to Cesena. Take you the remainder and beat up the country for
three leagues about this spot. Do not leave a house outside Cattolica
unsearched. You know what we are seeking?"

The man inclined his head.

"If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it," he
answered confidently.

"Set about it," was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me.
"You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro," he sneered. "We
shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe betide you,
should it be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena."

"So be it then," I answered as calmly as I might. "Meanwhile, perhaps
you will now suffer me to go my ways."

"The readier since your way must lie with ours."

"Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica."

"Not so, animal," he mimicked me with elephantine grace, "you are for
Cesena, and you had best go with a good will. Our manner of constraining
men is reputed rude." He turned again. "Ercole, take you this man behind
you. Assist him, Stefano."

And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to
the steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride. Thus at every
stride the anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they
must find her rose ever higher.

CHAPTER XVI. IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA

I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were
mine as we sped northward towards Cesena. If you are a person of some
imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to
surmise them; if you are not--why then, my tale is not for you, and
it is more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it
aside long before you reach this page.

We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had
fallen we were within the walls of the citadel. It was when we had
dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of
the soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.

"Animal," said he, "they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures
and rough ways. You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am
maligned. For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your
lying tongue with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until my
men return with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me. But if
I then discover that you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter from
Ramiro del' Orca's flagstaff."

He pointed up to the tower of the Castle,