‘But the fight will be round my carriage—’
‘Possibly. I would rather that it took place in the Calle de la Ciudad, or around the Casa del Ayuntamiento, where your Majesty is expected to sleep to-night.’
‘And these persons—this woman who risks her life to save mine—who is she?’
‘My daughter,’ answered the General gravely.
‘I have heard that she is beautiful,’ said the Queen, with a quick glance towards her companion. ‘How is it that you have never brought her to Court, you who come so seldom yourself?’
‘She has travelled far, Madame, and is not prepared for presentation to her Queen.’
‘This is no time for formalities. She is about to run a great risk for my sake, a greater risk than I could ever ask her to run. Present her as one woman to another, General.’
But General Vincente bowed gravely and made no reply. The colour slowly rose to the Queen Regent’s face—a dull red. She opened her fan, closed it again, and sat with furtive downcast eyes. Suddenly she looked up and met his gaze.
‘You refuse,’ she said, with an insolent air of indifference. ‘You think that I am unworthy to—meet your daughter.’
‘I think only of the exigency of the moment,’ was his reply. ‘Every minute we lose is a gain to our enemies. If our trick is discovered Aranjuez will be no safer for your Majesty than is Toledo. You must be safely in Madrid before it is discovered in Toledo that you have taken the other route, and that the person they have mistaken for you is in reality my daughter.’
‘But she may be killed,’ exclaimed the Queen.
‘We may all be killed, Madame,’ he replied lightly. ‘I beg that you will start at once in my carriage with your chaplain and the holy lady who is doubtless travelling with you.’
The Queen glanced sharply at him. It was known that although her own life was anything but exemplary, she loved to associate with women who, under the cloak of religion and an austere virtue, intrigued with all parties and condoned the Queen’s offences.
‘I cannot understand you,’ she said, with that sudden lapse into familiarity which had led to the undoing of more than one ambitious courtier. ‘You seem to worship the crown and despise the head it rests on.’
‘So long as I serve your Majesty faithfully—’