mask—then hastened away in the direction from whence he came, without speaking a word.
"This visit bodes no good work," soliloquized old Delano, coming forward, "for that personage in the red cloak is the messenger of the cardinals!"
III.
THE DEATH-WARRANT.
The mask did not reply. He had broken the seal of the packet, and moved out of the shadow of the pillar, so that the rays of the moon fell upon the paper he held in his hand, and enabled him to read it. For a moment he was occupied in perusing the missive; then he crushed it in his hand, and muttered, as he turned toward Delano.
"Fool, fool!"
"Why lookest thou so strange at me?—and why these epithets?"
"Art thou not a fool?" asked the mask, with a fierceness of emphasis that startled his listener.
"To the best of my belief, I am not."
"Then, why hast thou been here and there, like a babbling school-boy, making known the loss of thy daughter, and publicly charging the Pope with having been concerned in her abduction?"
"Have I done so? Then is the truth made known. Alexander VI. has robbed me of my daughter—I have reported nothing but the truth."
"But has thy shallow brain never cautioned thee that it is not always a course of safety, or policy, to tell the truth? It seems that it has not, or else you would not
