came to win Her Majesty to acquiesce in some
strange bidding from Rhodes; or perchance from the Sultan himself."

"How knowest thou, Ecciva?" They crowded around her thrilling with
pleasant excitement--the craving for which was unduly whetted by the
splendor and aimlessness of the life of this Eastern court--for a
romance with such a beginning might have an indefinitely delightful
termination; and Dama Ecciva had some strange knack of always knowing
more than others of any savory morsel of gossip of which there might be
hints in the air.

She looked at them nonchalantly, well-pleased at any sort of dominance,
but never confessing it by her attitude.

"Have I not eyes?" she questioned, with tantalizing slowness; "and
ears?--Are they to grow dull for lack of usage?"

"Nay; tell us, Ecciva."

She drew nearer and lowered her voice mysteriously. "That Tristan de
Giblet--he who would have killed the King the night that he climbed the
city-walls and fled to Rhodes--we know the tale----"

"Aye, aye; we know it. And then?"--they pleaded impatiently.

But Dama Ecciva was not to be swerved from the irritating composure
which pleased her mood for the moment:

"And one of us--hath any one seen Alicia de Giblet? She hath not been
among us since that night of the _signal fire_."

"She hath been ill, in the Chateau de Giblet this month past," several
voices responded at once.

"Perchance, sweet maids;--or in some other less splendid castle where
dungeons are of more account than the fine banquet hall of the de
Giblet! And because Alicia is sister to this Messer Tristan--I have done
much thinking of late--it is time for the Bernardini to return. Let us
give over talk."

"Alicia de Giblet was sister to that traitor!" one of them exclaimed
indignantly; "and we never dreamed it! But she was _gentilissima_;
_poverina_! Ah, the pity of it!"

"But how came she ill, 'because of it,' as thou sayest, Ecciva?" Eloisa
questioned, wishing ever to have a reason for her beliefs; "it was long
since!"

"The night of the King's flight was long since--verily--before his
coronation. Carlotta was Queen, then;--there have been wars and death
and woe enough since then! But this night of the signal fire is but a
month agone--and _that night came Tristan de Giblet to talk with his
sister_, who let him into the Palazzo Reale. The daring of the man! We
are not cowards--we Cyprians!"

"Ecciva!--how canst thou verily be sure!"

She touched her