Tommaso was by this time puffing like a porpoise, for he was not as
young as when he had been the terror of the Bologna road, and he had
been living on the fat of his masters' plentiful leavings for weeks,
with a very liberal allowance of the white wine of Marino. Moreover,
knowing what he did of the Bravi's intentions, Cucurullo's suggestion
seemed at once highly comic and extremely valuable. But Cucurullo
himself, good soul, was pleased at having forced Tommaso to slacken his
pace and listen to him.

'I come of my own intention, dear friend,' he said, 'because I am in
constant anxiety about the Lady Ortensia. For Don Alberto is nephew to
both the Popes, as they say here, and it would be an easy matter for
him to carry her off into the country; the more so as she and my master
are living in his own palace, and it sometimes happens that the Maestro
goes out alone to a rehearsal of music, leaving only me and Pina to
protect his lady, and what could we do if Don Alberto came at such a
time with a band of men and simply carried the lady downstairs to his
own coach and drove away with her?'

'My dear friend,' answered the other, who had now recovered his breath,
'I do not know what you could do. Am I a prophet, that you ask me
riddles? The book of wisdom is buried under the statue of Pasquin, as
these Romans say! If such a thing happened to me, I should consider the
safety of my own skin, which is worth more to me than many other skins,
even than the skins of lions for which His Holiness pays a great price,
they tell me, when travellers bring them from Africa! For you might as
well resist the Tiber in a flood, as try to hinder the Pope's favourite
nephew from doing what he likes! Not that the Pope, or even the
Cardinal, knows what he does; but he has a golden key to every door in
Rome, a papal pass for every gate of the city, and a roll of blank
pardons, duly signed and sealed, for any misdeed his servants may
commit! What could you or I do against such a man?'

Having had his haste fairly run out of his legs, Tommaso was now
inclined to be talkative, though what he said led to no particular
conclusion, except that it would not be safe to interfere with Don
Alberto's plans. The truth was that he saw magnificent possibilities for
his masters in Cucurullo's request for protection, and he had not the
smallest intention of risking a mistake by answering for them, still
less of discouraging Cucurullo's hope that they would p