Part 60

"I knew him," she said, "when he was talking with his sister, and I heard her promise him to bring him into the private audience chamber of the Queen."

"And thou, also, wert there?"

"Am I the Margherita to be shown such favor? Nay, but I have an audience-chamber of my own from the window of my turret when there is no light within: and all that day I knew by the face of Alicia that there was some intrigue--which I was not one to miss through heedlessness! Alicia was watching for him that night; and I knew his face when I saw them together on the terrace. And with them was another man--wrapped in a cloak--the feather of his hat drooping low over his face.--And his face--I never turned my eyes away from him and I saw it for a moment when the wind swept his feather aside--his face was the face of--Rizzo!" she whispered the name.

"Nay, nay, Ecciva--not he! It could not be he!"

"Nay, my trusting children; believe your betters, if you will! As for me--I trust these eyes, rather than the uncertain speech of those who teach us what we may believe. These eyes are good eyes! They have not failed me yet!"

She laughed lightly, satisfied with the impression her tale had made, as she turned away indifferently; but they were eager for the rest.

"There is more, Ecciva!--that which cometh after?--subito--for the Lady of the Bernardini might return!" They were all clamoring about her. "And Alicia verily brought him to the Queen's audience-chamber?"

"Nay--bide my time, chatterers, if you would hear the tale--for it hath a sequel--we do not often get one good enough to be spoiled by a too hasty telling.--Rizzo, for it was verily he--can any one forget Rizzo!--he turned from them and began to climb the mountain, there, where the signal fire glowed later. And Tristan, the handsome knight, came into the palace with his sister; and after them come following the holy sister Violante--she who came hither from Rhodes some days before."

"Go on!" they cried eagerly, crowding closer. She waved them away from her.

"There is no more," she answered provokingly--"save that which we all know; the signal-fire, and the galley floating below by the coast, half hidden by the great rock--for that also I saw from my turret--thanks be to the Madonna for lifting the mortal dulness! And I left sleep for better things that night; for it was well-nigh the hour of matins when the galley set sail for Venice."

"But the audience with the Queen?"

"There was no audience. For I bethought me of somewhat I had forgotten in the ante-chamber--not to miss the knowledge of what was passing--and I sped me thither. And then there was naught left to do but to hide me, somewhat weak of heart, in the tapestry of the ante-chamber; for the door was wide into the Queen's salon, and there was His Excellency the Bernardini, flashing scorn in his speech, so that one thought the air would break into flames--he, the while, standing still enough for an image of a wrathful Kinyras; the Queen's guard was around him, all in full armor--a doughty corps of men to meet those three!--Alicia, white as a spirit, weeping against Tristan; and Violante, shaken out of her holy calm, kneeling to pray His Excellency's grace!"

"And then----?"

"And then they left the Queen's chamber and I dared not creep forth until all was quiet again. But I heard His Excellency's speech as he stood bowing in the doorway when the guards led Tristan forth--a model of courtesy one would have said--for I could see him through a parting in the arras though I risked my life in standing there--'Her Majesty' said the Bernardini--very fair of speech--'doth surely owe such escort to the Illustrissimo, the Seigneur de Giblet, for the attention he would fain have offered in his own person to King Janus, in his Episcopal Palace before he wore the crown of the realm.' And the Seigneur de Giblet, not to be outdone--being Cyprian--answers him--very proud and cold--'Is your Excellency ever so faithful to reward a service contemplated, but not achieved?' For he had meant to smother the King in his sleep that night, if Janus had not escaped to Egypt."

They were all silent until Ecciva, less overcome by these tragic memories, resumed her story.

"And after that, Tristan came no more; nor his sister, the fair Alicia; nor Rizzo, the dark-browed. Nor was it many days ere Violante, the most holy sister, had left the court.--Ask the Provveditori!"

"But what message did they bring Her Majesty?"

"Am I a noble of Venice that I should know this mystery which toucheth our realm of Cyprus?" she answered scornfully. "Ask the Bernardini, or the Dama Margherita--to whom he confesseth all his soul!"

"But Rizzo?" Eloisà asked, bewildered.

"And Rizzo--when he had lighted the signal fire on the mountain--thinking perchance, there had been time for the meeting with the Queen which Alicia had promised Tristan--and the galley had come to shore beneath and waited for him,--went on board, nothing doubting, thinking to return to Rhodes--who knoweth?--To Carlotta perchance;--but he found the galley manned with mariners from the arsenal of Venice; and Tristan coming to set sail for Venice, with the Queen's guard, all in full armor, to speed him on his way: and a Venetian General in command, in lieu of the African Captain of the galley who brought him hither. For one may seek in vain to outwit a Venetian; one must admire them for that, though it work us woe!"

"It is thine own tale, verily, Ecciva; thou speakest to mock us!"

"Nay--faith of Sant'Elenà, it is true and sad enough--if there were not sadder to come. For Tristan, the gallant, handsome knight, being in chains, and fearing worse awaited him when he should reach Venice, wrenched the diamond from a ring he wore and kneaded it into the bread they served him for his breakfast, and swallowed it--and so there was an end."

They still looked at her incredulously--"How shouldst thou know this tale of horror more than others--if it were true?"

She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "If one maketh wise use of opportunity, one need not always wait the telling. But to-morrow the court will be ringing with the tale; it cometh but now from Venice."

"But Rizzo?"

"He is there in Venice in the pozzi; and the end will not be easy like that of Tristan. For he is the greatest traitor of them all--verily a traitor almost sublime. It were not so difficult to admire the nerve of the man!--Rizzo----"

But her further speech was lost in the babel of expostulation and question that broke forth, and which would have lasted long but for the return of Madama di Thénouris and Dama Margherita.

XXXI