motherly friend, her voice rising into a wail--"Father
Johannes hath said that I must give the people all the love I gave my
baby--but not yet--I cannot do it yet!--Mother of Sorrows forgive
me!--_he doth not know_."

She fell back on her pillows exhausted by her emotion, while in a low,
crooning voice the name she loved to utter broke from her longing lips
again, like a threnody:

"_Figlio dilettissimo!_"

The Lady Beata's heart was wrung with pity.

"Nay, nay, Carinissima," she said, stooping over the couch and speaking
with tender decision, "Hagios Johannes could not know what mothers feel!
This holy love for thy little one shall bide ever with thee and grow
with thy life. It is thy breath of Heaven! It shall nerve thee to do the
work of thy child--to live for the people he would have ruled. Him thou
shalt love forever--it is the will of the Madre Beatissima:--but after
thy child shall come his people."

A change passed over the strained, worn face of the young Queen, like a
faint breath of comfort.

"Zia mia," she murmured, laying her thin white hand in the warm, restful
clasp: and so passed into the first quiet sleep that she had known for
days.

* * * * *

While the unhappy Queen was bravely struggling to recover her poise,
many things were happening; for the death of the infant King had been
the signal for further manifestations of discontent from a party of
Cyprian nobles whose dread of the "Lion of the velvet paw" increased as
the need for some firm governing hand became more evident. They would
have liked to anger Venice to the point of withdrawing all protection
and leaving them to their own devices--yet they dared not attempt it
openly, appreciating the futility of any armed resistance that
unassisted Cypriotes might offer.

For the Turk was watching from his near point of vantage; and if he had
hitherto been content with sending his private ships to ravage and
terrorize the towns along the coast, this might but be the prelude to
more ambitious projects. Naples was still eagerly awaiting some
favorable moment to lay hands upon the coveted island, and rumors of
waning favor had been wafted from Alexandria, since Cyprus had allowed
the tribute due to the Sultan to fall in arrears.

Carlotta, upon hearing of the death of the little Janus III, had at once
renewed her claim to the throne; some of the ancient nobles had declared
for her, and it was felt, rather than kno