to come here and deny it?"

"I did not come here; I was brought. I do not deny that you know me,
though I haven't the pleasure of knowing you. But I do deny that I
am the associate of conspirators."

"Are you not the American whom _La Cica_ so particularly distinguished
with her favor?"

"I have reason to believe that she was partial to me--somewhat."

"He confesses!" said the General. "You came from her to this place,
communicating on the way with her emissaries."

"I communicated on the way with none but brigands among the mountains.
If they were her emissaries I wish her joy of them. My means of
communication," said the Senator, while a grim smile passed over his
face, "was an iron crow-bar, and my remarks left some deep impression
on them, I do believe."

"Tell me now--and tell me truly," said the General after a pause,
in which he seemed trying to make out whether the Senator was joking
or not. "To whom are you sent in this city?"

"To no one."

"Sir! I warn you that I will not be trifled with."

"I tell you," said the Senator, with no apparent excitement, "I tell
you that I have come here to no one. What more can I say?"

"You must confess."

"I have nothing to confess."

"Sir! you have much to confess," cried the General, angrily, "and I
swear to you I will wring it out of you. Beware how you trifle with
my patience. If you wish to regain your liberty confess at once,
and you may escape your just punishment. But if you refuse, then,
by the immortal gods, I'll shut you up in a dungeon for ten years!"

"You will do no such thing."

"What!" roared the General. "Won't I?"

"You will not. On the contrary, you will have to make apologies for
these insults."

"I!--Apologies! Insults!"

The General gnawed his mustache, and his eyes blazed in fury.

"You have arrested us on a false charge, based on some slanderous
or stupid information of some of your infernal spies," said the
Senator. "What right have you to pry into the private affairs of
an American traveller? We have nothing to do with you."

"You are associated with conspirators. You are charged with
treasonable correspondence with rebels. You countenanced revolution
in Florence. You openly took part with Republicans. You are a
notorious friend of _La Cica_. And you came here with the intention
of fomenting treason in Venice!"

"Whoever told you that," replied the Senator, "told infernal lies--most
infernal lies. I am no emissary of any pa