— 12 — IN THE VATICANIn the ebony cabinet in the Vatican sat Michael II.; an expression of utter anguish marked his face. Paolo Orsini entered; the Pope glanced at him without moving.
“No news?” he asked.
“None of the Lord Theirry, your Holiness.”
Michael II. moistened his lips. “They have searched — everywhere?”
“Throughout Rome, your Holiness, but—” “He was armed, they said, when he left the palace; have you sent to the convent I told you of — St. Angela, beyond the Appian Gate?”
“Yea, your Holiness,” answered Orsini, “and they found nought but a dead woman.”
The Pope averted his eyes. “What did they with her?” Orsini lifted his brows.
“Cast her into the plague pit, Holiness, — that quarter is a charnel-house.”
The Pope drew a deep breath.
“Well, he is gone — I do not think him
