Odo's first act after his accession had been to recall the political
offenders banished by his predecessor; and so general was the custom of
marking the opening of a new reign by an amnesty to political exiles,
that Trescorre offered no opposition to the measure. Andreoni and his
friends at once returned to Pianura, and Gamba at the same time emerged
from his mysterious hiding-place. He was the only one of the group who
struck Odo as having any administrative capacity; yet he was more likely
to be of use as a pamphleteer than as an office-holder. As to the other
philosophers, they were what their name implied: thoughtful and
high-minded men, with a generous conception of their civic duties, and a
noble readiness to fulfil them at any cost, but untrained to action, and
totally ignorant of the complex science of government.
Odo found the hunchback changed. He had withered like Trescorre, but
under the harsher blight of physical privations; and his tongue had an
added bitterness. He replied evasively to all enquiries as to what had
become of him during his absence from Pianura; but on Odo's asking for
news of Momola and the child he said coldly: "They are both dead."
"Dead?" Odo exclaimed. "Together?"
"There was scarce an hour between them," Gamba answered. "She said she
must keep alive as long as the boy needed her--after that she turned on
her side and died."
"But of what disorder? How came they to sicken at the same time?"
The hunchback stood silent, his eyes on the ground.
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