ut they could not disregard the general drift of
public opinion, which said clearly: "Mantua is trying a great experiment.
Woe to you if you bring it to nought by your selfish quarrels!"

The best proof that there was something in Manto's idea was that after a
while the Emperor Frederick took alarm, and signified to the Mantuans that
they must cease their mumming and fooling and acknowledge him as their
sovereign, failing which he would besiege their city.

II

Mantua was girt by a zone of fire and steel. Her villas and homesteads
flamed or smoked; her orchards flared heavenward in a torrent of sparks or
stood black sapless trunks charred to their inmost pith; the promise of her
harvests lay as grey ashes over the land. But her ramparts, though breached
in places, were yet manned by her sons, and their assailants recoiled
pierced by the shafts or stunned by the catapults of the defence. Kaiser
Frederick sat in his tent, giving secret audience to one who had stolen in
disguise over from the city in the grey of the morning. By the Emperor's
side stood a tall martial figure, wearing a visor which he never removed.

"Your Majesty," Leonardo was saying, for it was he, "this madness will soon
pass away. The people will weary of sacrificing themselves for a dead
heathen."

"And Liberty?" asked the Emperor, "is not that a name dear to those
misguided creatures?"

"So dear, please your Majesty, that if they have but the name they will
perfectly dispense with the thing. I do not advise that your imperial yoke
should be too palpably adjusted to their stiff necks. Leave them in
appearance the choice of their magistrate, but insure its falling upon one
of approved fidelity, certain to execute obsequiously all your Majesty's
mandates; such an one, in short, as your faithful vassal Leonardo. It would
only be necessary to decapitate that dangerous revolutionist, Eustachio."

"And the citizens are really ready for this?"

"All the respectable citizens. All of whom your Majesty need take account.
All men of standing and substance."

"I rejoice to hear it," said the Emperor, "and do the more readily credit
thee inasmuch as a most virtuous and honourable citizen hath already been
beforehand with thee, assuring me of the same thing, and affirming that but
one traitor, whose name, methinks, sounded like thine, stands between me
and the subjugation of Mantua."

And, withdrawing a curtain, he disclosed the figure of Eustachio.