rsuade her to do anything we suggest, because both she and her husband
are under the greatest obligations to us, whereas the young man would
have to employ violence and make a great scandal. But here comes that
excellent Tommaso.'

'You are certainly a great man,' said Gambardella, looking at Trombin
with admiration.

It was clear from Tommaso's face that the intelligence he brought was
important, and as he stood hat in hand before his masters he looked up
and down the colonnade to see if there were any one in sight and near
enough to listen.

'The gentleman is Don Alberto Altieri,' he said, almost in a whisper.

Trombin at once puffed out his pink cheeks, pursed his lips, and
whistled very softly, for he was much surprised; but Gambardella seemed
quite unmoved, and merely nodded to Tommaso as if well satisfied with
the latter's service. Then the two strolled on again, and their
cut-throat servant followed them, just out of hearing of their
conversation, as before; for he was much too wise to try any common
trick of eavesdropping on a pair of men who would just as soon wring his
neck and throw him into a well as look at him. His highest ambition
really was to be promoted to help them in one of those outrageous deeds
that had made them the most famous Bravi of the whole century, who had
received pardons from popes and kings, from the Emperor Leopold, and
from the Venetian Republic itself, under which passports they travelled
and lived where they pleased, still untouched by the law.

'This is a delicate business,' observed Gambardella, for both had heard
the gossip about Don Alberto and Queen Christina.

'It will be the more amusing,' answered Trombin. 'When I reflect upon
the primitive simplicity of the business we undertook for Pignaver, and
compare it with the plan we have now conceived and shall certainly
execute in a few days, I cannot but congratulate myself on the fertility
of my imagination, or, as I might say, upon the resemblance between my
mind and that of the novelist Boccaccio. But I feel the superiority of
my lot over his in the fact that I am generally the chief actor in my
own stories.'

'The Queen will be useful,' said Gambardella.

'Bless her for an admirably amusing woman!' cried Trombin fervently.
'She has the mane of the lion and the heart of the hare!'

'The mane happens to be a wig, my friend,' sneered the other.

'In more senses than one,' retorted Trombin, 'but the hare's heart is
genu