"The little business at the Riverola Palace, you mean?" said Stephano. "Most assuredly! You and Piero will accompany me. There is little danger to be apprehended; and Antonio has given me the necessary information. Count Francisco sleeps at a great distance from the point where we must enter; and as for his sister--she is as deaf as if she had her ears sealed up." "But what about the pages, the lackeys----" "Antonio will give them all a sleeping draught. Everything," added the robber-chief, "is settled as cleverly as can be." "Antonio is your cousin, if I err not?" said Lomellino. "Something of the kind," replied Stephano; "but what is better and more binding--we are friends. And yet, strange to say, I never was within the precincts of the Riverola mansion until the night before last, and--more singular still--I have never, to my knowledge, seen any members of the family in whose service Antonio has been so long." "Why, Florence is not much honored with your presence during the day-time," observed Lomellino; "and at night the great lords and high-born ladies who happen to be abroad, are so muffled up--the former in their cloaks, the latter in their veils----" "True--true; I understand all you would say, Lomellino," interrupted the captain; "but you know how to be rather tedious at times. Here we separate, I repair to the Arestino Palace, and you----" "To the cavern," replied Lomellino: "where I hope to sleep better than I did last night," he added. "What! a renewal of those infernal shriekings and screamings, that seem to come from the bowels of the earth?" exclaimed the captain. "Worse than ever," answered Lomellino. "If they continue much longer, I must abandon my office of treasure-keeper, which compels me to sleep in the innermost room----" "That cannot be allowed, my worthy friend," interrupted the captain; "for I should not know whom to appoint in your place. If it were not that we should not betray our own stronghold," continued Stephano, emphatically, "we would force our way into the nest of our noisy neighbors, and levy such a tribute upon them as would put them on their good behavior for the future." "The scheme is really worth consideration," remarked Lomellino. "We will talk more of it another time," said the captain. "Good-night, Lomellino. I shall not return to the cavern until very late." The two banditti then separated--Lomellino striking off to the right, and Stephano Verrina pursuing his way toward the most aristocratic quarter of Florence. Upon entering the sphere of marble palaces, brilliantly lighted villas, and gay mansions, the robber chief covered his face with a black mask--a mode of disguise so common at that period, not only amongst ladies, but also with cavaliers and nobles, that it was not considered at all suspicious, save as a proof of amatory intrigue, with which the sbirri had no right of interference. CHAPTER XXII. THE COUNTESS OF ARESTINO.