‘I will see her myself,’ cried he at length. ‘All her stage tricks and cunning will avail her little with me; and if she really have high powers, why should they not be turned to our use? When Satan piled evil upon evil to show his strength, St. Francis made of the mass an altar? Well, now, Giacomo, what is it?’ asked he suddenly, as his servant entered.
‘He has fallen asleep at last, reverend father,’ answered he, ‘and is breathing softly as a child. He cannot fail to be better for this repose, for it is now five days and nights since he has closed an eye.’
‘Never since the night of the reception at Cardinal Abbezi’s.’
‘That was a fatal experiment, I much fear,’ muttered Giacomo.
‘It may have been so. Who knows—who ever did or could know with certainty the one true path out of difficulty?’
‘When he came back on that night,’ continued Giacomo, ‘he would not suffer me to undress him, but threw himself down on the bed as he was, saying, “Leave me to myself; I would be alone.”
‘I offered to take off his sword and the golden collar of his order, but he bade me angrily to desist, and said—
‘"These are all that remind me of what I am, and you would rob me of them.’”
‘True enough; the pageantry was a brief dream! And what said he next?’
‘He talked wildly about his cruel fortunes, and the false friends who had misguided him in his youth, saying—