Not a day will I now waste. Within
the week, sirs, by God's grace, I shall be wed. That will give us Urbino
for a buckler, and with Urbino comes Perugia and Camerino. But more than
that. There is a princely dowry comes to us with the Lady Valentina.
How think you will I spend it? To the last florin it shall go to the
arming of men. I will hire me every free condotta in Italy. I will
raise me such an army as has never before been seen at any one time, and
with this I shall seek out the Duca Valentino. I'll not sit here at home
awaiting the pleasure of his coming, but I'll out to meet him, and with
that army I shall descend upon him as a thunderbolt out of Heaven. Aye,
my lady mother," he laughed in his madness, "the lamb shall hunt the
wolf, and rend it so that it shall never stand again to prey on other
lambs. This will I do, my friends, and there shall be such fighting as
has not been seen since the long-dead days of Castracani."
They stared at him, scarce believing now that he was sane, and marvelling
deeply whence had sprung this sudden martial fervour in one whose nature
was more indolent than active, more timid than warlike. And yet the
reason was not far to seek, had they but cared to follow the line of
thought to which he, himself, had given them the clue when he referred to
the voice he had heard, and the sights he had seen in the streets of
Babbiano. The voice was the voice that had acclaimed his cousin
Francesco Duke. That it was through that a fierce jealousy had fired
him.
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