"With honour of course," he smiled sarcastically, and then added, "I suppose I can trust you?"
"You need not give me the employment, signore, if you do not think you can trust me--and pardon me--it is getting late."
"Sit down, man, I did but try you, and you are the man I want. Where do you lodge?"
"In the Albizzi Palace, in the street di Pucci."
"Could you leave Florence at a moment's notice?"
"Enough! To-morrow a man will call on you, precisely at noontide, with a letter. I want that letter delivered into the hands of the Cardinal of Rouen at Rome. It is a secret matter, and if you fail in it you may forfeit your life. If you succeed, his eminence will give you further occupation. Do you accept?"
As I said this we again heard the creaking noise, and Machiavelli jumped up as agilely as a panther, and sprung to the door behind the arras. It was open; but no one was there.
"_Maldetto!_" he exclaimed. "Signore, there are spies in my own house--help me to tear down this tapestry."
I did so, and in a few minutes we laid bare the side of the room, and piled the tapestry in a heap against a bookshelf.
"That is better," Machiavelli said, "you see--the spy, whoever he is, must have a master key. There is no use going into the passage after him; but for the present I fancy we are safe. I must have a bolt put on and keep a watch. To resume business however. You say you accept, and only need funds."
He pulled from a drawer a bag, which chinked with a pleasant sound to my ears.
"Here," he said, "are a hundred crowns. It is your fee for the task I set you."
"And now, Messer--Donati--farewell! You will always find a friend in me. You know your way--I have left the side door open--and bear a loose sword."
"Prom what has happened to-night, I see plainly that the plotters against your life have friends very near you. If they failed this time they may not fail again. One of the men who made the attack to-night I recognised. He is called Brico, formerly an ancient, perhaps still so, in the army of Tremouille."
"Yet a little more. If your excellency's movements are known it is probably from within your own house. I would keep an eye on your library scribe."
"_Per Bacco!_ Signor Donati, but you know too much. I am more and more your debtor."