. Maitland glanced hurriedly
over it, and muttered: "London gossip, Craddock's divorce case, the
partridge-shooting,--ah, here it is! 'I suppose you are right about the
expedition, but say nothing of it in the despatches. We shall be called
on one of these days for a blue-book, and very blue we should look, if
it were seen that amidst our wise counsels to Caraffa we were secretly
aware of what G. was preparing.'"

"It must be 'C. was preparing,'" broke in Caraffa; "it means Cavour."

"No; he speaks of Garibaldi," said Maitland.

"Garibaldi!" cried Caraffa, laughing. "And are there still _gobemouches_
in England who believe in the Filibuster?"

"I believe in him, for one," said Maitland, fiercely, for the phrase
irritated him; "and I say, too, that such a Filibuster on our side would
be worth thirty thousand of those great hulking grenadiers you passed in
review this morning."

"Don't tell the King so when you wait on him to-morrow, that's all!"
said the Minister, with a sneering smile.

"Read on," broke in Caffarelli, who was not at all sure what the
discussion might lead to.

"Perhaps, too, you would class Count Cavour amongst these
_gobemouches_," said Maitland, angrily; "for he is also a believer in
Garibaldi."

"We can resume this conversation at Caserta to-morrow before his
Majesty," said Caraffa, with the same mocking smile; "pray, now, let me
hear the remainder of that despatch."

"'It is not easy to say,'" read he aloud from the letter, "'what France
intends or wishes. C. says--'"

"Who is C.?" asked Caraffa, hastily.

"C. means Cowley, probably,--'that the Emperor would not willingly see
Piedmontese troops at Naples; nor is he prepared to witness a new map of
the Peninsula. We, of course, will do nothing either way--'"

"Read that again," broke in Caraffa.

"'We, of course, will do nothing either way; but that resolve is not to
prevent your tendering counsel with a high hand, all the more since the
events which the next few months will develop will all of them seem
of our provoking, and part and parcel of a matured and long meditated
policy.'"

"_Bentssimo!_" cried the minister, rubbing his hands in delight. "If we
reform, it is the Whigs have reformed us. If we fall, it is the Whigs
have crushed us."

"'Caraffa, we are told,'" continued Maitland, "'sees the danger, but is
outvoted by the Queen-Dowager's party in the Cabinet,--not to say that,
from his great intimacy with Pietri, many think