The bedraggled beggar waited with seemingly endless patience on the street opposite the den of the dubiouos thinkers.

It had been all a bit too close for comfort. There was something decidedly less than salubrious being plotted out. Now, how to find out exactly what? The Cardinal’s plan had backfired and he would be furious. By now the word would have got back to that master of spies. And who could guess how many other blinkered eyes had watched his monkish persona’s near miraculous escape. But then he had seen the Trappist secreting that scroll in his shoulder pack. The very scroll that had been so carefully crafted in the Cardinal’s own laboratory, any discussion of the contents of which should have revealed the true nature of the heresies that awaited the cabbal’s dissemination.

They knew, there was no doubt about it. Evasive action would be taken and it was imperative that he stay one step ahead of them. He could feel it in his bones. Powerful minds were at work, and the final denouement was not far off.

Live to serve : Serve to live