"Let the man be brought in," he said, abruptly. "I know not who should write to me from Rome; but we shall soon see. Good faith! I have had little communication with any one in that city since the taking of Ostia. Let the man be called, I beseech you, my good and reverend lord." The Bishop of St. Malo spoke to one of the attendants; the man quitted the tent, and some other business was proceeded with, occupying about a quarter of an hour, when a personage was introduced and brought to the end of the table, whom the reader has heard of before. He was a small, thin, wiry man, dressed as a friar. His countenance was not very prepossessing, and his complexion both sallow and sun-burned, except where a thick black beard closely shaved, gave a bluish tint to the skin; and there a great difference of hue in the skin itself, seemed to intimate that the razor had only lately been applied. "Who are you, sir?" said the cardinal sharply, as soon as his attention had been directed to the new comer, "and what want you with me? I am Julian de Rovera, Cardinal of St. Peter's, if you are seeking that person." "I am but a poor friar of the Order of St. Francis, Brother Martin by name," replied the man, "and the Signor Ramiro d'Orco, a noble lord now in Rome, hearing that I was journeying to Bologna----" "But this is not Bologna," said the Cardinal, "nor on the way thither." "True, your Eminence," answered the other, "but, as I was saying, the Signor Ramiro, hearing that I was going to Bologna, entrusted certain letters to my care for your Eminence, whom he asserted to be his near relation----" "Ay, ay! cousins--first cousins," said the impetuous prelate, "what then?" "Why, holy sir," continued the pretended friar, "finding that you were not where the Signor Ramiro thought, and knowing that the letters were important, I joined myself to the messenger of his Holiness and came on hither." A slight smile passed over the lip of Ludovic the Moor, as the man spoke; and it is not at all improbable that he recognised in the monk a follower of his bravo, Buondoni; but he took no notice, and the cardinal exclaimed: "Where are these letters? Let me see them, brother." "They are here, Eminence," answered the man, feeling in the breast of his gown. "This is for you," and he presented one letter to the cardinal, while he held another in his hand. "And what is that? Who is that for?" asked Julian, sharply. "That is for the Signora Leonora d'Orco, if I can find her," replied the monk. "I can find her," said the cardinal; "let me see the letter." The man hesitated; but the prelate repeated, in a stern tone, "Let me see the letter," and it was handed to him with evident reluctance. Without the slightest ceremony he broke the seal, even before he had examined the letter addressed to himself, and began reading it by the light of the candelabra which stood near him.