I know my Niccolo better. I have kissed his lips a thousand times, and I
know the poor boy meant, 'Scorn and eternal distrust of such peddling
conspirators as these!' I can deal with traitors, but these flash-in-
the-pan plotters--these shaking, jelly-bodied patriots!--trust to them
again? Rather draw lots for another fifteen to bare their breasts and
bandage their eyes, and march out in the grey morning, while the stupid
Croat corporal goes on smoking his lumpy pipe! We shall hear that Milan
is moving; we shall rise; we shall be hot at it; and the news will come
that Milan has merely yawned and turned over to sleep on the other side.
Twice she has done this trick, and the garrison there has sent five
regiments to finish us--teach us to sleep soundly likewise! I say, let
it be Bergamo; or be it Brescia, if you like; or Venice: she is ready.
You trust to Milan, and you are fore-doomed. I would swear it with this
hand in the flames. She give the signal? Shut your eyes, cross your
hands flat on your breasts: you are dead men if you move. She lead the
way? Spin on your heels, and you have followed her!"

Corte had spoken in a thick difficult voice, that seemed to require the
aid of his vehement gestures to pour out as it did like a water-pipe in a
hurricane of rain. He ceased, red almost to blackness, and knotted his
arms, that were big as the cable of a vessel. Not a murmur followed his
speech. The word was, given to the Chief, and he resumed:--

"You have a personal feeling in this case, Ugo. You have not heard me.
I came through Paris. A rocket will soon shoot up from Paris that will
be a signal for Christendom. The keen French wit is sick of its
compromise-king. All Europe is in convulsions in a few months: to-morrow
it may be. The elements are in the hearts of the people, and nothing
will contain them. We have sown them to reap them. The sowing asks for
persistency; but the reaping demands skill and absolute truthfulness. We