That done, they paused, and turned their eyes upon the Duke for further orders.

Again Gian Maria called upon the fool to answer his questions; but Peppe, a writhing, misshapen mass from which two wriggling legs depended, maintained a stubborn silence.
"Let him go," snarled Gian Maria, out of patience.

The men released the rope, and allowed some three feet of it to run through their hands.
Then they grasped it again, so that Peppe's sudden fall was as suddenly arrested by a jerk that almost wrenched his arms from their sockets.

A shriek broke from him at that exquisite torture, and he was dragged once more to the full height of the canopy.
"Will you speak now ?" asked Gian Maria coldly, amusedly almost.

But still the fool was silent, his nether lip caught so tightly in his teeth that the blood trickled from it adown his chin.