“Thank you,” said Nadia. “After receiving such a handsome acknowledgment of my services, it is only fair for me to give you the satisfaction of hearing that I refuse absolutely to marry the King, and that I will leave Bellaviste as soon as you will allow me.”
“I can’t pretend not to be relieved by your decision,” remarked Cyril, frankly. “Pray be sure that I will do my best to settle the arrangements for your journey as much in accordance with your wishes as possible, although it will unfortunately be necessary to make the start very early in the morning, in order to avoid exciting attention. I propose, if you will allow me, to do myself the honour of accompanying you as far as Boloszjen——”
“Oh, why make all this fuss—this pretence of asking my permission?” asked Nadia, impatiently. “I know quite well that I am a prisoner, and must submit to whatever arrangements my gaolers may choose to make for me.”
“Excuse me,” said Cyril, “but I understood that you were leaving Thracia by your own choice, and going to rejoin your friends? I think you will see that this is both a more correct and a more agreeable way of looking at the matter. To return to our subject. The first part of the journey we must make by road, for it would not be advisable for you to take the train from here. We will get on board at some country station, where no one is likely to recognise us. Our good friend Madame Bruics here will accompany you as far as the Scythian frontier, and give you into the charge of Princess Soudaroff’s lady-in-waiting.”
“I am most grateful to you for your kindness and consideration,” said Nadia, rising to leave the room. “Perhaps you will tell Madame Bruics anything else you may have to say. I am very tired.”
“If your gratitude is to be interpreted by your looks, it is not a kind I should care to get much of,” said Cyril to himself as she retired. It took some time to explain in writing to Madame Bruics what was required of her and to meet her various objections, but at last Cyril was able to leave the prison and return to the palace. Sending for Wright to give him his orders for the morrow, he found the groom bursting with excitement and importance.
“’Ave you ’eard, my lord, as ’ow Mr O’Malachy ’ave sloped?” he asked eagerly, as soon as the footman who had conducted him into Cyril’s presence had departed.
“Sloped? Lieutenant O’Malachy?” cried Cyril, and cursed himself for a fool. Why had it not occurred to him to order Louis’s arrest instantly on hearing Nadia’s story? He might have guessed that her father’s plot needed a confederate in the city to enable him to carry it out successfully. “Is it certain that he is gone?” he asked of Wright.
“Quite certain, my lord. The capting’s in a orful way about it, been rowin’ the sergeants shameful, and one on ’em tell me. The capting, ’e put Mr O’Malachy under arrest for shootin’ at the young lady, and tell ’im to come back ’ere. Contrairywise, ’e rides to the post-office, as bold as brass, and sends off a Government telegram to Mr Francis Xavier O’Reilly, at Tatarjé, orderin’ ’im to leave the country within twenty-four hours. Then ’e rides out at the Feodoratz gate, sayin’ as ’e’s a-actin’ aide-de-camp to ’is Majesty, and no one see ’im since. ’Is ’orse ’ave come back to ’is stable, but they say as Mr O’Malachy must ’ave ’ad a change of clothes ’id away ready somewheres, and ’ave got away like that, though why ’e should want to is beyond me.”
But Louis’s motive was not beyond Cyril’s comprehension, for it was evident to him that, expecting that Nadia would involve him in her disclosures, he had seized the earliest opportunity for flight—a contingency against which he had carefully provided beforehand—and that he had, moreover, succeeded in warning his father to escape from Tatarjé at least an hour before Cyril had telegraphed thither to arrest him. The loquacious Wright found himself dismissed somewhat hastily, with instructions to have the carriage ready at six in the morning; and Cyril turned from the unpleasant contemplation of the oversight of which he had been guilty to drafting the announcement which was to appear on the morrow in a special ‘Gazette,’ in order to tranquillise the minds of the people. It was evident, he wrote, that a certain amount of misconception existed as to the incident of the day. The supposed attempt to murder the King was not, as had been imagined, the outcome of a plot, but it was hoped that in consequence of it the ramifications of a very extensive conspiracy would be laid bare. As for the young woman who had been arrested, she could not be held responsible for the intended crime, and having been found harmless, she had been restored to her friends. The last sentence pleased Cyril extremely, both on account of its plausibility and its adherence to the truth, although he reminded himself as he read it over that he must keep the ‘Gazette’ out of Caerleon’s way. His next duty was to write a full account of what had happened to M. Drakovics, who had remained on the frontier in order that he might meet the Premier of Mœsia, and to tell him all that he had succeeded in extracting from Nadia on the subject of the plot. This was not much, for she knew very little, and declined to tell even the whole of that, but there was one point which seemed to Cyril to be of considerable importance. Who was the X. of whom Nadia had heard Madame O’Malachy speaking to her husband, saying that he had been induced by bribes to join in the conspiracy, and to bring with him all the men in his employment? After much cogitation, Cyril could only decide that he must be one of the large distillers whose trade had been spoiled by the temperance legislation of the present Government, and who would therefore be inclined to prefer a change in the state of affairs. He resolved to keep an eye on persons of this class in future, and he mentioned his conjecture to the Premier in order to see whether he agreed with him or not.