or two changed colour. "For whom did he wait? That was the question
that I asked myself, and I found the answer that it was for me. If I was
right, he must also know the distance I had come, so that he would not
look to see me afoot, nor yet, perhaps, in garments such as these. And
so, thanks to all this and to the hat and cloak in which I closely masked
myself, he let me pass unchallenged."

"By the Virgin!" exclaimed Fabrizio hotly, "I'll swear your conclusions
were wrong. In all Italy it was known to no man beyond us six that you
were to meet us here, and with my hand upon the Gospels I could swear
that not one of us has breathed of it."

He looked round at his companions as if inviting them to bear out his
words, and they were not slow to confirm what he had sworn, in terms as
vehement as his own, until in the end the new-comer waved them into
silence.

"Nor have I breathed it," he assured them, "for I respected your
injunction, Messer Fabrizio. Still--what did Masuccio there, hidden like
a thief, by the roadside? Sirs," he continued, in a slightly altered
tone, "I know not to what end you have bidden me hither, but if aught of
treason lurks in your designs, I cry you beware! The Duke has knowledge
of it, or at least, suspicion. If that spy was not set to watch for me,
why, then, he was set to watch for all, that he may anon inform his
master what men were present at this meeting."

Fabrizio shrugged his shoulders in a contemptuous indifference which was
voiced by his neighbour Ferrabraccio.

"Let him be informed," sneered the latter, a grim smile upon his rugged