ense of their hardihood. Some, unquestionably, took a different
view of the agencies and the objects; dreamy, speculative men, with high
aspirations, hoped that the cruel wrongs which tyranny inflicted on many
a European state might be effectually curbed by a glorious freedom,
when each man's actions should be made comformable to the benefit of the
community, and the will of all be typified in the conduct of each.
There was, however, another class, and to these Stubber had given deep
attention. It was a party whose singular activity and energy were always
in the ascendant,--ever suggesting bold measures whose results could
scarcely be more than menaces, and advocating actions whose greatest
effect could not rise above acts of terror and dismay. And thus while
the leaders plotted great political convulsions, and the masses dreamed
of sack and pillage, these latter dealt in acts of assassination,--the
vengeance of the poniard and the poison-cup. These were the men Stubber
had studied with no common attention. He fancied he saw in them neither
the dupes of their own excited imaginations, nor the reckless followers
of rapine, but an order of men equal to the former by intelligence,
but far transcending the last in crime and infamy. In his own early
experiences he had perceived that more than one of these had expatriated
themselves suddenly, carrying away to foreign shores considerable
wealth, and, that, too, under circumstances where the acquisition of
property seemed scarcely possible. Others he had seen as suddenly,
throwing off their political associates, rise into stations of rank and
power; and one memorable case he knew where the individual had become
the chief adviser of the very state whose destruction he had sworn to
accomplish. Such a one he now fancied he had detected among the advisers
of his Prince; and deeply ruminating on this theme, he sat at the
bedside.

"Is it a dream, Stubber, or have we really heard bad news from Carrara?
Has Fraschetti been stabbed, or not?"

"Yes, your Highness, he has been stabbed exactly two inches below where
he was wounded in September last,--then, it was his pocket-book saved
him; now, it was your Highness's picture, which, like a faithful
follower, he always carried about him."

"Which means, that you disbelieve the whole story."

"Every word of it."

"And the poniards found at the Bocca di Magra?"

"Found by those who placed them there."

"And the proclamations?"

"Bl