b, as if
he heard the voice of Satan come to claim his soul; then lifting a look
of terror to his questioner's face, he asked in a voice of gloom--

"What have I done, my lord, to deserve this reproach?"

"It is not a reproach: I ask a simple question."

"Can my lord doubt for a moment of my eternal gratitude? Can I forget
the favours your Excellency showed me? Even if I could so lose my reason
and my memory, are not my wife and son ever here to remind me that to you
we owe all our life, our honour, and our fortune? I was guilty of an
infamous act," said the notary, lowering his voice, "a crime that would
not only have brought upon my head the penalty of death, but which meant
the confiscation of my goods, the ruin of my family, poverty and shame
for my only son--that very son, sire, for whom I, miserable wretch, had
wished to ensure a brilliant future by means of my frightful crime: you
had in your hands the proofs of this!

"I have them still."

"And you will not ruin me, my lord," resumed the notary, trembling; "I am
at your feet, your Excellency; take my life and I will die in torment
without a murmur, but save my son since you have been so merciful as to
spare him till now; have pity on his mother; my lord, have pity!"

"Be assured," said Charles, signing to him to rise; "it is nothing to do
with your life; that will come later, perhaps. What I wish to ask of you
now is a much simpler, easier matter."

"My lord, I await your command."

"First," said the duke, in a voice of playful irony, "you must draw up a
formal contract of my marriage."

"At once, your Excellency."

"You are to write in the first article that my wife brings me as dowry
the county of Alba, the jurisdiction of Grati and Giordano, with all
castles, fiefs, and lands dependent thereto."

"But, my lord--" replied the poor notary, greatly embarrassed.

"Do you find any difficulty, Master Nicholas?"

"God forbid, your Excellency, but--"

"Well, what is it?"

"Because, if my lord will permit, because there is only one person in
Naples who possesses that dowry your Excellency mentions."

"And so?"

"And she," stammered the notary, embarrassed more and more, "--she is the
queen's sister."

"And in the contract you will write the name of Marie of Anjou."

"But the young maiden," replied Nicholas timidly, "whom your Excellency
would marry is destined, I thought, under the will of our late king of
blessed memory, to become the wife