"Oh, your Majesty! I have come to save you! You are betrayed!" "Betrayed!" repeated George, trying to grasp the idea, while his little eyes were quite expressionless. "Betrayed!" sobbed Mrs. Carey, "and all is lost except your Majesty's life and liberty." "How do you know this? Why does not he know?" and the alarmed George nodded at the door. "I do not know, your Majesty. I only know that I know it, and that I have come here to save you at the risk of my life; but what is my life to the precious life of my King?" "Betrayed!" repeated George, as if the meaning of the word were slowly coming to him out of a fog. "But to-morrow--to-day--my men will proclaim the restoration." "Oh, my King! to-morrow--" "To-morrow I shall be King!" re-echoed George, while his glance wandered round the room, as if seeking to escape from the bore of excitement. "Betrayed! No, no; my men--" "Your men, Sire, to-night will be dead or in prison," said Mrs. Carey, with increased firmness, reading the puerile nature and seeing the value of emphasis. "I am to join my gentlemen at Aldershot at noon," muttered the King. "No, no!" cried Mrs. Carey, and her beautiful hands clasped his arm beseechingly. "Your Majesty will be lost if you attempt to go--all who go there will be lost." There was a depth in her voice at these words that carried conviction. "Your Majesty must escape from England to-night!" "Impossible!" cried George, with some dignity, but more irritation. "Oh, listen to me, Sire!" she sobbed, "and do not despise my words because I am only a weak woman." Here the small eyes of the King rested on her again, and the royal hand soothed her back to calmness by stroking her beautiful hair. "Everything is known," she continued, "except that your Majesty has landed. If that were known all were lost. President Bagshaw has surrounded Aldershot with soldiers. There are twenty to one against the Royalists." "But the King's name will change them;" and as he spoke George seemed really to believe his words. "When Colonel Arundel proclaims me King, as Dacre says he will--" "Oh, Sire! Sire!" sobbed Mrs. Carey, now really touched by the vivid picture that appeared of her own treachery; "even that is known to the President--and all the soldiers who are to kill Colonel Arundel have already received his instructions!" This precise and terrible statement staggered George, and a look of simple alarm came into his eyes. "Then what is to be done?" he cried, in a bewildered way. "Your Majesty must escape this night--this hour. You are not safe one moment in London; you know not who might betray you. The steam-yacht which brought you to England lies ready this moment to receive you." George tried to think; but he could not. He walked about nervously. "Let us have Bugbee here!" he exclaimed, with a burst of relief.