ched for
her. In the gallery I found Oliphant packing some very shabby trunks,
and when I questioned him he told me that the family were to leave
Santa Chiara on the morrow. Perchance the Duchess had awakened to the
true state of their exchequer, or perchance she thought it well to get
her father on the road again as a cure for his ailment.

I discovered Cristine, and begged for an interview with her mistress on
an urgent matter. She led me to the Duchess's room, and there the
evidence of poverty greeted me openly. All the little luxuries of the
menage had gone to the Count. The poor lady's room was no better than
a servant's garret, and the lady herself sat stitching a rent in a
travelling cloak. She rose to greet me with alarm in her eyes.

As briefly as I could I set out the facts of my amazing mission. At
first she seemed scarcely to hear me. "What do they want with him?"
she asked. "He can give them nothing. He is no friend to the
Americans or to any people who have deposed their sovereign." Then, as
she grasped my meaning, her face flushed.

"It is a heartless trick, Mr. Townshend. I would fain think you no
party to it."

"Believe me, dear madame, it is no trick. The men below are in sober
earnest. You have but to see their faces to know that theirs is no
wild adventure. I believe sincerely that they have the power to
implement their promise."

"But it is madness. He is old and worn and sick. His day is long past
for winning a crown."

"All this I have said, but it does not move them." And I told her
rapidly Mr. Galloway's argument. She fell into a muse. "At the
eleventh hour! Nay, too late, too late. Had he been twenty years
younger, what a stroke of fortune! Fate bears too hard on us, too
hard!"

Then she turned to me fiercely. "You have no doubt heard, sir, the
gossip about my father, which is on the lips of every fool in Europe.
Let us have done with this pitiful make-believe. My father is a sot.
Nay, I do not blame him. I blame his enemies and his miserable
destiny. But there is the fact. Were he not old, he would still be
unfit to grasp a crown and rule over a turbulent people. He flees from
one city to another, but he cannot flee from himself. That is his
illness on which you condoled with me yesterday."

The lady's control was at breaking-point. Another moment and I
expected a torrent of tears. But they did not come. With a great
effort she regained her composur