Come hither, Lazzaro." He drew me aside, away from the crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been Madonna's oratory.

With us came the physician.
"This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned, Lazzaro." "Poisoned ?" I echoed.

"Body of God! but by whom?
We all loved her.

There was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid down his life in her service.

Who was there, then, to poison that dear saint ?" It was then that the memory of Ramiro del' Orca, and the look that in his eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my mind.
"Where is the Governor of Cesena ?" I cried suddenly.