.

TREACHERY.
"Sir," gulped Gonzaga, as they were descending from the battlements, "you will end by having us all hanged.

Was that a way to address a prince ?" Valentina frowned that he should dare rebuke her knight.

But Francesco only laughed.
"By St.Paul! How would you have had me address him ?" he inquired.
"Would you have had me use cajolery with him--the lout?
Would you have had me plead mercy from him, and beg him, in honeyed words, to be patient with a wilful lady?
Let be, Messer Gonzaga, we shall weather it yet, never doubt it." "Messer Gonzaga's courage seems of a quality that wanes as the need for it increases," said Valentina.
"You are confounding courage, Madonna, with foolhardy recklessness," the courtier returned.

"You may learn it to your undoing." That Gonzaga was not the only one entertaining this opinion they were soon to learn, for, as they reached the courtyard a burly, black-browed ruffian, Cappoccio by name, thrust himself in their path.
"A word with you, Messer Gonzaga, and you, Ser Ercole." His attitude was full of truculent insolence, and all paused, Francesco and Valentina turning from him to the two men whom he addressed, and waiting to hear what he might have to say to them.