e of torn body-linen hanging from one of them. He had let
himself down and climbed along the wall. The iron gate, which leads into
the subterranean tunnels, was found to be unlocked. That looks as if the
guards had been suborned."

"But how did he come to be lying across the path? Did he fall from the
rampart and hurt himself?"

"That is what I thought at first. Your Eminence; but the prison surgeon
can't find any trace of a fall. The soldier who was on duty yesterday
says that Rivarez looked very ill last night when he brought in the
supper, and did not eat anything. But that must be nonsense; a sick man
couldn't file those bars through and climb along that roof. It's not in
reason."

"Does he give any account of himself?"

"He is unconscious, Your Eminence."

"Still?"

"He just half comes to himself from time to time and moans, and then
goes off again."

"That is very strange. What does the doctor think?"

"He doesn't know what to think. There is no trace of heart-disease that
he can find to account for the thing; but whatever is the matter with
him, it is something that must have come on suddenly, just when he had
nearly managed to escape. For my part, I believe he was struck down by
the direct intervention of a merciful Providence."

Montanelli frowned slightly.

"What are you going to do with him?" he asked.

"That is a question I shall settle in a very few days. In the meantime I
have had a good lesson. That is what comes of taking off the irons--with
all due respect to Your Eminence."

"I hope," Montanelli interrupted, "that you will at least not replace
the fetters while he is ill. A man in the condition you describe can
hardly make any more attempts to escape."

"I shall take good care he doesn't," the Governor muttered to himself as
he went out. "His Eminence can go hang with his sentimental scruples for
all I care. Rivarez is chained pretty tight now, and is going to stop
so, ill or not."

*****

"But how can it have happened? To faint away at the last moment, when
everything was ready; when he was at the very gate! It's like some
hideous joke."

"I tell you," Martini answered, "the only thing I can think of is that
one of these attacks must have come on, and that he must have struggled
against it as long as his strength lasted and have fainted from sheer
exhaustion when he got down into the courtyard."

Marcone knocked the ashes savagely from his pipe.

"Well, anyhow, that's the