you should have had confidence."
The Emperor gazed with a certain amazement at that outcast, that vagabond, who seemed vexed that any one should doubt his word.
He did not reply, but rang the bell:
"The officer on duty," he commanded.
Count von Waldemar appeared, looking very white.
"Ah, it's you, Waldemar? So you're all right again?"
"At your service, Sire."
"Take five men with you . . . the same men, as you're sure of them. Don't leave this . . . gentleman until to-morrow morning." He looked at his watch. "Until to-morrow morning at ten o'clock. No, I will give him till twelve. You will go wherever he thinks fit to go, you will do whatever he tells you to do. In short, you are at his disposal. At twelve o'clock, I will join you. If, at the last stroke of twelve, he has not handed me the bundle of letters, you will put him back in your car and, without losing a second, take him straight to the Santé Prison."
"If he tries to escape. . . ."