King-consort--instead of that of "Prince of Galilee," which had not
proved to be the imposing, permanent honor his partisans had fondly
hoped.

Meanwhile, with the persistence worthy of a better cause, his supporters
had ingeniously thrust him forward--a compliant puppet--from one scheme
into another--all tending toward this same noble end. Immediately after
the failure of Rizzo's conspiracy, he had been betrothed to the
illegitimate daughter of King Janus--one of the three children mentioned
in his will--who with her two brothers, had been sent to Venice to avert
possible disastrous consequences; a small following in Cyprus upheld
this match--so eager were they that some descendant of their charmer
King Janus, should keep the crown of their realm, that they granted the
Neapolitan Prince Alfonso the shadowy title of "Prince of Galilee."

But after the death of his young betrothed, Alfonso had followed
Carlotta to Alexandria, where Rizzo now held the honorable post of
Ambassador to the Sultan from the Court of Naples; and here, while
Venice was still playing her game, sub-rosa without the overt confession
of power that came later--Rizzo, the arch-schemer, first sought to bring
about the adoption of the prince of Naples by Carlotta--as
heir-presumptive to her rights; and later, as her following among the
Cyprian nobility increased, proposed Alfonso for _husband_ to Carlotta.

But now, since the strength of Venice could be no longer doubted, Rizzo,
holding ever in view the ascendancy of his chief and with an astounding
faith in his own magnificent insolence, rose to the occasion, and sailed
on a secret embassy for Cyprus to propose the hand of Alfonso to Queen
Caterina herself!

The details of this romantic intrigue were not known until long
afterward in the court-circle, except by the few who had intercepted and
frustrated the carefully-laid plans; but there were many hints of some
concealed happening of deep interest which made delightful themes for
romantic conjecture whenever the younger maids of honor found themselves
happily without the dignified supervision of the Lady of the Bernardini
and Madama di Thenouris, or the equally-to-be-evaded younger
maid-of-honor, Margherita de Iblin.

"Something has happened, and no one tells us anything," one of them
declared discontentedly when curiosity had reached an unbearable pitch,
and the rumors of which they had caught echoes were growing in interest.
"There was a fire