know, nor is any torture needed to extract from me such information as I
may be possessed of. I do but beg that you wilt frankly question me upon
this matter, whatever it may be, and your Excellency shall be answered
to the best of my knowledge."

He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the
seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that
he believed me. A moment he hesitated yet; then--

"I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior," he said
presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table. "As I told you, the
body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from San
Domenico. Know you aught of this?"

It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to
fight this brigand? Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and
a lie become a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely
justify such an exception.

"I know nothing," I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with a
ring of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, "nor can
I even believe this rumour. It is a wild story. That the body has been
stolen may be true enough. Such things occur; though he was a bold man
who laid hands upon the body of a person of such importance. But that
she lives--Gesu! that is an old wife's tale. I had, myself, the word of
the Lord Filippo's physician that she was dead."

"Nevertheless, this old wife's tale, as you dub it, is one of which I
have had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall
not regret it. Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have
abstracted the body from the church. In seeking this information I am
acting in the interests of the noble House of Borgia which I serve and
to which she was to have been allied, as you well know."

I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover
the true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied to
me of his service to the House of Borgia.

"I will gladly lend you these wits," said I, "to disprove to you the
rumour of which you say that you have confirmation. Let us accept the
statement that the body has been stolen. That much, no doubt, is true,
for even rumours require some slight foundation. But who in all this
world could say that when the body was taken it was not dead?
Clearly but one man--he that administered the