een arranged. They knew that the Neapolitan galley
would be in port that night to support the uprising and the proclamation
that should be made, if fortune favored. They knew of Ferdinand's
untiring machinations to win a hold upon this much contested Crown of
Cyprus; and none knew better how from the moment that the coveted
alliance between Janus and a Princess of Naples had been frustrated by
the Venetian marriage, Ferdinand had not ceased from intrigues to that
end, secretly and zealously supported by certain men who were holding
important positions of trust in the Government of Cyprus.

Andrea Cornaro, by whose means his niece had come to her throne, would
be the most formidable individual opponent in any scheme for the benefit
of Naples, and it became important to remove him; yet it could not be
done without some apparent excuse--because of his relationship to the
Queen, and because unless success were complete, they might have cause
to dread the strong galleys of Venice. So the wily Primate--keeping
perhaps his own counsel as to the fabricator of the plot--invented a
scheme which he asserted that the unconscious Cornaro intended to carry
into effect that night by which, _when the great bell of the Castle
should sound the call to arms, the Venetians in Famagosta, under
Visconti and his band of Italian soldiers were to rise up and murder
every Cyprian member of the Council of the Realm_. "Therefore let every
man be armed and ready for the defense of Cyprus when the call shall be
heard. And spare not the traitors!" he urged upon the Commander of the
fortress.

"And if Visconti's men could be under restraint this night," the
Archbishop suggested casually, "and if that Chamberlain of the Queen's
could be under trusty guard within the palace--not to make suggestions
in a matter more to your understanding than mine, your Excellency--but I
know the man--a troublesome one and proud and silent--my brother liketh
him little. After the Cornaro he is most to fear."

Thus Aluisi Bernardini found himself with his mother, close prisoner in
the Royal palace, on the night when his Queen most sorely needed the
help he would have perilled his life to give.

* * * * *

The Queen had been restless and could not sleep, being greatly troubled
by a missive which the Archbishop had that morning delivered into her
hands and which contained a reprimand of no gentle nature, purporting to
come from His Holine