zzo walked up and down his room several times like a
lion in a cage, counting the minutes in a fever of impatience, and was
on the point of summoning a servant and renewing his commands, when two
dull raps on the door informed him that the person he was waiting for
had arrived. He opened at once, and a man of about fifty, dressed in
black from head to foot, entered, humbly bowing, and carefully shut the
door behind him. Charles threw himself into an easy-chair, and gazing
fixedly at the man who stood before him, his eyes on the ground and his
arms crossed upon his breast in an attitude of the deepest respect and
blind obedience, he said slowly, as though weighing each word--

"Master Nicholas of Melazzo, have you any remembrance left of the
services I once rendered you?"

The man to whom these words were addressed trembled in every limb, as if
he heard the voice of Satan come to claim his soul; then lifting a look
of terror to his questioner's face, he asked in a voice of gloom--

"What have I done, my lord, to deserve this reproach?"

"It is not a reproach: I ask a simple question."

"Can my lord doubt for a moment of my eternal gratitude? Can I forget
the favours your Excellency showed me? Even if I could so lose my reason
and my memory, are not my wife and son ever here to remind me that to
you we owe all our life, our honour, and our fortune? I was guilty of an
infamous act," said the notary, lowering his voice, "a crime that would
not only have brought upon my head the penalty of death, but which meant
the confiscation of my goods, the ruin of my family, poverty and shame
for my only son--that very son, sire, for whom I, miserable wretch, had
wished to ensure a brilliant future by means of my frightful crime: you
had in your hands the proofs of this!

"I have them still."

"And you will not ruin me, my lord," resumed the notary, trembling; "I
am at your feet, your Excellency; take my life and I will die in torment
without a murmur, but save my son since you have been so merciful as to
spare him till now; have pity on his mother; my lord, have pity!"

"Be assured," said Charles, signing to him to rise; "it is nothing to do
with your life; that will come later, perhaps. What I wish to ask of you
now is a much simpler, easier matter."

"My lord, I await your command."

"First," said the duke, in a voice of playful irony, "you must draw up a
formal contract of my marriage."

"At once, your Excellency."

"