ubt
that he wrote as a son of the Church, in all confidence of favor. He
calleth His Holiness '_Santissimo e Beatissimo Padre!_' and the
signature of this letter (which it is noted that he wrote with his own
hand) was _'Devotus vester Filius, Rex Jacobus Cipri_.'"

XIII

"Madre Mia!" he said with deep tenderness, "I think it is not possible
to hold the knowledge from her longer. It must be told to-night."

They were in the loggia overlooking the splendid stretch of terraced
gardens, now flooded with moonlight; they had been standing there, quite
silent, for a long time, each feeling that there was something to be
spoken and suffered--each praying to defer the moment.

"Oh, Aluisi--no!"

Her tone was an entreaty: but he only put out his hand and laid it
tenderly upon hers: the beautiful, tapering fingers trembled under his
touch, then slowly quieted, for there was a rare sympathy between them.

"I have done everything," he continued in a low voice, without looking
at her, "but they will not wait--matters of State, they say, to be
passed upon--a Queen must give her signature when it is needed."

He came closer, suddenly turning upon her a gaze which compelled her
startled comprehension. "They would be quite willing to pass the measure
_without_ her signature," he added, in a still lower tone. "It has come
to that--we must think of her rights and protect her _against her
Councillors_!"

"She has had so much to bear, poor child--so young--and her heart is
broken already with sorrow for her husband. For she had faith in him.
And now!--Have they no feeling for her?"

"Madre, carissima, thou knowest not Rizzo; he is the most powerful among
them, and the most ill-disposed. 'Let her take the Prince of Naples,' he
hath said openly before the Councillors, 'and give us a man to reign
over us.'"

"And Janus but two weeks dead!" The Lady Beata gave an involuntary cry
of horror. "But Fabrici, the Archbishop?" she asked after a moment, "may
he not influence them to be more gentle with her--having a brother in
the Council?"

Aluisi shook his head sorrowfully. "Nay, Mother--I know not which is
worse. Venice, at his election, would have prevented it, but could not,
because he represented this intriguing power of Naples which hath not
ceased from effort to have its will of Cyprus, since the betrothal of
Caterina--which also it sought to overthrow."

"How knowest thou?"

He laid his finger on his lips--"If we were y