At all events it saved me for the moment: for while I stared at her, utterly at a loss, a crackle of twigs warned us, and we turned together as, by the pathway leading from the high-road, the bushes parted and the face of Marc'antonio peered through upon the clearing. "Salutation, O Princess!" said he gravely, and stepped out of cover attended by Stephanu, who likewise saluted. The Princess drew herself up imperiously. "I thought, O Stephanu, that I had made plain my orders, that you two were neither to follow nor to watch me?" "Nevertheless," Marc'antonio made answer, "when one misses a comrade and hears, at a little distance, the firing of a volley . . . not to mention that some one has been burning gunpowder hereabouts," he wound up, sniffing the air with an expression that absurdly reminded me of our Vicar, at home, tasting wine. "I warn you, O Marc'antonio," said the Princess, "to be wise and ask no more questions." "I have asked none, O Princess," he answered again, still very gravely, and after a glance at me turned to Stephanu. "But it runs in my head, comrade, that the time has come to consider other things than wisdom." "For example?" I challenged him sharply. "For example, cavalier, that I cannot reconcile this smell with any Corsican gunpowder." "And you are right," said I. "Nay, Princess, you have sworn not long since to obey me, and I choose that they shall know. That salvo, sirs, was fired, five minutes ago, by the Genoese." "A 'salvo' did you say, cavalier?" "For our wedding, Marc'antonio." I took the Princess's hand--which neither yielded nor resisted--and lifting it a little way, released it to fall again limply. So for a while there was silence between us four. "Marc'antonio," said I, "and you, Stephanu--it is I now who speak for the Princess and decide for her; and I decide that you, who have served her faithfully, deserve to be told all the truth. It is truth, then, that we are married. The priest who married us was Fra Domenico, and with assent of his master the Prince Camillo. I can give you, moreover, the name of the chief witness: he is a certain Signor or General Andrea Fornari, and commands the Genoese garrison in Nonza." "Princess!" Marc'antonio implored her. "It is true," said she. "This gentleman has done me much honour, having heard what my brother chose to say." "But I do not comprehend!" The honest fellow cast a wild look around the clearing. "Ah, yes-the volley! They have taken the Prince, and shot him . . . But his body--they would not take his body--and you standing here and allowing it--" "My friends," I interrupted, "they have certainly taken his body, and his soul too, for that matter; and I doubt if you can overtake either on this side of Nonza. But with him you will find the crown of Corsica, and the priest who helped him to sell it. I tell you this, who are clansmen of the Colonne. Your mistress, who discovered the plot and was here to hinder it, will confirm me."