d promised Tristan--and the galley had come to
shore beneath and waited for him,--went on board, nothing doubting,
thinking to return to Rhodes--who knoweth?--To Carlotta perchance;--but
he found the galley _manned with mariners from the arsenal of Venice_;
and Tristan coming to set sail for Venice, with the Queen's guard, all
in full armor, to speed him on his way: _and a Venetian General in
command, in lieu of the African Captain of the galley who brought him
hither_. For one may seek in vain to outwit a Venetian; one must admire
them for that, though it work us woe!"

"It is thine own tale, verily, Ecciva; thou speakest to mock us!"

"Nay--faith of Sant'Elena, it is true and sad enough--if there were not
sadder to come. For Tristan, the gallant, handsome knight, being in
chains, and fearing worse awaited him when he should reach Venice,
wrenched the diamond from a ring he wore and kneaded it into the bread
they served him for his breakfast, and swallowed it--and so there was an
end."

They still looked at her incredulously--"How shouldst thou know this
tale of horror more than others--if it were true?"

She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "If one maketh wise use of
opportunity, one need not always wait the telling. But to-morrow the
court will be ringing with the tale; it cometh but now from Venice."

"But Rizzo?"

"He is there in Venice in the _pozzi_; and the end will not be easy like
that of Tristan. For he is the greatest traitor of them all--verily a
traitor almost sublime. It were not so difficult to admire the nerve of
the man!--Rizzo----"

But her further speech was lost in the babel of expostulation and
question that broke forth, and which would have lasted long but for the
return of Madama di Thenouris and Dama Margherita.

XXXI

The court had been recently thrown into consternation by the discovery
of a plot to seize the various citadels of the island and hold them for
Carlotta. It was evidently well supported and far advanced, as disclosed
by the intercepted letters addressed to some unknown person, which had
been laid before the Council; all who were mentioned as partisans or
confidants in this intrigue were designated under assumed names, but the
knowledge which these papers gave the Council was of immense value,
enabling them to provide that all the garrisons of Cyprus should be
commanded by men of known loyalty to the Queen. Meanwhile vigorous
efforts were being made to discov