trying to think what she could do next when she heard sounds in the next cell, which made her realize that it was Bathilda who was there. In order to find out the truth, she tried knocking on the wall.
"Is it you, Bathilda?"
"Yes, Milady."
"Thank Heaven. I was not mistaken."
"No, dear mistress, it is I, but quite sad at not being able to be of any help to you due to my own captivity."
"What is going to become of us?"
"I don't know, Milady, but according to what our captors have said, we must expect to die."
"And our unhappy liberator, the baron, do you know what they have done with him?"
"I believe that he is in a cell below us, but it is impossible to get word to him."
"I would like to help him, and I am grieved at not being able to do so. Do you still have any of the Burdorf money?"
"I still have the portion which you gave me to keep."
"I still have mine, too. The bandits don't realize that we have these sums."
"It will be necessary to keep this information from them."
"It seems to me that we can use some of it to win over some of the guards who may help us to escape."
"We would not succeed, Milady. And if they discovered our only resources, they would have another reason to hasten the end of our days."
"But suppose they kill us in the meantime."
"I have a feeling that something will turn up to help us." "Those illusions are only chimerical. Such things come from a vain hope which deceives us and keeps us from exerting ourselves to effect an escape."
A noise of keys interrupts this conversation. It was the men bringing some food. Both of them questioned their jailers, but only received the enigmatic assurance that the prisons would soon be emptied. This was a favorite expression with jailers who liked to give the impression that they knew more than they really did.
"I hear that you kill people here," said Adelaide.
101
