“And these two prisoners, your Highness, what is to be done with them?”
“Whatever you please, Stubber. Give them the third-class cross of Massa, or a month's imprisonment, at your own good pleasure. Only, no more business,—no papers to sign, no schemes to unravel; and so good night.” And the Chevalier retired at once from a presence which he well knew resented no injury so unmercifully as any invasion of his personal comfort.
CHAPTER XXX. THE LIFE THEY LED AT MASSA
It was with no small astonishment young Massy heard that he and his faithful follower were not alone restored to liberty, but that an order of his Highness had assigned them a residence in a portion of the palace, and a promise of future employment.
“This smacks of Turkish rather than of European rule,” said the youth. “In prison yesterday,—in a palace to-day. My own fortunes are wayward enough, Heaven knows, not to require any additional ingredient of uncertainty. What think you, Traynor?”
“I'm thinkin',” said Billy, gravely, “that as the bastes of the field are guided by their instincts to objects that suit their natures, so man ought, by his reason, to be able to pilot himself in difficulties,—choosin' this, avoidin' that; seein' by the eye of prophecy where a road would lead him, and makin' of what seem the accidents of life, steppin'-stones to fortune.”
“In what way does your theory apply here?” cried the other. “How am I to guess whither this current may carry me?”
“At all events, there's no use wastin' your strength by swimmin' against it,” rejoined Billy.
“To be the slave of some despot's whim,—the tool of a caprice that may elevate me to-day, and to-morrow sentence me to the gallows. The object I have set before myself in life is to be independent. Is this, then, the road to it?”