or many
travellers were going and coming, and in a time of peace like the
present more attention was bestowed by the authorities on foreign
travellers than on Italians. But Stradella had brought some of his
belongings with him, which his man had carefully concealed in the
gondola, and amongst other things there was his favourite long lute; the
instrument had been noticed by the ostlers at the postern-house in Padua
on account of its unusual size, and they remembered the four travellers
after hearing the spy's description of three of them, for he knew
nothing of Stradella's servant.

There was therefore no doubt but that the fugitives were now far beyond
the Venetian border in the States of the Church, and Pignaver resolved
to keep the appointment at the Frari, taking with him the hundred gold
ducats which were to be paid in advance.

The Bravi were already there indeed, but he did not see them at once,
and as Vespers were over and the Benediction was about to begin, he
selected a spot a little apart from the common herd and knelt down to
his devotions, for it was of no use to waste time that could be so
profitably employed.

But while he was thus engaged, it being already sunset and the light in
the church failing, the men he sought were earnestly conversing in low
tones with a young Dominican monk in a distant corner; and the monk, it
is needless to say, was the lady whose ring they had taken, and who had
knocked so long in vain at Stradella's door three days earlier.

'Madam,' Gambardella was saying, 'the search may be a long one, but we
will do our best. We shall require two gold ducats daily for our
expenses in travelling, and the payment of five hundred gold ducats in
cash when we deliver to you Master Alessandro Stradella, bound hand and
foot, at your villa on the Brenta.'

'But the woman must die!' protested the lady earnestly.

'That goes without saying, madam,' answered Gambardella. 'You may
regard her as already dead and buried, for you have our word for it.
Nothing remains but that you should place in our hands a hundred gold
ducats on account, which we shall require in order to start.'

The lady was evidently prepared for such a demand, and produced a small
leathern bag from within her monk's frock. But she was evidently a woman
of business.

'Since we are now friends,' she said, putting the bag into Gambardella's
hand, 'you ought to give me back my ring when the thing is done!'

'Madam,' said Tro