chattering teeth belied his words. Andrea filled the house
with his cries.

"O, miserable day! O, calamity of calamities! Gerard, my friend, my
sweet patron! Help! help! He is killing himself! Oh, good people, help
me save him!" And after alarming all the house he ran into the street,
bareheaded, imploring all good Christians to help him save his friend.

A number of persons soon collected.

But poor Andrea could not animate their sluggishness. Go down to the
river? No. It was not their business. What part of the river? It was a
wild goose chase.

It was not lucky to go down to the river after sunset. Too many ghosts
walked those banks all night.

A lackey, however, who had been standing some time opposite the house,
said he would go with Andrea; and this turned three or four of the
younger ones.

The little band took the way to the river.

The lackey questioned Andrea.

Andrea, sobbing, told him about the letter, and Gerard's moody ways of
late.

That lackey was a spy of the Princess Claelia.

Their Italian tongues went fast till they neared the Tiber.

But the moment they felt the air from the river, and the smell of the
stream in the calm spring night, they were dead silent.

The moon shone calm and clear in a cloudless sky. Their feet sounded
loud and ominous. Their tongues were hushed.

Presently hurrying round a corner they met a man. He stopped irresolute
at sight of them.

The man was bareheaded, and his dripping hair glistened in the
moonlight; and at the next step they saw his clothes were drenched with
water.

"Here he is," cried one of the young men, unacquainted with Gerard's
face and figure.

The stranger turned instantly and fled.

They ran after him might and main, Andrea leading, and the princess's
lackey next.

Andrea gained on him; but in a moment he twisted up a narrow alley.
Andrea shot by, unable to check himself; and the pursuers soon found
themselves in a labyrinth in which it was vain to pursue a quickfooted
fugitive who knew every inch of it, and could now only be followed by
the ear.

They returned to their companions, and found them standing on the spot
where the man had stood, and utterly confounded. For Pietro had assured
them that the fugitive had neither the features nor the stature of
Gerard.

"Are ye verily sure?" said they. "He had been in the river. Why, in the
saints' names, fled he at our approach?"

Then said Vanucci, "Friends, methinks this has nough