"General Arturo Valentini of the 6th Alpine Regiment, together with a captain of the same regiment, crave an audience with your Excellency."
"What is the captain"s name?" grunted the Minister of War.
The messenger looked at the card that had been given him, and replied--
"Captain Felice Solaro, your Excellency."
"Ah! Solaro! Solaro!" exclaimed Morini, tossing away his cigar. "Show them in."
And as he pa.s.sed before the tiny mirror he glanced at himself to adjust his cravat and see that not a single hair was awry--a habit of his before giving audience.
A few moments later two men in uniform were ushered in. The general, short of stature, white-haired, with firm military step, a red face, and white moustache, saluted and stood at attention as he entered the Minister"s presence; while the captain, a smart-looking, dark-haired man of forty, followed his superior"s example, yet as Morini darted a quick glance at him, he visibly trembled at it. The captain"s face was white as death, and as he stood for a moment in the awkward silence that followed, his gloved fingers chafed his sword hilt nervously.
"Well, general?" inquired the Minister, who had never before met that distinguished officer, but whom he, of course, knew well by repute.
Valentini had been Inspector-General of Genio fifteen years ago, and had served Italy well in those fierce campaigns of the early sixties, as his row of medals and decorations showed. "Why do you wish for audience?"
he asked sharply.
"Your Excellency, I am here to crave for a more merciful sentence upon this man," the kindly old officer answered, turning to the captain, who stood with head bowed at his side. "I am his commanding officer, and in justice I wish to intercede for him."
The Minister raised his eyes in surprise, and asked--
"And what is this man"s name, pray?"
"I am Felice Solaro, your Excellency," faltered the captain, as though fearing to p.r.o.nounce his own name. "My general has travelled with me from Piedmont to obtain audience and to implore your mercy."
"Solaro!" echoed the Minister, looking straight at him. "Ah yes, I remember!" Then turning to the general, Morini added in a hard, impatient tone--
"I cannot see why you should have troubled yourself to come to Rome on such an errand--and without leave too! I thought this man was under arrest? Is this the way you execute military justice in the north?"
"I took it upon myself to bring the captain here," was the fine old officer"s answer.
"And he wears his sword, I see!" remarked the Minister, with a sneer.
"I suppose you have taken it upon yourself to give it back to him--eh?"
"I returned him his sword temporarily, your Excellency, in order that during our journey here no one should recognise him as the man who has been sentenced, and further, in order that he should stand before you in the full possession of his rights as an officer, and ask your leave to explain."
"I have no time to hear any explanations from men who have been condemned by court-martial, General Valentini. It is your duty to hear his excuses--not mine. The whole matter is quite clear. I have had the papers before me, and have gone through them carefully. They were sent to me in England. And if you ask me my private opinion, general, I think that dismissal from the army and fifteen years" imprisonment is a very light sentence upon a traitor. Had I been on the court-martial I should have given a life sentence."
"But, your Excellency!" gasped the unhappy captain, his face blanched, his hands trembling, "I am innocent. I am the victim of some clever conspiracy, by which the real culprit has shielded himself. I had no chance of defending myself at the court-martial, for--"
"Silence!" cried the Minister. "You have been tried and found guilty of treason against your king and country. The evidence is as plain as the light of day, and yet you deny your guilt?"
"I do deny it," declared the unhappy captain. "They refused to hear my explanation."
"That is true, your Excellency," interposed the general. "The court sat for four days in Turin with closed doors, and as three of the officers composing it were due to go on their annual leave, the sitting on the fourth day was terminated hurriedly, sentence was given, and sent to you for confirmation. Your Excellency has confirmed it, therefore Captain Solaro has no appeal except to yourself."
"You, as his commanding officer, were not a member of the court?"
"No, your Excellency."
"Then why should you interest yourself in a matter which does not concern you, pray?" inquired Morini impatiently.
"Because this unfortunate affair reflects upon the honour of my command."
"Oh, of course. It is all very well to speak heroically after the event!" exclaimed the Minister of War, with a hard, dry laugh. "The mischief has been done, and one of your officers has been found guilty of treason--of selling a military secret to a foreign power."
"Found guilty, yes," exclaimed the unfortunate captain. "But innocent, nevertheless!"
Morini shrugged his shoulders, and seating himself in his writing-chair took some official memoranda from a drawer in the table. Then, having glanced quickly at it, he said--
"The facts are quite plain. This man, Felice Solaro, of the 6th Alpine Regiment, is in garrison on Mont Gran Paradiso in the Alps, where on the other side of the mountain, at Tresenta, we have recently constructed a new fortress, for the protection of the frontier at that point. This fortress, which is sunk out of sight, has taken four and a half years to construct, and was only completed and garrisoned six months ago. It commands the Oreo valley, which, in the event of hostilities with France, would be one of the most vulnerable points on the frontier.
French agents have, time after time, endeavoured to learn something of our works up there; but so well has the spot been guarded that only two agents have succeeded in obtaining sight of it, and both were arrested and are now in prison as spies. And yet, in spite of all this, there was found in Solaro"s quarters by an orderly fragments of a curious letter in French addressed to `Mon cher Felice," acknowledging receipt of the plans, thanking him, and enclosing the sum agreed upon in Italian banknotes."
"The letter was never addressed to me," the captain cried. "I know nothing of it. The whole thing was a conspiracy to ruin and disgrace me!"
"But there are other facts supplied by the secret service," went on the Minister in a dry, hard tone, turning to the accused man. "You spent your last leave in Paris; you were seen by one of our agents in the company of a man well-known to be a French spy. You went to various places of amus.e.m.e.nt with him, drank with him at the Hotel Chatham, at the Grand Cafe, and other places, and," added Morini, looking him straight in the face, "and what is more, he lent you money. Do you deny that?"
The captain stood glaring at his accuser, utterly dumbfounded. This latter truth had not been given in evidence against him. The Minister therefore held certain secret information of which he was in entire ignorance. He had been watched in Paris! He held his breath, and was silent. Even the general looked at him in surprise and suspicion.
"No," he answered hoa.r.s.ely at last, "I do not deny it. The man did lend me money."
"For what purpose--eh? In order to obtain from you in secret the plans of the Tresenta fortress," declared His Excellency. "French agents do not lend money to Italian officers without some _quid pro quo_."
"I did not know that the fellow was a spy until afterwards."
"Until it was too late, I suppose. You were entrapped, so you were compelled to give the plans to France. Now admit it."
"I a.s.sert that I am entirely innocent," he declared. "It is true that I spent my leave in Paris, where I met a man who called himself Georges Latrobe, an engineer from Bordeaux, who spoke Italian I ran short of cash, and he lent me five hundred francs, which I repaid to him ten days after my return to barracks. It was only on the last day when I was with him that my suspicions were aroused regarding his real character.
We were sitting together in the Cafe Terminus, when he turned the conversation to our defences on the Alpine frontier, expressing a desire to visit me at Gran Paradiso. I at once told him that the admission of strangers within the military zone was prohibited. But he pressed me, and even went so far as to offer me a receipt for the money he had lent me, together with a like sum if I could gain him admission, in order, so he said, to see the latest feat of Italian engineering. But my suspicions were at once aroused. I told him that his suggestion was impossible, and from that day I have not seen him."
"But you furnished him with plans and details of the fortifications?"
snapped the Minister of War.
"I did not," denied the captain stoutly. "I admit that I very narrowly escaped falling into a clever trap, but fortunately saved myself. If the plans have actually been furnished, then they have been given by someone else, not by me; and that letter was placed in my quarters in order to divert suspicion from the guilty person."
"Ah, a very ingenious story!" the Minister laughed incredulously. "You admit being friendly with the spy?"
"I admit all that is the truth, your Excellency, but I flatly deny that I am a traitor to my king," was the accused man"s quick, response.
"But you see you were watched while on leave," the Minister went on, referring to his report. "On your return from Paris you travelled by way of Milan to Bologna, where you visited a certain Signora Nodari and her daughter."
"The latter was my betrothed," the unhappy man explained.
"Exactly. Then how do you account for the agent Latrobe calling upon her a month later and obtaining from her a packet which she had received by post from the garrison of Gran Paradiso? It was only afterwards that this fact was known, otherwise the spy would not have escaped from Italy."
Captain Solaro stood rigid.
"Have you really proof of this, your Excellency?" he demanded in a low, hoa.r.s.e voice. "I--I cannot think that she would betray me."