Round his head it went, and back again before them, handled as though it had been a whip, and bringing them, silent, to a standstill.

He bore it back to his shoulder, and alert for the first movement, his blood on fire, and ready to slay a man or two should the example become necessary, he addressed them.
"You see what awaits you if you persist in this," he said, in a dangerously quiet voice.

"Have you no shame, you herd of cowardly animals! You are loud-voiced enough where treason to the hand that pays you is in question; but there, it seems, your valour ends." He spoke to them now in burning words.

He recapitulated the arguments which yesterday he had made use of to quell the mutinous spirit of Cappoccio.

He assured them that Gian Maria threatened more than he could accomplish; and so, perhaps, more than he would fulfil if they were so foolish as to place themselves in his power.