But Barbara was distressed. Must she resort to crime, she who had declared to the cardinal that her reliance was upon heaven? For her conscience refused to palliate Zabern's intended deed; the slaying of Ravenna without trial would be murder, and murder wrought to secure a title the validity of which she herself was beginning to question.
Zabern noted her look of pain.
"Your Highness, bestow no pity upon the cardinal; he deserves death, if ever man deserved it. Consider the case of your sister Natalie. Do not believe that she committed suicide. A maiden of seventeen, to whom life was just unfolding fair and bright, heiress to a crown, and affianced to a man whom she loved—heaven forgive her for her choice!—she had every inducement to live. Doubt not that the cardinal had a hand in her death. Give me leave to employ the rack upon him, and I'll soon extract the truth."
"You have my authority for his arrest and conveyance to the oubliettes of the Citadel. Solitary confinement and a deaf jailer, if you will; but murder—no! Fiat voluntas mea."
With that the interview terminated, and Zabern departed to reduce to practice the plan he had formed.
Four weeks afterwards he presented to the princess three small packets, each fastened with violet-colored wax, stamped with the image of a paschal lamb, a seal that recalled vividly to her mind the mysterious incidents connected with the cardinal's study at Castel Nuovo.
"There are Ravenna's documentary safeguards," laughed Zabern. "One half of our task is accomplished."
"How have you managed it?" asked Barbara.
"Katina's sister Juliska has been my agent. Going to Zamoska she succeeded in making acquaintance with a maid-servant belonging to the household of this Redwitz, who, it appears, is a Catholic priest. By the offer of a large bribe Juliska persuaded this girl to ask her master's leave to visit a dying brother in a distant part of Russia, the said dying brother being, of course, a mythical personage; in the meantime, the maid averred, her duties could be performed by a friend of hers then resident in Zamoska. The unsuspecting Redwitz gave his consent, and the pretty Juliska took up her residence under the priest's roof in the character of temporary servant.
"Fortunately for our plan one of her duties was to attend to the study of this Redwitz, and, making careful search in his absence, she soon lighted upon these three packets in a secret drawer of an escritoire. Having been provided beforehand with the necessary materials, namely, violet wax and the cardinal's seal, Juliska quickly made up three blank packets outwardly similar in all respects to the originals; and the latter being abstracted from the escritoire were replaced by the fac-similes."