He
understood Latin well enough, but the crabbed characters puzzled
him from time to time. He read the last words on the first page
without thinking very much of what they meant.
".... Eo tamen pacto, quod si praedicto Domino Leoni ex legitimo
matrimonio heres nasceretur, instrumentum hoc nullum, vanum atque
plane invalidum fiat."
Giovanni smiled at the quaint law Latin, and then read the
sentence over again. His face grew grave as he realised the
tremendous import of those few words. Again and again he
translated the phrase, trying to extract from it some other
meaning than that which was so unpleasantly clear. No other
construction, however, could be put upon what was written, and for
some minutes Giovanni sat staring at the fire, bewildered and
almost terrified by his discovery.
"Have you ever read those papers?" he asked at last, in a voice
that made his father drop his pen and look up.
"Not for thirty years."
"Then you had better read them at once. San Giacinto is Prince
Saracinesca and you and I are nobody."
Saracinesca uttered a fierce oath and sprang from his chair.
"What do you mean?" he asked, seizing Giovanni's arm violently
with one hand and taking the parchment with the other.
"Read for yourself.
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