It was only by the light of the moon that we were able to see each other. Anna was moving towards the key of the electric lamps, but the Queen forbade her with a gesture. ‘Now, tell me, what is it?’ ‘You must this very minute put on Anna’s dress, and leave the Palace with me. We shall go straight to the railway, where my agent has by this time chartered a special train.’ Draga drew back unconvinced. ‘The assassination is fixed for next Tuesday,’ she declared. ‘It is fixed for to-night.’ ‘To-night? You must be mistaken.’ I smiled bitterly. ‘The Tsar of Russia has never said that to me, madam.’ ‘But how?--when?--Your own agent told me--if he was your agent----’ I waved my hand impatiently. ‘All that was true three days ago, madam. Your Majesty told King Alexander, and the conspirators have advanced the hour in consequence.’ For the first time the heroic woman turned pale, and began to tremble. ‘At what hour to-night is it?’ ‘I have not ascertained. For ought I know the assassins are at this moment surrounding the Palace. There may be just time for you to leave.’ ‘But the King! Alexander! My husband!’ ‘I do not think there will be time for him to leave as well,’ I said gravely. Queen Draga threw one hand across her breast with a superb defiance. ‘I do not go without my husband, sir.’ I was torn between admiration and despair. ‘I should have done better to remain in Paris, I perceive,’ I said sullenly. ‘On the contrary, dear Andrea, I, who know you so well, know that you have the heroism of soul to save the man you hate at the prayer of the woman you love.’ I stood thunderstruck, while she crossed the room into the adjoining bedchamber, and sounded a silver bell. ‘Inform his Majesty that I desire to see him very particularly as soon as possible.’ The servant who had answered the bell bowed and withdrew, with startled looks, from which I was inclined to suspect that he was in the pay of the assassins. Fortunately, he had not been able to see me where I stood. The Queen now began hurriedly to change her dress for one more suitable for the emergency. Meanwhile there was no sign that her message had reached Alexander. ‘You have been betrayed, madam,’ I observed at last. ‘That servant was a traitor. I saw it in his face.’ Draga uttered a cry of despair. ‘You, Anna, you go and bring the King here at all costs.’ Anna darted out of the room. The Queen, too terribly anxious to go on with her own preparations for flight, paced the room like a lioness listening for the approach of the hunters. Five minutes passed--ten minutes--a quarter of a year! Then a step was heard in the adjoining room, and the young King of Servia, his dark face flushed with wrath, strode in. ‘What is all this? Are you trying to frighten me, Draga?’ He saw me and stopped, at the same time putting his hand to his side where his sword should have been. The weapon was missing, perhaps by accident.