“Are you angry, because I want to go?” asked the young girl, looking lovingly into his face.

“Angry?  No indeed, darling!  I ought to have taken you home at once—­but I was too happy to think of it.  Of course your people must be terribly anxious, and the question is how to manage your entrance.  Can you get into the house unseen?  Is there any way?  Any small door that is open?”

“We can wake the porter,” said Faustina, simply.  “He will let us in.”

“It would not do.  How can I go to your father and tell him that I found you here?  Besides, the porter knows me.”

“Well, if he does, what does it matter?”

“He would talk about it to other servants, and all Rome would know it to-morrow.  You must go home with a woman, and to do that we must find some one you know.  It would be a terrible injury to you to have such a story repeated abroad.”

“Why?”

To this innocent question Gouache did not find a ready answer.  He smiled quietly and pressed her to his side more closely.

“The world is a very bad place, dearest.  I am a man and know it.  You must trust me to do what is best.  Will you?”

“How can you ask?  I will always trust you.”

“Then I will tell you what we will do.  You must go home with the Princess Sant’ Ilario.”

“With Corona?  But—­”

“She knows that I love you, and she is the only woman in Rome whom I would trust.  Do not be surprised.  She asked me if it was true, and I said it was.  I am on duty here, and you must wait for me while I make the rounds of my sentries—­it will not take five minutes.  Then I will take you to the Palazzo Saracinesca.  I shall not be missed here for an hour.”

“I will do whatever you wish,” said Faustina.  “Perhaps that is best.  But I am afraid everybody will be asleep.  Is it not very late?”

“I will wake them up if they are sleeping.”

He left her to make his round and soon assured himself that his men were not napping.  Then before he returned he stopped at the corner of a street and by the feeble moonlight scratched a few words on a leaf from his notebook.

“Madame,” he wrote, “I have found Donna Faustina Montevarchi, who had lost her way.  It is absolutely necessary that you should accompany her to her father’s house.  You are the only person whom I can trust.  I am at your gate.  Bring something in the way of a cloak to disguise her with.”

He signed his initials and folded the paper, slipping it into his pocket where he could readily find it.  Then he went back to the place where Faustina was waiting.  He helped her out of the ruins, and passing through a side street so as to avoid the sentinels, they made their way rapidly to the bridge.  The sentry challenged Gouache who gave the word at once and was allowed to pass on with his charge.  In less than a quarter of an hour they were at the Palazzo Saracinesca.  Gouache made Faustina stand in the shadow of a doorway on the opposite side of the street and advanced to the great doors.  A ray of light which passed through the crack of a shutter behind the heavy iron grating on one side of the arch showed that the porter was up.  Anastase drew his bayonet from his side and tapped with its point against the high window.