The words reawakened her
confidence in his splendid strength.
"We shall laugh over this when we break our fast," he cried. "Come,
Ercole!" And without waiting for more, he leapt down the steps with an
agility surprising in one so heavily armed as he.
They were no more than in time. As they gained the courtyard the men
came sweeping along towards the gates, their voices raucous and
threatening. They were full of assurance. All hell they thought could
not have hindered them, and yet at sight of that tall figure, bright as
an angel, in his panoply of glittering steel, with that great sword
poised on his left shoulder, some of the impetuousness seemed to fall
from them.
Still they advanced, Cappoccio's voice shouting encouragement. Almost
were they within range of that lengthy sword, when of a sudden it flashed
from his shoulder, and swept a half-circle of dazzling light before their
eyes. Round his head it went, and back again before them, handled as
though it had been a whip, and bringing them, silent, to a standstill.
He bore it back to his shoulder, and alert for the first movement, his
blood on fire, and ready to slay a man or two should the example become
necessary, he addressed them.
"You see what awaits you if you persist in this," he said, in a
dangerously quiet voice. "Have you no shame, you herd of cowardly
animals! You are loud-voiced enough where treason to the hand that pays
you is in question; but there, it seems, your valour ends.
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