ing--still less how
it had come about. It was said that Janus had died of malignant fever,
due to the terrible malaria of the coasts where he had been hunting. Yet
some hinted that there were natural poisons, as of the marshes, and
others--more fatal: but this was with bated breath and kept well without
the innermost circle of the court, for no one really _knew_. It was easy
to talk of poison, but far less easy to make assertions implicating
those who might be innocent; and, meanwhile, the complications
surrounding the throne of Cyprus demanded infinite wisdom and despatch.

Almost before the Queen could lift her head after the shock of her
husband's death, the nobles and barons of the realm had penetrated to
her private boudoir and sworn her fealty, with a tenderness and
reverence that deeply touched her. By the will which the King had left,
Caterina Veneta was now Queen of Cyprus, with a Council of Seven
appointed to assist her; and every Venetian who held a post in the
Government was restless until the young widow of Janus, who had been
crowned with all due ceremony in the Cathedral of Nikosia at the time of
her marriage, had publicly received the full seal of her authority.

So quickly death had fallen upon the brilliant, pleasure-loving young
monarch--so without warning--that it seemed to those of his court like
some dread nightmare from which they might presently awake to a new
morning, fair and gay as those they had known so little time ago, before
the music and the mirth, the jewels and the festal robes that befit a
court had given place to the gloom and mourning of these horrible days.
As in a dream they had taken part in the sumptuous funeral ceremonies,
feeling still that it could not be true--he was too young, too brave,
too gay, too gracious, to have come so soon to this! And if to some of
those young nobles it was rather the shock of the loss of a boon
companion than a serious grief, there were many among them who, for the
few bright words that cost him little--a smile--the grasp of his ready
hand--permission to come and shine about him--now brought their tribute
of adoring tears.

Meanwhile, in the halls of the palace, time moved with slow and halting
footsteps: the stricken Queen came rarely among her circle of ladies,
and only for short intervals, and the talk, however varied, was but upon
one absorbing theme.

It was known that soon after the funeral, the Queen seeking how she
might do highest hono