The door opened again, and a sentry on guard outside announced the
English Ambassador.
"Ah! Sir Evelyn, is it you?"
The English gentleman held down his head. "Forgive me if I intrude upon
your trouble, Donna Roma."
"Sit! Give his Excellency a chair, Sister.... Times have changed since I
knew you first, Sir Evelyn. I was a thoughtless, happy woman in those
days. But they are gone, and I do not regret them."
"You are very brave, Donna Roma. Too brave. Only for that your trial
must have gone differently."
"It's all for the best, your Excellency. But was there anything you
wished to say to me?"
"Yes. The report of your condemnation has been received with deep
emotion in my country, and as the evidence given in court showed that
you were born in England, I feel that I am justified in intervening on
your behalf."
"But I don't want you to intervene, dear friend."
"Donna Roma, it is still possible to appeal to the Court of Cassation."
"I have no desire to appeal--there is nothing to appeal against."
"There might be much if you could be brought to see that--that.... In
fact so many pleas are possible, and all of them good ones. For
instance...."
The Englishman dropped both eyes and voice.
"Well?"
"Donna Roma, you were tried and condemned on a charge of going to the
Prime Minister's cabinet with the intention of killing him, and of
killing him there. But if it could be proved that he came to your
house, and that, to shield another person not now in the hands of
justice, you...."
"What are you saying, your Excellency?"
"Look!"
The Englishman had drawn from his breast-pocket a crumpled sheet of
white paper.
"Last night I visited your deserted apartment in the Piazza Navona, and
there, amid other signs that were clear and convincing--the marks of two
pistol-shots--I found--this."
"What is it? Give it to me," cried Roma. She almost snatched it out of
his hand. It was the warrant which Rossi had rolled up and flung away.
"How did that warrant come there, Donna Roma? Who brought it? What other
person was with you in those rooms that night? What does he say to this
evidence of his presence on the scene of the crime?"
Roma did not speak immediately. She continued to look at the Englishman
with her large mournful eyes until his own eyes fell, and there was no
sound but the crinkling of the warrant in her hand. Then she said, very
softly: "Excellency, you must please let me keep this paper. As you see, it is
nothing in itself, and without my testimony you can make nothing of it.
I shall never appeal against my sentence, and therefore it can be no
good to me or to anybody. But it may prove to be a danger to somebody
else--somebody whose name should be above reproach."