favours for you; I've given you appointments;I've allowed you to make recommendations for military decorations inPiedmont; I've allowed you to handle the secret service funds; and I'vedone all I could so as to place you in a position to receive secretcommission. But of course, if you fail to make use of youropportunities, it is not my fault."
"Never fear. I do not stir a finger without some consideration," helaughed. "You surely know me too well after all these years. No; Ifind that it is not sufficient. Money I want, and money I must have.Recollect what services I have rendered to you in the Camera, my dearCamillo," he went on. "You surely do not forget the dead set madeagainst you a year ago, and how I succeeded in uniting the variousgroups and inducing them to pass a vote of confidence! You never werenearer downfall than you were that afternoon--except, perhaps, to-night.You have enemies, my dear friend--enemies in the Socialist groups, whodeclare that you have held office too long," he added.
"I know," exclaimed the other hoarsely. "I know that," and he tossedhis cigar away with a quick, impatient gesture.
"While you've been abroad I have been active in secretly ascertainingthe real state of political opinion in the north, and much as I regretto tell you, it is distinctly antagonistic. Now that Milan is such astrong Socialist centre the other large towns are following, and anagitation is spreading against you. They want a fresh man in office asMinister of War--the man who is so cleverly scheming to replace you."
"To replace me!" exclaimed Morini. "And who is this man, pray?"
The words which Vito Ricci had spoken sank like iron into his soul. Heknew, alas! how very precarious was his office.
"The man is our friend Angelo," slowly replied the crafty deputy."Already in the north he is looked upon as your successor. If thegroups in the Camera fall asunder, then your dismissal is imminent. Iknow this is a very unwelcome piece of news, my dear Camillo, but it isa hard fact which I have come here to-night to reveal to you."
CHAPTER TEN.
"FOR MARY'S SAKE."
His Excellency's face fell. He was silent for several moments.
The easy-going, well-dressed political adventurer before him was, heknew, in the secrets of the strong party who were his opponents and whowere ever plotting his downfall. He had, since his return to Rome,heard rumours through certain quarters in which secret service money wasspent that an agitation had been set afoot by his antagonists, but hehad never dreamed that the prime mover of it all was the very man inwhom he had so implicitly trusted, one of the men who owed everything tohim--Angelo Borselli! The revelation staggered him. He really couldnot believe it to be actually true.
"And so he intends to become Minister--eh?" remarked Morini bitterly,when he at last found tongue.
"He is working for that end," replied Ricci. "I was in Milan and Parmaa week ago, and on every hand I saw how cleverly he was stirring upill-feeling against you. He is secretly allied to the Socialists--ofthat I am certain."
"Because he sees that through them he can obtain office," replied HisExcellency, his pale face now very serious. "You have done well to tellme this, _caro mio_," he added. "I shall know now how to deal with theman who learns my secrets and then seeks to betray me."
"But your position is daily becoming one of graver peril," exclaimed thewily advocate, placing his hand confidentially upon the Minister's arm."The agitation is widespread. The Socialists intend that the Governmentshall fall."
"But you will help me, Vito, as before?" Morini urged quickly. "Thoseshrieking Socialist maniacs shall not gain the ascendency?" he declared,clenching his hands and pacing the room quickly.
Vito Ricci, deputy for the town of Asti, shrugged his shoulders, but didnot reply. In the Italian Camera every politician of any prominence hada small body of adherents, and political ability consisted in somanipulating a number of these bodies as to form a majority; thereforefor this purpose each Minister secretly bribed one or more of the mostunscrupulous deputies to juggle with the party. A group might to-day beon the side of the Government, and to-morrow with the Opposition. Therewere no real political principles at stake in the policy of thesegroups, and the only important question was that of party management andjudicious bribery.
Vito Ricci was a professional politician, with whom politics was aregular trade. The Government granted him a free railway pass--as itdid all the other deputies at Montecitorio--and he made money whereverhe could. His position enabled him to obtain many favours for himselfand his friends. The system of recommendations and parliamentaryinfluence was one of the worst features of Italian political life, forit was generally regarded as one of the deputy's chief duties that, fora consideration, he should help his friends and constituents to procurefavours, promotions, decorations, and concessions of contracts whichwould not be otherwise obtainable. Political jobbery was regarded asinevitable.
Indeed, Vito Ricci lived upon the bribes he received--and lived well.
"You are silent," remarked His Excellency, looking him straight in hisface. "Why?"
"Because I have nothing to say."
"You don't promise to assist me!" he exclaimed. "You don't declare yourreadiness to unite the groups again in our favour!"
"Because I fear it would be a useless task," responded the other in acalm, mechanical voice.
"A useless task!" gasped the elder man, whose face was blanched. "Whatdo you mean?"
"I mean that matters have assumed an ugly appearance," replied thedeputy. "Even the journals who have received so much money from you aresilent when they ought to be loudest in your eulogy. They are evidentlyawaiting the advent of their new masters."
"Then you actually anticipate a catastrophe?" exclaimed Morini hoarsely,halting before the man who had rendered him so many valuable services--the clever, unscrupulous adventurer who had several times turned theparliamentary tide in his favour.
Vito nodded slowly, his bearded face grave and hard set.
"If what you say is really true regarding Angelo, then I am fully awareof the great peril in which I stand," the Minister exclaimed at last,his voice faltering in his agitation. "Borselli will hesitate atnothing in order to gain power."
"Ah, I told you so a year ago, my dear Camillo," was the deputy's reply."But you would not listen. He was your friend, you said--as thoughthere was such a thing as friendship in any of the ministries."
"I have been deceived," admitted the other in a low voice.
A silence fell between the pair, until the deputy suddenly saidhesitatingly--
"I suppose Angelo could make some rather awkward revelations--eh?"
The Minister slowly nodded.
"H'm. I thought as much from what I gathered in Milan. He woulddenounce you, and by reason of his big Socialist following he would comeout with clean hands. He has laid his plans well, without a doubt.Sirena, the Socialist deputy for Pesaro, told me, in confidence, allthat is intended."
"They mean to strike a blow at me?"
"Yes, by criticising the army, and by bringing forward some curiousstory about the plans of the fortress of Tresenta in the Alps being soldto France. Do you know anything about it?"
"Yes. The plans have unfortunately been given to France by a captainnamed Solaro, who has been dismissed the army and sent to prison. Sothey intend to make political capital out of that, do they?"
"It seems so," was the other's answer.
Morini slowly repaced the room, his chin upon his breast, deep inthought, the dead silence being broken only by his footsteps upon themarble floor.
"Borselli has formed a plot against me--a deep, dastardly plot!" heexclaimed in a desperate tone, halting again suddenly, a determined lookupon his grey features. "He intends that I shall fall. But you, Vito,can save me, if you will--you know you can. With a little of this," andhe rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, "you can unite the groupsas you did before, and show the country that the Minister of War stillpossesses the confidence of the kingdom."
"I doubt it," answered Ricci dubiously.
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"But you will not desert me now?" implored His Excellency, laying hishand firmly upon the deputy's shoulder. "Recollect the past, Vito.Remember the day when you, a lieutenant, prevented my horse throwing meat the manoeuvres in the Chianti. That was long ago, but both of ushave had cause to congratulate ourselves upon that meeting."
Ricci nodded. He recollected well how the Minister, then only a fewmonths in office, had allowed him to resign from the army and completehis studies as an advocate, and how, by a clever stroke of politicaljobbery, he had been elected deputy for Asti, in order that he shouldserve the Minister as his secret