However, Agatha did not seem to notice it, and whenever he turned his eyes from the bandit to her, he found her apparently calm and undisturbed, having no thought either of attacking or of defending herself.
"My friends," she said, after pausing a moment to take breath, "we can say good-night and separate with our minds at rest. I place my full confidence in this new friend whom Providence, acting through the wisdom of Fra Angelo, has sent to us. You will share my confidence when I tell you that he knew beforehand, and knew far better than ourselves, what we had to fear and to hope."
"It is a decidedly interesting affair, it is true," said the Piccinino, making an effort to emerge from his dreaming; "and it is time that this young man should know why I roared with laughter when he came to see me. You will laugh too, I hope, Master Michelangelo, when you learn that you came and entrusted your fate to a man who had been strenuously urged, an hour earlier, to do you a bad turn; and if I were not calm and prudent in such affairs, if I believed blindly the words of those who came to consult me, while you were urging me in her highness's behalf to kidnap Abbé Ninfo, I should have seized you and thrown you into my cellar, securely bound and gagged, at the request of Abbé Ninfo. I see by your manner that you would have resisted vigorously. Oh! I know that you are brave, and I fancy that you are stronger than I. You have an uncle who has kept his muscles in play so persistently for twenty years past, breaking stone, that he cannot have lost any of the strength which caused him to be called Iron Arm when he plied another trade on the mountain; but, when one is engaged in a matter of great political moment, one takes precautions, and I had but to touch a little bell to have my house surrounded by determined men, who would not have afforded you even the pleasure of resistance."
Having spoken thus, his eyes fixed upon Michel with a playful expression, the Piccinino turned again to the princess. She had concealed her pallor behind her fan, and when the brigand met her eyes, they were armed with a tranquil expression which dispelled the last traces of his ironical humor. The secret pleasure which it always afforded him to frighten those who ventured into his presence disappeared before that womanly glance, which seemed to say to him: "You shall not do it, I forbid you."
So that he at once assumed an expression of hearty good-will, and said to Michel:
"You see, my young friend, that I had my reasons for insisting upon an explanation of the affair, and for not being in too much of a hurry. Now that I am convinced that honor and truth are on one side, infamy and falsehood on the other, my choice is made, and you can sleep with both eyes shut. I propose to go with you to Catania," he added, addressing Michel in an undertone, "where I must arrange the worthy abbé's departure for to-morrow. But I absolutely require two hours' rest. Can you promise me a corner in your house where I can sleep soundly for two hours without danger of being seen? For my features are hardly known in the city, and I do not wish them to become known there until it is necessary. Tell me, can I enter your house without fear of inquisitive eyes, especially women's eyes?"
"I have a young sister who is moderately inquisitive," replied Michel smiling; "but she will be in bed at this time of night. Trust me, as I trusted you; I will give you my own bed, and sit up in the room if you wish."
"I accept," said the bandit, who, while talking with Michel, was trying to overhear the words, unimportant in themselves, which the princess was exchanging with the marquis, in order not to embarrass the conversation between the two young men. Michel observed that, notwithstanding the Piccinino's assertion that he could not do two things at once, he did not lose a gesture, a word, or a movement of Agatha's, while he was talking with him.
When he was assured of the two hours' absolute rest which was, he said, indispensable to put him in a condition to act intelligently, the Piccinino rose and prepared to retire. But the coquettish moderation with which he arranged his cloak about his flexible figure, the languid grace of his preoccupied air during that momentous operation, and the imperceptible quivering of his silky black moustache, showed plainly enough that he went away with regret, and after the manner of a man who is striving to dispel the mists of drunkenness in order to return to work.
"You do not wish to be seen?" said Agatha; "then step into the marquis's carriage with Michel. He will drive you to the outskirts of the city, and you can slip through the narrow streets."