ned his point, and was pleased accordingly. He had, he
felt sure, sown in the statesman's mind a germ of suspicion which would
before long bring forth fruit. In those days danger was plentiful, and
people could not afford to overlook it, no matter in what form it
presented itself, least of all such people as the Cardinal himself, who,
while sustaining an unequal combat against superior forces outside the
State, felt that his every step was encompassed by perils from within.
That he had long despised Del Ferice as an idle chatterer did not prevent
him from understanding that he might have been deceived, as Saracinesca
suggested. He had caused Ugo to be watched, it is true, but only from
time to time, and by men whose only duty was to follow him and to see
whether he frequented suspicious society. The little nest of talkers at
Gouache's studio in the Via San Basilio was soon discovered, and proved
to be harmless enough. Del Ferice was then allowed to go on his way
unobserved. But the half-dozen words in which Saracinesca had described
Ugo's scheme for hindering Giovanni's marriage had set the Cardinal
thinking, and the Cardinal seldom wasted time in thinking in vain. His
interview with Saracinesca ended very soon, and the Prince and the
statesman entered the crowded drawing-room and mixed in the throng. It
was long before they met again in private.

The Cardinal on the following day gave orders that Del Ferice's letters
were to be stopped--by no means an uncommon proceeding in those times,
nor so rare in our own day as is supposed. The post-office was then in
the hands of a private individual so far as all management was concerned,
and the Cardinal's word was law. Del Ferice's letters were regularly
opened and examined.

The first thing that was discovered was that they frequently contained
money, generally in the shape of small drafts on London signed by a
Florentine banker, and that the envelopes which contained money never
contained anything else. They were all posted in Florence. With regard
to his letters, they appeared to be very innocent communications from all
sorts of people, rarely referring to politics, and then only in the most
general terms. If Del Ferice had expected to have his correspondence
examined, he could not have arranged matters better for his own safety.
To trace the drafts to the person who sent them was not an easy business;
it was impossible to introduce a spy into the banking-house in Florence,