"Trial? We dare not try him, for then would he make known to the judges and others the very matter we wish to keep secret. Ours is a dangerous game, true; but it would be far more dangerous to let the villain live. Still, there is no need for his arrest; there are other and safer ways. The cardinal may disappear mysteriously, and then Marshal Zabern, the Minister of Justice, will offer a large reward, ay, and will give it, too, to any one who can tell what has become of the missing archbishop. Or," added Zabern, grimly, "he may be found to have committed suicide in his own palace."
Zabern spoke without the least scruple. He was not naturally cruel nor treacherous, but he reflected that the crown of Czernova was at stake, and with it, so he believed, the future liberation of Poland; and where these weighty matters were concerned, the secret removal of a cardinal was but a light thing in his eyes.
But Barbara was distressed. Must she resort to crime, she who had declared to the cardinal that her reliance was upon heaven? For her conscience refused to palliate Zabern's intended deed; the slaying of Ravenna without trial would be murder, and murder wrought to secure a title the validity of which she herself was beginning to question.
"Your Highness, bestow no pity upon the cardinal; he deserves death, if ever man deserved it. Consider the case of your sister Natalie. Do not believe that she committed suicide. A maiden of seventeen, to whom life was just unfolding fair and bright, heiress to a crown, and affianced to a man whom she loved--heaven forgive her for her choice!--she had every inducement to live. Doubt not that the cardinal had a hand in her death. Give me leave to employ the rack upon him, and I'll soon extract the truth."
"You have my authority for his arrest and conveyance to the oubliettes of the Citadel. Solitary confinement and a deaf jailer, if you will; but murder--no! _Fiat voluntas mea._"
With that the interview terminated, and Zabern departed to reduce to practice the plan he had formed.
Four weeks afterwards he presented to the princess three small packets, each fastened with violet-colored wax, stamped with the image of a paschal lamb, a seal that recalled vividly to her mind the mysterious incidents connected with the cardinal's study at Castel Nuovo.