ly sounds of struggle, growing dimmer, as
they dragged him farther away upon the ramparts--then silence--and the
misery of it burning in her brain.

She staggered back against the doorway where she stood.

Then suddenly, came a flash of agonized revelation--the consciousness
that this was but one link in the dark scheme of revolt, and with it
came the acute revival of all her powers--the sharpening of every
faculty of heart and brain.

"My Boy!" she cried--her voice thrilled through the castle--"_Madonna
Dolorosa_--_My Child!_" and with the fleetness of a deer she turned and
sped with flying feet, down the corridor to the chamber of the little
Prince.

So lithe--so brave--so beautiful--so tortured--so resolute--she was a
thing to curb and hold! Alvigi Fabrici, the tool of Ferdinand, would
have liked to follow her and see the panting vision of her face, when
she reached the cradle of her child--_and found him gone_.

But there was already silence in the corridor: no faintest echo of
flying feet--no vaguest rustle of fluttering robes--a moment had
sufficed for the mother's startled quest.

XXI

It was dawn after that night of tragedy.

From sheer exhaustion of passion the turmoil in the streets had
subsided; the cries of indignant protest had ceased and the populace
accepted their fate in sullen acquiescence, knowing themselves not
strong enough to contest without aid those intriguing Councillors of the
Realm who were entrenched behind the impregnable fortress of Famagosta
where they held close captive the Sovereign they had sworn to defend and
obey.

The Piazza was deserted: the malcontents who had gathered to mutter at
the horror of the moat where the victims of the night had been tossed
unburied, had been dispersed by threat of arms; the sentinels nodded at
their posts--scarce knowing whose power they were upholding, nor by what
name men called their masters. Here and there throughout the city, a
little knot of the graver burghers might be found lingering to discuss
the situation in attitudes of helpless dejection, and scattering with
their problems all unsolved. They were too insignificant to dread, and
for the moment the triumphant conspirators were content to leave the
city without further imposition or molestation to such rest as a
merciful nature might vouchsafe.

They were content to yield this lull in the storm, because it gave them
needful quiet in which to mature fresh intrigues, to insure