s right to command them, that the men sprang instantly to obey him.

"What would you do, my lord?" quoth the officer, and he seemed daunted.

"Buffoon," said Gambara between his teeth. "You shall see."

Six men came hurrying from the gatehouse, and the Cardinal called to
them.

"Let the corporal stand forth," he said.

A man advanced a pace from the rank they had hastily formed and saluted.

"Place me your officer under arrest," said the Legate coldly, advancing
no reason for the order. "Let him be locked in the gatehouse until my
return; and do you, sir corporal, take command here meanwhile."

The startled fellow saluted again, and advanced upon his officer. The
lieutenant looked up with sudden uneasiness in his eyes. He had gone too
far. He had not reckoned upon being dealt with in this summary fashion.
He had been bold so long as he conceived himself no more than Cosimo's
mouthpiece, obeying orders for the issuing of which Cosimo must answer.
Instead, it seemed, the Governor intended that he should answer for them
himself. Whatever he now dared, he knew--as Gambara knew--that his men
would never dare to disobey the Governor, who was the supreme authority
there under the Pope.

"My lord," he exclaimed, "I had my orders from the Captain of Justice."

"And dare you to say that your orders included my messengers and my own
self?" thundered the dainty prelate.

"Explicitly, my lord," answered the lieutenant.

"It shall be dealt with on my return, and if what you say is proved
true, the Captain of Justice shall suffer with yourself for this
treason--for that is the offence. Take him away, and someone open me
that gate."

There was an end to disobedience, and a moment or two later we stood
outside the town, on the bank of the river, which gurgled and flowed
away smoothly and mistily in the growing light, between the rows of
stalwart poplars that stood like sentinels to guard it.

"And now begone," said Gambara curtly to me, and wheeling my mule I rode
for the bridge of boats, crossed it, and set myself to breast the slopes
beyond.

Midway up I checked and looked back across the wide water. The light had
grown quite strong by now, and in the east there was a faint pink flush
to herald the approaching sun. Away beyond the river, moving southward,
I could just make out the Legate's little cavalcade. And then, for the
first time, a question leapt in my mind concerning the litter whose
leathern curtains had remai