He can
then endeavour to win your Highness's consent to the union."
For perhaps the first time in his life Guidobaldo was guilty of an act of
positive discourtesy. He broke into a laugh--a boisterous, amused laugh
that cut into Gian Maria's heart like a knife.
"Why, Lord Count," he said, "I confess that you have us very much in your
hands to mould us as you will. Now, you are such a soldier and such a
strategist as it would pleasure me to have about my person in Urbino.
What says your Highness?" he continued, turning now to the almost
speechless Gian Maria. "I have yet another niece with whom we might
cement the union of the two duchies; and she might prove more willing.
Women, it seems, will insist upon being women. Do you not think that
Monna Valentina and this your valiant cousin----"
"Heed him not!" screamed Gian Maria, now in a white heat of passion. "He
is a smooth-tongued dog that would argue the very devil out of hell.
Make no terms with the hind! I have a hundred men, and----" He swung
suddenly round. "Let down that drawbridge, cowards!" he bawled at them,
"and sweep me those animals from my tents."
"Gian Maria, I give you warning," cried Francesco, loudly and firmly. "I
have trained your own guns on to that bridge, and at the first attempt to
lower it I'll blow it into splinters. You come not out of Roccaleone
save at my pleasure and upon my terms, and if you lose your duchy by your
obstinacy, it will be your own work; but answer me now, that I may take
my course.
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