"I thought he was asleep," muttered Eustachio.

"That noodle to have been beforehand with me!" murmured Leonardo.

"What perplexes me," continued Frederick, after enjoying the confusion of
the pair for a few moments, "is that our masked friend here will have it
that he is the man for the Dukedom, and offers to open the gates to me by a
method of his own."

"By fair fighting, an' please my liege," observed the visored personage,
"not by these dastardly treacheries."

"How inhuman!" sighed Eustachio.

"How old-fashioned!" sneered Leonardo.

"The truth is," continued Frederick, "he gravely doubts whether either of
you possesses the influence which you allege, and has devised a method of
putting this to the proof, which I trust will commend itself to you."

Leonardo and Eustachio expressed their readiness to submit their credit
with their fellow-citizens to any reasonable trial.

"He proposes, then," pursued the Emperor, "that ye, disarmed and bound,
should be placed at the head of the storming column, and in that situation
should, as questionless ye would, exert your entire moral influence with
your fellow-citizens to dissuade them from shooting you. If the column,
thus shielded, enters the city without resistance, ye will both have earned
the Dukedom, and the question who shall have it may be decided by single
combat between yourselves. But should the people, rather than submit to our
clemency, impiously slay their elected magistrates, it will be apparent
that the methods of our martial friend are the only ones corresponding to
the exigency of the case. Is the storming column ready?"

"All but the first file, please your Majesty," responded the man in the
visor.

"Let it be equipped," returned Frederick, and in half-an-hour Eustachio and
Leonardo, their hands tied behind them, were stumbling up the breach,
impelled by pikes in the rear, and confronting the catapults, _chevaux de
frise_, hidden pitfalls, Greek fire, and boiling water provided by their
own direction, and certified to them the preceding evening as all that
could be desired. They had, however, the full use of their voices, and this
they turned to the best account. Never had Leonardo been so cogent, or
Eustachio so pathetic. The Mantuans, already disorganised by the
unaccountable disappearance of the Executive, were entirely irresolute what
to do. As they hesitated the visored chief incited his followers. All
seemed lost, when a tall female figu