His words pattered quickly and piteously in entreaty, till in the end, facing him squarely: "Are you afraid, Gonzaga ?" she asked him.
"I am--afraid for you, Madonna," he answered readily.
"Then let your fears have peace.

For whether I stay or whether I go, one thing is certain: Gian Maria never shall set hands upon me." She turned again to Francesco.

"I see a certain wisdom in the counsel of flight you would have offered me, no less than in what I take to be your advice that I should remain.

Did I but consult my humour I should stay and deliver battle when this tyrant shows himself.

But prudence, too, must be consulted, and I will give the matter thought." And now she thanked him with a generous charm for having come to her with this news and proffered his assistance, asking what motives brought him.
"Such motives as must ever impel a knight to serve a lady in distress," said he, "and perhaps, too, the memory of the charity with which you tended my wounds that day at Acquasparta." For a second their glances met, quivered in the meeting, and fell apart again, an odd confusion in the breast of each, all of which Gonzaga, sunk in moody rumination, observed not.