, men that, in a free country, would be
at large, toiling industriously for their families, and whose opinions
could never be dangerous, if not festering in the foul air of a dungeon.
And as to _your own_ popularity, all I say is, don't walk in the Piazza
at Carrara after dusk. No, nor even at noonday."

"And you dare to speak thus to _me_, Stubber!" said the Prince, his face
covered with a deadly pallor as he spoke, and his white lips trembling,
but less in passion than in fear.

"And why not, sir? Of what value could such a man as I am be to
your service, if I were not to tell you what you 'll never hear from
others,--the plain, simple truth? Is it not clear enough that if I
only thought of my own benefit, I 'd say whatever you'd like best to
hear?--I'd tell you, like Landelli, that the taxes were well paid, or
say, as Cerreccio did t'other day, that your army would do credit to any
state in Europe, when he well knew at the time that the artillery was
in mutiny from arrears of pay, and the cavalry horses dying from short
rations!"

"I am well weary of all this," said the Duke, with a sigh. "If the half
of what I hear of my kingdom every day be but true, my lot in life is
worse than a galley-slave's. One assures me that I am bankrupt; another
calls me a vassal of Austria; a third makes me out a Papal spy; and
_you_ aver that if I venture into the streets of my own town, in the
midst of my own people, I am almost sure to be assassinated!"

"Take no man's word, sir, for what, while you can see for yourself, it
is your own duty to ascertain," said Stubber, resolutely. "If you really
only desire a life of ease and indolence, forgetting what you owe to
yourself and those you rule over, send for the Austrians. Ask for a
brigade and a general. You 'll have them for the asking. They 'd come
at a word, and try your people at the drum-head, and flog and shoot them
with as little disturbance to you as need be. You may pension off the
judges; for a court-martial is a far speedier tribunal, and a corporal's
guard is quite an economy in criminal justice. Trade will not, perhaps,
prosper with martial law, nor is a state of siege thought favorable
to commerce. No matter. You 'll sleep safe so long as you keep
within doors, and the band under your window will rouse the spirit of
nationality in your heart, as it plays, 'God preserve the Emperor!'"

"You forget yourself, sir, and you forget _me!_" said the Duke, sternly,
as he drew