He raised his head at last, and met those anxious faces on which the fitful light was casting harsh shadows. The pale ghost of a smile hovered for a second on the corners of his stern mouth.
“I thank you, sirs, for the honour you have done me,” he made answer slowly, “an honour of which I fear I am all unworthy.”
In strenuous chorus their voices rose to contradict him.
“At least, then, an honour which I cannot accept.”
There was a moment’s silence, and their faces from eager that they had been, grew downcast to the point of sullenness.
“But why, my lord?” cried old Fabrizio at last, his arms outstretched towards the Count, his voice quivering with intensity. “Santissima Vergine! Why?”
“Because–to give you but one reason out of many–the man you ask me to overthrow and supplant is of my own blood.” And but that his tone was calm they might have held that he rebuked them.
“I had thought,” hazarded seriously the gay Fanfulla, “that with such a man as your Excellency, patriotism and the love of Babbiano would have weighed even more than the ties of blood.”
“And you had thought well, Fanfulla. Did I not say that the reason I gave you was but one of many? Tell me, sirs, what cause have you to believe that I should rule you wisely and well? It so chances that in the crisis now threatening Babbiano a captain is needed for its ruler. But let not this delude you, for there may come a season in the fortunes of the State when such a man might be as unfitted for dominion as is the present Duke in this. What then? A good knight-errant is an indifferent courtier and a bad statesman. Lastly, my friends–since you must know all that is in my heart–there remains the fact that I love myself a little. I love my liberty too well, and I have no mind to stifle in the scented atmosphere of courts. You see I am frank with you. It is my pleasure to roam the world, my harness on my back, free as the blessed wind of heaven. Shall a ducal crown and a cloak of purple—-” He broke off sharply with a laugh. “There, my friends! You have had reasons and to spare. Again I thank you, and deplore that being such as I am, I may not become such as you would have me.”
He sank back in his chair, eyeing them with a glance never so wistful, and after a second’s silence, Da Lodi’s voice implored him, in accents that trembled with pathetic emphasis, to reconsider his resolve. The old man would have proceeded to fresh argument, but Aquila cut him short.
“I have already so well considered it, Messer Fabrizio,” he answered resolutely, “that nothing now could sway me. But this, sirs, I will promise you: I will ride with you to Babbiano, and I will seek to reason with my cousin. More will I do; I will seek at his hands the office of Gonfalonier, and if he grant it me; I will so reorganise our forces, and enter into such alliances with our neighbours as shall ensure, at least in some degree, the safety of our State.”
Still they endeavoured to cajole him, but he held firm against their efforts, until in the end, with a sorrowful mien, Da Lodi thanked him for his promise to use his influence with Gian Maria.
“For this, at least, we thank your Excellency, and on our part we shall exert such power as we still wield in Babbiano to the end that the high office of Gonfalonier be conferred upon you. We had preferred to see you fill with honour a position higher still, and should you later come to consider—-”
“Dismiss your hopes of that,” put in the Count, with a solemn shake of his head. And then, before another word was uttered, young Fanfulla degli Arcipreti leapt of a sudden to his feet, his brows knit, and an expression of alarm spreading upon his comely face. A second he remained thus; then, going swiftly to the door, he opened it, and stood listening, followed by the surprised glances of the assembled company. But it needed not the warning cry with which he turned, to afford them the explanation of his odd behaviour. In the moment’s tense silence that had followed his sudden opening of the door they had caught from without the distant fall of marching feet.
Chapter II.
On A Mountain Path
“rmed men, my lords!” had been Fanfulla’s cry. “We are betrayed!”
They looked at one another with stern eyes, and with that grimness that takes the place which fear would hold in meaner souls.
Then Aquila rose slowly to his feet, and with him rose the others, looking to their weapons. He softly breathed a name–“Masuccio Torri.”
“Aye,” cried Lodi bitterly, “would that we had heeded your warning! Masuccio it will be, and at his heels his fifty mercenaries.”
“Not less, I’ll swear, by the sound of them,” said Ferrabraccio. “And we but six, without our harness.”
“Seven,” the Count laconically amended, resuming his hat and loosening his sword in its scabbard.
“Not so, my lord,” exclaimed Lodi, laying a hand upon the Count’s arm. “You must not stay with us. You are our only hope–the only hope of Babbiano. If we are indeed betrayed–though by what infernal means I know not–and they have knowledge that six traitors met here to-night to conspire against the throne of Gian Maria, at least, I’ll swear, it is not known that you were to have met us. His Highness may conjecture, but he cannot know for sure, and if you but escape, all may yet he well– saving with us, who matter not. Go, my lord! Remember your promise to seek at your cousin’s hand the gonfalon, and may God and His blessed Saints prosper your Excellency.”
The old man caught the young man’s hand, and bending his head until his face was hidden in his long white hair, he imprinted a kiss of fealty upon it. But Aquila was not so easily to be dismissed.
“Where are your horses?” he demanded.
“Tethered at the back. But who would dare ride them at night adown this precipice?”
“I dare for one,” answered the young man steadily, “and so shall you all dare. A broken neck is the worst that can befall us, and I would as lief break mine on the rocks of Sant’ Angelo as have it broken by the executioner of Babbiano.”
“Bravely said, by the Virgin!” roared Ferrabraccio. “To horse, sirs!”
“But the only way is the way by which they come,” Fanfulla remonstrated. “The rest is sheer cliff.”
“Why, then, my sweet seducer, we’ll go to meet them,” rejoined Ferrabraccio gaily. “They are on foot, and we’ll sweep over them like a mountain torrent. Come, sirs, hasten! They draw nigh.”
“We have but six horses, and we are seven,” another objected.
“I have no horse,” said Francesco, “I’ll follow you afoot.”
“What?” cried Ferrabraccio, who seemed now to have assumed command of the enterprise. “Let our St. Michael bring up the rear! No, no. You, Da Lodi, you are too old for this work.”
“Too old?” blazed the old man, drawing himself up to the full height of what was still a very imposing figure, and his eyes seeming to take fire at this reflection upon his knightly worth. “Were the season other, Ferrabraccio, I could crave leave to show you how much of youth there is still left in me. But—-” He paused. His angry eyes had alighted upon the Count, who stood waiting by the door, and the whole expression of his countenance changed. “You are right, Ferrabraccio, I grow old indeed–a dotard. Take you my horse, and begone.”
“But you?” quoth the Count solicitously.
“I shall remain. If you do your duty well by those hirelings they will not trouble me. It will not occur to them that one was left behind. They will think only of following you after you have cut through them. Go, go, sirs, or all is lost.”
They obeyed him now with a rush that seemed almost to partake of panic. In a frenzied haste Fanfulla and another tore the tetherings loose, and a moment later they were all mounted and ready for that fearful ride. The night was dark, yet not too dark. The sky was cloudless and thickly starred, whilst a minguant moon helped to illumine the way by which they were to go. But on that broken and uncertain mountain path the shadows lay thickly enough to make their venture desperate.
Ferrabraccio claiming a better knowledge than his comrades of the way, placed himself at their head, with the Count beside him. Behind them, two by two, came the four others. They stood on a small ledge in the shadow of the great cliff that loomed on their left. Thence the mountain-side might be scanned–as well as in such a light it was to be discerned. The tramp of feet had now grown louder and nearer, and with it came the clank of armour. In front of them lay the path which sloped, for a hundred yards or more, to the first corner. Below them, on the right, the path again appeared at the point where it jutted out for some half-dozen yards in its zigzag course, and there Fanfulla caught the gleam of steel, reflecting the feeble moonlight. He drew Ferrabraccio’s attention to it, and that stout warrior at once gave the word to start. But Francesco interposed.