’I come, by Madonna’s secret instructions, from privately informing Messer Lanti where Messer Bembo lies hidden,’ he said, speaking as if by rote. She nodded imperiously. ’What questions did he ask?’ ’How I knew; and I answered, that I knew.’ ’Good. That least was enough. Art a right rogue. Now will he go seek him, and be drawn by his devotion into this net.’ Narcisso was silent. ’Will he not?’ she demanded sharply. The fellow dropped his eyes to her an instant. ’Madonna knows. He loves the Messer Saint. No doubt a’ will hold by him.’ ’What then, fool?’ ’They have not caught Messer Bembo yet, they at the forge—that is all.’ ’How!’ she cried angrily, ’when thou told’st me——’ ’With humility, Madonna,’ he submitted, ’I told thee naught but that he and this Montano were agreed on the State’s disease.’ ’Well?’ ’But I never said on its cure.’ She frowned, leaning forward and again biting a strand of her hair—a sullen trick with her in anger. ’A doctor of rhetoric, and so feeble in persuasion!’ she muttered scornfully. ’A’ starts at a shadow, this saint,’ pleaded Narcisso. ’A’ must be coaxed, little by little, like a shy foal. We will have him in the halter anon. Yet a’ be only one out of five, when all’s said.’ ’Dolt!’ she hissed. ’What are the other four, or their purpose, to me, save as a lever to my revenge? I foresee it all. Why telled’st me not before I sent thee? Now this gross lord, instead of himself tangling in the meshes, will persuade the other back to court and reason and forgiveness, and I shall be worse than damned. Dolt, I could kill thee!’ She rose to her height, furious, and he shrunk cowering before her. ’Listen, Madonna,’ he said, trembling: ’Canst net them all yet at one swoop. Go tell Messer Ludovico, and certes a’ will jump to destroy the nest and all in it, before a’ inquires their degrees of guilt.’ She stared at him, still threatening. ’Why?’ ’Why, says Madonna? Listen again, then. Does the Ser Simonetta trust Messer Ludovico, or Messer Ludovico love the Ser Simonetta? The secretary clings to the Duchess. If she falls, a’ falls with her.’ ’Again, thou tedious rogue, why should the Saint’s destruction bring Bona down?’ ’A’ would have his mouth shut from explaining.’ ’Explaining what? I lose patience.’ ’How a’ came, a conspirator against the Duke, to be found wi’ his wife’s troth ring in his possession. Here it be. I’ve filched it for thee at last.’ She sprang to seize the token, glowing triumphant in a moment, and putting it on her own finger, pressed the clinched hand that enclosed it into her bosom. She laughed low and rejoicingly, shameless in the quick transition of her mood. ’Good Narcisso! It is the Key at last! Let Lanti persuade him back now—I am content. I hold them, and Bona too, in the hollow of this hand.’ She held it out, her right one, palm upwards, and, smiling, bade him kiss it.