.

AVE CAESAR!.
For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a miracle had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight hours before it was possible for Mariani to have fetched him from Faenza.

The same doubt may have crossed Ramiro's mind, for he changed colour and sprang to the door to bawl an order forbidding his men to lower the bridge.
But he was too late.

Before he was answered by his followers, we heard the creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending in a thud that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat.
Then came the loud continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers.
Paralysed by fear Ramiro stood where he had halted, turning his eyes wildly in this direction and in that, but never moving one way or the other.
It must be Cesare, I swore to myself.

Who else could ride to Cessna with such numbers?
But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he had seen Mariani, for he could not have ridden from Faenza.