that Donna Tullia and her husband chose to leave Rome the day after their wedding for Paris, half the triumph would be lost; for half the triumph was to consist in Del Ferice's being imprisoned for a spy in Rome-whereas if he once crossed the frontier, he could at most be forbidden to return, which would be but a small satisfaction to Sarracinesca, or to Giovanni. A week passed by, and the gaiety of Carnival was again at its height; and again a week elapsed, and Lent was come. Sarracinesca went everywhere and saw everybody as usual, and then after Ash-Wednesday occasionally showed himself at some of those quiet evening receptions which his son so much detested. But he was restless and discontented. He longed to begin the fight, and could not sleep for thinking of it. Like Giovanni, he was strong and revengeful; but Giovanni had from his mother a certain slowness of temperament, which often deterred him from action just long enough to give him time for reflection, whereas the father when once roused, and he was roused easily, loved to strike at once. It chanced one evening, in a great house, that Sarracinesca came upon the Cardinal standing alone in an outer room. He was on his way into the reception; but he had stopped, attracted by a beautiful crystal cup of old workmanship, which stood, among other objects of the kind, upon a marble table in one of the drawing-rooms through which he had to pass. The cup itself, of deeply carved rockcrystal, was set in chiselled silver, and if not the work of Cellini himself, must have been made by one of his pupils. Sarracinesca stopped by the great man's side. "Good evening, Eminence," he said. "Good evening, Prince," re turned the Cardinal, who recognised Sarracinesca's voice without looking up. "Have you ever seen this marvellous piece of work? I have been admiring it for a quarter of an hour." He loved all objects of the kind, and understood them with rare knowledge. "It is indeed exceedingly beautiful," answered Sarracinesca, who longed to take advantage of the opportunity of speaking to Cardinal Antonelli upon the subject nearest to his heart. "Yes yes," returned the Cardinal rather vaguely, and made as though he would go on. He saw from Sarracinesca's commonplace praise, that he knew nothing of the subject. The old Prince saw his opportunity slipping from him, and lost his head. He did not recollect that he could see the Cardinal alone whenever he pleased, by merely asking for an interview. Fate had thrust the Cardinal in his path, and fate was responsible. If your Eminence will allow me, I would like a word with you," he said suddenly. "As many as you please," answered the statesman, blandly. "Let us sit down in that cornerno one will disturb us for a while." He seemed unusually affable, as he sat himself down by Sarracinesca's side, gathering the folds of his scarlet mantle across his knee, and folding his delicate hands together in an attitude of restful attention. "You know, I daresay, a certain Del Ferice, Eminence?" began the Prince. "Very well-the deus ex machina who has appeared to carry off Donna Tullia Mayer. Yes, I know him." "Precisely, and they will match very well together; the world cannot help applauding the union of the flesh and the devil." The Cardinal smiled. as pretended proof that my son "The metaphor is apt," he said; was already married. If Í had "but what about them?" not found the man myself, there would have been trouble. Now besides this, Del Ferice is known to hold Liberal views "I will tell you in two words," replied Sarracinesca. "Del Ferice is a scoundrel of the first water" "A jewel among scoundrels," interrupted the Cardinal; "for being a scoundrel he is yet harmless-a stage villain.” "I believe your Eminence is deceived in him." “That may easily be," answered the statesman." "I am much more often deceived than people imagine." He spoke very mildly, but his small black eyes turned keenly upon Sarracinesca. "What has he been doing?" he asked, after a short pause.' "He has been trying to do a great deal of harm to my son and to my son's wife. I suspect him strongly of doing harm to you.” Whether Sarracinesca was strictly honest in saying "you" to the Cardinal, when he meant the whole State as represented by the prime minister, is a mater not easily decided. There is a Latin saying, to the effect that a man who is feared by many should himself fear many, and the saying is true. The Cardinal was personally a brave man ; but he knew his danger, and the memory of the murdered Rossi was fresh in his mind. Nevertheless, he smiled blandly as he answered "That is rather vague, my friend. How is he doing me harm, if I may ask?" "I argue in this way," returned Sarracinesca, thus pressed. "The man found a most ingenious way of attacking my son-he searched the whole country till he found that a man called Giovanni Sarracinesca had been married some time ago in Aquila. He copied the certificates, and produced them determined that this dueling shall stop, and I warn you that neither you nor any one else will escape imprisonment if you are involved in any more of these personal encounters." en Sarracinesca suppressed a smile at the Cardinal's threat; but he perceived that he had gained his point, and was pleased accordingly. He had, he felt sure, Sown in the statesman's mind a germ of suspicion which would before long bring forth fruit. In those days danger was plentiful, and people could not afford to overlook it, no matter in what form it presented itself, least of all such people as the Cardinal himself, who, while sustaining an unequal combat against superior forces outside the State, felt that his every step was compassed by perils from within. That he had long despised Del Ferice as an idle chatterer did not prevent him from understanding that he might have been deceived, as Sarracinesca suggested. He had caused Ugo to be watched, it is true, but only from time to time, and by men whose only duty was to follow him and to see whether he frequented suspicious society. The little nest of talkers at Gouache's studio in the Via San Basilio was soon discovered, and proved to be harmless enough. De Ferice was then allowed to go on his way unobserved. But the half-dozen words in which Sarracinesca had described Ugo's scheme for hindering Giovanni's marriage had set the Cardinal thinking, and the Cardinal seldom wasted time in thinking in vain. His interview with Sarracinesca ended very soon, and the Prince and the statesman entered the crowded drawing-room and mixed in the throng. It was long before they met again in private. The Cardinal on the following days gave orders that Del Ferice's letters were to be stopped-by no means an uncommon proceeding in those times, nor so rare in our own day as is supposed. The postoffice was then in the hands of a private individual so far as all management was concerned, and the Cardinal's word was law. Del Ferice's letters were regularly opened and examined. The first thing that was discovered was that they frequently contained money, generally in the shape of small drafts on London signed by a Florentine banker, and that the envelopes which contained money never contained anything else. They were all posted in Florence. With regard to the letters, they appeared to be very innocent communications from all sorts of people, rarely referring to politics, and then only in the most generous terms. If Del Ferice had expected to have his correspondence examined he could not have arranged matters better for his own safety. To trace the drafts to the person who sent them was not an easy business; it was impossible to introduce a spy into the banking-house in Florence; and among the many drafts daily bought and sold, it was almost impossible to identify, without the aid of the banker's books, the person who chanced to buy any particular one. The addresses were, it is true, uniformly written by the same hand; but the writing was in no way peculiar, and was cetrainly not that of any prominent person whose autograph the Cardinal possessed. The next step was to get possession of some letter written by Del Ferice himself, and, if possible, to intercept everything he wrote. But although the letters containing the drafts were regularly opened, and after having been ex amined and sealed again, were regularly transmitted through the postoffice to Ugo's address, the expert persons set to catch the letters he himself wrote were obliged to own, after three weeks' careful watching, that he never seemed to write any letters at all, and that he certainly never posted any. They acknowledged their failure to the Cardinal with timid anxiety, expecting to be reprimanded for their carelessness. But the Cardinal merely told them not to relaw their attention, and dismissed them with a bland smile. He knew, now, that he was on the track of mischief; for a man who never writes any letters at all, while he receives many, might reasonably be suspected of having a secret post-office of his own. For some days Del Ferice's movements were narrowly watched, but with no result whatever. Then the Cardinal sent for the police register of the district where Del Ferice lived, and in which the name, nationality, and residence of every individual in the "Rione" or quarter were carefully inscribed, as they still are. Running his eyes down the list, the Cardinal came upon the name of "Temistocle Fattorusso, of Naples, servant to Ugo dei Conti del Ferice: " an idea struck him. "His servant is a Neapolitan," he reflected. "He probably sends his letters by way of Naples." was Accordingly Temistocle watched instead of his master. It was found that he frequented the society of other Neapolitans, and especially that he was in the habit of going from time to time to the Ripa Grande, the port of the Tiber, where he seemed to have numerous acquaintances among the Neapolitan boatmen who constantly came up the coast in their " martingane"-heavy, sea-going, lateen rigged vessels-bringing cargoes of oranges and lemons to the Roman market. The mystery was now solved. One day Temistocle was actually seen giving a letter into the hands of a huge fellow in a red woolen cap. The sbirro who saw him do it, marked the sailor and his vessel, and never lost sight of him till he hoisted his jib and floated away down-stream. Then the spy took horse and galloped down to Fiumicino, where he waited for the little vessel, boarded her from a boat, escorted by a couple of gendarmes, and had no difficulty in taking the letter from the terrified seaman, who was glad enough to escape without detention. During the next fortnight several letters were stopped in this way, carried by different sailors, and the whole correspondence went straight to the Cardinal. It was not often that he troubled himself to play the detective in person, but when he did so, he was not easily baffled. And now he observed that about a week after the interception of the first letter the small drafts which used to come so frequently to Del Ferice's address from Florence suddenly ceased, proving beyond a doubt that each letter was paid for according to its value so soon as it was received. With regard to the contents of these epistles little need be said. So sure was Del Ferice of his means of transmission that he did not even use a cipher, though he, of course, never signed any of his writings. The matter was invariably a detailed chronicle of Roman sayings and doings-a record as minute as Del Ferice could make it, of everything that took place; and even the Cardinal himself was astonished at the accuracy of the information thus conveyed. His own appearances in public-the names of those with whom he the Sant' Uffizio by men in plain clothes. It was six o'clock in the evening when he wrote the order, and delivered it to his private servant to be taken to its destination. The man lost no time, and within. twenty minutes the chief of police was in possession of his orders, which he hastened to execute with all possible speed. Before seven o'clock two respectable - looking citizens were seated in the chief's own carriage, driving rapidly in the direction of Del Ferice's house. In less than half an hour, the man who had caused so much trouble would be safely lodged in the prisons of the Holy Office, to be judged for his sins as a political spy. In a fortnight he was to have been married to Donna Tullia Mayer, and her trousseau had just arrived from Paris. talked-even fragments of his veyed in a private carriage to conversation - were given with annoying exactness. The statesman learned with infinite disgust that he had for some time past been subjected to a system of espionage at least as complete as any of his own invention; and, what was still more annoying to his vanity, the spy was the man of ail others whom he had most despised, calling him harmless and weak, because he cunningly affected weakness. Where or how Del Ferice procured so much information the Cardinal cared little enough, for he determined there and then that he should procure no more. That there were other traitors in the camp was more than likely, and that they had aided Del Ferice with their counsels; but though by prolonging the situation it might be possible to track them down, such delay would be valuable to enemies abroad. Moreover, if Del Ferice began to find out, as he soon must, that his private correspondence was being overhauled at the Vatican, he was not a man to hesitate about at tempting his escape; and he would certainly not be an easy man to catch, if he could once succeed in putting a few miles of Campagna between himself and Rome. There was no knowing what disguise he might not find in which to slip past the frontier; and indeed, as he afterwards proved, he was well prepared for such an emergency. The Cardinal did not hesitate. He had just received the fourth letter, and if he waited any longer Del Ferice would take alarm, and slip through his fingers. He wrote with his own hand a note to the chief of police, ordering the immediate arrest of Ugo dei Conti del Ferice, with instructions that he should be taken in his own house, without any publicity, and con It can hardly be said that the. Cardinal's conduct was unjustifiable, though many will say that Del Ferice's secret doings were easily defensible on the ground of his patriotism. Cardinal Antonelli had precisely defined the situation in his talk with Anastase Gouache by saying that the temporal power was driven to bay. To all appearances Europe was at peace, but as a matter of fact the peace was but an armed neutrality. An amount of interest was concentrated upon the situation of the Papal States which has rarely been excited by events of much greater apparent importance than the occupation of a small principality by foreign troops. All Europe was arming. In a few months Austria was to sustain one of the most sudden and overwhelming defeats recorded in military history. In a few years the greatest military power in the world was to be overtaken by an even more appalling disaster. And these events, then close at hand, |
