should be last to hear what is
already proclaimed throughout Famagosta," he said, "that Alfonso of
Naples hath been created Prince of Galilee and Heir to Cyprus."

She looked at him with a scorn that burned. "Is your Grace a _man_," she
said, "to use this speech? Or do I not hear aright--from the horror of
this night?"

Then she turned to Maestro Gentile, compassionate and protecting.

"It cannot be that any should seek thy life," she said. "Thou art my
friend:--I will shield thee here--_Madonna Sanctissima_! I cannot
think--let us pray that this horror pass!"

She put her hands over her eyes and sank upon her knees, and Maestro
Gentile knelt beside her.

There was a rush of footsteps, as of pursuers coming swiftly up the
secret passage by which the physician had entered the royal apartments;
in another second the hanging was torn aside and Rizzo, dark and
ferocious, panting like some savage with the madness of the deeds
already done--his eyes glaring upon his prey--with an oath at finding
them so engaged, thrust the young Queen violently away, and sprang at
the physician crying out in a voice of frenzy, as he dealt him two
desperate blows with his iron gauntleted fists.

"_E tu traditor!_"

It was the inglorious watchword--the signal of the brutal captain of
this unequal fight; and the mercenaries following his lead, fell upon
the old man and held him down while Rizzo stripped him of his sword,
which, despite his years, he might have wielded too deftly.

There was a second's reaction from the exhaustion of the rapid chase,
and while they drew breath, the physician who had been protected from
serious harm by the corslet worn under his long mantle, had watched his
opportunity, and with the agility of a hunted man, he started to his
feet and escaped into the corridor, running for his life, on and up to
the ramparts.

The Queen threw herself before the doorway, in agonized pleading for the
life of her friend. But the clinging hands and streaming tears, the
heroism of the girl facing all those frenzied men alone, were as nothing
to their wrath at the delay--and in a moment they had passed her in hot
pursuit.

She listened, every faculty tense to detach the sounds of this tragedy
from that other, jangling from without. She heard the footsteps of the
ruffians overtaking him; she heard their demoniacal cries, echoing
back;--his faint words--"_What have I done that ye seek my life_,"--but
the voice came no more--on