"Open it, and you will find that it does not contain a single word. I received it so from our messenger, who brought it directly from Count Nugent in Heligoland to me. It is your letter of recommendation, that is all! Written words might compromise, spoken ones die away upon the wind. If you deliver this, addressed in General Nugent's hand, to the captain of the Proserpina, he will recognize you as the right messenger, and you will then tell him verbally what you have to say."
"What shall I tell him?"
"Tell him to take in his freight, have his ballast on board, and keep everything in readiness for departure. From the day that you reach him the Proserpina must be ready for sea, and a boat must lie in the harbor night and day to receive the members of our league who will come if the plan succeeds."
"But I hope this is not all that I have to do? I shall not be denied a more active part in the great cause?"
"If you wish, no! One of us will accompany Bonaparte to Genoa as his jailer. You can relieve him there, and attend him to his prison."
"I will do so. But where will the prison be?"
"You will put him on some barren island in the ocean, which will serve as his dungeon. Then you will return. But you must name the place to which you conveyed him to no one except the heads of the society: that is, to General Nugent and myself. We will guard it as the most sacred secret of our lives, that no one may learn it—no one can make the attempt to rescue him."
"I thank you," cried the count joyously. "You assign me an honorable task, which proves that the heads of the society trust me. What else have I to do? Will not a meeting of the conspirators take place? Will you not summon one?"
"No, for I shall go at once to Totis to make the most necessary additional arrangements with General Bubna, and through him with the Empress Ludovica, that, if the plot succeeds, the advantage will be ours and cannot be claimed by the French party. But you, count, must manage to summon such an assembly of our friends in some unsuspected place. I learn that Baroness de Simonie is to give an entertainment to which, without knowing it, she has invited a number of our friends. You will recognize them by the black enamel ring which every member of our band must wear upon the little finger of his left hand. You will name to each a place of meeting.
"Oh, I already know one," cried the count, "it is—"