The Lord Cesare Borgia shall hear of it." Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have been to her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my destruction.

Ramiro laughed easily.
"Madonna, you are at fault.

We have not been torturing him, though I confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question.

But your timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were asking him concerned your whereabouts!" I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind.

But realising the futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited agonisedly.
"You had tortured him in vain then," she answered scornfully.