By the time Burin had done this, his eminence showed no further trace of excitement, except that his lips were very firmly set, and there was a slight frown on his forehead as he smoothed out the roll of the map. One corner kept obstinately turning up, and as Machiavelli quietly put his hand on it to keep it in position, he said, "See! The ring is as it was before."
We looked at the opal, and sure enough the poison-tint was gone, and under the pale, semi-opaque blue of its surface, lights of red, of green, and of orange, flitted to and fro.
"It is wonderful," I said, and D'Amboise smiled grimly to himself. The cardinal placed his finger on the map, where the port of Sinigaglia was marked.
"Yes," replied Machiavelli, "and then straight to Rome."
"Then will your excellency instruct M. Donati? As arranged, I pledge an immediate movement on the part of Tremouille, at the first sign of success."
"You have agreed, cavaliere, to undertake the task?" and the secretary turned to me.
Machiavelli then went on, speaking incisively, wasting no words. "In ten days or thereabouts from now, Monsignore Bozardo, the Papal envoy to the Grand Turk, will land at Sinigaglia and start for Rome. He brings with him a letter and a sum of money, forty thousand ducats. These are for his holiness. Bozardo and the letter may reach, if you like; the ducats must not."
"Understand that you take this venture at your own risk."
I saw what he meant, if I failed I was to be sacrificed, and my mind was made up. I would accept, with a condition.
"I quite understand--there is one thing."
"Ten days is a wide margin. I will stop Bozardo or die; but I propose effecting the release of the Lady Angiola as well."
A glad look came into Machiavelli's eyes; but the cardinal flashed out--
"_Nom du diable!_ What grasshopper have you got in your head? Leave the demoiselle to us. You cannot do two things at once."
"Then with respect to your eminence I decline the affair of the ducats."
D'Amboise looked at me in sheer amazement.
"You decline--you dare;" but Machiavelli interposed.
"A moment, your eminence. Can we get another agent?"
"And we have no money for active measures?"
"It seems to me that the cavaliere has us in his hands, and we had better agree. After all he only risks his head twice, instead of once."