seat myself at the table, a
book before me, and feigning slumber, present the appearance of one who
had been overcome by weariness at his labours. But now all thought
of that was at an end. I had been seen, and that I fled was all too
apparent. So that in every way I was betrayed.

The thing I did, I did upon instinct rather than reason; and this again
was not well done. I slammed the door, and turned the key, placing
at least that poor barrier between myself and the man I had so deeply
wronged, the man whom I had given the right to slay me. A second later
the door shook as if a hurricane had smitten it. He had seized the
handle, and he was pulling at it frenziedly with a maniacal strength.

"Open!" he thundered, and fell to snarling and whimpering horribly.
"Open!"

Then, quite abruptly he became oddly calm. It was as if his rage grew
coldly purposeful; and the next words he uttered acted upon me as a
dagger-prod, and reawakened my mind from its momentary stupefaction.

"Do you think these poor laths can save you from my vengeance, my Lord
Gambara?" quoth he, with a chuckle horrible to hear.

My Lord Gambara! He mistook me for the Legate! In an instant I saw the
reason of this. It was as Giuliana had conceived. The boy had run to
warn him wherever he was--at Roncaglia, perhaps, a league away upon the
road to Parma. And the boy's news was that my Lord the Governor had
gone to Fifanti's house. The boy had never waited to see the Legate come
forth again; but had obeyed his instructions to the letter, and it was
Gambara whom Fifanti came to take red-handed and to kill as he had the
right to do.

When he had espied my flying shape, the length of the corridor had lain
between us, Fifanti was short-sighted, and since it was Gambara whom he
expected to find, Gambara at once he concluded it to be who fled before
him.

There was no villainy for which I was not ripe that night, it seemed.
For no sooner did I perceive this error than I set myself to scheme how
I might profit by it. Let Gambara by all means suffer in my place if
the thing could be contrived. If not in fact, at least in intent, the
Cardinal-legate had certainly sinned. If he was not in my place now,
it was through the too great good fortune that attended him. Besides,
Gambara would be in better case to protect himself from the consequences
and from Fifanti's anger.

Thus cravenly I reasoned; and reasoning thus, I reached the window. If
I could climb down t