The Anguissola were his family, and their honour was his honour, since as a villein he had no honour of his own.

To cast him out thus! All this flashed through my anguished mind in one brief throb of time, as I waited, marvelling what he would do, what say, in answer to that dismissal.
He would not plead, or else I did not know him; and I was sure of that, without knowing what else there was that must make it impossible for old Falcone to stoop to ask a favour of my mother.
Awhile he just stood there, his wits overthrown by sheer surprise.

And then, when at last he moved, the thing he did was the last thing that I had looked for.

Not to her did he turn; not to her, but to me, and he dropped on one knee before me.
"My lord!" he cried, and before he added another word I knew already what else he was about to say.

For never yet had I been so addressed in my lordship of Mondolfo.