She observed his approach with stern eyes; and when he bowed before her she addressed him in terms that made of the difference in their ranks a gulf between them.
“I do not think, sir, that I sent for you.”
He preserved an unruffled calm, but his answering assertion sounded foolish in his own ears.
“Madonna, I would give much to persuade you that I am your servant.”
“Your methods do not change, sir. But why should they? Are they not the methods that have brought you fame?”
“Will you give your ladies leave a moment, while I speak two words with you. Messer Corsario will not be absent long. I have sent him off on a fool’s errand, and it may be difficult to make another opportunity.”
For a long moment she hesitated. Then, swayed, perhaps, by her very mistrust of him, she waved her ladies back with her fan.
“Not in that direction, highness,” he said quickly, “but in that. So they will be in line with us, and anyone looking from the Palace will not perceive the distance separating us, but imagine us together.”
She smiled a little in disdainful amusement. But she gave the order.
“How well equipped you are!” she said.
“I came into the world, madonna, with nothing but my wits. I must do what I can with them.” Abruptly, for there was no time to lose, he plunged into the business. “I desire to give you a word of warning in season, lest, with your great talent for misunderstanding, you should be made uneasy by what I hope to do. If I succeed in that which brings me, your brother will be sent hence tomorrow, or the next day, to my Lord Facino’s care at Alessandria.”
That turned her white. “O God! What now? What villainy is meant?”
“To remove him from the Regent’s reach, to place him somewhere where he will be safe until the time comes for his own succession. To this end am I labouring.”
“You are labouring? You! It is a trap! A trap to … to …” She was starkly terrified.
“If it were that, why should I tell you? Your foreknowledge will no more assist than it can hinder. I do this in your service. I am here to propose an alliance between my Lord Facino and Montferrat. This alliance was suggested by me for two purposes: to serve Facino’s immediate needs, and to ensure the Regent’s ultimate ruin. It may be delayed; but it will come, just as surely as death comes to each of us. To make your brother safe while we wait, I shall impose it as a condition of the alliance that the Marquis Gian Giacomo goes to Facino as a hostage.”
“Ah! Now I begin to understand.”
“By which you mean that you begin to misunderstand. I have persuaded Facino that the Marquis will serve as a hostage for the Regent’s good behaviour, and the Regent shall be made to believe that this is our sole purpose. But the real aim is as I have told you: to make your brother safe. By Facino he will be trained in all those things which it imports that a prince should learn; he will be made to forsake the habits and pursuits by which he is now being disgraced and ruined. Lady, for your peace of mind believe me!” He was emphatic, earnest, solemn.
“Believe you?” she cried out in mental torture. “I have cause to do that, have I not? My past dealings with you—indeed, all that is known of you, bear witness to your truth and candour. By falsehood, trickery, and treachery you have raised yourself to where you stand today. And you ask me to believe you … Why … why should you do this? Why? That is the only test. What profit do you look to make?”
He looked at her with pain and misery in his dark eyes.
“If in this thing there were any design to hurt your brother, I ask you again, madonna, why should I stand here to tell you what I am about to attempt?”
“Why do you tell me at all?”
“To relieve you from anxiety if I succeed in removing him. To let you know if I should fail of the attempt, of the earnest desire, to serve you, although you make it very hard.”
Messer Corsario was hurrying towards them, a volume in his hands.
She stood there, silent, stricken, not knowing what to believe, desiring hungrily to trust Bellarion, yet restrained by every known action in his past.
“If I live, madonna,” he said quietly, lowering his voice to a murmur, “you shall yet ask me to forgive your cruel unbelief.”
Then he turned to meet Corsario’s chuckling triumph, and to submit that the pedant should convict him of error.
“Not so great a scholar as he believes himself, this Messer Bellarion,” Corsario noisily informed the Princess. And then to Bellarion, himself: “You’ll dispute with soldiers, sir, in future, who lack the learning and the means to put you right. Here are the lines; here in ‘Trimalchio’s Supper,’ as I said. See for yourself.”
Bellarion saw. He simulated confusion. “My apologies, Messer Corsario, for having given you the trouble to fetch the book. You win the trick.”
It was an inauspicious word. To Valeria it was clear that the trick had lain in temporarily removing Messer Corsario’s inconvenient presence, and that trick Bellarion had won.
She moved away now with her ladies who had drawn close upon Corsario’s approach, and Bellarion was left to endure the pedant’s ineffable company until suppertime.
Later that night Theodore carried him off to his own closet to discuss in private and in greater detail the terms of the proposed alliance.
His highness had considered and had taken his resolve now that he was prepared to enter into a treaty. He looked for a clear expression of satisfaction. But Bellarion disappointed him.
“Your highness speaks, of course, with the full concurrence of your Council?”
“My
