The fool had told him that which he would have given much to learn.

He had told him that this man whose name he sought, had so feared that his presence that day at Acquasparta should become known, that he had bound the fool by oath not to divulge the secret of it.

Of what he had before suspected he was now assured.
The man in question was one of the conspirators; probably the very chief of them.

Nothing short of the fool's death under torture would now restrain him from learning the name of that unknown who had done him the double injury of conspiring against him, and--if the fool were to be believed--of capturing the heart of Valentina.
"For the damnation of your soul I shall not be called to answer," he said at last.

"Care enough have I to save my own--for temptations are many and this poor flesh is weak.