curiously at the
white-faced Duke beside him.

"So you are the other pretender to my niece's hand, Lord Count?" he
asked, in his coldest voice.

"I am, Highness," answered Francesco quietly. "The matter stands thus:
Unless Gian Maria is in Babbiano by morning, he forfeits his crown, and
it passes to me by the voice of the people; but if he will relinquish
his claim to Monna Valentina in my favour, then I shall journey straight
to Aquila, and I shall trouble Babbiano no more. If he refuses, and
insists upon this wedding, abhorrent to Monna Valentina, why, then, my
men shall hold him captive behind those walls until it be too late for
him to reach his duchy in time to save the crown. In the meantime I will
ride to Babbiano in his stead, and--reluctant though I be to play the
duke--I shall accept the throne and silence the people's importunities.
He can then endeavour to win your Highness's consent to the union."

For perhaps the first time in his life Guidobaldo was guilty of an act
of positive discourtesy. He broke into a laugh--a boisterous, amused
laugh that cut into Gian Maria's heart like a knife.

"Why, Lord Count," he said, "I confess that you have us very much in
your hands to mould us as you will. Now, you are such a soldier and such
a strategist as it would pleasure me to have about my person in Urbino.
What says your Highness?" he continued, turning now to the almost
speechless Gian Maria. "I have yet another niece with whom we might
cement the union of the two duchies; and she might prove more willing.
Women, it seems, will insist upon being women. Do you not think that
Monna Valentina and this your valiant cousin----"

"Heed him not!" screamed Gian Maria, now in a white heat of passion.
"He is a smooth-tongued dog that would argue the very devil out of hell.
Make no terms with the hind! I have a hundred men, and----" He swung
suddenly round. "Let down that drawbridge, cowards!" he bawled at them,
"and sweep me those animals from my tents."

"Gian Maria, I give you warning," cried Francesco, loudly and firmly. "I
have trained your own guns on to that bridge, and at the first attempt
to lower it I'll blow it into splinters. You come not out of Roccaleone
save at my pleasure and upon my terms, and if you lose your duchy by
your obstinacy, it will be your own work; but answer me now, that I may
take my course."

Guidobaldo, too, restrained Gian Maria, and countermanded his order for
the lowering of the br