In a moment I foresaw danger. "Now be quick there!" I cried
again. But scarcely had I spoken before I saw that it was
impossible to get afloat before these others came up, and I
prepared to stand my ground resolutely.
The first words, however, with which Pallavicini saluted the new-
comers scattered my fears. "Well, what the foul fiend do you
want?" he exclaimed rudely; and he rapped out half-a-dozen
CORPOS before they could answer him. "What have you brought him
here for, when I left him in the guard-house? Imbeciles!"
"Captain Pallavicini," interposed the midmost of the three,
speaking with patience--he was a man of about thirty, dressed
with some richness, though his clothes were now disordered as
though by a struggle--"I have induced these good men to bring me
down--"
"Then," cried the captain, brutally interrupting him, "you have
lost your labour, Monsieur."
"You do not know me," replied the prisoner with sternness--a
prisoner he seemed to be. "You do not understand that I am a
friend of the Prince of Conde, and that--"
He would have said more, but the Italian again cut him short.
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