f ten thousand lire when she marries. The
father is pleased, the daughter is not. She sits and cries. She talks of
herself getting at him with a stiletto."

He took a cigarette, and accepted a light from Calabressa.

"Further," he continued, "his Eminence is so kind as to propose to give
the Council an annual subsidy from his own purse of thirty thousand
lire."

"Thirty thousand lire!" Calabressa exclaimed.

But at this point even Granaglia began to laugh.

"Yes, yes, my friend," he said, apparently apostrophizing the absent
Cardinal. "You know, then, who we are, and you do not wish to give up
all pleasures. No; we are to become the good boy among secret societies;
we are to have the blessing of the Pope; we are to fight Prince Bismarck
for you. Prince Bismarck has all his knights and his castles on the
board; but what are they against an angelic host of bishops and some
millions of common pawns? Prince Bismarck wishes to plunge Europe again
into war. The church with this tremendous engine within reach, says, No.
Do you wish to find eight men--eight men, at the least--out of every
company of every regiment in all your _corps d'armee_ throw down their
rifles at the first onset of battle? You will shoot them for mutiny? My
dear fellow, you cannot, the enemy is upon you. With eight men out of
each company throwing down their weapons, and determined either to
desert or die, how on earth can you fight at all? Well, then, good
Bismarck, you had better make your peace with the Church, and rescind
those Falk laws. What do you think of that scheme, Calabressa? It was
ingenious, was it not, to have come into the head of a man under
sentence of death?"

"But the thirty thousand lire, Brother Granaglia. It is a tremendous
bribe."

"The Council does not accept bribes, Brother Calabressa," said the
other, coldly,

"It is decided, then, that the decree remains to be executed?"

"I know nothing to the contrary. But if you wish to know for certain,
you must seek the Council. They are at Naples."

He pulled an ink-bottle before him, and made a motion with his
forefinger.

"You understand?"

"Yes, yes," Calabressa answered. "And I will go on to Naples, Brother
Granaglia; for I have with me one who I think will carry out the wishes
of the Council effectively, so far as his Eminence the Cardinal is
concerned."

"Who is he?" said the other, but with no great interest.

"Yakov Kirski. He is a Russian."

CHAPTER XXVI