eyes again, mysteriously.

"I knew him," she said, "when he was talking with his sister, and I
heard her promise him to bring him into the private audience chamber of
the Queen."

"And thou, also, wert there?"

"Am I the Margherita to be shown such favor? Nay, but I have an
audience-chamber of my own from the window of my turret when there is no
light within: and all that day I knew by the face of Alicia that there
was some intrigue--which I was not one to miss through heedlessness!
Alicia was watching for him that night; and I knew his face when I saw
them together on the terrace. And with them was another man--wrapped in
a cloak--the feather of his hat drooping low over his face.--And his
face--I never turned my eyes away from him and I saw it for a moment
when the wind swept his feather aside--his face was the face
of--_Rizzo!_" she whispered the name.

"Nay, nay, Ecciva--not he! It could not be _he_!"

"Nay, my trusting children; believe your betters, if you will! As for
me--I trust these eyes, rather than the uncertain speech of those who
teach us what we _may_ believe. These eyes are good eyes! They have not
failed me yet!"

She laughed lightly, satisfied with the impression her tale had made, as
she turned away indifferently; but they were eager for the rest.

"There is more, Ecciva!--that which cometh after?--_subito_--for the
Lady of the Bernardini might return!" They were all clamoring about her.
"And Alicia verily brought him to the Queen's audience-chamber?"

"Nay--bide my time, chatterers, if you would hear the tale--for it hath
a sequel--we do not often get one good enough to be spoiled by a too
hasty telling.--Rizzo, for it was verily he--can any one forget
Rizzo!--he turned from them and began to climb the mountain, there,
where the signal fire glowed later. And Tristan, the handsome knight,
came into the palace with his sister; and after them come following the
holy sister Violante--she who came hither from Rhodes some days before."

"Go on!" they cried eagerly, crowding closer. She waved them away from
her.

"There is no more," she answered provokingly--"save that which we all
know; _the signal-fire_, and the _galley floating below by the coast,
half hidden by the great rock_--for that also I saw from my
turret--thanks be to the Madonna for lifting the mortal dulness! And I
left sleep for better things that night; for it was well-nigh the hour
of matins when the galley set sail for Venice.