"Can Giacomo come in to wind up the clock, Eccellenza?" said Caffarelli's servant, entering at the moment; and as the Count nodded an assent, a fat, large, bright-eyed man of about forty entered, with a mellow frank countenance, and an air of happy joyous contentment that might have sat admirably on a well-to-do farmer.
"Come over and have a glass of wine, Giacomo," said the Count, filling a large glass to the brim with Burgundy; and the Italian bowed with an air of easy politeness first to the Count and next to Maitland, and then, after slightly tasting the liquor, retired a little distance from the table, glass in hand.
"My friend here," said the Count, with a motion of his hand towards Maitland, "is one of ourselves, Giacomo, and you may speak freely before him."
"I have seen the noble signor before," said Giacomo, bowing respectfully, "at Naples, with His Royal Highness the Count of Syracuse."
"The fellow never forgets a face; nobody escapes him," muttered Caffarelli; while he added, aloud, "Well, there are few honester patriots in Italy than the Count of Syracuse."
Giacomo smiled, and showed a range of white teeth, with a pleasant air of acquiescence.
"And what is stirring?--what news have you for us, Giacomo?" asked Caffarelli.
"Nothing, Eccellenza,--positively nothing. The French seem rather to be growing tired of us Italians, and begin to ask, 'What, in the name of wonder, do we really want?' and even his Majesty the Emperor t' other day said to one of ours, 'Don't be importunate.'"
"And will you tell me that the Emperor would admit to his presence and speak with fellows banded in a plot against his life?" asked Maitland, contemptuously.
"Does the noble signor know that the Emperor was a Carbonaro once, and that he never forgets it? Does the noble signor know that there has not been one plot against his life--not one--of which he has not been duly apprised and warned?"
"If I understand you aright, Master Giacomo, then, it is that these alleged schemes of assassination are simply plots to deliver up to the Emperor the two or three amongst you who may be sincere in their blood thirstiness. Is that so?"
Far from seeming offended at the tone or the tenor of this speech, Giacomo smiled good-naturedly, and said, "I perceive that the noble signor is not well informed either as to our objects or our organization; nor does he appear to know, as your Excellency knows, that all secret societies have a certain common brotherhood."