make a Corsican in time. But, I own to
you, he has been ill brought up, and before ever he met with Father
Domenico. As yet he thinks only of his own will, like a spoilt
child; and of his pleasures, which are not those of a king such as he
desires to be."

Said I at a guess, "But the pleasures--eh, Marc'antonio?--such as a
forward boy learns on the pavements; of Brussels, for example?"

I thought for the moment he would have knifed me, so fiercely he
started back and then craned forward at me, showing his white teeth.
I saw that my luck with him hung on this moment.

"Tell me," I said, facing him and dragging hard on the hurry in my
voice, "and remember that I owe no love to this cub. You may be
loyal to him as you will, but I am the Princess's man, I! You heard
me promise her. Tell me, why has she no recruits?"

He drew back yet farther, still with his teeth bared. "Am _I_ not
her man?" he almost hissed.

"So you tell me," I answered, with a scornful laugh, brazening it
out. "You are her man, and Stephanu is her man, and the Prince too,
and the Father Domenico, no doubt. Yes, you are all her men, you
four: but why can she collect no others?" I paused a moment and,
holding up a hand, checked them off contemptuously upon my fingers.
"Four of you! and among you at least one traitor! Stop!" said I, as
he made a motion to protest. "You four--you and Stephanu and the
Prince and Fra Domenico--know something which it concerns her fame to
keep hidden; you four, and no other that I wot of. You are all her
men, her champions: and yet this secret leaks out and poisons all
minds against the cause. Because of it, Paoli will have no dealing
with you. Because of it, though you raise your standard on the
mountains, no Corsicans flock to it. Pah!" I went on, my scorn
confounding him, "I called you her champion, the other day! Be so
good as consider that I spoke derisively. Four pretty champions she
has, indeed; of whom one is a traitor, and the other three have not
the spirit to track him down and kill him!"

Marc'antonio stood close by me now. To my amazement he was shaking
like a man with the ague.

"Cavalier, you do not understand!" he protested hoarsely: but his
eyes were wistful, as though he hoped for something which yet he
dared not hear.

"Eh? I do not understand? Well, now, listen to me. I am her man,
too, but in a different fashion. You heard what I swore to her, that
day, beside my friend's body