The Rising Storm

The little horror with the wall eye grinned at him and said: 'Before we get out I should like to explain my method to you. Two of my men will accompany us inside and the other two will remain here. Should you be so ill advised as to try any tricks when we get upstairs I shall promptly deal with you as I promised. As is usual in the case of people who compel me to make them my victims you will give a scream of agony. The instant the men who are to remain below hear it, one of them will jump from the carriage and run down the street; the other will run after him shouting 'Stop Thief! Stop Thief!' The people in the del Sarte Inglesi will naturally run to their windows instead of to your room. Even should anyone come to your assistance the two men who are with us will prevent their laying hands upon me. I shall then walk quietly out of the house, and in the excitement of the street chase disappear without being noticed.'

During the drive Roger had been turning over in his mind the chances of securing help swiftly if, directly he got inside Pisani's house, he turned upon his captors and shouted loudly for assistance. But he now had secretly to admit that, had he been in die little man's shoes, he could not have thought out such an undertaking with a better potential chance of getting clean away. Obviously it would be the height of rashness to play fast and loose with this professional assassin. With a shrug of his shoulders, he got out and, accompanied by three of his captors, walked along to the porch of del Sarte Inglesi.

The door was already open and a bald-headed, baize-aproned porter was busily sweeping down the steps. He wished Roger good morning with barely a glance, and entering the hall the prisoner and his escort went upstairs.

After Isabella had shown Roger her two brass-bound chests in Avignon he had given her the Queen's letter in order that she might keep it locked up in one of them for greater safety; so he now led his captors to her room and knocked upon the door.

Although at this early hour she would normally still have been asleep, her voice came at once, asking who was there; and on his replying he heard her gasp out an exclamation of thankfulness before calling to him to enter.

As he opened the door a crack he saw that she and Maria were both already up and fully dressed. Pushing it wide he walked into the room, followed by the little man and the two bravos.

At the sight of Roger, dirty, dishevelled and in such undesirable company, Isabella gave another gasp. Then, restraining an obvious impulse to run to him and fling her arms around his neck, she stammered:

'Where—where have you been? I—I beg you reassure me that no harm has befallen you.'

He gave her a tired smile; then, wishing to say as little as possible in front of his unwelcome companions, replied: 'I passed a somewhat uncomfortable night, but I am otherwise quite well. May I trouble you to give me the letter you wot of?'

She gave him a scared, uncertain glance, but on his adding: 'Please, Senorita; I require it at once,' she turned, knelt down beside her bed, pulled out one of the chests with Maria's help, and unlocked it.

Roger had purposely remained standing just inside the door, so that he and the men at his back were some distance from the bed; and he now saw with relief that as Isabella lifted the lid of the chest her body hid its contents from them, for he had feared that if they caught sight of the valuables inside it they might attempt to rob her.

Closing the chest and relocking it she stood up with the packet in her hands. Again her voice faltered as she said: 'Are you—are you sure that you wish me to give this to you now?'

'Yes,' he nodded, stepping forward and taking the packet from her. 'I will explain later; but I have to give it to these people.' Then he thrust it into the hand of the wall-eyed ghoul behind him.

The little man took a quick look at the big red seals bearing the arms of Queen Marie Antoinette, grinned at Roger, made a jerky bow to Isabella, and, signing to his men to leave the room, closed the door gently behind him.

'Oh, what has happened?' Isabella burst out, the second the door was shut. 'Surely those evil-looking men were not in the service of the Grand Duke! Why did you make me surrender Her Majesty's letter to them?'

'I was forced to it,' Roger replied with a weary shrug. 'I have been held captive all right, and escaped with my life only on promising to give up the letter.'

'No promise that is extracted under a threat is binding 1' she cried, vehemently. 'Why, having succeeded in getting back here, did you not shout for help and put up a fight ?'

'That wall-eyed creature had sworn to kill me if I did.'

'That shrimp I' exclaimed Isabella contemptuously.

'He was holding a poniard at my back, and at the first sign that I meant to trick him would have jammed it in my liver.'

Roger had temporarily forgotten that his sweet-natured Isabella was a soldier's daughter, but he was swiftly reminded of it as her brown eyes flashed and she cried angrily: 'You still wear your sword. Why did you not spring away, draw it and turn upon them? Maria and I would have helped you fight them off, and our shouts would soon have brought assistance.'

Suddenly the anger faded from her eyes and they showed only acute distress, as she added bitterly: 'Oh, Roje! Roje!, You have betrayed the Queen! How could you do so?'

He smiled a little wistfully. 'Nay, my sweet; I had the last trump in the pack up my sleeve, and cheated those scoundrels with it at the finish. That was the original cover to the despatch, with Her Majesty's seals upon it; but it contained a letter in her cypher so altered by myself that they will not be able to make head nor tail of it in a month of Sundays.'

A sigh of relief escaped her, and she began to stammer an apology for having cast doubt upon his wit and courage. But he begged her to desist; then said unhurriedly:

'We'll have ample time to talk of all this anon. Another matter must engage our attention now. One man at least who is acquainted with your aunt has learnt that you are in Florence. He may not know her well enough to see her frequently, and if he is as fully engaged with his own affairs as I suspect, he may not think the matter of sufficient importance to make a special visit to her. But on the other hand 'tis possible that he may see and mention it to her before the day is out. I do not think we have any cause for immediate anxiety; but, to be on the safe side, the wise course would be for us to bestir ourselves, and make ready to depart this morning.'

Isabella showed no surprise, but her thin face was drawn with fear and distress as she listened to him. Then, when he had done, in a spate of words she suddenly shattered his complacency.

'Alas, our case is far worse than you know! De Roubec is in Florence and also knows that I am here. He knocked the house up an hour or so after midnight on pretence of bringing a message from you. Instead he demanded from me a thousand ducats as the price of refrain­ing from telling my aunt that we are living together. When I attempted to fob him off by saying that I had no such sum, he told me to sell some of my jewels as soon as the goldsmiths opened in order to procure it. He left me with an ultimatum, that if I failed to meet him at nine o'clock this morning with the money, outside the west door of the Church of St. Lorenzo, he would go straight to the Palazzo Frescobaldi.'

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE GRAND DUKE'S MISTRESS

AFTER his sleepless night of acute anxiety, Roger was very tired, but this new and immediate danger spurred his brain to fresh activity.

'I might have guessed it!' he cried bitterly. 'De Roubec was present when this other that I spoke of mentioned your relationship to the Frescobaldi; and 'twas too golden an opportunity to attempt black­mail for such a scoundrel to ignore. What answer did you make him?'

'To keep him quiet till nine o'clock, I said I would do my best to raise the money,' Isabella sighed. 'Yet with so malicious a man, did we produce the gold, I greatly doubt if he would keep his bargain.'

'I judge you right in that. His animosity to myself is such that to give him the thousand ducats he demands would be as useless as to cast them down a drain. He will betray us in any case.'

She nodded, and choked back a sob. 'Through this ill chance I fear our danger is extreme. Unless you would have me forcibly taken from you, we must fly instantly.'

'His avarice may save us yet!' Roger said in an attempt to reassure her. 'It is not yet seven o'clock. He'll give you a quarter of an hour's grace at least, so 'tis unlikely that he will get to the Frescobaldi Palace before half-past nine. Even if the Contessa has him admitted to her presence without delay it will be ten o'clock by the time she takes any action. If we pack at once, we should get away with the best part of three hours' start.'