und, 'in partibus infidelium,' and
returned the Governor's salutations with a magnificent benediction from
the window of his coach. The papal halberdiers of the castle, all drawn
up in line outside the moat, saluted by laying their long halberds to
the left at a sharp angle.

The Legate put on his three-cornered hat as the escort trotted away
after the coaches, and he stood rubbing his hands and watching the
fast-disappearing procession of travellers, while the guard formed in
double file and awaited his pleasure, ready to follow him in.

He had scarcely reached middle age, but he looked like a dried-up little
old man, with his wrinkled face, his small red eyes, and his withered
hands. No one who did not know him would have taken him to be the
tremendous personage he really was in Ferrara, invested with full powers
to represent his sovereign master, Pope Clement the Tenth; or rather the
Pope's adopted 'nephew,' who was not his nephew at all, Cardinal Paluzzo
Altieri, the real and visible power in Rome. The truth was that the aged
Pontiff was almost bedridden and was scarcely ever seen, and he was only
too glad to be relieved of all care and responsibility.

Monsignor Pelagatti, for that was the Legate's name, was a man of no
distinguished extraction; indeed, it would be more true to say that he
had extracted himself from his original surroundings. For it was by dint
of laudable hard work as well as by virtue of certain useful gifts of
mind and character that he had raised himself above his family to a
really important position. It was commonly said in Rome that his father
had been a highway robber and his mother a washerwoman, and that his
brother was even now a footman in service; but it is quite possible that
the Roman gossips knew more of his people than he did, seeing that he
had declined to have anything to do with his family ever since he had
got his first place as assistant steward in the Paluzzo household,
before that family had been adopted and had received the name of Altieri
from the Pope; and this is all that need be said about his beginnings
for the present.

In due time he went upstairs again, installed himself behind the long
oak table in his office, and took up the business of the day. A brown
wooden crucifix stood before him, and at the foot of it was placed his
large leaden inkstand, well provided with pens, ink, and red sand for
blotting. At each end of the table sat a clerk; of these two, one was