Secretum

'You are an optimist. Do you really believe that so crude and radical a reform will be approved by His Holiness, given his present state of health?'

'We shall see, we shall see. But you have not heard the rest. In the first place, the number of catchpolls will be reduced. Then the Mantellone, or President of Justice, if you prefer that title, will command sergeants from several tribunals, which, as you well know, is not at present possible. For the purposes of patrols and arrests, the catchpolls could be accompanied by a few soldiers, as is already the practice in many kingdoms and republics. All in all, about two hundred catchpolls will be dismissed.'

'And in their place?'

'Perfectly simple: replace them with soldiers.'

While I was returning to the great house to fetch the noblewoman's veil, cleansed of orange stains and ready to be returned to its owner, innumerable thoughts rushed into my mind. Of course, I was not unaware that the catchpolls were in part a miserable, ill-born and unfortunate rabble. Never, however, had I heard all the depraved commercial activities of the officers of the law listed all together, one after the other. Corrupt they were, indeed. But that was the least of their iniquities. The sergeants, so I had heard, practised far worse outrages, which reduced the law to the theatre of deceit and order to the handmaid of abuse.

My thoughts turned to Sfasciamonti: it was no surprise that he had to encourage his colleagues to investigate the cerretani. Why, I wondered, should they go out of their way to discover the secrets of the sects of mendicants if they already had to go to such lengths to conceal their own?

Of course, Sfasciamonti had shown himself to be familiar with the worst practices: falsifying police reports, arresting people unjustly, lying, threatening those detained for questioning. He would even have been prepared to have Il Roscio kept illicitly in prison. But all that was, I thought, in order to arrive at a goal that was in itself praiseworthy: to combat the cerretano scum and find out what had become of Abbot Melani's manuscript, the telescope and the relic. If these were the methods necessary to arrive at the truth, they were perhaps less than ideal; but they could doubtless be accepted.

When I arrived at Atto's lodgings, I was already awaited for my report.

'It is about time. Where on earth have you been?' he asked me, while getting Buvat to spread an ointment on his arm.

I then told him of the many vicissitudes which had kept me busy, including those before the hunt for Caesar Augustus which I had not yet had occasion to report on: the conversation with the Master Florist, Albani's desperation at the loss of his note, stolen by the parrot; and finally, the scandal caused by the repeated argument between Atto himself and Albani, thanks to which the Secretary for Breves was ridding himself of his inconvenient reputation for fidelity to France.

The Abbot received these three items of news with excitement, amusement and thoughtful silence, respectively.

'So the Master Florist is prepared to talk. That is good, very good. Only, he said that I should be correctly informed before meeting him: in what sense? He will surely not be of the imperial party.'

'Signor Abbot,' Buvat intervened, 'with your permission, I have an idea.'

'Yes?'

'What if the Tetrachion, which Romauli mentioned, were the flower of some household? The arms of noble houses are full of beasts with the most singular names such as the dragon, the gryphon, the siren and the unicorn, and it may be that plants follow the same pattern.'

'Ah yes, it could come from some family coat of arms!' Atto jumped up, bespattering his poor secretary's clothing with the ointment from his arm. 'All the more so in that the Master Florist knows all about flowers. You are a genius, Buvat. Perhaps Romauli hoped that I should be well informed before I meet him because he does not wish to name names and so he expects that, when I go and talk with him, I should already know what family is hidden behind the Tetrachion.'

'So,' I asked, 'would this provide the proof of the heir to the Spanish throne, as Ambassador Uzeda's maid said? And if that is the case, what would that have to do with the fact that Capitor named the dish after a heraldic flower?'

'I have not the faintest idea, my boy,' replied Melani, overexcitedly, 'but Romauli does seem to intend to provide us with useful information.'

Having said this, Abbot Melani sent his secretary off to search through the official registers of recognised arms for a hypothetical noble shield bearing a flower named Tetrachion.

'You can start at once in the library of the villa. You may be sure that they will have the precious opus of Pasquali Alidosi, which is illustrated with woodcuts of the arms, and that of Dolfi, which has the advantage of being more recent. After that, Buvat, you will resume work on that other matter.'

'When am I to copy your reply to the letter from Madama the Connestabilessa?' asked the secretary.

'Afterwards.'

Once Buvat had left, not in truth that keen to set to work again at that hour (which he ordinarily dedicated to repose in the company of a fine bottle of wine), I would have liked to ask Atto what else he had in mind for his secretary, who had, for a couple of days, been largely out of sight. But the Abbot spoke first:

'And now let us pass from the vegetalia to the animalia. So Albani is much troubled through the fault of your parrot,' said he, referring to what I had told him not long before. 'Ha, so much the worse for him!'

'And what do you think of the comments they have been making on him?'

He looked at me with a grave expression on his face, but uttered not a word.

'We must be vigilant in all directions, without excluding anything,' said he in the end.

I nodded, at a loss for words, without understanding what he might mean by that all-embracing phrase which clearly said all and nothing, like most political statements. He had not wished to comment on Albani's new public image. Perhaps, I thought, he too did not know where that might lead, but did not wish to admit it.

Ignorant as I was of matters of state, I was mistaken.

Evening the Fifth

11th July, 1700

I had a bone to pick with Abbot Melani. Who was the Countess of S., the mysterious poisoner to whom the Connestabilessa referred so reticently in her letter? Had she something to do with the Countess of Soissons mentioned by Atto, who had spread trouble between Maria and the young King? And who was she? When I asked him, the Abbot, engrossed in his own narration, had not deigned to answer.

While Atto enjoyed himself at dinner in the gardens with the other illustrious guests, once again I plunged my hands amidst his dirty linen and found the ribbon binding his secret correspondence with the Connestabilessa. Unlike previous occasions, however, I was unable to find either the message from Maria Mancini or the reply which the Abbot had recently penned and which, as I had just heard, he had not yet sent. Where were they then?

Meanwhile, I felt myself drawn to the bundle of reports, and that brought to mind what I had read on the previous occasion about the unfortunate King Charles II of Spain. I thought that, if I were to read on, I might be able to find other traces of the Countess of S. and understand what she might have to do with Abbot Melani's business. I opened the report from the Connestabilessa which Atto had marked in a corner with the number two:

Observations concerning matters spanish

Given the state to which the Catholic King is reduced, and the absence of an heir, in Madrid they could think of only one explanation: witchcraft.

For a long time now there has been talk of this. Two years ago, El Rey in person turned to the powerful Inquisitor-General, Tomas Rocaberti.

The Inquisitor, after consulting with His Majesty's confessor, the Dominican Froilan Diaz, put the question to another Dominican, Antonio Alvarez de Arguelles, the modest director of an obscure convent in Asturias, but an excellent exorcist.

It is said that, when he received Rocaberti s letter, Arguelles nearly fainted. In his letter, the Inquisitor- General explained the matter to him in detail, asking him to implore the Devil to reveal what evil spell had been cast