"Then how did you pass?" exclaimed the king, somewhat irritated by the man's boldness.
"Because I can be a Frenchman when I like and an Italian when I like, may it please your Majesty," replied Antonio; "this time I thought fit to be an Italian, and that saved me."
"I would fain have the man asked," said La Tremouille, "if he knows by whom those bands are commanded, led, or instigated."
"I know nothing but by common report," replied Antonio, "and she is a stumbling jade upon whom it is not well to rest weighty matters. However, she sometimes stumbles right, and the general rumour throughout the whole country was that his Eminence the Cardinal Cæsar Borgia was at the bottom of the whole. Certain it is that the men who stopped and robbed the muleteer professed themselves to be his soldiers."
"I cannot believe it," said the king; "he was wrong in leaving our camp it is true, when he had voluntarily surrendered himself as a hostage, but in all our communications he showed reverence for the crown of France, and professed respect and affection for our person."
A slight smile came upon the lips of several of the counsellors, who had learned by experience the difference between professions and realities, but no one ventured to assail the king's opinion, and shortly after Antonio was dismissed; but it was only to give place to the king's provost, who came to report very unmistakable signs of mutiny and sedition in the city of Naples itself. From his account it appeared that even those who had been most discontented with the Arragonese princes, and had greeted most warmly the entrance of Charles into Naples, longed for the restoration of the old dynasty, and were, step by step, advancing towards revolt.
"They are an ungrateful people," said Charles; "have I not freed them from taxes and burdens insupportable?"
"Yes, sire," replied bluff La Tremouille; "but I must say in their favour that if you have freed them, some of our good friends have burdened them sufficiently. In fact, your Majesty, it has been but a change in the nature, not in the weight of the load, and the old story goes, if I recollect right, that the ass who carried the gold, found his pack quite as heavy as the ass who carried the hay."
"You are somewhat bold," replied the king, with a frowning brow.
"I am, sire," replied the undaunted soldier; "perhaps too bold, and I can crave your pardon on the plea that I am rendered bold by my zeal for your Majesty's service. The people of the whole kingdom we know to be discontented at the end of three short months. Now, as your Majesty has shown yourself full of the kindest and most liberal feelings towards them, this discontent can only be produced by the exactions and peculations of inferior persons. I mention it now, whatever it may produce, because I sincerely hope and trust that Naples may ever remain a dependency of the French crown; and it will be necessary that these things be examined into very closely, in order that the country may be rendered a willing and attached dependency, rather than a hot-bed of mutiny and discontent--a sore in the side of France."