qualigo, 'and some things
that nobody knows.'

'Hah, hah!' said Barizy of the Tower, pricking up his ears, and
preparing for one of those diplomatic encounters of mutual pumping,
in which he and his rival were practised. 'I suppose you have seen
somebody, eh?'

'Somebody has been seen,' replied Pasqualigo, and then he busied himself
with his pipe just arrived.

'But nobody has seen somebody who was on the spot?' said Barizy.

'It depends upon what you mean by the spot,' replied Pasqualigo.

'Your information is second-hand,' observed Barizy.

'But you acknowledge it is correct?' said Pasqualigo, more eagerly.

'It depends upon whether your friend was present----' and here Barizy
hesitated.

'It does,' said Pasqualigo.

'Then he was present?' said Barizy.

'He was.'

'Then he knows,' said Barizy, eagerly, 'whether the young English prince
was murdered intentionally or by hazard.'

'A--h,' said Pasqualigo, whom not the slightest rumour of the affair had
yet reached, 'that is a great question.'

'But everything depends upon it,' said Barizy. 'If he was killed
accidentally, there will be negotiations, but the business will
be compromised; the English want Cyprus, and they will take it as
compensation. If it is an affair of malice prepense, there will be war,
for the laws of England require war if blood royal be spilt.'

The Consul Pasqualigo looked very grave; then, withdrawing his lips for
a moment from his amber mouthpiece, he observed, 'It is a crisis.'

'It will be a crisis,' said Barizy of the Tower, excited by finding
his rival a listener, 'but not for a long time. The crisis has not
commenced. The first question is: to whom does the desert belong; to the
Porte, or to the Viceroy?'

'It depends upon what part of the desert is in question,' said
Pasqualigo.

'Of course the part where it took place. I say the Arabian desert
belongs to the Viceroy; my cousin, Barizy of the Gate, says "No, it
belongs to the Porte." Raphael Tafna says it belongs to neither. The
Bedouins are independent.'

'But they are not recognised,' said the Consul Pasqualigo. 'Without
a diplomatic existence, they are nullities. England will hold all the
recognise powers in the vicinity responsible. You will see! The murder
of an English prince, under such circumstances too, will not pass
unavenged. The whole of the Turkish garrison of the city will march out
directly into the desert.'

'The Arabs care shroff for your Turkish g