a hasty meeting of his Cabinet. And such a Cabinet! I wish
you could have seen them, Louis, with me in the centre playing
on them like an advocate before a jury. They were the most
dreadful men I ever met, bourgeois and stupid and ugly to a
degree. Two of them were commission-merchants, and one of
them is old Dr. Gustavanni, who kept the chemist's shop in the
Piazza Royale. They were quite silly with fear, and they
begged me to tell them how they could avert the fall of the
Republic and prevent your landing. And I said that it was
entirely a question of money; that if we were paid
sufficiently the expedition would not land and we would leave
them in peace, but that----"

The King shifted his legs uneasily, and coughed behind his
thin, pink fingers.

"That was rather indiscreet, was it not, Marie?" he murmured.
"The idea was to make them think that I, at least, was
sincere; was not that it? To make it appear that though there
were traitors in his camp, the King was in most desperate
earnest? If they believe that, you see, it will allow me to
raise another expedition as soon as the money we get for this
one is gone; but if you have let them know that I am the one
who is selling out, you have killed the goose that lays the
golden eggs. They will never believe us when we cry wolf
again----"

"You must let me finish," Zara interrupted. "I did not
involve you in the least. I said that there were traitors in
the camp of whom I was the envoy, and that if they would pay