Stephanu, "At any
rate, there was no other guard set on the camp. Well, if so, she
took it easily enough; but catching sight of me she stood up, put her
finger to her lip and pointed over the ledge. Thereupon I peered
over, but drew back my head before Andrea and Jacopo could spy me.
So I stood before her, expecting to be praised for the despatch I had
made on the road; but she praised me not. She motioned me to follow
her a little way out of earshot of the men below, to a patch of
tall-growing junipers within which, when first we pitched camp, she
had chosen to make her bower. Then she turned on me, and I saw that
in some way I had vexed her, for her eyes were wrathful; and, said
she, 'Why have you made this speed?' 'Because, O Princess, you have
need of me,' I answered. 'I have no need of you,' she said;
'but where is Marc'antonio? And the young Englishman--is he yet
alive?' 'O Princess,' I answered again, 'I did not go all the way to
the old camp, but only so far that the man Priske could not mistake
his road to it. Then, having put him in the way, I turned back and
have travelled night and day. Of the young Englishman I can tell you
nothing; but of Marc'antonio I can promise that he will be on the
road and not far behind me.'"

"_Grazie_," muttered Marc'antonio; "but how could you be sure I had
received the message?"

"Because the Princess had charged you to be at that post until
released. Therefore I knew you would not have quitted it, if alive;
and if you were dead--" Stephanu shrugged his shoulders. "I was in
a hurry, you understand; and in a hurry a man must take a few risks."

"I am not saying you did ill," growled Marc'antonio, slightly
mollified.

"The Princess said so, however. 'You are a fool, O Stephanu,' she
told me; 'and as for needing you or Marc'antonio, on the contrary, I
forbid you both to join the camp for a while. Go back. If you meet
Marc'antonio upon the road, give him this message for me.'
'But where, O Princess,' I asked, 'are we to await your pleasure?'
'Fare north, if you will, to Cape Corso,' she said, 'where that old
mad Englishman boasts that he will reach my mother in her prison at
Giraglia. He has gone thither alone, refusing help; and you may
perhaps be useful to him.'"

Marc'antonio's growl grew deeper. "Was that all?" he asked.

"That was all."

"Then there is mischief here. The Prince, O Stephanu, did not
without purpose send you out of the way. Now, wh