"
"Your Excellency knoweth that Fra Paolo will have no state."
"A cowl over their saintly faces, if it please his fancy! It is the
order of the Senate, waiting better plans of safety--a suite in the
Ducal Palace or a house connected therewith by some guarded passage.
Warning hath been sent us most urgently, by friends of the Republic, of
a great price and absolution for him who may bring Fra Paolo to
Rome--alive or dead!"
XXVII
These days had been important in the Senate. In the deliberations prior
to the departure of di Gioiosa the concessions which Rome had
persistently asked had been so persistently and diplomatically declined
that even the wily cardinal dared no longer press them; and it seemed at
last that there was to be truce to the cautious and subtle word-weighing
of months past, as di Gioiosa, suddenly realizing that he held the
ultimatum of the Republic, had taken his departure for Rome in the
night--conceiving it easier, perhaps, to confess his partial defeat to
the dignified Signoria by proxy.
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