The lads agreed that the plan was a good one, and the young lady hurried away to see if the room, which was not far from her own, was still empty.  She returned in a minute, and beckoned to them to follow her.  They soon arrived at a room which was simply furnished with a few chairs and an armchair placed at a table.  Across the two windows hung heavy curtains, and behind these the midshipmen took their places, the curtains extending far enough beyond the windows for them to stand between them and the walls; so that any one going to the windows would not necessarily see them.  Then leaving them with many injunctions to remain quiet, and with a promise to return at the end of the day and release them, she left, being, she said, due with her pupils at nine o’clock.

For half an hour the boys conversed in low tones with each other as to their chances of escape.  Then footsteps were heard, and the governor entered, followed by several officers.  He took his seat at the table.

“If,” he said to one of them, “your report, that you were so short a distance behind these men that it was impossible they could have reached the end of the lane before you entered it, be correct, it is clear they must have taken refuge here.  You did quite right to place a cordon all round the palace.  Write an order at once for the chief of police to send down twenty men to search the house thoroughly from top to bottom.  Let them visit every room, not excepting even the apartments of my wife and daughters.  You say that they were most conspicuous in the attack upon your cavalry, and I myself observed two very young men leading the attack upon the infantry.  Well, sir,” turning to another officer, “what is your report of the losses?”

“Two hundred and three of the cavalry have been killed, sir.  There are only ten wounded.  One hundred and sixty-three infantry killed, and 204 wounded.  We have found the bodies of 133 armed men, who were killed either in the square or in the pursuit, and 97 bodies, apparently those of town’s-people in the square.”

“Put them all down as insurgents,” the general said.  “They are traitors and rebels, the whole brood.  Let strong bodies of infantry patrol the streets.  Order all shops to be shut and the inhabitants to keep within doors, and let a body of troops be placed at the disposal of the chief of police for a search from house to house.  Some of these scoundrels may be hidden in the town.”

All day, officers, the bearers of reports, or who came to receive orders, entered and left the room, among them the chief of police, who reported that he had searched the palace from top to bottom, without the omission of a single room, and had failed altogether to find any traces of the fugitives.

“If they entered, they must be somewhere,” said the general.  “Let a close cordon be kept around the house all night, with orders to shoot down any one they may see leaving it.  To-morrow you will repeat your search of the house.  If they are here, they must be found.”