Yet faithful to Francesco, who sat all
unconcerned, and not wishing to alarm Valentina, he choked back the
warning that rose to his lips, seeking to convince himself that his fears
sprang perhaps from an excess of suspicion. Had he known how well-
founded indeed they were he might have practised less self-restraint.
For whilst he moved sullenly about the room, assisting Fra Domenico with
the dishes and platters, Gonzaga paced the ramparts beside Cappoccio, who
was on sentry duty on the north wall.
His business called for no great diplomacy, nor did Gonzaga employ much.
He bluntly told Cappoccio that he and his comrades had allowed Messer
Francesco's glib tongue to befool them that morning, and that the
assurances Francesco had given them were not worthy of an intelligent
man's consideration.
"I tell you, Cappoccio," he ended, "that to remain here and protract this
hopeless resistance will cost you your life at the unsavoury hands of the
hangman. You see I am frank with you."
Now for all that what Gonzaga told him might sort excellently well with
the ideas he had himself entertained, Cappoccio was of a suspicious
nature, and his suspicions whispered to him now that Gonzaga was actuated
by some purpose he could not gauge.
He stood still, and leaning with both hands upon his partisan, he sought
to make out the courtier's features in the dim light of the rising moon.
"Do you mean," he asked, and in his voice sounded the surprise with which
Gonzaga's odd speech had filled him, "that we are foolish to have
listened to Messer Francesco, and that we should be better advised to
march out of Roccaleone?"
"Yes; that is what I mean.
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