prian stars looked down on the old, sweet story of mother and
child--as closely clasped beneath the gilded roof of the royal palace as
under the thatch of a peasant shed--smiling, forgetful of the days of
anguish that had parted them.

XXV

The Venetian Admiral Mocenigo, god-father to the little prince, had
followed close upon the coming of Vettore Soranzo, and they had lost no
time in examining into the causes of the difficulties and in fixing the
responsibility for the treachery where it belonged: disloyal officers
were replaced by men in sympathy with the government, men of weight and
character were sought for to fill the vacancies in the Council of the
Realm, and it seemed that days of sunshine were dawning for Caterina,
guarded by the affection of her people and the invincible arm of Venice.

These Venetian nobles would have made short work in meting out justice
to those chiefs who had been the instigators of the conspiracy, but as
yet they had eluded the search; though it was rumored that Saplana, the
Turkish commander of the Fortress of Famagosta, with his nephew Almerico
to whom the conspirators would assign control of the castle of
Cerines,--had been in hiding in the palace of the Archbishop. And a tale
was brought to Bernardini by a group of agitated peasants from the
hamlet of Varoschia, that at early dawn a man fully armed, with the
semblance of Rizzo--"not an apparition, _Signore sa_--but how could one
know the face of him with his vizor down?--was riding like the wind to
Famagosta, and with him a multitude of horsemen, coming very silently.
We saw them from the vineyards high up on the hillside. And then--quite
suddenly--we looked and they were gone--they came no more--by San
Nicolo and the Holy Madonna, it is true!"

Significant gestures gave a certain mysterious color to the peasant's
tale; but whatever its truth, it was actually known that Rizzo and other
of the conspirators had been seen in the neighborhood of Nikosia; and
the whereabouts of these intriguers was a topic of absorbing interest,
for it was felt that the sunshine would be clearer when Rizzo with his
accomplices should have been found and made to suffer the full penalty
of their crime.

Rizzo and Fabrici had been absent at the time of the uprising of the
citizens of Famagosta, and the wolf-like courage of the Chief-of-Council
was on the wane: for the letters of the Queen had not proved the
passport he had expected toward the su