had never come
back to his palace since he left his mother's house. But Alexander tried
to deceive himself all through the rest of the day, hoping that his son
might have been surprised by the coming of daylight in the midst of an
amorous adventure, and was waiting till the next night to get away in
that darkness which had aided his coming thither. But the night, like
the day, passed and brought no news. On the morrow, the pope, tormented
by the gloomiest presentiments and by the raven's croak of the 'vox
populi', let himself fall into the depths of despair: amid sighs and sobs
of grief, all he could say to any one who came to him was but these
words, repeated a thousand times: "Search, search; let us know how my
unhappy son has died."

Then everybody joined in the search; for, as we have said, the Duke of
Gandia was beloved by all; but nothing could be discovered from scouring
the town, except the body of the murdered man, who was recognised as the
duke's valet; of his master there was no trace whatever: it was then
thought, not without reason, that he had probably been thrown into the
Tiber, and they began to follow along its banks, beginning from the Via
della Ripetta, questioning every boatman and fisherman who might possibly
have seen, either from their houses or from their boats, what had
happened on the river banks during the two preceding nights. At first
all inquiries were in vain; but when they had gone up as high as the Via
del Fantanone, they found a man at last who said he had seen something
happen on the night of the 14th which might very possibly have some
bearing on the subject of inquiry. He was a Slav named George, who was
taking up the river a boat laden with wood to Ripetta. The following are
his own words:

"Gentlemen," he said, "last Wednesday evening, when I had set down my
load of wood on the bank, I remained in my boat, resting in the cool
night air, and watching lest other men should come and take away what I
had just unloaded, when, about two o'clock in the morning, I saw coming
out of the lane on the left of San Girolamo's Church two men on foot, who
came forward into the middle of the street, and looked so carefully all
around that they seemed to have come to find out if anybody was going
along the street. When they felt sure that it was deserted, they went
back along the same lane, whence issued presently two other men, who used
similar precautions to make sure that there was nothing