The girls were as indignant and aggrieved as even the midshipmen could wish to see them, but there was no help for it.  A quarter of an hour later a carriage was at the door, a portmanteau well filled with clothes placed behind, and with the sergeant trotting alongside, the boys left the chateau where they bad been so hospitably entertained, promising to come over without fail the next morning.

They were conducted to the governor’s house, and taken not to the large room where he conducted his public business, and where they had before seen him, but to a smaller room, fitted up as a private study on the second floor.  The governor, who looked, Jack thought, even more savage and ill-tempered than usual, was seated at a writing-table.  He signed to the sergeant who accompanied them to retire, and pointed to two chairs.  “So,” he said, “I am told that you are able to converse fairly in Russian, although you have chosen to sit silent whenever I have been present, as if you did not understand a word of what was being said.  This is a bad sign, and gives weight to the report which has been brought to me, that you are meditating an escape.”

“It is a lie, sir,” Dick said firmly, “whoever told it you.  As to our learning Russian, we have, as you see, picked up a little of the language, but I’m not aware of any rule or law by which gentlemen, whether prisoners or otherwise, are obliged to converse, unless it pleases them to do so.  You never showed any signs of being even aware of our presence in the room, and there was therefore no occasion for us to address you.”

“I do not intend to bandy words with you,” the governor replied savagely.  “I repeat that I am informed you meditate attempting an escape, and as this is a breach of honor, and a grave offence upon the part of officers on parole, I shall at once revoke your privilege, and you will be confined in the same prison with common soldiers.”

“In the first place,” Jack said, “as my friend has told you, the report of our thinking of escaping is a lie.  If we had wanted to escape, at any rate from this place, we could have done it at any time since we have been here.  In the second place, I deny that we are prisoners on parole.  We did not give you our promise, because you did not ask for it.  You said to Dr. Bertmann, in our hearing, that our parole was no matter, one way or the other, as it would be impossible for us to escape.  The doctor can of course be found, and will, I am sure, bear out what I say.”

“Silence, sir!” shouted the governor.  “I say that you were prisoners on parole, and that I have discovered you intended to break that parole.  You will be committed to prison, and treated as men who have forfeited all right to be considered as officers and gentlemen.”

The boys sat silent, looking with contempt at the angry Russian.  The latter believed that he had now cowed them.  He sat for a few minutes silent, in order to allow the prospect of imprisonment and disgrace to produce its full effect.  Then he continued in a milder voice, “I do not wish to be severe upon such very young officers, and will therefore point out a way by which you may avoid the imprisonment and disgrace which your conduct has merited, and be enabled still to enjoy your freedom as before.”