l
his shrewdness, mystified by one whose nature was a puzzle to himself.

"Let Marocchi return to Carrara. Say we have taken the matter into our
own hands. Change the brigadier in command of the gendarmerie there.
Tell the _canonico_ Baldetti that we look to _him_ and his deacons for
true reports of any movement that is plotting in the town. I take no
steps with regard to Wahnsdorf for the present, but let him be closely
watched. And then, Stubber, send off an _estafetta_ to Pietra Santa
for the ortolans, for I think we have earned our breakfast by all this
attention to state affairs." And then, with a laugh whose accents gave
not the very faintest clew to its meaning, he lay back on his pillow
again.

"And these two prisoners, your Highness, what is to be done with them?"

"Whatever you please, Stubber. Give them the third-class cross of Massa,
or a month's imprisonment, at your own good pleasure. Only, no more
business,--no papers to sign, no schemes to unravel; and so good night."
And the Chevalier retired at once from a presence which he well knew
resented no injury so unmercifully as any invasion of his personal
comfort.

CHAPTER XXX. THE LIFE THEY LED AT MASSA

It was with no small astonishment young Massy heard that he and his
faithful follower were not alone restored to liberty, but that an
order of his Highness had assigned them a residence in a portion of the
palace, and a promise of future employment.

"This smacks of Turkish rather than of European rule," said the youth.
"In prison yesterday,--in a palace to-day. My own fortunes are wayward
enough, Heaven knows, not to require any additional ingredient of
uncertainty. What think you, Traynor?"

"I'm thinkin'," said Billy, gravely, "that as the bastes of the field
are guided by their instincts to objects that suit their natures, so
man ought, by his reason, to be able to pilot himself in
difficulties,--choosin' this, avoidin' that; seein' by the eye of
prophecy where a road would lead him, and makin' of what seem the
accidents of life, steppin'-stones to fortune."

"In what way does your theory apply here?" cried the other. "How am I to
guess whither this current may carry me?"

"At all events, there's no use wastin' your strength by swimmin' against
it," rejoined Billy.

"To be the slave of some despot's whim,--the tool of a caprice that may
elevate me to-day, and to-morrow sentence me to the gallows. The object
I have set before myself in l