.

IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA.
I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were mine as we sped northward towards Cesena.

If you are a person of some imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to surmise them; if you are not--why then, my tale is not for you, and it is more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it aside long before you reach this page.
We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had fallen we were within the walls of the citadel.

It was when we had dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of the soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.
"Animal," said he, "they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures and rough ways.

You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am maligned.