The Winslow mail., 1900-02-08

circumstances that never occurred, on the
chance of hitting nail on the head, and OBJ
tanning reward. But this was long after
my illness, and the block in the Bargello
may have, since that time, been a resting
place for the heads of the good Samaritans
for all / can say. | took longer time in
mending than | thought should, fer an in
Gammation set in, the fever came back, and
when that was passed l recovered strength
but slowly. 1t was at this time, however,
that l discovered the advantage of reading,
having UP to now borne only too well in
mind my fathers saying on that subject.
L began with "Poliziano's Orfeo," a poor
affair, and then procured, to my delight, a
translation of "Plutarchs Lives Both
these books were obtained with the greatest
difficulty, so old Ceci, the attendant, said,
from the library of a great Florentine noble,
in which a nephew of his was employed in
copying manuscripts, and the old man
charged Inc an entire double form for the
use Of the latter alone; an expenditure
grudged at first; but which | would have
willingly paid twice over before | finished
the volume. / inquired the name of the
nobleman; but Ceci was not inclined to tell
me, and | gathered that the owner was
probably unaware that his books were tax
ing an airing and enabling his library scribe
TO turn dishonest penny. On the binding
of the Plutarch was pricked a coat of arms,
a cross azure on a field argent, with four
nails azure; but could not, for the life of
me, remember this device, although | had
served in every part of Italy except Rome.
Finally it came to my mind that the bear
ings, no doubt, belonged to some merchant
prince of Florence, and would therefore be
unlikely to see anything more of fighting
than street riot, and therefore | dismissed
the subject.
l did not neglect, whilst lying in enforced
idleness, to take such steps as | could to dis
cover the whereabouts of D'Entrangues,
and specially instructed old Ccci to make
inquiries of the followers of La Palissc. He
brought Inc news in a couple of days that the
Frenchman had left Florence fortnight
ago, and it understood he was going to
join the army of Cesarc Borgia, that cursed
serpent who was lifting his head so high in
the Romagna- This was i'll news indeed,
fer | had been lying helpless for close upon
a month; but | was on the mend at last, and
resolved to follow him as soon as | had
strength to travel.
During my illness l had frequently thought
of madame, and with the thoughts of her
there mingled recollections of the dark eyes
of the lady who had looked at me through
her mask, on the night | was stabbed. l
could think of madame in no way but with a
kindly feeling: but, strange as it may seem,
any recollection of the other made my heart
beat, and would have gwen much even to
have obtained another glance at her. In
the meantime, however, my first business
was to try and replenish my funds. for my
supplies were almost exhausted by the drain
made upon them during my illness.
Old Ceci, the intendant, had in his way
formed a sort of attachment for me- and
now that / was better generally spent an
hour or so with me daily in converse. One
day let out some hint of my condition, and
Ceci, after little beating about the bush,
approached me with proposal.
'Signore, he said, there are those in
Florence who would like things changed.
We want our Medici back; but we want
also few good swords, and | could tell you
of way to fill your purse"
"Say on, l replied, and the old man, hav-
ing first bound me to secrecy, informed me
that certain mobiles in Florence wanted a
good sword or two, to rid them of great
political opponent, in order to pave the way
for the return of the Medici; and without
mentioning names In any way, Whlch, ne
said, would be given to me later, proposed
that l should undertake the task.
/ realized at once that his suggestion
meant nothing short of assassination, and
saw that my old acquaintance was apparent
ly up to the ears in a political plot My first
idea was to spurn the suggestion with indig-
nation; but rejecting that it would be bet
| ter to know more, and by this means, if pos
n mar from hpIrl MN ore IN
cold blood, | affected to treat the matter
seriously, and replied that was as yet unfit
for active work, but that as soon as I was