His
features suddenly relaxed and he put out his hand.
"My dear Monsieur Gouache, I like you exceedingly," he said. "You
are a man of heart."
"I do not understand---" Anastase was very much bewildered, but he
saw that his plan for freeing Faustina was on the point of
failure.
"I appreciate your motives," continued the statesman. "You love
the young lady to distraction, she is arrested on a capital
charge, you conceive the idea of presenting yourself as the
murderer in her place--"
"But I assure your Eminence, I swear--"
"No," interrupted the other, raising his hand. "Do not swear. You
are incapable of such a crime. Besides, Donna Faustina is already
at liberty, and the author of the deed has already confessed his
guilt."
Anastase staggered against the projecting shelf of the bookcase.
The blood rushed to his face and for a moment he was almost
unconscious of where he was. The cardinal's voice recalled him to
himself.
"If you doubt what I tell you, you need only go to the Palazzo
Montevarchi and inquire. Donna Faustina will return with the
Princess Sant' Ilario. I am sorry that circumstances prevent me
from showing you the man who has confessed the crime. He is in my
apartments at the present moment, separated from us only by two or
three rooms.
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