the night!"

"Her heart is broken with grief, and she thought not to be seen, poor
lady."

Two nobles were wending their way with difficulty across the Piazza,
they lingered a moment, arrested by the words of the prayer.

"This night may make the difference between anarchy and peace for
Cyprus," one of them said to his companion, as they resumed their
struggle.

"Aye--Cyprus for the Cypriotes,--instead of Genoa, or Venice, or
Naples."

"Or Queen Carlotta?"

"_Maledetto!--Who spoke?_"

But the challenge was unanswered. The noble who had dared to name aloud
the daughter of their last Queen--the sister of their late King--had
been lost in the darkness before the trusty guard, _sent from Venice_,
could make sure of him.

"The fellow should be thrust through for his insolence. A Cyprian master
is good enough for Cyprus," they confided to each other, as they made
pause again, emerging from the crowd at the other end of the piazza,
before the gate of the fortress.

"What matters it?" his comrade answered him nonchalantly, "for canst
thou tell me the color of a Cypriote now? and his native tongue may be
liker that of Spain or Venice than of France or Greece. My Lord of
Piscopia hath the color of Venice."

"But of the very household of our Queen:--speak soft! Our
Queen?--Perchance this night may be her undoing--how runs King Giacomo's
will? Yea, for the matter of the fiefs, she hath been royal with her
gifts--a matter not so lordly when confiscation cometh thus easily."

"But she hath a royal way with her, as of one born to the throne, and
for that matter it were not strange for one of the house of
Cornelii--they held their heads proudly enough in Venice, I am told; and
her mother was of the blood of a Comnenus--more royal than a Lusignan,
if not so well tempered."

"Aye; she is well enough."

"And she hath a grace that hath verily won the people; never was there
such a crowd in the time of any other Queen. See how they throng before
her gates to-night--poor simple souls--conquered by a smile that
costeth naught."

"Nay; it is not strange; for the people entered little into the thought
of Queen Carlotta, or Queen Elena. There is no harm in her; she is a
good child, and beautiful enough to be a saint; with too little
understanding of the ways of our court: too great a saint for Janus--by
every blessed saint of Cyprus! But I had rather she had more earthliness
and wile than be the pawn of Venice. A Cyprian for