d towns. For a few months he swept the island like a
conqueror.

"All this, as you may suppose, utterly disconcerted the Count Ugo
Colonna, who saw his dreams topple at one stroke into the dust.
But the chiefs found a way to reconcile him. Their new King Theodore
must marry and found a dynasty. Let a bride be found for him in
Colonna's daughter, and let children be born to him of the best blood
in Corsica.

"The Count recovered his good temper: his spirits rose at a bound: he
embraced the offer. His grandsons should be kings of Corsica.
And she--my Emilia--

"We met once only after her father had broken the news to her.
He had not asked her consent; he had told her, in a flutter of pride,
that this thing must be, and for her country's sake. She came to me,
in the short dusk, upon the terrace overlooking the Taravo.
She was of heart too heroic to linger out our agony. In the dusk she
stretched out both hands--ah, God, the child she looked! so helpless,
so brave!--and I caught them and kissed them. Then she was gone.

"A week later they married her to King Theodore in the Cathedral of
Corte, and crowned her beside him. Before the winter he left the
island and sailed to Holland to raise moneys! for the promises of the
Great Powers had come to nothing, even if they were genuinely given.
For myself, I had bidden good-bye to Corsica and sailed for Tuscany
on the same day that Emilia was married.

"Now I must tell you that on the eve of sailing I wrote a letter to
the queen--as queen she would be by the time it reached her--wishing
her all happiness, and adding that if, in the time to come, fate
should bring her into poverty or danger, my estate and my life would
ever be at her service. To this I received, as I had expected, no
answer: nor did she, if ever she received it, impart its contents to
her husband. He--the rascal--had a genius for borrowing, and yet
'twas I that had to begin by seeking him out to feed him with money.

"News came to me that he was in straits in Holland, and had for a
year been drumming the banks in vain: also that the Genoese, whom his
incursion had merely confounded, were beginning to lift their heads
and take the offensive again. At first he had terrified them like a
mad dog; the one expedient they could hit on was to set a price upon
his head. Certainly he had gifts. He contrived--and by sheer
audacity, mark you, backed by a fine presence--to drive them into
such a panic that,