Alexander took the letter, and glancing at the bottom of the last page, saw that it was not signed.
"How dare you bring me a dispatch without a signature ?" he exclaimed.

The messenger, who was himself a Genoese, assured the Duke that the letter was most certainly written by Pallavicini--who had himself placed it, sealed, in his hands--and that he had supposed it signed, although he had of course, not seen the inside.
Alexander began to read the note, which was not a very long one, and his brow instantly darkened.

He read a line or two more, when, with an exclamation of fury, he drew his dagger, and, seizing the astonished Genoese by the throat, was about to strike him dead.

Suddenly mastering his rage, however, by a strong effort, and remembering that the man might be a useful witness; he flung Morone from him.
"If I had Pallavicini here," he said, "I would treat, him as I have just refrained from using you.

And if I had any suspicion that you were aware of the contents of this letter, I would send you this instant to be hanged." The unlucky despatch-bearer protested his innocence of all complicity with Pallavicini, and his ignorance of the tenor of the communication by which the Duke's wrath had been so much excited.