Atto was serious. Ugonio gave a start. At the idea of all his patrimony going up in smoke, he grew pale, at least as far as the parchment pallor of his face permitted it. First, he tried blandishments, then he tried to persuade Melani that he was placing himself in some ill-defined danger, this being a particularly delicate moment as the milieu of the cerretani had been shaken by a grievous robbery perpetrated against them.
'A grievous robbery? Robbers aren't robbed,' sneered Atto. 'What have they stolen from the cerretani?'
'Their novated lingo.'
'Their new language? Languages cannot be stolen because they cannot be possessed, only spoken. Try inventing something else, you idiot.'
In the end, Ugonio gave in and explained his offer to the Abbot.
'Agreed,' said Atto in the end. 'If you keep your side of the promise, I shall not destroy this wretched place. You know full well that I can do it,' said Atto, before having us accompanied to the exit. 'Sergeant, have you anything else to ask these animals?'
'Not now. I am curious to see whether they will keep their word tomorrow. Now, let us go. I do not wish to remain too long absent from Villa Spada.'
'Ugonio recognised me as soon as he saw me from close up. Do you think it possible that he did not know from whom he was stealing the treatise and the telescope?' I asked Melani.
'Of course he knew. Rascals like him always know where they're sticking their hands.'
'And yet, he didn't think twice about doing it.'
'Certainly not. Evidently, the pressure from whoever commissioned him was too great. They must have offered him a great deal of money; or perhaps he was too afraid of failing.'
'Now I understand! That was why I always had the feeling of being watched at the Villa Spada,' I exclaimed.
'What are you saying?' asked Atto in astonishment.
'I never told you this, because I was not sure of what I was seeing around me. We have already encountered so many strange things,' I added, alluding to the apparitions at the Vessel. 'I didn't want to make it look as though I'd become a visionary. Yet, several times in the past few days, I have had the feeling of being spied on. It was as though… well, as though they were constantly keeping an eye on me from behind hedges.'
'Obviously. Even a child could see that: it must have been Ugonio and the other corpisantari' said Atto, irritated by my slow thinking.'Perhaps,' I thought aloud, 'they may even have been following us on the evening when we were drugged. Some rather strange fellows came into the wine shop where we had stopped, some mendicants who seemed to be spoiling for a fight. There was even a brawl which forced us to abandon our table. They almost knocked over the jug of wine.'
'The jug of wine?' exclaimed Atto, wide-eyed.
I told him then of the scuffle that had broken out in the wine shop, which I and Buvat had witnessed, and how we had momentarily lost sight of our table. Atto exploded:
'Only now do you think of telling me this?' he groaned impatiently. 'For heaven's sake, did you not realise that you and Buvat were put to sleep by pouring a little sleeping draught into your wine?'
I fell silent, humiliated. It was true, it must have been done like that. The mendicants (obviously a group of cerretani) had organised what looked like a brawl in order to create confusion in the place; thus, they had caused us to leave our table and got in our way while they poured the narcotic into our wine. After that, they had gone off without any further ado.
'Once they had put you to sleep,' concluded Atto, calming down a little, 'Ugonio and his companions in crime will have entered your house and Buvat's bedchamber. Then, as soon as they were able to, they tried again with me.'
'It is a miracle that they crossed the villa boundary and managed to leave with their loot without being seen by anyone,' I commented.
'Yes, indeed,' said Atto, looking askance at Sfasciamonti, 'it really is a miracle.'
The catchpoll lowered his eyes in embarrassment. Yes, while I had cut a poor figure, Sfasciamonti ran the risk of passing for an incompetent. Atto, on the other hand, by finding Ugonio, had found out not only who had put me and Buvat out of action with the sleeping draught, but the thief of his treatise on the Secrets of the Conclave and of the relic and the telescope, which he now held tightly in one hand, fuming in equal measure with disdainful rage and warlike satisfaction.
No sooner had we crossed the Tiber than Sfasciamonti announced that he would hasten on his way in order to get back as early as possible, leaving us the advantage of proceeding at a more convenient and moderate pace.
'I shall go on ahead of you, it is getting really late, corps of a thousand maces. My absences from the villa cannot last too long. 1 do not want Cardinal Spada to think I am shirking my duty,' he explained.
'Better, far better thus,' commented Atto, as soon as we were alone.
'And why?'
'As soon as we get back, we shall have things to do.'
'At this hour of night?'
'Buvat should have completed the task I set him.'
'What? Searching for the flower among the arms of noble families?'
'Not just that,' replied the Abbot laconically.
Yes, Buvat. The evening before, I had seen him again after a prolonged absence, and Melani, after setting him to work searching for traces of the Tetrachion among the noble arms, had requested him also to see to an unspecified 'other matter'. What could he be up to? During the first few days, his presence had been constant and assiduous. More recently, he would appear briefly, then absent himself again for a long period. Now I knew that Atto had assigned him some task to which the scribe was obviously attending outside the villa. I realised that the Abbot had, for the time being, no intention of revealing to me what was going on behind the scenes.
When we reached the villa, however, Atto's secretary had not yet returned.
'Good! Plainly, the trail which I suggested he should follow has proved fruitful. Perhaps the final details are still missing.'
'Details? What of?' I insisted.
'Of the accusations whereby we shall nail Lamberg.'
Day the Sixth
12th J uly, 1700
'But you never close the door, do you?'
I opened my eyes. I was at home. The daylight flooded in through the wide-open door of the bedroom, blinding me. Nevertheless, I recognised beyond any doubt the voice which had so disagreeably awakened me: Abbot Melani had come to pay me a visit.
'Charming, this little house of yours. One can see the feminine touch,' he commented.
That night I had reached my bed dead tired, with just enough strength left in me to make sure that my two daughters were sleeping placidly in their bed, seeing that Cloridia was still spending the night in the apartments of the Princess of Forano.
'Come on, come on, get up, 1 am in a hurry. We have plenty to do: Buvat found absolutely nothing about that damned Tetrachion in the books on heraldry. We must interrogate Romauli at once.'
'No, that is enough, if you please, Signor Atto. I want to sleep,' I replied somewhat brusquely.
'Are you quite mad?' trilled Atto's castrato voice. I had no time to tell him to lower his voice so as not to disturb my little ones who were sleeping on the floor above. They rose at once and were soon looking in curiously. They stared in astonishment at this curious gentleman, the like of whom they had never seen before, red- stockinged, bewigged, all bedaubed with ceruse and bedizened with lace, braiding and knick-knacks after the French fashion, from his periwig down to his shoe buckles. The little one, who was also the less shy of the pair, ran straight to him, wanting to touch all the marvels with which Abbot Melani's apparel was bedecked.
