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Updated: June 20, 2025
Even the burghers who had so valiantly defended their Queen in earlier days looked on in mournful inertia while preparations for the royal progress went forward, knowing that if Venice thus joyfully accepted the 'resignation' of their Queen for thus had the act been freely translated to the Cyprian people they were themselves powerless; and the day of farewell dawned at last, when the royal cortège passed out from the palace-gates to the grand Piazza of Nikosia, where the formal act of renunciation was to be made.
Thus it had been decreed by the powers behind the throne that the seat of government should be removed to Nikosia, the most loyal of all the cities of the realm, whose jealousy at her loss of prestige in being supplanted in this dignity by the less important city of Famagosta should be wisely taken into account; and great preparations were being made for the royal progress about to take place, by which it was hoped to stimulate an increased pride in the Government among the populace and the citizens.
I came through the terror lest your Majesty should need me for it is a night! San Nicolò save us!" "Madonna mia!" the Queen cried piteously with clasped hands, "I do not understand!" "It is the time for reckoning, fair Majesty; and those who have the power shall rule." The Archbishop of Nikosia had entered the Queen's apartment unperceived and stood watching her with eyes of triumph.
With them came forth the dignitaries of Famagosta and other nobles, as was the custom of those days in bidding a ceremonious farewell to journey with the royal train a league beyond the city which the Queen was leaving to take up her residence in Nikosia.
The people shouted her name; they thronged to swell the royal procession as she rode through the garlanded streets, in regal state, under the golden canopy which they had brought to do her honor, upheld over her fair young head by four mounted knights of the most ancient houses of Nikosia.
Stefano was in the very heart of the action in Nikosia during the days that followed; the people furious at the outrage to their Queen, swore that it should be people against nobles, if there were need, in her defense; and assembling in great numbers, at the house of Stefano, they chose a 'Council of the People' and made him its chief.
Such strange, unlikely tales one's enemy may tell! And for his religion be it Greek, or Latin, or whatever else had he not been named Archbishop of Nikosia at the responsible age of fifteen, before he had exchanged the Episcopal Mitre for the Royal Crown? These things were told, in all truth, of Janus II, King of Cyprus: and if some others were known, they were not discussed.
For the Chief of Council, Rizzo di Marin and his Grace the Archbishop of Nikosia, no rest was needful: the consciousness of triumph stirred the blood in their veins like strong wine, and with a sense of exhilaration sharpening all their intellectual faculties, they prepared, in a few hours, work that might ordinarily have required the consideration of days.
But Nikosia had always been a cradle of loyalty in spite of a floating population of strangers who came thronging to visit her monuments and palaces to see the wonder of her merchandise gathered from the riches of her own fertile land fruits and wines and silks and jewels, broideries of gold and silver wrought by her peasant women among their vines exquisite vessels of beaten copper from the famous mines which had baptised this island of Cyprus.
Caterina broke off with a vivid flush and left the sentence unfinished, remembering that there had been a previous Archbishop of Nikosia whose code had not been fashioned by her ideals. Dama Margherita had but just withdrawn when the uproar in the streets began and she rushed back at once to her Lady's side.
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