“There is treachery at work in the prison,” D’Aubusson said quietly.  “I pray you to collect your comrades and to assemble here at once.”

In a minute or two some twenty officials were gathered in the hall.

“Are all here?” D’Aubusson asked the governor.

The latter counted the men.

“There are two short,” he said —­ “Pietro Romano and Karl Schumann.  They occupy the same room.  Go and fetch them down, four of you.”

The four men nearest to the stairs at once went up with two torches.  They returned in a minute.

“The door is fastened on the inside, and we can obtain no response.”

“Fetch an axe and break it in,” the grand master ordered.  “Sir John Boswell, do you, with some other knights, take post without; they may attempt to escape by the window, though, as we hold the gates, it would avail them little.  Sir Gervaise Tresham, do you follow us.”

Gervaise, who had been placed with the party watching the house, followed the grand master and governor upstairs.  A few blows with an axe splintered the door; its fastenings gave way, and they entered the room.  The window was open, and two figures lay prostrate on the ground near it.

“I half expected this,” the grand master said.  “They were listening there.  The conflict in the yard told them that the plot had been discovered, and as they saw us approaching the house, they dared not meet the punishment of their crimes, and have fallen by their own daggers.  Put a torch close to their faces.  Sir Gervaise, do you recognise in either of these men the official you saw in conversation with the Greek?”

Gervaise stepped forward and examined the men’s faces.

“This is the man,” he said, pointing to one of them.  “I marked him so closely that I cannot be mistaken.”

“That is Pietro Romano,” the governor said; “he was an able officer, but discontented with his position and given to quarrelling with his comrades.”

“Have a hole dug and bury them in the prison,” D’Aubusson said; “they have been false to their vows, and false to their religion.  They have chosen their own mode of death; let them be buried like dogs, as they are.  But let a careful search be made of their garments and of this room.  It may be that they have some documents concealed which may be of use to us.”

The grand master then descended to the hall.

“Members of the Order,” he said to the overseers, “your guilty companions have met death by their own hands, as the others concerned in this plot have met theirs by the swords of the knights.  It were well that this matter were not spoken of outside the prison.  The attempt has been detected, and has failed; but were it talked of, it might incite others to repeat the attempt, and possibly with better success.  Now,” he went on, turning to the governor, “our work is done here.  Call up the other warders.  Let them take the men now prisoners in the rooms, and place them in a dungeon.  Let fresh men be placed on guard, and let all the knights gather in the courtyard.”