He gave a short laugh.
"One knoweth not," he answered, with an attempt at playfulness that showed no color of mirth. "These two hours have I been within. Cornaro was with me. Another mahona may have chanced to land, coming from Africa with some other Valentine to do Carlotta's bidding and assert her claim to this uneasy crown of Cyprus; this Valentine of Montolipho, poor youth, having no longer a brain to work her schemes.—But danger from within is less easy to quell."
She had never seen him so uneasy: but she tried to control her apprehension since he needed all her strength.
"What saith Andrea Cornaro? Doth he share thy fear?" she asked in a low even tone.
"We spoke together but now of his Grace, the Archbishop, who verily wore a face that boded no good to the child nor his mother—even as he held him in baptism that day—sealing him with the sign of the Holy Cross!—And to-day, in Council—verily Cyprus hath need of a new Council——" he broke off suddenly.
"The Archbishop is not of the Council, Aluisi!"
"But his brother, the Count Carpasso, is more to fear," he cried wrathfully. "They are men of one mind and both creatures of that treacherous King of Naples. If Janus had had more wit, he would have left Gioan Peres Fabrici to this day, bargaining for his cargoes of grain, instead of naming him to the Council of the Realm and lavishing the honors of the kingdom upon this faithless favorite."
"Faithless—my son? It is an evil word."
The quiet interruption arrested the angry flow of his speech.
"I pray that he be not found faithless," he said more quietly, "when he hath a chance to prove his quality. But one would think a man so favored of the King would seek, at every turn, to prove his loyalty before the Queen—in which I find him not overanxious."