til you decide on a suitor for her hand."

"Nevertheless, I would rather that it had not been so. Claudia is not
given to change, and this may last long enough to cause trouble when I
bring forward the suitor you speak of."

"Well, in any case it might be worse," Caretto said philosophically.
And then, with a smile in answer to her look of inquiry, "Knights of the
Order have, ere now, obtained release from their vows."

"Fabricius!" the countess exclaimed, in a shocked voice.

"Yes, I know, Agatha, that the child is one of the richest heiresses
in Italy, but for that very reason it needs not that her husband should
have wide possessions. In all other respects you could wish for no
better. He will assuredly be a famous knight; he is the sort of man to
make her perfectly happy; and, lastly, you know I cannot forget that I
owe my liberation from slavery to him. At any rate, Agatha, as I said
before, he may never cross her path again, and you may, a year or two
hence, find her perfectly amenable to your wishes."

CHAPTER XVII CAPTURED

Upon the following day the doge requested Gervaise to accompany him to
a meeting of the council. Upon entering the grand hall he found not only
the members of the council assembled in their robes of office, but a
large gathering of the nobles and principal citizens of Genoa, together
with the knights of the galley whom, under Ralph Harcourt's orders,
Gervaise found, to his surprise, drawn up in order across the Hall.
Here, in the name of the Republic, Battista Fragoso announced to him
that, by the unanimous decision of the council, he had been elected
a noble of Genoa; an honour, he added, on only one or two previous
occasions in the history of the Republic bestowed upon any but of
princely rank, but which he had nobly earned by the great service he
had rendered to the State. His name was then inscribed in the book
containing the names and titles of the nobles of Genoa. Next, Battista
Fragoso presented him with a superb suit of Milanese armour, as his own
personal gift, and then with a casket of very valuable jewels, as the
gift of the city of Genoa. Each presentation was accompanied by the
plaudits of the assembly, and by the no less warm acclamations of the
knights. Ralph was then called forward, and presented with a suit of
armour but little inferior to that given to Gervaise, and each knight
received a heavy gold chain of the finest workmanship of Genoa.

Two days later the p