So now, my dear lord, you have the tyrant at your
mercy, tossed between Scylla and Charybdis. Yours it is to resolve how
you will act; but I rejoice in being the one to send you word that your
presence at Roccaleone and your stubborn defence of the fortress has not
been vain, and that presently you are to reap the well-earned reward of
it. The people have been stirred to this extreme action by the confusion
prevailing here.
"News has reached us that Caesar Borgia is arming, at Rome, a condotta to
invade Babbiano, and the people are exasperated at Gian Maria's continued
absence in such a season. They are short-sighted in this, for they
overlook the results that must attend the alliance with Urbino. May God
protect and prosper your Excellency, whose most devoted servant is
"FANFULLA DEGLI AROIPRETI."
CHAPTER XXII
A REVELATION
"Francesco," said Valentina, and the name came from her lips as if it
were an endearment, "why that frowning, careworn look?"
They were in the dining-room alone, where the others had left them, and
they were still seated at the table at which they had supped. Francesco
raised his dark, thoughtful eyes, and as they lighted now on Valentina
the thoughtfulness that was in them gave place to tenderness.
"I am fretted by this lack of news," he acknowledged. "I would I knew
what is being done in Babbiano. I had thought that ere now Caesar Borgia
had stirred Gian Maria's subjects into some manner of action.
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