uffer him to go his road
without surveillance?" whispered Maitland.

"_Si, signor!_" interposed Giacomo, whose quick Italian ear had caught
the question. "I won't say that they'll not telegraph down the whole
line, and that at every station a due report will not be made of me; but
I am prepared for that, and I take good care not even to ask a light for
my cigar from any one who does not wear a French uniform."

"If I had authority here, Master Giacomo," said Maitland, "it's not you,
nor fellows like you, I 'd set at liberty."

"And the noble signor would make a great mistake, that's all."

"Why so?"

"It would be like destroying the telegraph wires because one received an
unpleasant despatch," said Giacomo, with a grin.

"The fellow avows, then, that he is a spy, and betrays his fellows,"
whispered Maitland.

"I 'd be very sorry to tell him so, or hear you tell him so," whispered
the Count, with a laugh.

"Well, Giacomo," added he, aloud, "I 'll not detain you longer. We shall
probably be on t' other side of the Alps ourselves in a few days, and
shall meet again. A pleasant journey and a safe one to you!" He adroitly
slipped some napoleons into the man's hand as he spoke. "_Tanti saluti_
to all our friends, Giacomo," said he, waving his hand in adieu; and
Giacomo seized it and kissed it twice with an almost rapturous devotion,
and withdrew.

"Well," cried Maitland, with an irritable vibration in his tone, "this
is clear and clean beyond me. What can you or I have in common with
a fellow of this stamp; or supposing that we could have anything, how
should we trust him?"

"Do you imagine that the nobles will ever sustain the monarchy, my dear
Maitland; or in what country have you ever found that the highest in
class were freest of their blood? It is Giacomo, and the men like him,
who defend kings to-day that they may menace them to-morrow. These
fellows know well that with what is called a constitutional government
and a parliament the king's life signifies next to nothing, and their
own trade is worthless. They might as well shoot a President of the
Court of Cassation! Besides, if we do not treat with these men, the
others will. Take my word for it, our king is wiser than either of us,
and he never despised the Caraorra. But I know what you 're afraid of,
Maitland," said he, laughing,--"what you and all your countrymen tremble
before,--that precious thing you call public opinion, and your 'Times'
newspaper! T