address himself to me.

"You are the master here, my lord," he urged. "You are the law in
Mondolfo. You carry life and death in your right hand, and against your
will no man or woman in your lordship can prevail."

He spoke the truth, a mighty truth which had stood like a mountain before
me all these months, yet which I had not seen.

"I shall go or remain as you decree, my lord," he added; and then, almost
in a snarl of defiance, "I obey none other," he concluded, "nor pope nor
devil."

"Agostino, I am waiting for you," came my mother's voice from the doorway

Something had me by the throat. It was Temptation, and old Falcone was the
tempter. More than that was he--though how much more I did not dream, nor
with what authority he acted there. He was the Mentor who showed me the
road to freedom and to manhood; he showed me how at a blow I might shiver
the chains that held me, and shake them from me like the cobwebs that they
were. He tested me, too; tried my courage and my will; and to my undoing
was it that he found me wanting in that hour. My regrets for him went near
to giving me the resolution that I lacked. Yet even these fell short.

I would to God I had given heed to him. I would to God I had flung back my
head and told my mother--as he prompted me--that I was lord of Mondolfo,
and that Falcone must remain since I so willed it.

I strove to do so out of my love for him rather than out of any such fine
spirit as he sought to inspire in me. Had I succeeded I had established my