"If that be all, I 'll promise you it. I am writing to Filangieri to-morrow. Let me have some details of what men you have recruited and what services you have rendered, briefly, not formally; and I'll say, 'If our master would vouchsafe in his own hand a line, a word even, to the Count of Amalfi, it would be a recompense he would not exchange for millions.' I 'll say 'that the letter could be sent to Ludolf at Turin, where we shall probably be in a week or two. '"
"Of course he will. We are not asking for a pension, or leave to shoot at Caserta. The thing is the same as done. Kings like a cheap road out of their indebtedness as well as humbler people. If not, they would never have invented crosses and grand cordons."
"Now, let us concoct the thing regularly," said Maitland, pushing the decanters from before him, as though, by a gesture, to show that he had turned from all conviviality to serious considerations. "You," continued he, "will, first of all, write to Filangieri."
"Yes. I will say, half incidentally, as it were, Maitland is here with me, as eager as the warmest of us in the cause. He has been eminently successful in his recruitment, of which he will soon send you details--"
"Ay, but how? That fellow M'Caskey, who has all the papers, did not meet me as I ordered him, and I cannot tell where he is."
"I am to blame for this, Maitland, for I ordered him to come over here, as the most certain of all ways of seeing you."
"Yes. Arrived last night In the hope of your arrival, I gave him a rendezvous here--any hour from ten to one or two to-night--and we shall soon see him."
"I must confess, I don't care how brief the interview be: the man is not at all to my liking."
"You are not likely to be much bored by him here, at least."
"The police are certain to hear of his arrival, and to give him a friendly hint to arrange his private affairs with all convenient despatch and move off."
"With what party or section do they connect him?"
"With how many? you might perhaps ask; for I take it he has held office with every shade of opinion, and intrigued for any cause from Henry V. to the reddest republicanism. The authorities, however, always deal with a certain courtesy to a man of this sort. They intimate, simply, We are aware you are here,--we know pretty well for what; and so don't push us to any disagreeable measures, but cross over into Belgium or Switzerland. M'Caskey himself told me he was recognized as he drew up at the hotel, and, in consequence, thinks he shall have to go on in a day or two."