The despot gnawed his lip.
'Hast venom in thee, and with reason, to sting the boy?'
'Alas! to warn thee rather from his fang.'
'Ha!'
'It will lie flat against his palate, till the time when with his subtle eyes he shall invite thy hand to stroke his head. No rebellion, lord; no python rearing on his crushing folds. Yet may the little snake be deadlier.'
He was gathering confidence hair by hair. There were glints of coming tempest, well known to him, blooding the corners of Galeazzo's eyes. He believed, by them, that he should presently ride this storm of his own evoking.
'Ah!' he moaned, 'I'm sick. Mercy, lord! Truth 's not itself unless upright.'
The tyrant tossed his hand:—
'Set the dog on his legs.'
The dog so far justified his title that, being released, he crawled abject on all fours to his master's feet, and crouched there ready to lick them.