"Salutation, O Princess!" said he gravely, and stepped out of cover
attended by Stephanu, who likewise saluted.
The Princess drew herself up imperiously. "I thought, O Stephanu,
that I had made plain my orders, that you two were neither to follow
nor to watch me?"
"Nevertheless," Marc'antonio made answer, "when one misses a comrade
and hears, at a little distance, the firing of a volley . . . not to
mention that some one has been burning gunpowder hereabouts," he
wound up, sniffing the air with an expression that absurdly reminded
me of our Vicar, at home, tasting wine.
"I warn you, O Marc'antonio," said the Princess, "to be wise and ask
no more questions."
"I have asked none, O Princess," he answered again, still very
gravely, and after a glance at me turned to Stephanu. "But it runs
in my head, comrade, that the time has come to consider other things
than wisdom."
"For example?" I challenged him sharply.
"For example, cavalier, that I cannot reconcile this smell with any
Corsican gunpowder."
"And you are right," said I. "Nay, Princess, you have sworn not long
since to obey me, and I choose that they shall know.
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