"Now, in the name of God and His
blessed saints, let me down."
For a moment yet he was held there, awaiting Gian Maria's signal. The
Duke continued to eye him with that same astonished look, what time he
turned over in his mind the news he had gathered. Then conviction of the
truth sank into his mind. It was the Lord of Aquila who was the idol of
the Babbianians. What, then, more natural than that the conspirators
should have sought to place him on the throne they proposed to wrest from
Gian Maria? He dubbed himself a fool that he had not guessed so much
before.
"Let him down," he curtly bade his men. "Then take him hence, and let
him go with God. He has served his purpose."
Gently they lowered him, but when his feet touched the ground he was
unable to stand. His legs doubled under him, and he lay--a little crook-
backed heap--upon the rushes of the floor. His senses had deserted him.
At a sign from Armstadt the two men picked him up and carried him out
between them.
Gian Maria moved across the room to a tapestried priedieu, and knelt
down before an ivory crucifix to render thanks to God for the signal
light of grace, by which He had vouchsafed to show the Duke his enemy.
Thereafter, drawing from the breast of his doublet a chaplet of gold and
amber beads, he piously discharged his nightly devotions.
CHAPTER X
THE BRAYING OF AN ASS
When on the morrow, towards the twenty-second hour, the High and Mighty
Gian Maria Sforza rode into his capital at Babbiano, he found the city in
violent turmoil, occasioned, as he rightly guessed, by the ominous
presence of Caesar Borgia's envoy.
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