Lastly, the Russian embassy was on the alert, for the dowager Princess
had heard from her maid, who had heard it from her sister in Rome, who
had learned it from the washerwoman, who had been told the secret by
the porter's wife, that the celebrated Malipieri was exploring the
north-west foundations of the palace. The Princess had repeated the
story, and the legend which accounted for it, to her brother Prince
Rubomirsky, who was a very great personage in his own country. And the
Prince, though good-natured, foresaw that he might in time grow tired
of giving his sister unlimited money; and it occurred to him that
something might turn up under the palace, after all, to which she
might have some claim. So he had used his influence in Saint
Petersburg with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the latter had
instructed the Russian Ambassador in Rome to find out what he could
about the excavations, without attracting attention; and Russian
diplomatists have ways of finding out things without attracting
attention, which are extremely great and wonderful. Also, if Russia
puts her paw upon anything and declares that it is the property of a
Russian subject, it often happens that smaller people take their paws
away hastily.
It follows that there must have been a good deal of quiet talk, in
Rome, not overheard in society, about what Malipieri was doing in the
Palazzo Conti, and as the people who occupied themselves with his
affairs were particularly anxious that he should not know what they
said, he was in ignorance of it.
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