This at any rate was princely, for it was of great size and had a vaulted ceiling, with moulded ornaments in the peculiar inverted Arabic style, which looks not so much the design itself as the mould in which the design was executed; while at intervals round the chamber were pairs of columns with marvellously carved capitals, supporting large vaults filled with wonderful mosaics representing hunting scenes. The walls in between these columns consisted of large slabs of porphyry divided by slenderer columns; or the rich mosaic borders known as the Cosmato work. This we saw when Donna Rusidda drew aside the famous silk tapestries. The chairs, too, and the couches, which ran all round the walls, were ancient and magnificent; though the brocade, with which they were covered, was in many places threadbare or even split. The floor was covered in the Sicilian fashion with tiles, a hundred or more of which went to form each of the great arabesque patterns, which looked like vast love-knots tied with orange and blue ribbons. There were no carpets, and there was a general appearance of decay, even of mould, in the room, in spite of its princely proportions and priceless tapestries. But the youthful pair who were there to receive us, for all the decay of their house and the rustiness of the faithful servants who surrounded them, looked princes every inch, worthy descendants of the mighty Frederick. For one thing they were but recently back from long attendance at the Court, and were dressed accordingly. For another it was at the Court that Will and I, though we were but junior lieutenants in His Britannic Majesty's ship the _Vanguard_, and not long since midshipmen, had met them. The flavour of royalty therefore was strong, and there was in them both an innate princeliness. I am sure that Donna Rusidda, as she came forward to welcome us to the poor house, in which she had been born, and her ancestors before her, for five hundred years, looked as fit to be a queen as any woman in Europe: she was so beautiful, her nostrils, her mouth and chin were so delicately cut. I have seen no cameo of antiquity equal in beauty of outline to that which she had executed and presented to Will the time we sailed away to the reconquest of Naples--the cameo which every day is pinned on black velvet upon Katherine's wrist, for she is a gentler memory to Katherine than even to Will. And her slight figure had the self-reliant elegance of the women of her country. "Welcome to the Favara, W-Will!" she cried gaily, "and you, Signor--Tubbie"; and then she broke off into a little peal of laughter, while the Prince frowned at the liberty she was taking with His Britannic Majesty's Lieutenant Trinder of the _Vanguard_. But seeing that I took it as a good jest, he laughed too, a charming Italian laugh.