He had spoken to them in a rasping, truculent tone, issuing orders that he meant should be obeyed, unless the disobeyer were eager for a reckoning with him.
Indeed, he was an altered man, and when that night his followers, having drunk what he accounted enough for their good, and disregarding his orders that they should desist and get them to bed, he went in quest of Monna Valentina.

He found her in conversation with Francesco and Gonzaga, seated in the loggia of the dining-room.

They had been there since supper, discussing the wisdom of going or remaining, of fleeing or standing firm to receive Gian Maria.

Their conference was interrupted now by Ercole with his complaint.
She despatched Gonzaga to quell the men, a course that Fortemani treated to a covert sneer.

The fop went rejoicing at this proof that her estimate of his commanding qualities had nowise suffered by contrast with those of that swashbuckling Francesco.