"Yes, sir."
"But I don't know where she is!" exclaimed the Emperor.
"She is in a country house belonging to the Comtesse Hermine. Perhaps, if you would just think, sir . . . a country house a few hours off by motor car, say, a hundred or a hundred and twenty miles at most."
The Emperor, without speaking, kept tapping the table angrily with the pommel of his sword. Then he said:
"Is that all you ask?"
"No, sir."
"What? You want something more?"
"Yes, sir, the release of twenty French prisoners whose names appear on a list given me by the French commander-in-chief."
This time the Emperor sprang to his feet with a bound:
"You're mad! Twenty prisoners! And officers, I expect? Commanders of army corps? Generals?"