et----"

"I have come to look at him," Montanelli said. Even at the moment
it struck the Governor that his voice and bearing were those of a
sleep-walker.

"Oh, my God!" one of the soldiers cried out suddenly; and the Governor
glanced hastily back. Surely------

The blood-stained heap on the grass had once more begun to struggle and
moan. The doctor flung himself down and lifted the head upon his knee.

"Make haste!" he cried in desperation. "You savages, make haste! Get it
over, for God's sake! There's no bearing this!"

Great jets of blood poured over his hands, and the convulsions of the
figure that he held in his arms shook him, too, from head to foot. As he
looked frantically round for help, the priest bent over his shoulder and
put a crucifix to the lips of the dying man.

"In the name of the Father and of the Son----"

The Gadfly raised himself against the doctor's knee, and, with wide-open
eyes, looked straight upon the crucifix.

Slowly, amid hushed and frozen stillness, he lifted the broken right
hand and pushed away the image. There was a red smear across its face.

"Padre--is your--God--satisfied?"

His head fell back on the doctor's arm.

*****

"Your Eminence!"

As the Cardinal did not awake from his stupor, Colonel Ferrari repeated,
louder:

"Your Eminence!"

Montanelli looked up.

"He is dead."

"Quite dead, your Eminence. Will you not come away? This is a horrible
sight."

"He is dead," Montanelli repeated, and looked down again at the face. "I
touched him; and he is dead."

"What does he expect a man to be with half a dozen bullets in him?" the
lieutenant whispered contemptuously; and the doctor whispered back. "I
think the sight of the blood has upset him."

The Governor put his hand firmly on Montanelli's arm.

"Your Eminence--you had better not look at him any longer. Will you
allow the chaplain to escort you home?"

"Yes--I will go."

He turned slowly from the blood-stained spot and walked away, the priest
and sergeant following. At the gate he paused and looked back, with a
ghostlike, still surprise.

"He is dead."

*****

A few hours later Marcone went up to a cottage on the hillside to tell
Martini that there was no longer any need for him to throw away his
life.

All the preparations for a second attempt at rescue were ready, as the
plot was much more simple than the former one. It had been arranged that
on the following morning, as the Corpus Domi