For answer he stepped out into the bedroom and asked me what was the matter.
"The Cossacks are here," I cried; "they have killed the sentinel. Your Majesty must not delay."
Napoleon Bonaparte was no coward, as all the world knows, and he heard me almost with nonchalance.
"Are you quite sure?" he asked.
I told him that there was no doubt of it.
"Listen for yourself, sire," said I; "they are entering the house."
He shrugged his shoulders and turned to Mademoiselle Kyra.
"Is there a way out by the chapel?" he asked her.
Her affrighted eyes answered him.
"You will have to return by the great staircase," said she; and at that he smiled, for we could hear already the tramp of many feet upon it.