As he recognised her, he saw at the same time that the man who was struggling with her was the Prince.
He was dragging her towards a couch that was arranged with several garden chairs on the rampart.
Lord Mere, looking through the open window, heard her cry,
“No – no! Leave me – alone!”
The Prince did not answer and, from the way he was trying to push her down onto the couch, Lord Mere knew in horror what he was intending to do.
Inflamed through drugs or excited by a lust that made him seek out very young girls who were little more than children, Prince Vincente intended to repeat the story of the statue that stood in the garden below him.
Suddenly, whatever the risk to himself, Lord Mere knew that he could not allow this to happen.
He had not even spoken to the girl, but that she w
