Here comes a parlementaire from the opposite camp.

Let's hear him.' It was Luciano Romara.

He stood before them to request that the curtain should be raised.

The officers debated together, and deemed it prudent to yield consent.
Luciano stipulated further that the soldiers were to be withdrawn.
'On one wing, or on both wings ?' said Captain Weisspriess, twinkling eyes oblique.
'Out of the house,' said Luciano.
The officers laughed.
'You must confess,' said De Pyrmont, affably, 'that though the drum does issue command to the horse, it scarcely thinks of doing so after a rent in the skin has shown its emptiness.

Can you suppose that we are likely to run when we see you empty-handed?
These things are matters of calculation.' 'It is for you to calculate correctly,' said Luciano.
As he spoke, a first surge of the exasperated house broke upon the stage and smote the curtain, which burst into white zigzags, as it were a breast stricken with panic.
Giacinta came running in to her mistress, and cloaked and hooded her hurriedly.
Enamoured; impassioned, Ammiani murmured in Vittoria's ear: 'My own soul!' She replied: 'My lover!' So their first love-speech was interchanged with Italian simplicity, and made a divine circle about them in the storm.
Luciano returned to his party to inform them that they held the key of the emergency.
'Stick fast,' he said.