t be lost... Give me the
paper."

He was frowning upon me, and smiling viperishly at the same time.
"I like your frankness better than your piety," said he. "So now we
understand each other, and know that neither is in the other's debt.
Hereafter beware of Egidio Gambara. I give you this last loyal warning.
See that you do not come into my way again."

I rose and looked at him--looked down from my greater height. I knew
well the source of this last, parting show of hatred. Like Cosimo's
it sprang from jealousy. And a growth more potential of evil does not
exist.

He bore my glance a moment, then turned and took up the lanthorn.
"Come," he said, and obediently I followed him up the winding stone
staircase, and so to the very gates of the Palace.

We met no one. What had become of the guards, I cannot think; but I am
satisfied that Gambara himself had removed them. He opened the wicket
for me, and as I stepped out he gave me the paper and whistled softly.
Almost at once I heard a sound of muffled hooves under the colonnade,
and presently loomed the figures of a man and a mule; both dim and
ghostly in the pearly light of dawn--for that was the hour.

Gambara followed me out, and pulled the wicket after him.

"That beast is for you," he said curtly. "It will the better enable you
to get away."

As curtly I acknowledged the gift, and mounted whilst the groom held the
stirrup for me.

O! it was the oddest of transactions! My Lord Gambara with death in his
heart very reluctantly giving me a life I did not want.

I dug my heels into the mule's sides and started across the silent,
empty square, then plunged into a narrow street where the gloom was
almost as of midnight, and so pushed on.

I came out into the open space before the Porta Fodesta, and so to the
gate itself. From one of the windows of the gatehouse, a light shone
yellow, and, presently, in answer to my call, out came an officer
followed by two men, one of whom carried a lanthorn swinging from his
pike. He held this light aloft, whilst the officer surveyed me.

"What now?" he challenged. "None passes out to-night."

For answer I thrust the paper under his nose. "Orders from my Lord
Gambara," said I.

But he never looked at it. "None passes out to-night," he repeated
imperturbably. "So run my orders."

"Orders from whom?" quoth I, surprised by his tone and manner.

"From the Captain of Justice, if you must know. So you may get you back
whence you c