"It seems to me," said Tony thoughtfully, "that the Count de Sé is what we call a dirty dog in this country. All the same I don't quite see what he was driving at. Surely it would have suited his book better for Isabella to be queen in her own right."
"He was afraid," said Congosta scornfully. "He is a coward, and he was afraid there would be fighting, and perhaps failure. He has no heart for such things. It seemed to him better to live under the shelter of Da Freitas."
"He will not live long," growled the Colonel ominously.
"As soon as we learned what had happened," continued Congosta, "we had a council at Portriga, and it was decided that the Colonel and I should come to England. We have friends and agents here and it was not difficult to find out where the Count was living. I took a room at Richmond, and for a week I watched and waited in the hope of speaking with the Princess. I was convinced that she knew nothing of what was happening in Livadia—that she probably believed her father's friends were dead or powerless. The first day I discovered she was there, but as for speaking with her—" he shrugged his shoulders—"there was an old hag of a French woman who never left her—who watched her like a cat. Then at last came the evening when she left the house—alone. At first I was on my guard; I feared that Da Freitas might have learned I was in Richmond; that he was using this means to draw me into a trap. It was only when she got to the station and hid in the waiting-room that I began to suspect she was running away. I did not speak with her then; I did not wish to alarm her. I knew she was going to Waterloo, because I had listened when she asked for her ticket. So while I waited I sent off a telegram to Saltero to meet me there, and I too came up to London in the same train."
He paused again, half out of breath from the rapidity with which he had been speaking.
"I think I have a good working idea of the rest of the story," said Tony. He slipped off the table and stood up facing his two prisoners. "I owe you an apology," he added, "both of you. I am afraid that in our anxiety to assist the Princess, Bugg and I have been rather unnecessarily strenuous."
Congosta rose to his feet and bowed gravely. "Sir Antony Conway," he said. "You behaved as I should expect an English nobleman to behave under the circumstances. Neither Colonel Saltero nor myself bear you any ill will for the slight inconvenience we have suffered."
The Colonel, who seemed to be a man of less expansive habit, grunted again, but Tony did not allow this apparent lack of enthusiasm to damp the graciousness of Congosta's speech.
"Gentlemen," he said, "you have been frank with me, and I will be equally frank with you. When I came to the assistance of Princess Isabella, I had not the remotest notion who she was. I acted on the impulse of the moment, as I suppose any one else would have acted. Out of gratitude for this very slight service, the Princess was good enough to take me into her confidence. When I found that she was being forced into a marriage for which she had the strongest possible dislike, I naturally determined to put a stop to it. I have my own reasons for not regarding Pedro as a suitable husband for her, apart altogether from the fact that she hates the sight of him. If it will relieve your minds in any way I can assure you that she will be quite safe from him as long as she will do me the honour of accepting my assistance."
It was the Colonel's turn to answer. "That is well," he said. "We are obliged to you for what you have done, but the affair cannot remain so. We must speak with the Princess. She must be informed of the high destiny that awaits her."