Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/101



far Otto read, with waxing indignation; and here his fury overflowed. He tossed the roll upon the table and stood up. ‘This man,’ he said, ‘is a devil. A filthy imagination, an ear greedy of evil, a ponderous malignity of thought and language: I grow like him by the reading! Chancellor, where is this fellow lodged?’

‘He was committed to the Flag Tower,’ replied Greisengesang, ‘in the Gamiani apartment.’

‘Lead me to him,’ said the Prince; and then, a thought striking him, ‘Was it for that,’ he asked, ‘that I found so many sentries in the garden?’

‘Your Highness, I am unaware,’ answered Greisengesang, true to his policy. ‘The disposition of the guards is a matter distinct from my functions.’

Otto turned upon the old man fiercely, but