_ no more."

"To whose service, Phoebus?" inquired Eubulides.

"To the service of Humanity, my son," responded Apollo.

DUKE VIRGIL

I

The citizens of Mantua were weary of revolutions. They had acknowledged the
suzerainty of the Emperor Frederick and shaken it off. They had had a
Podesta of their own and had shaken him off. They had expelled a Papal
Legate, incurring excommunication thereby. They had tried dictators,
consuls, praetors, councils of ten, and other numbers odd and even, and ere
the middle of the thirteenth century were luxuriating in the enjoyment of
perfect anarchy.

An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were forbidden
to propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything new.

"Why not consult Manto, the alchemist's daughter, our prophetess, our
Sibyl?" the young Benedetto asked at last.

"Why not?" repeated Eustachio, an elderly man.

"Why not, indeed?" interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years.

All the speakers were noble. Benedetto was Manto's lover; Eustachio her
father's friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the
three were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before
proceeding formally on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain
private interviews, the two elder with Manto's father, the youth with Manto
herself. The creditor promised that if he became Duke by the alchemist's
influence with his daughter he would forgive the debt; the friend went
further, and vowed that he would pay it. The old man promised his good word
to both, but when he went to confer with his daughter he found her closeted
with Benedetto, and returned without disburdening himself of his errand.
The youth had just risen from his knees, pleading with her, and drawing
glowing pictures of their felicity when he should be Duke and she Duchess.

She answered, "Benedetto, in all Mantua there is not one man fit to rule
another. To name any living person would be to set a tyrant over my native
city. I will repair to the shades and seek a ruler among the dead."

"And why should not Mantua have a tyrant?" demanded Benedetto. "The freedom
of the mechanic is the bondage of the noble, who values no liberty save
that of making the base-born do his bidding. 'Tis hell to a man of spirit
to be contradicted by his tailor. If I could see my heart's desire on the
knaves, little would I reck submitting to the sway of the Emperor."

"I know that well,