"Exactly so."
He pulled from a drawer a bag, which chinked with a pleasant sound to my ears.
"Here," he said, "are a hundred crowns. It is your fee for the task I set you."
"It is ample."
"And now, Messer--Donati--farewell! You will always find a friend in me. You know your way--I have left the side door open--and bear a loose sword."
"A word, your excellency."
"Say on."
"Prom what has happened to-night, I see plainly that the plotters against your life have friends very near you. If they failed this time they may not fail again. One of the men who made the attack to-night I recognised. He is called Brico, formerly an ancient, perhaps still so, in the army of Tremouille."
"I will attend to the Signor Brico."
"Yet a little more. If your excellency's movements are known it is probably from within your own house. I would keep an eye on your library scribe."