He expressed sympathetic regret at so
untoward a circumstance and discreetly refrained from passing any opinion
thereupon.
Yet later, as they supped, and when perhaps the choice wines had somewhat
relaxed his discretion, he permitted himself to speak of Gian Maria's
ways in terms that were very far from laudatory.
"Here, in my house," he informed them, "he committed an outrage upon a
poor unfortunate, for which an account may yet be asked of me--since it
was under my roof that the thing befell, for all that I knew nothing of
it."
Upon being pressed by Paolo to tell them more, he parted with the
information that the unfortunate in question was Urbino's jester Peppe.
At that, Paolo's glance became more intent. The memory of his meeting
with the fool and his mistress in the woods, a month ago, flashed now
across his mind, and it came to him that he could rightly guess the
source whence his cousin had drawn the information that had led to his
own arrest and banishment.
"Of what nature was the outrage?" he inquired.
"From what Peppe himself has told me it would seem that the fool was
possessed of some knowledge which Gian Maria sought, but on which Peppe
was bound by oath to silence. Gian Maria caused him to be secretly taken
and carried off from Urbino. His sbirri brought the fellow here, and to
make him speak the Duke improvised in his bedchamber a tratta di corde,
which had the desired result."
The Count's face grew dark with anger.
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