ed pope!"

"Might not Ugolini see de Verceuil reading the letter?" Simon asked.

"No," said Friar Mathieu. "Each cardinal eats and sleeps in a
curtained-off cell built along the sides of the cathedral's nave. De
Verceuil and King Louis will be quite alone together."

* * * * *

The following afternoon the sky was heavily overcast, but the rain had
stopped. From the northwest tower of the Palazzo Baglioni, Simon could
see that Perugia was a much bigger city than Orvieto. Like most Italian
cities, it was built on a hilltop. But while Orvieto was flat on top of
its great rock, Perugia stood on sloping ground, and the town had
several levels.

"Simon!"

Simon turned to see Friar Mathieu's white head emerge from the trapdoor
opening to the tower roof. As he hurried over to give the old man a hand
up, his heartbeat speeded up. The wait for news must be at an end. When
he saw Friar Mathieu smiling, he started grinning himself.

"The letter did it," the priest said cheerfully. "We have a pope, and it
is neither de Verceuil nor de Tracey nor Ugolini."

Simon felt like shouting for joy.

"Who, then?"

"Why, the person named in the letter you brought, of course," said Friar
Mathieu teasingly.

"Spare me this riddling, Father," Simon begged. "Not now. This means too
much to me."

"All right, all right." Friar Mathieu patted Simon on the shoulder.
"This morning at Tierce I joined the crowd at the cathedral to see the
color of the smoke of the burning ballots from the chimney of the
bishop's palace. If the king's letter had its effect, the smoke should
be white, but it was not."

Simon's heart sank. Had he misunderstood Friar Mathieu?

"Black smoke, then? But you said they did elect a pope."

"No smoke at all. The people were puzzled, and so was I, and we all
waited to see if anything would happen. I was about to give up and leave
when the doors of the cathedral opened, and there stood little Cardinal
Ugolini, with most of the Sacred College behind him. He looked as if he
had been eating rotten figs. When I saw that, I knew the news must be
good. As cardinal camerlengo, he announced, 'We _believe_ we have a
pope.' Well, you can imagine, that took everyone aback. He explained
that the one elected was not present, and his name could not be
announced until he had come to Perugia and had officially accepted. Then
the cardinals came down the steps one by one. Most of them looked happy
to