awyer answered him:

"We have Piedmont allied with France and England! To-day war with
Russia, to-morrow with Austria! Are you satisfied?"

With a sob Franco sprang to embrace his friends.

The three stood clinging to one another in silence, pressing close in
the intoxication of the magic word: War! Franco forgot that he still
held the bottle. Luisa took it from him. Then he tore himself
impetuously from the other two, rushed between them, and seizing each
round the waist, dragged them into the hall like an avalanche,
repeating: "Tell all, tell all, tell all!"

There, when they had prudently closed the glass door leading to the
terrace, the lawyer and Pedraglio disclosed their precious secret. An
English lady, spending her holiday at Bellagio, who was a devoted friend
of Italy, had received a letter (of which the lawyer possessed a
translation) from another lady, a cousin of Sir James Hudson, English
Minister at Turin. The letter stated that secret negotiations were being
carried on in Turin, Paris, and London, to obtain the armed co-operation
of Piedmont in the Orient; that the matter was looked upon as settled by
the three cabinets, but that there still remained a few formal
difficulties to arrange, as Count Cavour demanded the greatest
consideration for the dignity of his country. At Turin they were
confident the official and open invitation from the Western powers to
accede to the treaty of the tenth of April, 1851, would come to hand not
later than December. It was even affirmed that the troops forming the
contingent would be under the command of the Duke of Genoa.

The lawyer read, and Franco held his wife's hand tight. Then he wanted
to read the letter himself, and after him Luisa read. "But," said she,
"war with Austria? How is that?"

"Most certainly," said the lawyer. "Do you suppose Cavour is going to
send the Duke of Genoa with fifteen or twenty thousand men to fight the
Turks unless he already holds the war with Austria in his hand? You may
believe me, Madam, it will come about before a year is passed."

Franco shook his fists in the air, his whole body quivering.

"Hurrah for Cavour!" whispered Luisa.

"Ah!" the lawyer exclaimed, "Demosthenes himself could not have praised
Cavour with greater efficacy."

Franco's eyes were filling with tears. "I am a fool!" he said. "I don't
know what to say!"

Pedraglio asked Luisa where the deuce she had hidden the bottle. Luisa
smiled and went out, returnin