"Well, sir, tell what you know of this matter," said the king, taking it for granted that De Vitry had told him why he was brought within. "Of what matter, sire?" asked Antonio; "I know a good deal of several matters." "I mean of what is taking place beyond the mountains," said the king. "I thought Monsieur De Vitry had explained." "He merely told me to come to your Majesty's presence," replied Antonio. "As to what is taking place beyond the mountains, sire, there are many things I wish were not. It is now the month of May, and the prospects of the harvest are but poor. There is plenty of it, but the crop is likely to be bad--spears and bucklers instead of wheat and furrows, sire, and blood and tears instead of gentle rain and light airs." "Be more precise, sirrah," said the Cardinal of St. Malo, sharply; "we want facts, and not any more moralizing." "Heaven forbid that I should moralize in your Eminence's presence," replied Antonio, with great gravity; "but if his Majesty wishes to know what I saw on my journey from this place to Florence and back again, I will deliver it at large." "Pray spare yourself that trouble," said De Vitry, interposing; "merely tell, and that as briefly as possible, my good friend, what you told me just now about the state of the country, especially on the other side of the Apennines." "Why, my lord, the people are arming all through Romagna and the Papal States," replied Antonio. "I have never seen such an arming in Italy before. There is not a small baron or a vicar of the Church who is not getting men together; and had it been know I was in the French service, I could not have passed; from which I argue that all this preparation bodes no good to France. Then, as to the other side of the mountains, I saw nothing with my own eyes. But I heard from a muleteer, who had been plundered of his packs by the Albanians, that about Fornovo and Badia there is a Venetian force of several thousand men--a thousand lances, he said, at the least, besides foot-soldiers, and that the Stradiotes were scouring the country right and left, and bringing in food and fodder to a camp they are forming near Badia on the Taro. Another told me that on the road near Placenza he had passed a force of some five thousand men marching towards the mountains; and the report ran that his Highness of Orleans had been stopped near Novara by a superior army and forced to throw himself into that place." "That accounts for there being no letter, sire," said La Tremouille. "He surely could have found means of sending us intelligence," said Charles; "it is always customary, I believe, my lords, to send more couriers than one, and by different routes." "No French courier could pass, sire," said Antonio; "there are barriers across the whole of Italy, whose sole business is to cut off all communication between your Majesty and your French dominions." "Then how did you pass?" exclaimed the king, somewhat irritated by the man's boldness.