"But the Princess's mother will be left," said Gaydon. "She can plead
that her daughter is ill."
"The magistrate forces his way into the very bedroom. We must take with
us a woman who will lie in her Highness's bed with the curtains drawn
about her and a voice so weak with suffering that she cannot raise it
above a whisper, with eyes so tired from sleeplessness she cannot bear a
light near them. Help me in this. Name me a woman with the fortitude to
stay behind."
Gaydon shook his head.
"She will certainly be discovered. The part she plays in the escape must
certainly be known. She will remain for the captors to punish as they
will. I know no woman."
"Nay," said Wogan; "you exaggerate her danger. Once the escape is
brought to an issue, once her Highness is in Bologna safe, the Emperor
cannot wreak vengeance on a woman; it would be too paltry." And now he
made his appeal to Misset.
"No, my friend," Misset replied. "I know no woman with the fortitude."
"But you do," interrupted O'Toole. "So do I. There's no difficulty
whatever in the matter. Mrs. Misset has a maid."
"Oho!" said Gaydon.
"The maid's name is Jenny."
"Aha!" said Wogan.
"She's a very good friend of mine."
"O'Toole!" cried Misset, indignantly. "My wife's maid--a very good
friend of yours?"
"Sure she is, and you didn't know it," said O'Toole, with a chuckle. "I
am the cunning man, after all. She would do a great deal for me would
Jenny."
"But has she courage?" asked Wogan.
"Faith, her father was a French grenadier and her mother a vivandière.
It would be a queer thing if she was frightened by a little matter of
lying in bed and pretending to be someone else."
"But can we trust her with the secret?" asked Gaydon.
"No!" exclaimed Misset, and he rose angrily from his chair. "My wife's
maid--O'Toole--O'Toole--my wife's maid. Did ever one hear the like?"
"My friend," said O'Toole, quietly, "it seems almost as if you wished to
reflect upon Jenny's character, which would not be right."
Misset looked angrily at O'Toole, who was not at all disturbed. Then he
said, "Well, at all events, she gossips. We cannot take her. She would
tell the whole truth of our journey at the first halt."