poison. And, I ask your
Excellency, would he be likely to tell the world what he had done?"

He might have answered me: "I am that man." But he did not. Instead, he
hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had uttered--words
meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter; and this they
achieved, at least in part. He flashed me a look of sudden suspicion, it
is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his brooding eye.

"Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of
what you say," he grumbled. "But I incline to believe you, and you are a
merry rogue. You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as you
amuse me. But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive me.
You shall have the cord first and other things after, and your death
shall be the thing you'll pray for long before it takes you from my
vengeance. If you know aught, speak now and you shall find me merciful.
Your life and liberty shall be the recompense of your honesty towards
me."

"I repeat, Excellency," I answered, without changing colour, "that all
that I know have I already told you."

He was convinced, I think, for the time being.

"Get you gone, then," he bade me. "I have other business to deal with
ere I sleep. Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged."

The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently
motioned me to go with him. I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance,
and withdrew in the wake of the seneschal.

He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a
gallery that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted
presently, and, opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished
room.

A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.

The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his
hollow eyes rested on me for a second. I thought that he was on the
point of saying something, and I waited returning his glance with one
that quailed before the anguish of his own. I feared to speak, to offer
an expression of the sympathy that filled my heart; for in that strange
place I could not tell how far a man was to be trusted--even a man so
wronged as this one. On his own part it may be that a like doubt beset
him concerning me, for in the end he departed as he had come, no word
having passed his ashen lips.

Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had