t is for your best interests that you should
remain away from Pianura for the present. The Duke, as you doubtless
divine, is anxious for your return, and her Highness, for that very
reason, is urgent that you should prolong your absence. It is notorious
that the Duke soon wearies of those about him, and that your best chance
of regaining his favour is to keep out of his reach and let your enemies
hang themselves in the noose they have prepared for you. For my part, I
am always glad to do an ill-turn to that snivelling friar, my nephew,
and the more so when I can seriously oblige a friend; and, as you have
perhaps guessed, the Duke dares not ask for your return while I show a
fancy for your company. But this," added he with an ironical twinkle,
"is a tame place for a young man of your missionary temper, and I have a
mind to send you on a visit to that arch-tyrant Ferdinand of Naples, in
whose dominions a man may yet burn for heresy or be drawn and quartered
for poaching on a nobleman's preserves. I am advised that some rare
treasures have lately been taken from the excavations there and I should
be glad if you would oblige me by acquiring a few for my gallery. I will
give you letters to a cognoscente of my acquaintance, who will put his
experience at the disposal of your excellent taste, and the funds at
your service will, I hope, enable you to outbid the English brigands
who, as the Romans say, would carry off the Colosseum if it were
portable."

In all this Odo discerned Maria Clementina's hand, and an instinctive
resistance made him hang back upon his patron's proposal. But the only
alternative was to return to Pianura; and every letter from Gamba urged
on him (for the very reasons the Duke had given) the duty of keeping out
of reach as the surest means of saving himself and the cause to which he
was pledged. Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence; and early the
next spring he started for Naples.

His first impulse had been to send Cantapresto back to the Duchess. He
knew that he owed his escape me grave difficulties to the soprano's
prompt action on the night of Heiligenstern's arrest; but he was equally
sure that such action might not always be as favourable to his plans. It
was plain that Cantapresto was paid to spy on him, and that whenever
Odo's intentions clashed with those of his would-be protectors the
soprano would side with the latter. But there was something in the air
of Monte Alloro which dispelled