“Well met, well met--Rocca, Bari, Palaestro. Good hands all of you! I am sure these noble cardinals here will be glad to have you replace them, especially as I seem to have won most of their money. And how have you spent the evening? I hear Chigi gave one of his charming suppers. I trust the ladies’ toilets were elegant.” He paused to cast another bonbon to the dog. “May your Holiness be graciously pleased,” began Rocca in a constrained tone. “I fear we cannot usurp their Eminences’ places at your table. A little difference has arisen between Monsignore di Bari and the Conte di Palaestro which only your Holiness can arbitrate.” “A difference,--excellent!” the Pope’s eyes brightened. “Some matter of Latin versification, no doubt. I heard yesterday that Bari was preparing some excellent pentameters.” “I grieve to say, your Holiness,” spoke the Archbishop, abruptly, “our ‘differences’ touch quite another business. The illustrious Conte di Palaestro has hired this bravo Orosi here to take my life, and but for my good mail shirt, I would have been dead these three hours!” “Murder? Hired bravoes?” the Pope’s thick features paled at the words of ill-omen. “Impossible! Why, man--all Rome knows the Conte’s worthy German scruples. Impossible, I say!” “I can convince your Holiness,” asseverated Bari. “The Pope surely knows this Orosi’s reputation. The Governor of San Angelo can be witness both to his identity and his character. He was caught red-handed in the deed, and has confessed. As a prelate of the Church, if not as your friend, I demand your Holiness’s punishment upon his hirer, the Conte di Palaestro.” “Pest take the business!” cried the Pope, casting his cards upon the table. “Was ever a quiet evening so spoiled? Well--Gualtiero, why don’t you speak? What have you to say?” “I say,” I rejoined brusquely, “that the Pope knows me long enough to make this monstrous charge fall of its own weight. I did not hire this bravo to murder Monsignore di Bari.” “Bear witness, your Holiness,” cried the Archbishop, triumphantly; “he does not deny, however, knowing of a plot to take my life.” “Come, come,” exclaimed Leo, half testily; “let us not act like hasty schoolboys. Since you are safe and sound, Bari, don’t grow vindictive. We will sift the whole business; first let us examine the assassin.” During all this dialogue Forli and Rocca had been whispering, and now Forli came to my elbow. “A good heart, Gualtiero!” he shot in my ear; “do not betray me. All will end well.” “But better never begun,” I darted back. Now, however, the Pope began to interrogate the prisoner, and all our attention was concentrated upon Orosi.