nstrable
lies, for as it happened he had never found his advancement to hinge
upon the commission of the crimes named. But even so, the past was a
cemetery he did not care to have revivified.

"And it was you who detected the Marquis of Cibo's conspiracy.
Tebaldeo was my cousin, Count Eglamore, and I loved him. We were
reared together. We used to play here in these woods, and I remember
how Tebaldeo once fetched me a wren's nest from that maple yonder. I
stood just here. I was weeping because I was afraid he would fall. If
he had fallen and been killed, it would have been the luckier for him,"
Graciosa sighed. "They say that he conspired. I do not know. I only
know that by your orders, Count Eglamore, my playmate Tebaldeo was
fastened upon a Saint Andrew's cross and his arms and legs were each
broken in two places with an iron bar. Then your servants took
Tebaldeo, still living, and laid him upon a carriage-wheel which was
hung upon a pivot. The upper edge of this wheel was cut with very fine
teeth like those of a saw, so that his agony might be complete.
Tebaldeo's poor mangled legs were folded beneath his body so that his
heels touched the back of his head, they tell me. In such a posture he
died very slowly while the wheel turned very slowly there in the sunlit
market-place, and flies buzzed greedily about him, and the shopkeepers
took holiday in order to watch Tebaldeo die--the same Tebaldeo who once
fetched me a wren's nest from yonder maple."

Eglamore spoke now. "I gave orders for the Marquis of Cibo's
execution. I did not devise the manner of his death. The punishment
for Cibo's crime was long ago fixed by our laws. Cibo plotted to kill
the Duke. Cibo confessed as much."

But the girl waved this aside. "And then you plan this masquerade.
You plan to make me care for you so greatly that even when I know you
to be Count Eglamore I must still care for you. You plan to marry me,
so as to placate Tebaldeo's kinsmen, so as to bind them to your
interests. It was a fine bold stroke of policy, I know, to use me as a
stepping-stone to safety--but was it fair to me?" Her voice rose now a
little. She seemed to plead with him. "Look you, Count Eglamore, I
was a child only yesterday. I have never loved any man. But you have
loved many women, I know, and long experience has taught you many ways
of moving a woman's heart. Oh, was it fair, was it worth while, to
match your skill against my ignorance?