And yet Hector was armed at all points for battle.

He was badly frightened, brave man as he was.
But when the first impression was gone, and Paolo was walking quickly in the direction of the palace where the Cardinal lived, he stoutly denied to himself that Marzio had meant to harm him.

In the first place, he could find no adequate reason for such an attempt upon his life.

It was true that his relations with his brother had not been very amicable for some time; but between quarrelling and doing murder, Paolo saw a gulf too wide to be easily overstepped, even by such a person as Marzio.
Then, too, the good man was unwilling to suspect any one of bad intentions, still less of meditating a crime.

This consideration, however, was not, logically speaking, in Marzio's favour; for since Paolo was less suspicious than other men, it must necessarily have needed a severe shock to shake his faith in his brother's innocence.