“Long live the Emperor!” murmured another voice, which seemed to issue from the adjoining wall; and while all this was proceeding, the commandant stood leaning on his cane, by way of keeping himself in countenance; the two officers of justice, completely puzzled, were trying in vain to connect the new turn of affairs with the plot which their imagination had created; while the aide-de-camp and page secretly wondered what could be the motive of the haste which had been so urgently recommended to them. The latter now addressed Charney, to inform him that the letter contained a postscript in the handwriting of the Empress; and the Count, turning over the page, read aloud as follows: “I earnestly recommend Monsieur the Count de Charney to the good offices of Captain Morand; to whom I shall feel personally obliged for any acts of kindness by which he may be enabled to alleviate the situation of his prisoner. “JOSEPHINE.” “Long live the Empress!” cried Ludovico. Charney said not a word. _His_ feelings could not be satisfied with less than raising to his lips the precious signature of his benefactress. The letter, held for some minutes in silence before his eyes, served to conceal his face from the curiosity of the spectators. [Illustration] [Illustration] BOOK III. CHAPTER I. The commandant of Fenestrella was now unrelaxing in his courtesies towards the _protégé_ of her majesty the Empress Queen. There was no further mention of a transfer to the northern bastion; and Charney was even authorized to reconstruct his fences for the defence of Picciola; who, feeble and delicate after her recent transplantation, had more than ever occasion for protection. So completely indeed had Captain Morand’s irritation of feeling against the prisoner and plant subsided, that every morning Ludovico appeared with a message of inquiry from the commandant after the wants and wishes of the Count, and the health of his pretty Picciola. Profiting by these favourable dispositions, Charney obtained from his munificence an allowance of pens, ink, and paper, wherewith to commemorate the sequel of his studies and observations on vegetable physiology; for the letter of the Governor of Turin did not go so far as to cancel the confiscation which had taken place of his former lucubrations. The two judiciary sbirri, after carrying off his cambric archives, and submitting them to the most careful examination, admitted their incompetency to discover a key to the cipher, and transmitted the whole to the minister of police in Paris, that more able decipherers might be employed to search out the root of the mystery. [Illustration]