‘I’m not having you gallivanting; you’re there to look for mica within the carriages’.
‘In the royal carriages? Lord above, we’re digging our own graves here!’
‘Not if both of you do as I say! How is the analysis of Marais’ drugs faring?’
‘It’s not pure opium; that’s the only thing I can tell you. It’s been developed in this form to pass for such and not to arouse suspicion in countries where its use is permitted’.
‘When will you be able to tell me what it is?’
‘Perhaps never, but I’ll make my last attempts to that end in the coming days, but I fear I haven’t the suitable means to ...’
‘At your university, at Pavia, are there suitable implements?’
‘Not a chance; the only laboratory perhaps able to answer you that question is at the University of Padua’.
‘Keep at least on
