“I have never heard a story that interested me more,” he said, “and I do not know which to admire more, your ingenuity in planning this affair or the hardihood and courage with which you carried it out.  Even had there been no enemy to get through, the adventure of letting yourself down by a rope from the housetop and then from the battlements, swimming three moats, crossing the river in such terrible weather, and finally making your way to Chivasso in your frozen clothes, is no slight feat of endurance.  The service that you have rendered is a great one, the manner in which you have carried it out is worthy of the highest praise, and I shall at once make out your commission as captain.  You are still a year behind me,” he added with a smile, “but if you go on in this way, you bid fair to obtain a regiment as soon as I did.  You have nearly four years to do it in.  Tomorrow you will dictate your story in full to my secretary.  I shall be sending a messenger with despatches on the following day.  I shall mention that I have promoted you to the rank of captain, and that the story of the action that you have performed, which I shall inclose, will fully explain my reason for so speedily advancing you.  No, I require no thanks; you have to thank yourself only.  I may consider that you have not only done me but the state a service.  Your servant deserves a reward also.  Here are twenty pistoles; tell him not to throw them away, but to lay them by where some day they will be useful to him.”

Paolo was astonished indeed when Hector handed him the general’s present.  He could at first hardly believe that it was meant for him.

“Why, master,” he said, “it would buy me a farm up in the hills!”

“Not a very large one, Paolo, but I daresay that you will add to it; still, this is a good beginning, and some more opportunities may come in your way.”

“What shall I do with them, master?”

“That I cannot say.  Certainly you cannot carry them about with you.  Do you know anyone to whom you could entrust them?”

Paolo shook his head.  “There is never any knowing who is an honest man and who is not,” he said.  “I will bury them, master.”

“But somebody might find them.”

“No fear of that, sir.  I will go a bit up the valley and bury them under a big rock well above the river, so that it will not be reached in the highest floods.  They might lie there a hundred years without anyone finding them, even if every soul in Susa knew that they were hidden somewhere and went out to search for them.”

“Very well; but be sure you take notice of the exact position of the stone, or you may not be able to find it again yourself.  One big stone is a good deal like another.  Choose a stone with a tree growing near it, and make a cross with your knife on the bark.  That will serve as a guide to you, and you would recognize the stone by it even if you could not find it in any other way.”