“What want you with me, Armenian? If you have any of your worthy communications to make, I should have thought that the governor was the fittest person to whom a spy should make his report.”
“Hist, Sir,” said Javis; “draw nearer—you mistake me. I bring a message from one who loves you, and who will not be happy till he has seen you again. Do you not remember the night you passed in the Gipsy’s camp near Tver? There you last saw me.”
“Do my senses deceive me?” exclaimed Thaddeus; “are you not the Armenian spy who has for so long brought us information from the enemy?”
“Outwardly you see that I am; but I would not that my soul should be where his now is. But to my message. Your friend, Ivan Galetzoff, is now waiting for you close to the fort. He has much to say to you. Shall I tell him that you will come; you can have no difficulty, as I can assure you that no attack will be made on the fort to-night.”
Thaddeus scarcely hesitated a moment before he answered, “Yes, yes, say that I will go, at all hazards, to see him. Where shall I find him?”
“Do you remember a peculiar rock jutting out over the sands, its top overhung by a large tree? Close to that rock I will wait for you, and conduct you to him.”
“Go then, my friend; I will trust to you. But how can you leave the fort? Are you not afraid the governor will discover you?” said Thaddeus.
“I have no fear, and may easily deceive him.”
“Fortune favour your hazardous adventure, my friend! I must hasten to my post,” said Thaddeus.
Directing his servant to accompany the pretended Armenian to the Baron’s quarters, he hurried off, and Javis followed the soldier’s steps.