Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/211

200 would you try Absolutism for a time, and change the Phrygian bonnet for a Neapolitan coronet?"

"Well—you. If they do not take you prisoner too, you may conclude very good terms just now, in all probability. Our party is bruised, but not killed. We have danger enough in us to render us worth bribing, though not strength enough to giye us a straw's weight of success. Under the circumstances, you might make a very lucrative bargain. There is no reason on earth why a democratic condottiere like you, my good Conrad, should not be metamorphosed into a courtíer and a son of the Church. What do you think of it?"

Phaulcon's eyes had fastened on him throughout his speech with a glistening light that he—he who had told the Prince-Bishop that he could buy this man at a momentos notice—had construed as the eagerness for change, for security, and for a costly bribe, of an avaricious and reckless adventurer. As he ceased, the Greek's rich voice broke across his final words like thunder.

"By Heaven, if I thought you spoke in earnest I would kill you where you sit! If I did such villany as you hint at, I should deserve the shot or the steel that would find its way to me as surely as