in Italian, while I used English in putting any
questions which might be necessary to my enlightenment. He accepted
the proposal. In his smooth-flowing language, spoken with a vehement
agitation which betrayed itself in the perpetual working of his
features, in the wildness and the suddenness of his foreign
gesticulations, but never in the raising of his voice, I now heard the
words which armed me to meet the last struggle, that is left for this
story to record.[3]

[3] It is only right to mention here, that I repeat Pesco's statement
to me with the careful suppressions and alterations which the serious
nature of the subject and my own sense of duty to my friend demand. My
first and last concealments from the reader are those which caution
renders absolutely necessary in this portion of the narrative.

"You know nothing of my motive for leaving Italy," he began, "except
that it was for political reasons. If I had been driven to this
country by the persecution of my government, I should not have kept
those reasons a secret from you or from any one. I have concealed them
because no government authority has pronounced the sentence of my
exile. You have heard, Walter, of the political societies that are
hidden in every great city on the continent of Europe? To one of those
societies I belonged in Italy--and belong still in England. When I
came to this country, I came by the direction of my chief. I was
over-zealous in my younger time--I ran the risk of compromising myself
and others. For those reasons I was ordered to emigrate to England and
to wait. I emigrated--I have waited--I wait still. To-morrow I may be
called away--ten years hence I may be called away. It is all one to
me--I am here, I support myself by teaching, and I wait. I violate no
oath (you shall hear why presently) in making my confidence complete by
telling you the name of the society to which I belong. All I do is to
put my life in your hands. If what I say to you now is ever known by
others to have passed my lips, as certainly as we two sit here, I am a
dead man."

He whispered the next words in my ear. I keep the secret which he thus
communicated. The society to which he belonged will be sufficiently
individualised for the purpose of these pages, if I call it "The
Brotherhood," on the few occasions when any reference to the subject
will be needed in this place.

"The object of the Brotherhood," Pesca went on, "is, briefly, the
obje