hen he sent him hither to regain his throne. The
Consigliere Fabrici went with others to the monks of Santa Soffia, and
if he told this matter there, so as he hath whispered it in the court of
Cyprus, it may well be that the _frati_ reasoned thus."

"Is it true, Madama, that an ambassador is already come from the Sultan
to acknowledge Caterina as Queen of Cyprus, and that there shall be some
gathering of the court to-night to receive his homage?"

"Aye; such a gathering as one may have in these sad days, my children."

"And Carlotta?" another asked eagerly--"Ecciva--tell them what thou hast
spoken of Carlotta."

"That she, in very person, hath sailed from Rhodes to meet the Admiral
of Venice on his fleet--to throw herself on his mercy, as _heir of
Cyprus_, to ask his help, to place her on the throne, _from the long
friendship between the islands_." She told it with a little note of
triumph, for it was strange news.

"Carlotta! To seek aid from Venice!--It cannot be true!"

"Aye; it is verily true," Madama de Thenouris said quietly--"as Ecciva
hath told it; for a report hath come from Messer Mocenigo, himself. But
that is like Carlotta, who leaveth no imagining of her brain untried.
She hath even the courage to urge her near connection with Venice
_through her brother Janus the King, by his marriage with Caterina
Veneta_!"

"She hath lost her reason, one would say: there can be no more to fear
from Carlotta!"

"No more to _hope_ from Carlotta," some one corrected in an undertone;
but the voice sounded unfamiliar in the group and when they looked to
see who might have spoken, there was no one to whom they could assign
it.

Eloisa Contarini turned to the young Dama Ecciva de Montferrat with her
impulsive question:

"Who was it, Ecciva?"

"Nay, I was about to ask--I also."

Dama Margherita turned and looked at her steadily; the girl gazed back
at her with narrowing eyelids, slightly shrugging her shoulders as she
finally dropped her eyes.

"But Carlotta?" one of the Venetian maids of honor questioned, impatient
for the tale: "she knew not of the will of his Majesty the King?"

"Nay; and she had hope of being first to carry news of his death to the
Admiral of Venice;--a most strange hope of any favor from such a
quarter!"

"The answer of the Mocenigo was a marvel of courtesy, as it hath been
reported, and worthy of a diplomat," Madama de Thenouris continued.
"Most graciously he assured the Princess that V