Upon that message you have sent him Caesar will act at once.
For my own part, I have no mind to fall a prey to the invader, and I
shall leave Babbiano, and seek refuge in Naples. And if a last word of
advice I may offer you, it is that you do the same."
Gian Maria rose and came down from the dais, eyeing her in a sort of dull
amazement. Then he looked, as if for help, to Alvari, to Santi, and
lastly to Lodi, who had returned while Caterina was speaking. But no
word said any of them, and grave were the eyes of all.
"Poor-spirited are you all!" he sneered. Then his face grew dark and his
tone concentrated. "Not so am I," he assured them, "if in the past I may
have seemed it sometimes. I am aroused at length, sirs. I heard a voice
in the streets of Babbiano to-day, and I saw a sight that has put a fire
into my veins. This good-tempered, soft, indulgent Duke you knew is
gone. The lion is awake at last, and you shall see such things as you
had not dreamt of."
They regarded him now with eyes in which the gravity was increased by a
light of fearsome wonder and inquiry. Was his mind giving way under the
prodigious strain that had been set upon it that day? If not madness,
what else did that wild boasting argue?
"Are you all dumb?" he asked them, his eyes feverish. "Or do you deem
that I promise more than is mine to fulfil. You shall judge, and soon.
To-morrow, my lady mother, whilst you journey south, as you have told us,
I go north again, hack to Urbino.
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