To relieve the tension of his thoughts he set forth to Gamba the purposeof his visit.

　　"I am," said he, "much like a stranger at a masked ball, where all themasks are acquainted with each other's disguises and concerted tomystify the visitor. Among the persons I have met at court several haveshown themselves ready to guide me through this labyrinth; but, tillthey themselves unmask and declare their true characters, I am doubtfulwhither they may lead me; nor do I know of any so well fitted asyourself to give me a clue to my surroundings. As for my own disguise,"he added with a smile, "I believe I removed it sufficiently on our firstmeeting to leave you no doubt as to the use to which your informationwill be put."Gamba, who seemed touched by this appeal, nevertheless hesitated beforereplying. At length he said: "I have the fullest trust in yourexcellency's honour; but I must remind you that during your stay hereyou will be under the closest observation and that any opinions youexpress will at once be attributed to the persons you are known tofrequent. I would not," he continued hastily, "say this for myselfalone, but I have two mouths to feed and my views are already undersuspicion."Reassured by Odo's protestations, or rather, perhaps, by the moreconvincing warrant of his look and manner, Gamba proceeded to give him adetailed description of the little world in which chance had placedthem.

　　"If you have seen the Duke," said he, "I need not tell you that it isnot he who governs the duchy. We are ruled at present by a triumvirateconsisting of the Belverde, the Dominican and Trescorre. Pievepelago,the Prime Minister, is a dummy put in place by the Jesuits and keptthere by the rivalries of the other three; but he is in his dotage andthe courtiers are already laying wagers as to his successor. Many thinkFather Ignazio will replace him, but I stake my faith on Trescorre. TheDuke dislikes him, but he is popular with the middle class, who, sincethey have shaken off the yoke of the Jesuits, would not willingly see anecclesiastic at the head of the state. The duchess's influence is alsoagainst the Dominican, for her Highness, being, as you know, connectedwith the Austrian court, is by tradition unfavourable to the Churchparty. The Duchess's preferences would weigh little with the Duke wereit not that she is sole heiress to the old Duke of Monte Alloro, andthat any attempt to bring that principality under the control of theHoly See might provoke the interference of Austria.

　　"In so ticklish a situation I see none but Trescorre to maintain thepolitical balance. He has been adroit enough to make himself necessaryto the Duchess without alienating the Duke; he has introduced one or twotrifling reforms that have given him a name for liberality in spite ofthe heavy taxes with which he has loaded the peasantry; and has in shortso played his cards as to profit by the foibles of both parties. HerHighness," he continued, in reply to a question of Odo's, "was muchtaken by him when she first came to Pianura; and before her feeling hadcooled he had contrived to make himself indispensable to her. TheDuchess is always in debt; and Trescorre, as Comptroller of Finance,holds her by her besetting weakness. Before his appointment herextravagance was the scandal of the town. She borrowed from her ladies,her pages, her very lacqueys; when she went on a visit to her uncle ofMonte Alloro she pocketed the money he bestowed on her servants; nay,she was even accused of robbing the Marchioness of Pievepelago, who,having worn one evening a diamond necklace which excited her Highness'sadmiration, was waylaid on the way home and the jewels torn from herneck by a crowd of masked ruffians among whom she is said to haverecognised one of the ducal servants. These are doubtless idle reports;but it is certain that Trescorre's appointment engaged him still more tothe Duchess by enabling him to protect her from such calumnies; while byincreasing the land taxes he has discharged the worst of her debts andthus made himself popular with the tradesmen she had ruined. Yourexcellency must excuse my attempting to paint the private character ofher Highness. Such facts as I have reported are of public notoriety, butto exceed them would be an unwarranted presumption. I know she has thename of being affable to her dependents, capable of a fitful generosity,and easily moved by distress; and it is certain that her domesticsituation has been one to excite pity and disarm criticism.

　　"With regard to his Highness, it is difficult either to detect hismotives or to divine his preferences. His youth was spent in piouspractices; and a curious reason is given for the origin of this habit.

　　He was educated, as your excellency is doubtless aware, by a Frenchphilosopher of the school of Hobbes; and it is said that in the intervalof his tasks the poor Duke, bewildered by his governor's distinctionsbetween conception and cognition, and the object and the sentient, usedto spend his time praying the saints to assist him in his atheisticalstudies; indeed a satire of the day ascribes him as making a novena tothe Virgin to obtain a clearer understanding of the universality ofmatter. Others with more likelihood aver that he frequented the churchesto escape from the tyranny of his pedagogue; and it is certain that fromone cause or another his education threw him into the opposite extremeof a superstitious and mechanical piety. His marriage, his differenceswith the Duchess, and the evil influence of Cerveno, exposed him to newtemptations, and for a time he led a life which seemed to justify theworst charges of the enemies of materialism. Recent events have flunghim back on the exaggerated devotion of his youth, and now, when hishealth permits, he spends his time serving mass, singing in the choir atbenediction and making pilgrimages to the relics of the saints in thedifferent churches of the duchy.

　　"A few years since, at the instigation of his confessor, he destroyedevery picture in the ducal gallery that contained any naked figure orrepresented any subject offensive to religion. Among them was Titian'sfamous portrait of Duke Ascanio's mistress, known as the Goldsmith'sDaughter, and a Venus by the Venetian painter Giorgione, so highlyesteemed in its day that Pope Leo X. is said to have offered in exchangefor it the gift of a papal benefice, and a Cardinal's hat for DukeGuidobaldo's younger son. His Highness, moreover, impedes theadministration of justice by resisting all attempts to restrict theChurch's right of sanctuary, and upholds the decree forbidding hissubjects to study at the University of Pavia, where, as you know, thenatural sciences are professed by the ablest scholars of Italy. Heallows no public duties to interfere with his private devotions, andwhatever the urgency of affairs, gives no audience to his ministers onholydays; and a Cardinal a latere recently passing through the duchy onhis return to Rome was not received at the Duke's table because hechanced to arrive on a Friday.

　　"His Highness's fears for Prince Ferrante's health have drawn a swarm ofquacks to Pianura, and the influence of the Church is sometimescounteracted by that of the physicians with whom the Duke surroundshimself. The latest of these, the famous Count Heiligenstern, who issaid to have performed some remarkable cures by means of the electricalfluid and of animal magnetism, has gained such an ascendancy over theDuke that some suspect him of being an agent of the Austrian court,while others declare that he is a Jesuit en robe courte. But just atpresent the people scent a Jesuit under every habit, and it is evenrumoured that the Belverde is secretly affiliated to a female branch ofthe Society. With such a sovereign and such ministers, your excellencyneed not be told how the state is governed. Trescorre, heaven save themark! represents the liberal party; but his liberalism is like thegenerosity of the unarmed traveller who throws his purse to a foot-pad;and Father Ignazio is at hand to see that the people are not bettered atthe expense of the Church.

　　"As to the Duke, having no settled policy, and being governed onlythrough his fears, he leans first to one influence and then to another;but since the suppression of the Jesuits nothing can induce him toattack any ecclesiastical privileges. The diocese of Pianura holds afief known as the Caccia del Vescovo, long noted as the most lawlessdistrict of the duchy. Before the death of the late Pope, Trescorre hadprevailed on the Duke to annex it to the principality; but the dreadfulfate of Ganganelli has checked bolder sovereigns than his Highness intheir attempts on the immunities of the Church, and one of the fairestregions of our unhappy state remains a barren waste, the lair of outlawsand assassins, and a menace to the surrounding country. His Highness isnot incapable of generous impulses and his occasional acts of humanitymight endear him to his people were it not that they despise him forbeing the creature of his favourites. Thus, the gift of Boscofolto tothe Belverde has excited the bitterest discontent; for the Countess isnotorious for her cruel exactions, and it is certain that at her deaththis rich fief will revert to the Church. And now," Gamba ended with asmile, "............