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"No, no, it is not that. It is..."

"I understand: you are again concerned about the quarantine. I have already told you: it is a trifle, a mere trifle! If matters are as you have described them to me, there is no danger of infection, let alone of being interned in a pest-house. He is absolutely right, that... what is he called? that Cristogeno of yours."

"Cristofano, he is called Cristofano. But I am concerned about something else. It seems to me that I was followed when I was com­ing to your house through the galleries."

"Ah well, one thing is for sure, you have been trampled on by some water rat, ha, ha, haaa! By the way, the other day, I found one right here in the stable. It was as big as this," said Tiracorda, stretching his short, round arms full length.

Dulcibeni remained silent, and although we could not see his face, I had the impression that he was losing patience.

"I know, I know," said Tiracorda then. "You are still ruminating upon that business. I do not understand why you torment yourself thus after so, so many years. Is it perhaps your fault? No; and yet you believe it and you think: 'If only I had served another master! Ah, if I had been a painter, a steward, a poet, a blacksmith or a stable-boy! Anything, but not a merchant.'"

"Well, yes. At times, I do think that," confirmed Dulcibeni.

"And I, do you know what I say to you? If it had been so, you would not even have known your daughter Maria."

"It is true. Far less would have sufficed: simply that Francesco Feroni should never have crossed my path."

"There we are again. Are you so sure that it was he?"

"It was he who backed the sordid designs of that swine Huygens."

"You could at least have revealed the facts and demanded an investigation."

"An investigation. But I have already explained to you: whoever would have undertaken a search for the bastard daughter of a Turk­ish slave? No, no, in difficult cases no help can be obtained from the Bargello's men, only from rogues and scoundrels."

"And the scoundrels told you that there was nothing to be done."

"Exactly, nothing to be done: Feroni and Huygens had carried her off, up there where that wretch lived. I went to search for her, to no effect. Do you see this old black great coat which I am wearing? I have had it ever since then. I bought it in a shop in the port when I was at the end of my strength and of my hopes; I shall never take it off again, never... I searched again and again, I paid informers and spies halfway across the world. Two of the best told me that of Maria there was no longer any trace: sold or, as I fear, dead."

The two fell silent for a few moments. Atto and I looked at each other; and in his eyes I read the same surprise and the same questions.

"I have told you many times: in this affair, there is neither resolu­tion nor hope," Dulcibeni continued softly. "A drop of the usual?" he then asked, drawing out a flask and placing it on the table.

"What a question!" said Tiracorda, as his face lit up.

He rose to his feet, again opened the secret door and entered the cupboard. Groaning, he stretched up on tiptoe and, reaching out to a shelf near the ceiling, with his stubby fingers grasped two large goblets of fine green glass.

"It is a miracle Paradisa has not yet discovered my new secret hiding place," he explained, while closing the closet. "If she found my wine glasses, she would make such a scene. You know, with all her mania about sins of gluttony, and Satan... But let us return to you: what happened to Maria's mother?" asked Tiracorda.

"I have already told you: she was sold a little while before Maria's abduction. And of her, too, no more was ever heard."

"Could you not oppose her sale?"

"She belonged to the Odescalchi, not to me; as did my daughter, alas."

"Ah yes, you should have married her."

"Of course. But, in my position... with a slave..." stammered Dulcibeni.

"Had you done so, you would have obtained paternal rights over your daughter."

"It is true, but you do understand..."

A sound of breaking glass made us start. Dulcibeni cursed under his breath.

"I am sorry, oh, I am so, so sorry," said Tiracorda. Let us hope that Paradisa has heard nothing. Oh dear, what a mess..."

Moving one of the wax candles which lit the table, Tiracorda had struck Dulcibeni's flask, causing it to fall to the floor and shatter into a thousand pieces.

"It does not matter. I should have some more at the inn," said Dulcibeni in conciliatory tones, and he began to gather up the largest fragments of glass from the floor.

"Take care, you will cut yourself. I am going to fetch a cloth," said Tiracorda. "Please do not go to so much trouble, as you did when you served the Odescalchi, ha, ha, haaa!"

And laughing, he moved towards the half-open door behind which we were hiding.

We had a few seconds in which to act, and no choice. While Tiracorda opened the door, we flattened ourselves against the wall on either side of the door. The doctor passed between us, as be­tween two sentries standing rigid and erect with fear. He crossed the whole ante-chamber and went out through the door at the far end.

It was then that the genius of Abbot Melani came to our aid, that and, perhaps, his insane inclination for disguises and ambuscades. He gave me a nod, and we both ran to the opposite wall, as silently and swiftly as two mice. Here, we again glued ourselves against the wall on either side of the doorway, this time with the advantage of being able to hide behind the open double doors.

"Here we are," said Tiracorda, who had evidently found a cloth.

The
Archiater
returned to the ante-chamber, passing between my­self and Atto. Had we remained at the opposite end, I then realised, he would have faced us and there would have been no escape.

Tiracorda returned to the chamber where his guest was waiting for him, and closed the door behind him. Just before the last sliver of light disappeared, I had time to catch sight of Dulcibeni, still seated, and turning his head toward the door. With a dubious frown, he stared into the darkness of the ante-chamber, looking, without knowing it, straight into my frightened eyes.

We remained immobile for a few minutes, during which I did not dare so much as to wipe the sweat from my forehead. Dulcibeni an­nounced that he felt unusually tired and decided to take his leave and return to the Donzello. It was as though the failure of their toast had suddenly robbed his visit of all meaning. We heard the pair rise to their feet. We found no better solution than to run back to the first room, that which gave onto the staircase, and to hide behind the plaster statues. Tiracorda and Dulcibeni passed near us, unaware of our presence. Dulcibeni left with a lantern in his hand, the same one which he would use to return to the inn, while the physician kept apologising for breaking the flask, thus spoiling their evening.

They descended the stairs to the lobby. We did not, however, hear the main door of the house open. Surely, Atto whispered to me, Dul­cibeni was returning to the Donzello by the underground route, the only possible one because of the watchmen who kept guard over the inn, day and night.

A little while later, Tiracorda returned up the stairs and went to the second floor. We were in utter darkness. With a thousand precau­tions, we descended to the kitchen and thence into the stables. We prepared to follow Dulcibeni.

"There is no danger: like Stilone Priaso, he will not escape us," whispered Atto.

However, matters went otherwise. Very soon, in gallery D we caught sight of the light of Dulcibeni's lantern. The gentleman from the Marches, with his heavy and corpulent physique, was advancing at a moderate pace. The surprise came at the junction with gallery C: instead of turning to the right, in the direction of the Donzello, Dulcibeni proceeded to the left.

"But that is impossible," Abbot Melani gestured to me.

We advanced a fair distance, until we were close to the water­course which crossed the gallery. Beyond that, darkness reigned: it was as though Dulcibeni had extinguished his oil lamp. No point of reference remained to us and we advanced blindly.

We slowed down, fearing an encounter with our prey, and pricked up our ears. Nothing was to be heard save the rushing of the under­ground stream. We decided to proceed further.

Abbot Melani tripped and fell, fortunately without any conse­quences.

"The Devil with it, give me that wretched lantern," he cursed.

He himself lit our lantern and we both remained utterly con­founded. A few yards ahead of us, the gallery came to an end, cut off obliquely by the watercourse. Dulcibeni had disappeared.

"Where do we start from?" asked Abbot Melani, visibly piqued, as we returned to the inn. In a painful endeavour to discern some logical sequence in the latest events, I summarised all that we had learned.

Pompeo Dulcibeni had several times visited Giovanni Tiracorda, his fellow-citizen of Fermo and physician to the Pope, to discuss mysterious matters the essence of which we had not succeeded in understanding. Tiracorda had mentioned obscure questions concern­ing brothers and sisters, farms, "number to dine, three", and other incomprehensible expressions.

Tiracorda also had a patient who seemed to be causing him some concern, but whom he hoped soon to restore to good health.

We had received important news concerning Pompeo Dulcibeni: he had (or, in his own words, had had) a daughter called Maria. The mother was a slave of whom he had soon lost all trace. The woman had been sold.

Pompeo Dulcibeni's child had, according to him, been abducted by a certain Huygens, the right-hand man of a certain Feroni (a name which, in truth, did not sound new to me) who seemed to have had a hand in the affair. Dulcibeni had not been able to prevent the abduc­tion and believed that the girl was now dead.

"In all probability, it was to his lost daughter," I observed, moved to pity, "that Dulcibeni imagined he was speaking during his solilo­quy, poor man."

But the abbot was no longer listening to me.

"Francesco Feroni," he murmured. "I know the name: he enriched himself trafficking slaves to the Spanish colonies in the New World, and returned to Florence in the service of Grand Duke Cosimo."

"A slaver, then."

"Yes. He is said to be a man of few scruples: in Florence, much ill is told concerning him. And, now that I remember, it was about him and that Huygens that a rather ridiculous tale circulated," said Atto with a little laugh. "Feroni dreamed of an alliance with some Florentine nobleman, instead of which, his daughter and heiress quite literally lost her health for love of that Huygens. The problem was that Huygens was Feroni's trusted collaborator and managed all the most important and delicate affairs on his behalf."

"What happened? Did Feroni dismiss him?"

"On the contrary: the old merchant neither would nor could do without him. Thus Huygens remained in the family business, while Feroni endeavoured almost obsessively so to exercise his power as to fulfil his young assistant's every caprice. In order to keep him away from his daughter, he arranged for him to have all the women he wanted, even the costliest ones."

"And how did it all end?"

"I do not know, that is of no interest to us. But I think that Dul­cibeni's little girl fell, poor creature, under the eyes of Huygens and Feroni," sighed Atto.

Dulcibeni, I resumed, and this was the most surprising discovery, had in the past been a merchant in the service of the Odescalchi: the Pope's family.

"And now, put your questions to me," said Melani, guessing that I had a long list of queries on the tip of my tongue.

"First of all," I said as with a little jump down, we came to gallery D, "what service will Dulcibeni have performed for the family of the Pope?"

"There are various possibilities," replied Atto. "Dulcibeni said 'merchant'. But the term is perhaps misleading: a merchant works on his own account, while he had a master. He may therefore have served the Odescalchi in the capacity of a secretary, an accountant, a treasurer or an agent buying for them. Perhaps he travelled for them. For decades, that family bought and sold grain and textiles throughout Europe."

"Padre Robleda told me that they lend money with interest."

"Did you speak of this too with Robleda? Bravo, my boy; well, yes. They subsequently withdrew from trading and dedicated themselves above all to moneylending. I know that in the end they invested al­most everything, purchasing public offices and savings bonds."