The
herald, bowing gracefully upon the arched neck of his caracoling palfrey,
answered her that what he had said was all he had been bidden say.
She turned with a bewildered and rather helpless look to those behind
her. She wished that the matter might be conducted with due dignity, and
her convent rearing left her in doubt of how this might best be achieved.
She addressed herself to Francesco.
"Will you give him his answer, my Lord Provost," she said, with a smile,
and Francesco, stepping forward and leaning on a merlon of that embattled
wall, obeyed her.
"Sir Herald," he said, in a gruff voice that was unlike his own, "will
you tell me since when has the Duke of Babbiano been at war with Urbino
that he should thus beset one of its fortresses, and demand the surrender
of it?"
"His Highness," replied the herald, "is acting with the full sanction of
the Duke of Urbino in sending this message to the Lady Valentina della
Rovere."
At that Valentina elbowed the Count aside, and forgetting her purpose of
conducting this affair with dignity, she let her woman's tongue deliver
the answer of her heart.
"This message, sir, and the presence here of your master, is but another
of the impertinences that I have suffered at his hands, and it is the
crowning one. Take you that message back to him, and tell him that when
I am instructed by what right he dares to send you upon such an errand, I
may render him an answer more germane with his challenge.
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