The officers looked up, looked down at the spot to which the crown-prince pointed, expressed surprise:
"I thought that he lived in the south, in Thracyna," said the young Count of Thesbia.
Othomar repeated what the duchess had told him.
"Zanti!" cried Herman. "Balthazar Zanti? Why, but then it is he!... I was talking this afternoon to a party of peasants; they told me of the new huts which a new landlord was fitting up in the neighbourhood, but they spoke in dialect and I could not understand them clearly; I thought they said Xanti and I never suspected that it could be Balthazar Zanti. So he's the man!"
"Huts?" asked Othomar.
"Yes, a village of huts, it seems; they said he was so rich and so generous and was housing I don't know how many peasants, who had lost all that they possessed."
"I now remember reading in the papers that Zanti had gone to live at Vaza," said Leoni.
"I should like to see those huts: we can take them on our way to-morrow," said Othomar.
General Ducardi compressed his bushy eyebrows:
"You know, highness, that his majesty is anything but enamoured of Zanti and is even thinking of exiling him. It would perhaps be more in accordance with his majesty's views to ignore what Zanti is doing here for the moment."