"Why debate with him, Cæsar? Let us show him first what suffering means."
Comnenus looked questioningly toward the instruments that surrounded them.
"Ay, we might give him a lesson. Summon Bartolommeo and bid him fetch in some wretch who awaits punishment."
Comnenus nodded approval.
"That is worth trying."
He touched a bell, and a door behind the table opened to admit another man, very short and broad in stature. There was something familiar about his pock-marked face and barrel-like chest, and when he squinted his eyes about the room Hugh recognised him for the swart shipman who had beset the cog Alice in the Narrow Seas, after striving unsuccessfully to induce the comrades to take passage with him.
"Hast seen this springald before, Bartolommeo," said Mocenigo.
"Ay, Magnificence. 'Tis a lusty youth and a wary."
"We have hopes to induce him to hold speech with us, Bartolommeo."
"That may be, lord, that may be."