"They have laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves." I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
"Out of this!" he growled at them.

"See that your swords hang ready.
Away!" One of them murmured something that I could not catch.

Mother in Heaven! if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it?
But Ramiro's answer speedily relieved my fears.
"I'll take no risks," he barked.

"Come! Let us go separately.

I first, and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can." His voice grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words, "Cesena" and "to-morrow night," from which I gathered that he was appointing that as their next meeting-place.
Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere the others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that was here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by their still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it had lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola.