here--three score
of them my own men, each one of whom would have laid down his life for
me, and you allowed the boy to be taken hence by six rascals from the
Holy Office, intimidated by a paltry score of troopers that rode with
this filthy Duke!"

"Nay, nay--not that," the other protested. "Had I dared to raise a
finger I should have brought myself within the reach of the Inquisition
without benefiting Agostino. That was the trap, as Agostino himself
perceived. It was he himself who urged me not to intervene, but to let
them take him hence, since there was no possible charge which the Holy
Office could prefer against him."

"No charge!" cried Galeotto, with a withering scorn. "Did villainy ever
want for invention? And this trap? Body of God, Ettore, am I to account
you a fool after all these years? What trap was there that could be
sprung upon you as things stood? Why, man, the game was in your hands
entirely. Here was this Farnese in your power. What better hostage than
that could you have held? You had but to whistle your war-dogs to
heel and seize his person, demanding of the Pope his father a plenary
absolution and indemnity for yourself and for Agostino from any
prosecutions of the Holy Office ere you surrendered him. And had they
attempted to employ force against you, you could have held them in check
by threatening to hang the Duke unless the parchments you demanded were
signed and delivered to you. My God, Ettore! Must I tell you this?"

Cavalcanti sank to a seat and took his head in his hands.

"You are right," he said. "I deserve all your reproaches. I have been a
fool. Worse--I have wanted for courage." And then, suddenly, he reared
his head again, and his glance kindled. "But it is not yet too late," he
cried, and started up. "It is still time!"

"Time!" sneered Galeotto. "Why, the boy is in their hands. It is hostage
for hostage now, a very different matter. He is lost--irretrievably
lost!" he ended, groaning. "We can but avenge him. To save him is beyond
our power."

"No," said Cavalcanti. "It is not. I am a dolt, a dotard; and I have
been the cause of it. Then I shall pay the price."

"What price?" quoth the condottiero, pondering the other with an eye
that held no faintest gleam of hope.

"Within an hour you shall have in your hands the necessary papers to set
Agostino at liberty; and you shall carry them yourself to Rome. It is
the amend I owe you. It shall be made."

"But how is it possibl