n type of Baldassarre's person, coarsened
by years of hardship, told as a confirmation of Tito's lie. If
Baldassarre, to begin with, could have uttered precisely the words he
had premeditated, there might have been something in the form of his
accusation which would have given it the stamp not only of true
experience but of mental refinement. But there had been no such
testimony in his impulsive agitated words: and there seemed the very
opposite testimony in the rugged face and the coarse hands that trembled
beside it, standing out in strong contrast in the midst of that
velvet-clad, fair-handed company.

His next movement, while he was being watched in silence, told against
him too. He took his hands from his head, and felt for something under
his tunic. Every one guessed what that movement meant--guessed that
there was a weapon at his side. Glances were interchanged; and Bernardo
Rucellai said, in a quiet tone, touching Baldassarre's shoulder--

"My friend, this is an important business of yours. You shall have all
justice. Follow me into a private room."

Baldassarre was still in that half-stunned state in which he was
susceptible to any prompting, in the same way as an insect that forms no
conception of what the prompting leads to. He rose from his seat, and
followed Rucellai out of the room.

In two or three minutes Rucellai came back again, and said--

"He is safe under lock and key. Piero Pitti, you are one of the
Magnificent Eight, what do you think of our sending Matteo to the palace
for a couple of sbirri, who may escort him to the Stinche? [The largest
prison in Florence.] If there is any danger in him, as I think there
is, he will be safe there; and we can inquire about him to-morrow."

Pitti assented, and the order was given.

"He is certainly an ill-looking fellow," said Tornabuoni. "And you say
he has attempted your life already, Melema?"

And the talk turned on the various forms of madness, and the fierceness
of the southern blood. If the seeds of conjecture unfavourable to Tito
had been planted in the mind of any one present, they were hardly strong
enough to grow without the aid of much daylight and ill-will. The
common-looking, wild-eyed old man, clad in serge, might have won belief
without very strong evidence, if he had accused a man who was envied and
disliked. As it was, the only congruous and probable view of the case
seemed to be the one that sent the unpleasant accuser sa