anything with which our enemies were armed, and to announce that we were
in a position to effect an astonishing bargain.

"More than that," I said, in conclusion, "I am not disposed to say even
here. The arms are contraband of war, and if it were known that they
were in England it would be the duty of the authorities to seize them.
That fact makes silence safest."

Those who understood, or who thought they understood, translated this
brief statement of mine to those who did not, and this made a deep hum
all about the table. In the midst of it a man entered at the door, and,
advancing to the count, began to talk to him animatedly in some local
dialect, of which I could not understand so much as a syllable. The
count nodded twice or thrice to signify attention, and though at first
he looked doubtful, he ended by smiling, and dismissed the messenger
with an applauding pat upon the shoulder. He rose to his feet before the
man had reached the door, and made a brief statement, which was received
with a mingling of dissent and applause. Ruffiano leaped to his feet,
crying out in English:

"Brothers, I claim a word!" and there was instant silence, every face
turning attentively to his. He began to speak rapidly, with all his
usual vehemence, and with even more than his usual plenitude of gesture.
Almost at the beginning of his argument he bent his lean figure forward
and beat rapidly upon the table with the palm of his hand, and then,
suddenly recovering his full height, sent both arms backward. Brunow sat
immediately on his right, and the back of the orator's hand caught
him resoundingly upon the cheek; and at this unexpected incident the
audience broke into a sudden shout of laughter, in which Brunow tried
to join--with a curiously ill success, I thought. I could not understand
the subject of discussion, for Ruffiano had immediately gone back to his
native language, and there was something about Brunow's look which could
hardly be accounted for by so trifling a misadventure as that which had
just occurred. The instinct of the eye told him that I was looking at
him, and he glanced at me and then suddenly averted his face. He made
an effort to appear at ease, but his color came and went strangely, and
both his hands trembled, though I saw that he was pressing them heavily
upon the table with the intent to steady them. I thought he might
possibly have been raging inwardly at me, and that in his unreasoning
anger at me he might