aldo's niece to wife, you may give ease unto your patriotic soul.
I have consented to enter into this alliance. And now," he ended, with
another of his infernal chuckles, "you see how little I need dread this
terrible son of Pope Alexander. Allied with Urbino and the other States
that are its friends, I can defy the might of Caesar Borgia. I shall
sleep tranquil of nights beside my beauteous bride, secure in the
protection her uncle's armies will afford me, and never needing so much
as my valiant cousin's aid as my gonfalonier."

The Count of Aquila changed colour despite himself, and the Duke's
suspicious eyes were as quick to observe it as was his mind to
misinterpret its meaning. He registered a vow to set a watch on this
solicitous cousin who offered so readily to bear his gonfalon.

"I felicitate you, at least," said Francesco gravely, "upon the wisdom
of that step. Had I known of it I had not troubled you with other
proposals for the safety of your State. But, may I ask you, Gian
Maria, what influences led you to a course which, hitherto, you have so
obstinately refused to follow?"

The Duke shrugged his shoulders.

"They plagued me so," he lamented, with a grimace, "that in the end I
consented. I could withstand Lodi and the others, but when my mother
joined them with her prayers--I should say, her commands--and pointed
out again my peril to me, I gave way. After all a man must wed. And
since in my station he need not let his marriage weigh too much upon
him, I resolved on it for the sake of security and peace."

Since it was the salvation of Babbiano that he aimed at, the Count of
Aquila should have rejoiced at Gian Maria's wise resolve, and no other
consideration should have tempered so encompassing a thing as that joy
of his should have been. Yet, when later he left his cousin's presence,
the only feeling that he carried with him was a deep and bitter
resentment against the Fate that willed such things, blent with a
sorrowing pity for the girl that was to wed his cousin and a growing
hatred for the cousin who made him pity her.

CHAPTER VI. THE AMOROUS DUKE

From a window of the Palace of Babbiano the Lord of Aquila watched the
amazing bustle in the courtyard below, and at his side stood Fanfulla
degli Arcipreti, whom he had summoned from Perugia with assurances that,
Masuccio being dead, no peril now menaced him.

It was a week after that interview at which Gian Maria had made known
his inten