The arrogance, the cold imperiousness of the message struck him dumb with amazement.

Amazement was his, too, that Roccaleone should be armed with cannon, as with his own eyes he saw.

That those guns were empty he could not guess, nor could Gian Maria when he heard a message that filled him with rage, and would have filled him with dismay, but that he counted upon the mutiny which Gonzaga had pledged himself to stir up.
As the herald was riding away a gruff laugh broke from Fortemani, who stood behind the Count.
Valentina turned to Francesco with eyes that beamed admiration and a singular tenderness.
"Oh, what had I done without you, Messer Francesco ?" she cried, for surely the twentieth time since his coming.

"I tremble to think how things had gone without your wit and valour to assist me." She never noticed the malicious smile that trembled on Gonzaga's pretty face.
"Where did you find the powder ?" she asked innocently, for her mind had not yet caught that humour of the situation that had drawn a laugh from Fortemani.
"I found none," answered Francesco, smiling from the shadow of his helm.
"My threats"-- and he waved his hand in the direction of that formidable array of guns--"are as empty as Gian Maria's.

Yet I think they will impress him more than his do us.