The Vision touched him on the lips and said:

　　Hereafter thou shalt eat me in thy bread,Drink me in all thy kisses, feel my handSteal 'twixt thy palm and Joy's, and see me standWatchful at every crossing of the ways,The insatiate lover of thy nights and days.

　　It was at Naples, some two years later, that the circumstances of hisflight were recalled to Odo Valsecca by the sound of a voice which atonce mysteriously connected itself with the incidents of that wildnight.

　　He was seated with a party of gentlemen in the saloon of Sir WilliamHamilton's famous villa of Posilipo, where they were sipping theambassador's iced sherbet and examining certain engraved gems andburial-urns recently taken from the excavations. The scene was such asalways appealed to Odo's fancy: the spacious room, luxuriously fittedwith carpets and curtains in the English style, and opening on aprospect of classical beauty and antique renown; in his hands the rarestspecimens of that buried art which, like some belated golden harvest,was now everywhere thrusting itself through the Neapolitan soil; andabout him men of taste and understanding, discussing the historic ormythological meaning of the objects before them, and quoting Homer orHorace in corroboration of their guesses.

　　Several visitors had joined the party since Odo's entrance; and it wasfrom a group of these later arrivals that the voice had reached him. Helooked round and saw a man of refined and scholarly appearance, dresseden abbe, as was the general habit in Rome and Naples, and holding in onehand the celebrated blue vase cut in cameo which Sir William hadrecently purchased from the Barberini family.

　　"These reliefs," the stranger was saying, "whether cut in the substanceitself, or afterward affixed to the glass, certainly belong to theGrecian period of cameo-work, and recall by the purity of their designthe finest carvings of Dioskorides." His beautifully-modulated Italianwas tinged by a slight foreign accent, which seemed to connect him stillmore definitely with the episode his voice recalled. Odo turned to agentleman at his side and asked the speaker's name.

　　"That," was the reply, "is the abate de Crucis, a scholar andcognoscente, as you perceive, and at present attached to the householdof the Papal Nuncio."Instantly Odo beheld the tumultuous scene in the Duke's apartments, andheard the indictment of Heiligenstern falling in tranquil accents fromthe very lips which were now, in the same tone, discussing the date of aGreek cameo vase. Even in that moment of disorder he had been struck bythe voice and aspect of the agent of the Holy Office, and by a singulardistinction that seemed to set the man himself above the coil ofpassions in which his action was involved. To Odo's spontaneous yetreflective temper there was something peculiarly impressive in the kindof detachment which implies, not obtuseness or indifference, but ahigher sensitiveness disciplined by choice. Now he felt a renewed pangof regret that such qualities should be found in the service of theopposition; but the feeling was not incompatible with a wish to be morenearly acquainted with their possessor.

　　The two years elapsing since Odo's departure from Pianura had widened ifthey had not lifted his outlook. If he had lost something of his earlyenthusiasm he had exchanged it for a larger experience of cities andmen, and for the self-command born of varied intercourse. He had reacheda point where he was able to survey his past dispassionately and todisentangle the threads of the intrigue in which he had so nearly losthis footing. The actual circumstances of his escape were still wrappedin mystery: he could only conjecture that the Duchess, foreseeing thecourse events would take, had planned with Cantapresto to save him inspite of himself. His nocturnal flight down the river had carried him toPonte di Po, the point where the Piana flows into the Po, the latterriver forming for a few miles the southern frontier of the duchy. Herehis passport had taken him safely past the customs-officer, andfollowing the indications of the boatman, he had found, outside themiserable village clustered about the customs, a travelling-chaise whichbrought him before the next night-fall to Monte Alloro.

　　Of the real danger from which this timely retreat had removed him,Gamba's subsequent letters had brought ample proof. It was indeed mainlyagainst himself that both parties, perhaps jointly, had directed theirattack; designing to take him in the toils ostensibly prepared for theIlluminati. His evasion known, the Holy Office had contented itself withimprisoning Heiligenstern in one of the Papal fortresses near theAdriatic, while his mistress, though bred in the Greek confession, wasconfined in a convent of the Sepolte Vive and his Oriental servant sentto the Duke's galleys. As to those suspected of affiliations with theforbidden sect, fines and penances were imposed on a few of the leastconspicuous, while the chief offenders, either from motives of policy orthanks to their superior adroitness, were suffered to escape without areprimand. After this, Gamba's letters reported, the duchy had lapsedinto its former state of quiescence. Prince Ferrante had been seriouslyailing since the night of the electrical treatment, but the Pope havingsent his private physician to Pianura, the boy had rallied under thelatter's care. The Duke, as was natural, had suffered an acute relapseof piety, spending his time in expiatory pilgrimages to the variousvotive churches of the duchy, and declining to transact any publicbusiness till he should have compiled with his own hand a calendar ofthe lives of the saints, with the initial letters painted in miniature,which he designed to present to his Holiness at Easter.

　　Meanwhile Odo, at Monte Alloro, found himself in surroundings sodifferent from those he had left that it seemed incredible they shouldexist in the same world. The Duke of Monte Alloro was that rare survivalof a stronger age, a cynic. In a period of sentimental optimism, offervid enthusiasms and tearful philanthropy, he represented thepleasure-loving prince of the Renaissance, crushing his people withtaxes but dazzling them with festivities; infuriating them by hisdisregard of the public welfare, but fascinating them by his good looks,his tolerance of old abuses, his ridicule of the monks, and by thecareless libertinage which had founded the fortunes of more than onemiddle-class husband and father--for the Duke always paid well for whathe appropriated. He had grown old in his pleasant sins, and these, assuch raiment will, had grown old and dingy with him; but if no longersplendid he was still splendour-loving, and drew to his court the mostbrilliant adventurers of Italy. Spite of his preference for suchcompany, he had a nobler side, the ruins of a fine but uncultivatedintelligence, and a taste for all that was young, generous and high inlooks and courage. He was at once drawn to Odo, who instinctivelyaddressed himself to these qualities, and whose conversation and mannersthrew into relief the vulgarity of the old Duke's cronies. The latterwas the shrewd enough to enjoy the contrast at the expense of hissycophants' vanity; and the cavaliere Valsecca was for a while thereigning favourite. It would have been hard to say whether his patronwas most tickled by his zeal for economic reforms, or by his faith inthe perfectibility of man. Both these articles of Odo's creed drew tearsof enjoyment from the old Duke's puffy eyes; and he was never tired ofdeclaring that only his hatred for his nephew of Pianura induced him toaccord his protection to so dangerous an enemy of society.

　　Odo at first fancied that it was in response to a mere whim of theDuke's that he had been despatched to Monte Alloro; but he soonperceived that the invitation had been inspired by Maria Clementina'swish. Some three months after Odo's arrival, Cantapresto suddenlyappeared with a packet of letters from the Duchess. Among them herHighness had included a few lines to Odo, whom she briefly adjured notto return to Pianura, but to comply in all things with her uncle'sdesires. Soon after this the old Duke sent for Odo, and asked him howhis present mode of life agreed with his tastes. Odo, who had learnedthat frankness was the surest way to the Duke's favour, replied that,while nothing could be more agreeable than the circumstances of hissojourn at Monte Alloro, he must own to a wish to travel when theoccasion offered.

　　"Why, this is as I fancied," replied the Duke, who held in his hand anopen letter on which Odo recognised Maria Clementina's seal. "We havealways," he continued, "spoken plainly with each other, and I will notconceal from you that it is for your best interests that you shouldremain away from Pianura for the present. The Duke, as you doubtlessdivine, is anxious for your return, and her Highness, for that veryreason, is urgent that you should prolong your absence. It is notoriousthat the Duke soon wearies of those about him, and that your best chanceof regaining his favour is to keep out of his reach and let your enemieshang themselves in the noose they have prepared for you. For my part, Iam always glad to do an ill-turn to that snivelling friar, my nephew,and the more so when I can seriously oblige a friend; and, as you haveperhaps guessed, the Duke dares not ask for your return while I show afancy for your company. But this," added he with an ironical twinkle,"is a tame place for a young man of your missionary temper, and I have amind to send you on a visit to that arch-tyrant Ferdinand of Naples, inwhose dominions a man may yet burn for heresy or be drawn and quarteredfor poaching on a nobleman's preserves. I am advised that some raretreasures have lately been taken from the excavations there and I shouldbe glad if you would oblige me by acquiring a few for my gallery. I willgive you letters to a cognoscente of my acquaintance, who will put hisexperience at the disposal of your excellent taste, and the funds atyour service will, I hope, enable you to outbid the English brigandswho, as the Romans say, would carry off the Colosseum if it wereportable."In all this Odo discerned Maria Clementina's hand, and an instinctiveresistance made him hang back upon his patron's proposal. But the onlyalternative was to return to Pianura; and every letter from Gamba urgedon him (for the very reasons the Duke had given) the duty of keeping outof reach as the surest means of saving himself and the cause to which hewas pledged. Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence; and early thenext spring he started for Naples.

　　His first impulse had been to send Cantapresto back to the Duchess. Heknew that he owed his escape me grave difficulties to the soprano'sprompt action on the night of Heiligenstern's arrest; but he was equallysure that such action might not always be as favourable to his plans. Itwas plain that Cantapresto was paid to spy on him, and that wheneverOdo's intentions clashed with those of his would-be protectors thesoprano would side with the latter. But there was something in the airof Monte Alloro which dispelled such considerations, or at leastweakened the impulse to act on them. Cantapresto as usual had attractednotice at court. His glibness and versatility amused the Duke, and toOdo he was as difficult to put off as a bad habit. He had become soaccomplished a servant that he seemed a sixth sense of his master's; andwhen the latter prepared to start on his travels Cantapresto took hisusual seat in the chaise.

　　To a traveller of Odo's temper there could be few more agreeablejourneys than the one on which he was setting out, and the Duke being inno haste to have his commission executed, his messenger had full leisureto enjoy every stage of the way. He profited by this to visit several ofthe small principalities north of the Apennines before turning towardGenoa, whence he was to take ship for the South. When he left MonteAlloro the land had worn the bleached face of February, and it wasamazing to his northern-bred eyes to find himself, on the sea-coast, inthe full exuberance of summer. Seated by this halcyon shore, Genoa, inits carved and frescoed splendour, just then celebrating with thecustomary gorgeous ritual the accession of a new Doge, seemed to Odolike the richly-inlaid frame of some Renaissance "triumph." But thesplendid houses with their marble peristyles, and the painted villas intheir orange-groves along the shore, housed a dull and narrow-mindedsociety, content to amass wealth and play biribi under the eyes of theirancestral Vandykes, without any concern as to the questions agitatingthe world. A kind of fat commercial dulness, a lack of that personaldistinction which justifies magnificence, seemed to Odo the prevailingnote of the place; nor was he sorry when his packet set sail for Naples.

　　Here indeed he found all the vivacity that Genoa lacked. Few citiescould at first acquaintance be more engaging to the stranger. Dull andbrown as it appeared after the rich tints of Genoa, yet so gloriouslydid sea and land embrace it, so lavishly the sun gild and the moonsilver it, that it seemed steeped in the surrounding hues of nature. Andwhat a nature to eyes subdued to the sober tints of the north! Itsspectacular quality--that studied sequence of effects ranging from thetranslucent outline of Capri and the fantastically blue mountains of thecoast, to Vesuvius lifting its torch above the plain--this prodigalresponse to fancy's claims suggested the boundless invention of somegreat scenic artist, some Olympian Veronese with sea and sky for apalette. And then the city itself, huddled between bay and mountains,and seething and bubbling like a Titan's cauldron! Here was life at itssource, not checked, directed, utilised, but gushing forthuncontrollably through every fissure of the brown walls and reekingstreets--love and hatred, mirth and folly, impudence and greed, goingnaked and unashamed as the lazzaroni on the quays. The variegatedsurface of it all was fascinating to Odo. It set free his powers ofpurely physical enjoyment, keeping all deeper sensations in abeyance.

　　These, however, presently found satisfaction in that other hidden beautyof which city and plain were but the sumptuous drapery. It is hardly toomuch to say that to the trained eyes of the day the visible Napleshardly existed, so absorbed were they in the perusal of her buried past.

　　The fever of excavation was on every one. No social or political problemcould find a hearing while the subject of the last coin or bas-relieffrom Pompeii or Herculanaeum remained undecided. Odo, at first an amusedspectator, gradually found himself engrossed in the fierce quarrelsraging over the date of an intaglio or the myth represented on anamphora. The intrinsic beauty of the objects, and the light they shed onone of the most brilliant phases of human history, were in factsufficient to justify the prevailing ardour; and the reconstructivehabit he had acquired from Crescenti lent a living interest to thedriest discussion between rival collectors.

　　Gradually other influences reasserted themselves. At the house of SirWilliam Hamilton, then the centre of the most polished society inNaples, he met not only artists and archeologists, but men of lettersand of affairs. Among these, he was peculiarly drawn to the twodistinguished economists, the abate Galiani and the cavaliereFilangieri, in whose company he enjoyed for the first time soundlearning unhampered by pedantry. The lively Galiani proved that socialtastes and a broad wit are not incompatible with more serious interests;and Filangieri threw the charm of a graceful personality over any topiche discussed. In the latter, indeed, courtly, young and romantic, athinker whose intellectual acuteness was steeped in moral emotion, Odobeheld the type of the new chivalry, an ideal leader of the campaignagainst social injustice. Filangieri represented the extremest optimismof the day. His sense of existing abuses was only equalled by his faithin their speedy amendment. Love was to cure all evils: the love of manfor man, the effusive all-embracing sympathy of the school of theVicaire Savoyard, was to purge the emotions by tenderness and pity. InGamba, the victim of the conditions he denounced, the sense of presenthardship prevailed over the faith in future improvement; whileFilangieri's social superiority mitigated his view of the evils andmagnified the efficacy of the proposed remedies. Odo's days passedagreeably in such intercourse, or in the excitement of excursions to theruined cities; and as the court and the higher society of Naples offeredlittle to engage him, he gradually restricted himself to the smallcircle of chosen spirits gathered at the villa Hamilton. To these hefancied the abate de Crucis might prove an interesting addition; and thedesire to learn something of this problematic person induced him to quitthe villa at the moment when the abate took leave.

　　They found themselves together on the threshold; and Odo, recalling tothe other the circumstances of their first meeting, proposed that theyshould dismiss their carriages and regain the city on foot. De Crucisreadily consented; and they were soon descending the hill of Posilipo.

　　Here and there a turn in the road brought them to an open space whencethey commanded the bay from Procida to Sorrento, with Capri afloat inliquid gold and the long blue shadow of Vesuvius stretching like amenace toward the city. The spectacle was one of which Odo neverwearied; but today it barely diverted him from the charms of hiscompanion's talk. The abate de Crucis had that quality of repressedenthusiasm, of an intellectual sensibility tempered by self-possession,which exercises the strongest attraction over a mind not yet master ofitself. Though all he said had a personal note he seemed to withholdhimself even in the moment of greatest expansion: like some prince whoshould enrich his favourites from the public treasury but keep hisprivate fortune unimpaired. In the course of their conversation Odolearned that though of Austrian birth his companion was of mingledEnglish and Florentine parentage: a fact perhaps explaining the mixtureof urbanity and reserve that lent such charm to his manner. He told Odothat his connection with the Holy Office had been only temporary, andthat, having contracted a severe cold the previous winter in Germany, hehad accepted a secretaryship in the service of the Papal Nuncio in orderto enjoy the benefits of a mild climate. "By profession," he added, "Iam a pedagogue, and shall soon travel to Rome, where I have been calledby Prince Bracciano to act as governor to his son; and meanwhile I amtaking advantage of my residence here to indulge my taste forantiquarian st............