When Michel had told the story of his adventure to the most trivial detail, and Pier-Angelo had admired and applauded his hypocrisy, the young man said: "Now, father, pray tell me how it happens that you live here, without a mask and under your own name, without being molested, whereas I, immediately upon my arrival, must resort to stratagem and stand on my guard?" Pier-Angelo seemed to hesitate a moment, then replied: "Why, it is a very simple matter, my child! I was charged with being a conspirator long ago; I was put in prison, and probably escaped the gallows by flight. The formal prosecution had already been begun. That is all forgotten, and although the cardinal must have known my name and my face at the time, it would seem that I have changed greatly, or else his memory is much impaired, for he has seen me here, and must have heard my name mentioned, without recognizing me and without the faintest indication that he recalled the old affair; that was a test which I was resolved to make. I was summoned by Abbé Ninfo to work in the cardinal's palace; I went there boldly, after taking measures to ensure Mila's safety in case I should be cast into prison without process. The cardinal saw me and did not recognize me. Abbé Ninfo knows nothing about me; so that I am, or at all events I was, free from anxiety on my own account, and was just about to write you to come and see me, when it began to be rumored in the city, a few days ago, that his eminence was visibly improved, so much so that he was going to pass some time at his country house at Ficarazzi yonder; you can see the palace from here, on the hillside." "Then the villa a few steps away, where I just saw the cardinal enter, is not his own residence?" "No; it belongs to his niece, Princess Agatha. Doubtless he thought that he would make a détour and call upon her as he passed; but this same visit worries me. I know that she was not expecting it--that she had made no preparations to receive her uncle. He must have wanted to give her an unpleasant surprise, for he surely knows that there is no reason whatever why she should be fond of him. I greatly fear that this is a cloak for some wicked design. In any event, this sudden activity on the part of a man who, for a whole year, has only moved about in a wheeled chair up and down a gallery in his city palace, gives me food for thought, and I say that we must pay close attention to everything now." "But after all, father, all this does not tell me what danger there can be for me personally! I was barely six months old, I believe, when I left Sicily; I fancy that I was not implicated in the conspiracy in which you were involved?"