ow, that some favor may be decreed them?"

"It is well; it should be done, thou art strength to me, Aluisi."

"Is there aught else that should be brought before the Council?" he
asked.

She hesitated a moment, and then added with visible timidity and
reluctance, flushing a vivid scarlet:

"There are other things that seem too petty--but since the death of the
Auditor, our Uncle Andrea, thou hast perchance noted much scantiness of
our treasury, though when it is a question of pageantry, the Council
hath ever found enough and to spare. But the land is a rich land; yet
there are no moneys in my hand wherewith to reward a favor or grant a
dole of charity. If this be a symbol of power----"

"I will replace the voice of Messer Andrea in the Council," he hastened
to assure her. "And, meanwhile--we are of one house, my Cousin----"

"Because thou art generous, shall the Council do less than its duty?"
she asked proudly. "Or shall I be content to know that measures wise for
the ruling of the realm may be frowned upon by those who hold the keys
of my treasury--_yet render no account_? The knowledge of this added
treachery hath come to me but recently; and this also was of Rizzo's
malfeasance. Dost think that moneys shall be found for the manning of
our fleet? Or that I have any voice in the spending of them?"

"The Madonna be praised that Rizzo and that Minister of Satan are fled!"
he exclaimed devoutly.

"While Rizzo held office, I might ask _no_ question," she said, turning
towards him a face of pathetic appeal; for she had never before dared to
speak freely of her grievances even to him--in so comprehensive a manner
had the Chief of Council known how to assert himself: "and now, that I
would fain have knowledge, that I may rule my people wisely, so much
there is to set in order, that my heart doth fail me. I have written to
the Serenissimo to tell him my perplexities--to pray that he might make
it lighter for me to rule."

The Bernardini knew that she had cause for her failing courage, while
yet he keenly felt that the remedy should not lie in an appeal to
Venice, whose power was the unacknowledged core of bitterness in the
growing disaffection among the Cyprian nobles. It might not yet be too
late to save the kingdom for Cyprus; and what it lay within his power to
do, Venetian though he was, he would do, rather than see this '_isola
fortunata_' slip without a struggle, into a mere Venetian province. The
knowledge had