t length the inquisitor waved a huge hand doorwards. "Ite!" he said,
and added, whilst his raised hand seemed to perform a benedictory
gesture--"Pax Domini sit tecum."

"Et cum spiritu tuo," I replied mechanically, as, turning, I stumbled
out of that dread place in the wake of the messenger who had brought the
bull, and who went ahead to guide me.

CHAPTER IX. THE RETURN

Above in the blessed sunlight, which hurt my eyes--for I had not seen
it for a full week--I found Galeotto awaiting me in a bare room; and
scarcely was I aware of his presence than his great arms went round me
and enclasped me so fervently that his corselet almost hurt my breast,
and brought back as in a flash a poignant memory of another man fully as
tall, who had held me to him one night many years ago, and whose armour,
too, had hurt me in that embrace.

Then he held me at arms' length and considered me, and his steely eyes
were blurred and moist. He muttered something to the familiar, linked
his arm through mine and drew me away, down passages, through doors, and
so at last into the busy Roman street.

We went in silence by ways that were well known to him but in which
I should assuredly have lost myself, and so we came at last to a fair
tavern--the Osteria del Sole--near the Tower of Nona.

His horse was stalled here, and a servant led the way above-stairs to
the room that he had hired.

How wrong had I not been, I reflected, to announce before the
Inquisition that I should have no regrets in leaving this world. How
ungrateful was that speech, considering this faithful one who loved me
for my father's sake! And was there not Bianca, who, surely--if her last
cry, wrung from her by anguish, contained the truth--must love me for my
own?

How sweet the revulsion that now came upon me as I sank into a chair
by the window, and gave myself up to the enjoyment of that truly happy
moment in which the grey shadow of death had been lifted from me.

Servants bustled in, to spread the board with the choice meats that
Galeotto had ordered, and great baskets of luscious fruits and flagons
of red Puglia wine; and soon we seated ourselves to the feast.

But ere I began to eat, I asked Galeotto how this miracle had been
wrought; what magic powers he wielded that even the Holy Office must
open its doors at his bidding. With a glance at the servants who
attended us, he bade me eat, saying that we should talk anon. And as
my reaction had brought a