“Then secure his release. Persuade your father to sign a decree reversing the finding of the court-martial, and he, in turn, can save you from falling victim to this man to whom you are giving yourself in marriage.”
Angelo Borselli met her piercing glance unmoved. She seemed to be trying to divine the schemer’s secret thoughts.
“You will do this—for your own sake,” he whispered earnestly. “It is unjust that the poor captain should be kept in prison for a crime of which he is innocent.”
“But if you know that he is not guilty, why have you not already used your own influence as Under-Secretary to secure his release?” she asked, with distinct suspicion, a thousand uneasy thoughts agitating her bosom.
“Because I am powerless. It is only His Excellency, your father, who can sign decrees,” was his reply, adding, “I have more than once directed his attention to the act of gross injustice, but his reply has in each case been the same—namely, that he had examined the evidence, and that he could discover no doubt about the captain’s culpability in selling the secrets of Tresenta and of our mobilisation scheme for the protection of the French frontier. Both secrets actually reached the Intelligence Department of the French Ministry of War, for that has been proved beyond doubt by our secret agents in Paris; and, further, they passed through the hands of a lady friend of Solaro’s—Filoména Nodari.”
“Where is that woman now? Still in Bologna?”
“No, I think not,” was his reply, without, however, telling her how he had taken the woman into his service and sent her to England. “I learned a short time ago that she had left, and gone abroad.”
“It was through her false evidence that Felice was convicted. She told foul untruths concerning him,” his companion cried angrily.
“I know. Perhaps it is owing to fear of the truth being exposed that she has left Bologna. But in any case, it is only common justice that poor Solaro should be released. He has never had a chance of a proper appeal—your father refused it to him.”
“But why? Has my father any reason why the poor fellow should be kept in prison?”