rable. The cries and complaints
which we hear on all sides, are heartrending."

"Yes, our countrymen know very well how to complain. However, I readily
acknowledge that their murmurs are well-grounded; but this new
insurrection will be entirely to the Emperor's advantage; he will find
in it an excuse to weigh us down with new extortions. So, my dear
Rapallo, listen to an old man's advice: have nothing to do with the
league, and do not compromise yourself in a rebellion which will have
no better success than all those which have preceded it."

Heribert changed the subject, and soon after took leave of his host.

"I should have wished to speak to you," said Guido, "upon another
business, which probably would not have seemed disagreeable; but as you
appear in a hurry, we will reserve it for your next visit."

_CHAPTER L_.

_THE CONSPIRATORS_.

The young nobleman galloped rapidly through the narrow valley of
Castellamare, and more than once turned in his saddle and gazed
earnestly upon the ancient walls of the lofty castle.

"What could he have meant?" he asked himself, "The good old man
probably wishes to give me a suit of that costly armor which I have so
often admired. If he do so, I will send him the best horse in my
stables." In his excessive modesty, he had not suspected the old man's
intentions, for he had never allowed such a hope to dwell in his
imagination for a moment.

After a long ride, he entered a ravine, shut in on every side by lofty
mountains. The heights were covered with trees, but below, all was
barren and desolate. A few fruit-trees stood here and there as vestiges
of former cultivation, and some stakes, almost decayed by time, rose
from among the thistles and rank grass. In the lower part were the
ruins of an ancient monastery, of which the four walls and the tower
alone remained, and although of comparatively recent date, the stones
were covered with parasitic plants. Heribert fastened his steed to a
fragment of the wall, near which stood a number of other horses, all
saddled, but browsing upon the abundant herbage.

He then proceeded to the church, where the profound silence would
scarcely have allowed him to suppose, that he was in the immediate
vicinity of hundreds of men all breathlessly awaiting an orator of a
kind widely different from those who had formerly spoken there.

A rostrum of moss-covered stones had been erecte