"That is my loss, sir," and he bowed again. "I know you, however, by sight, having seen you to-night in Mrs. Curwen’s box at the Opera, and afterwards I learnt from this gentleman, Mr. Mayhew, of your Embassy, that you were staying here. I am Colonel Vasca, this is Colonel Damara," and we all bowed again like willows in a breeze. "We come from the King, and bring His Majesty’s earnest request that you will wait upon him at the Palace at eleven o’clock to-morrow, when he desires to present you to Her Majesty the Queen Mother, who adds her request to His Majesty’s." The amazement of everyone in the room was complete, while the police official was lost in bewilderment. I think I rather enjoyed the situation, and answered very gravely— "Their Majesty’s desires would have been commands, but unfortunately I shall be prevented. This person, a police agent, has arrested me, so that instead of being in His Majesty’s Palace I shall be in one of His Majesty’s prisons, I presume. Perhaps you will be good enough to explain the cause of my absence." The seriousness of my manner and the incongruity of the reply turned the thing in a moment to broad farce; with results which can be easily understood. The King’s messengers routed the Quesada agent in half a dozen words, and sent him and his men packing about their business. Then they made me a thousand profuse, most elaborate, and somewhat tedious apologies, and took their leave with signs of respect for me that were almost overpowering. And no sooner were they gone than the other side of the incident was put before me very pungently by Sarita, who asked with a very sharp and searching glance— "How comes the young King to be so friendly with you, Ferdinand, and apparently under so great an obligation?" The question showed that even a king’s favour may not be without its embarrassments; for in truth I did not know how to answer. *CHAPTER XXI* *SARITA’S FLIGHT* Mrs. Curwen, Mercy and Mayhew, were almost as keenly interested as Sarita herself in the question she had asked with such vehemence, and thus my hesitation in answering was the more noticeable. Their motives were, of course, very different from hers, and I could have put them off with some light evasion; but with Sarita that would probably be both useless and dangerous; and her suspicion deepened with every second of my hesitation. It was all but impossible for me to tell her the truth—that I had thwarted the long cherished plot and saved the young King. I could only tell her that when I was in a position to convince her that Quesada’s policy was, as I had described it, to use the Carlist plot and then crush the plotters.