It was he who
sent us to find and bring them back to Corsica. At this moment, when
(as I will confess to you) all odds are against it, he holds to their
cause; he, a comfortable priest and a loose liver, has taken to the
bush and fares hardly for his zeal."
"My good friend," said I, "you reason as though a traitor must needs
work always in a straight line and never quarrel with his paymaster;
whereas by the very nature of treachery these are two of the
unlikeliest things in the world. Now, putting this aside, tell me if
you think your Prince Camillo the better for Father Domenico's
company? . . . You do not, I see."
"I will not say that," answered Marc'antonio, slowly. "The Prince
has good qualities. He will make a Corsican in time. But, I own to
you, he has been ill brought up, and before ever he met with Father
Domenico. As yet he thinks only of his own will, like a spoilt
child; and of his pleasures, which are not those of a king such as he
desires to be."
Said I at a guess, "But the pleasures--eh, Marc'antonio?--such as a
forward boy learns on the pavements; of Brussels, for example?"
I thought for the moment he would have knifed me, so fiercely he
started back and then craned forward at me, showing his white teeth.
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