"The English Captain had another visitor to-day—the British Minister."
"This English Captain is in great requisition, it would seem," she said.
"Aye, he is a man, I grant you that—strong, resolute, and rides as though horse and rider were one piece."
"And honest, Dumitru. I have looked into his face and thought him so."
"Can one judge so easily?" asked the man. "Besides, honest or not, he is for our enemies."
"Our enemies must be swept aside," she said imperiously, as though not only the will, but the power to do so were hers.
"Thus, Princess," and the man's dark eyes gleamed as he just showed the keen, thin blade of a dagger which he carried in his cloak.
"Not without my command, Dumitru," she said hastily. The man bowed low, disappointed perhaps that the same spirit was not in her as was in him.
"We may use this English Captain for our ends," she went on. "I have a way and you shall help me, Dumitru, when the time comes. That Lord Cloverton has visited him shows that some new pressure is to be brought to bear upon him. We shall see how he stands in this, whether firm or not, and may learn how to act ourselves."
"He is ready to act when the token is given him," said Dumitru. "He has a few desperate men who are pledged to his service."