"
"You would advise me to fly?" she demanded.
"I came prepared to do so, but the sight of your men restrains me. They
are not trustworthy, and to save their dirty skins they might throw
Roccaleone open to the besiegers, and thus your flight would be
discovered, while yet there might be time to render it futile."
Before she could frame an answer there was Gonzaga feverishly urging her
to act upon so wise and timely a suggestion, and seek safety in flight
from a place that Gian Maria would tear stone from stone. His words
pattered quickly and piteously in entreaty, till in the end, facing him
squarely:
"Are you afraid, Gonzaga?" she asked him.
"I am--afraid for you, Madonna," he answered readily.
"Then let your fears have peace. For whether I stay or whether I go, one
thing is certain: Gian Maria never shall set hands upon me." She turned
again to Francesco. "I see a certain wisdom in the counsel of flight you
would have offered me, no less than in what I take to be your advice that
I should remain. Did I but consult my humour I should stay and deliver
battle when this tyrant shows himself. But prudence, too, must be
consulted, and I will give the matter thought." And now she thanked him
with a generous charm for having come to her with this news and proffered
his assistance, asking what motives brought him.
"Such motives as must ever impel a knight to serve a lady in distress,"
said he, "and perhaps, too, the memory of the charity with which you
tended my wounds that day at Acquasparta.
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