to avenge. I did, sir, with that letter the only thing
conceivable. I crumpled it in my hand and cast it from me, just as I
sought to cast its contents from my mind. But your watchful spies, Ser
Francesco, bore it to you, and if my shame has been paraded before the
eyes of that rabble soldiery, at least it has served the purpose of
saving Monna Valentina. To do that, I would, if the need arose, immolate
more than the pride that caused me to be silent on the matter of this
communication."

He spoke with such heat of sincerity that he convinced both Francesco
and Valentina, and the lady's eyes took on a softer expression as she
surveyed Gonzaga--this poor Gonzaga whom, her heart told her, she had
sorely wronged in thought. Francesco, ever generous, took his passionate
utterances in excellent part.

"Messer Gonzaga, I understand your scruples. You do me wrong to think
that I should fail in that."

He checked the suggestion he was on the point of renewing that,
nevertheless, Gonzaga would have been better advised to have laid that
letter at once before Monna Valentina. Instead, he dismissed the subject
with a laugh, and proposed that they should break their fast so soon as
he had put off his harness.

He went to do so, whilst Valentina bent her steps towards the
dining-room, attended by Gonzaga, to whom she now sought to make amends
for her suspicions by an almost excessive friendliness of bearing.

But there was one whom Gonzaga's high-sounding words in connection with
that letter had left cold. This was Peppe, that most wise of fools. He
hastened after Francesco, and while the knight was disarming he came to
voice his suspicions. But Francesco drove him out with impatience, and
Peppe went sorrowing and swearing that the wisdom of the fool was truly
better than the folly of the wise.

Throughout that day Gonzaga hardly stirred from Valentina's side.
He talked with her in the morning at great length and upon subjects
poetical or erudite, by which he meant to display his vast mental
superiority over the swashbuckling Francesco. In the evening, when the
heat of the day was spent, and whilst that same Messer Francesco was
at some defensive measures on the walls, Gonzaga played at bowls with
Valentina and her ladies--the latter having now recovered from the panic
to which earlier they had been a prey.

That morning Gonzaga had stood at bay, seeing his plans crumble. That
evening, after the day spent in Valentina's compa