r a glance at me turned to Stephanu. "But it runs
in my head, comrade, that the time has come to consider other things
than wisdom."

"For example?" I challenged him sharply.

"For example, cavalier, that I cannot reconcile this smell with any
Corsican gunpowder."

"And you are right," said I. "Nay, Princess, you have sworn not long
since to obey me, and I choose that they shall know. That salvo,
sirs, was fired, five minutes ago, by the Genoese."

"A 'salvo' did you say, cavalier?"

"For our wedding, Marc'antonio." I took the Princess's hand--which
neither yielded nor resisted--and lifting it a little way, released
it to fall again limply. So for a while there was silence between us
four.

"Marc'antonio," said I, "and you, Stephanu--it is I now who speak for
the Princess and decide for her; and I decide that you, who have
served her faithfully, deserve to be told all the truth. It is
truth, then, that we are married. The priest who married us was
Fra Domenico, and with assent of his master the Prince Camillo.
I can give you, moreover, the name of the chief witness: he is a
certain Signor or General Andrea Fornari, and commands the Genoese
garrison in Nonza."

"Princess!" Marc'antonio implored her.

"It is true," said she. "This gentleman has done me much honour,
having heard what my brother chose to say."

"But I do not comprehend!" The honest fellow cast a wild look around
the clearing. "Ah, yes-the volley! They have taken the Prince, and
shot him . . . But his body--they would not take his body--and you
standing here and allowing it--"

"My friends," I interrupted, "they have certainly taken his body, and
his soul too, for that matter; and I doubt if you can overtake either
on this side of Nonza. But with him you will find the crown of
Corsica, and the priest who helped him to sell it. I tell you this,
who are clansmen of the Colonne. Your mistress, who discovered the
plot and was here to hinder it, will confirm me."

Their eyes questioned her; not for long. In the droop of her bowed
head was confirmation.

"And therefore," I went on, "you two can have no better business than
to help me convey the Princess northward and bring her to her mother,
whom in this futile following after a wretched boy you have all so
strangely forgotten. By God!" said I, "there is but one man in
Corsica who has hunted, this while, on a true scent and held to it;
and he is an Englishman, solitary and faithful