Whatever issue had the affair, this man must not remain in Roccaleone.

He was too strong, too dominant, and he would render himself master of the place by no other title than that strength of his and that manner of command which Gonzaga accounted a coarse, swashbuckling bully's gift, but would have given much to be possessed of.

Of how strong and dominant indeed he was never had Francesco offered a more signal proof.

Those men, bruised and maltreated by him, would beyond doubt have massed together and made short work of one less dauntless but when a mighty courage such as his goes hand-in-hand with the habit of command, such hinds as they can never long withstand it.
They grumbled something among themselves, and one of them at last made answer: "Noble sir, it is our captain that we are bidden to arrest." "True; but your captain, like yourselves, is in this lady's pay; and she, your true, your paramount commander, bids you arrest him." And now, whilst yet they hesitated, his quick wits flung them the bait that must prove most attractive.

"He has shown himself to-day unfitted for the command entrusted him and it may become a question, when he has been judged, of choosing one of you to fill the place he may leave empty." Hinds were they in very truth; the scum of the bravi that haunted the meanest borgo of Urbino.