words I went crimson from chin to brow.

"'Do you disdain me?' I questioned, choking with rage. He turned, with
a shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his
glove, and conduct him from the castle. Several that had stood at hand
made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning
fury that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me. They were
many, I was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and
dragging me from my horse.

"They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then
get me hanged without delay. Had he done that, the world being as it is,
perhaps none could blame him. But he elected to spare my life, yet
on such terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the
consideration of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of
Biancomonte whilst I went forth to seek my fortune--such was the tale
I had told her. I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my
death must have been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very
want. The thought of that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in
durance waiting for my end, and when the priest came, whom they had sent
to shrive me, he found me weeping, which he took to argue a contrite
heart. He bore the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of Pesaro came
to visit me in consequence, and found me sorely changed from my furious
mood of some hours earlier.

"I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother's sake. If I
feared death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to
her."

"At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my
eyes and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had
been my erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him. I told him the
truth--that for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother
in the hills who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus
cut off.

"He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.
Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious
depth I was far indeed from suspecting. He asked me would I take solemn
oath that if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand against
him. That oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the death
that was impending.

"'You have been wise,' said he,' and you shall have your life on one
condition--that you devote it to my service.'

"'Even that will I do,