r.

I looked at Pier Luigi and from the depths of my heart I cursed him, and
I prayed that the day might not be far distant when he should be made to
pay for all the sins of his recreant life.

And then, as we rode out into the open country, my thoughts were turned
to tenderer matters, and it came to me that when all was done, that cry
of Bianca's made it worth while to have been seized by the talons of the
Holy Office.

CHAPTER VII. THE PAPAL BULL

And now, that you may understand to the full the thing that happened,
it is necessary that I should relate it here in its proper sequence,
although that must entail my own withdrawal for a time from pages upon
which too long I have intruded my own doings and thoughts and feelings.

I set it down as it was told to me later by those who bore their share
in it, and particularly by Falcone, who, as you shall learn, came to be
a witness of all, and retailed to me the affair with the greatest detail
of what this one said and how that one looked.

I reached Rome on the fourth day after my setting out with my grim
escort, and on that same day, at much the same hour as that in which the
door of my dungeon in Sant' Angelo closed upon me, Galeotto rode into
the courtyard of Pagliano on his return from his treasonable journey.

He was attended only by Falcone, and it so chanced that his arrival was
witnessed by Farnese, who with various members of his suite was lounging
in the gallery at the time.

Surprise was mutual at the encounter; for Galeotto had known nothing
of the Duke's sojourn at Pagliano, believing him to be still at Parma,
whilst the Duke as little suspected that of the five score men-at-arms
garrisoned in Pagliano, three score lances were of Galeotto's free
company.

But at sight of this condottiero, whose true aims he was far from
suspecting, and whose services he was eager to enlist, the Duke heaved
himself up from his seat and went down the staircase shouting greetings
to the soldier, and playfully calling him Galeotto in its double sense,
and craving to know where he had been hiding himself this while.

The condottiero swung down from his saddle unaided--a thing which
he could do even when full-armed--and stood before Farnese, a grim,
dust-stained figure, with a curious smile twisting his scarred face.

"Why," said he, in answer, "I have been upon business that concerns your
magnificence somewhat closely."

And with Falcone at his heels he advance