Monna Afra may retain for
herself any of the contents of the _coffre_?"

"I have already reproached you"--the Duke answered with a most malignant
expression--"for giving vent to vain imaginings. If you cannot refrain
from thinking, at least keep silence, and implicitly carry out my
instructions.

"After delivering this package wait a little, while Monna Afra goes to
fetch the casket; should she tarry follow her and, no matter what you
may see or surmise, make no outcry but hasten from the villa failing not
to bring the casket with you. The Duchess tells me that while at the
villa she kept it in a hiding-place constructed by the Pope for his
jewels, which opens by pressing a certain ball upon one of the Medicean
shields with which the villa is so profusely ornamented. But, on
reflection, I see no reason for giving you access to our family
treasure-chest. Monna Afra will not have placed the casket there, since
she herself showed the Duchess the secret receptacle, and it would be
the first place in which she would search for it; and if, indeed, it is
hidden there it is perfectly safe."

Thus commissioned I betook myself again to Rome; but being welcomed by
old acquaintances, and finding an accumulation of important orders
awaiting my attention, I naturally thought that the Duke's business
might wait upon my own, and indeed might have clean forgotten it but for
the following circumstance.

I had gone fowling one day with a friend in the marshes near the villa
of Magliana, in the neighbourhood of Ostia. Toward nightfall (as I have
elsewhere related), happening from a little hill to look in the
direction of Florence, I saw an extraordinary phenomenon, namely, a
heavenly body in the shape of a Turkish scimitar, its blade directed
toward the city. Whereat I exclaimed loudly, "We shall certainly hear
that some great event has occurred at Florence."

Even as I spoke a stranger wrapped in a long cloak who at a little
distance from us was attentively observing this appearance, asked me
what I supposed the portent might signify.

"Nothing less," I replied confidently, giving vent to the first thought
which came into my mind, "than the assassination of Duke Alessandro."
With that he uttered an exclamation in Arabic, and hurried in the
direction of the Tiber. We had ridden but a short distance when some
peasants rushed toward us with frantic gestures, crying out that a ship
rigged after the manner of the Turkish corsairs was m