ied.

"The manner of it was not reported to me," he answered truthfully
enough; "I knew not that the question would be put to me," he added with
an attempt to turn easily from a subject on which he dared not speak
freely to matter more nearly touching his office--of her commands for
Venice for the galley that was to sail on the morrow. But meanwhile the
vision of horror rose before him of that which he had seen with his own
eyes; and lest, watching him so closely she should learn too much, he
dropped his gaze, feigning to seek for some items on the tablet he held
in his hand. How should he tell her the story of this plot to influence
an uprising, to wrest the stronghold of Cerines for Carlotta, the rival
claimant and heir? How explain this conspiracy against her husband when
she probably knew nothing of what lay beneath it? How could he speak of
the staunch loyalty to Carlotta of the leader of this conspiracy, of
whom the disaffected were making a hero, and who had preferred any fate
to the necessity of swearing fealty to Janus! He had shuddered at the
barbarism which could decree such a fate for the conspirators; nor could
he forget the horror of those bodies cut in bits, and swung on high, in
the four quarters of the town--a ghastly warning for all men to see--as
they walked to and fro in the marvellous great city of Nikosia--the city
of luxury and of churches.

But if the treatment of traitors in Venice was scarcely less barbarous,
yet the State seemed to each son of the Republic a more awe-inspiring
and less personal entity than a kingly head of any other government,
justifying severer punishment when betrayed; Venetians had been brought
up to feel that a traitor could ask for no milder fate than to swing
high upon the Piazzetta between the columns--those who thought otherwise
might avoid looking up as they passed.

He would not start her questions when it was not for him to answer them.
He caught helplessly at some court trifles, trying to evade her mood;
but she silenced him with an impatient exclamation.

When he raised his eyes he found her still watching him, with a
pathetic, questioning look.

"They keep things from me, as if I were a child!" she cried indignantly.
"Can I be a friend to our people if I do not understand them? There are
many things that I would know--the fiefs--the ancient nobles--Carlotta.
They told me little in Venice of the things I need to know."

"What things?" the Chamberlain asked