"Is dead!"
"When?"
"In this very hour."
"Why did I not arrive one day sooner, in order to deliver up this despatch to him!"
The adjutant thought this exclamation somewhat odd.
"I give you a piece of advice," said he to Jakuskin. "Make this letter into a bullet, and shoot yourself through the head, and you will overtake him yet."
In truth, no bad piece of advice! Jakuskin would have done better had he followed it; instead, he dashed the despatch on the table, and flung from the room, uttering curses on his fate.
At the gate of the palace he again came across the man of the green eyes in the act of mounting his horse. Looking at him with his cat-like eyes, he laughed.
"You came too late, eh?" cried he, and, driving his spurs into his horse's sides, dashed away.
Jakuskin shivered and trembled in every limb.