'Before night he shall be bled again,' said the great man when the arm had been bandaged and the duke was restored to his pillows.
'Domine magister,' objected the barber respectfully, 'were it not wiser to wait? The patient is weakened, and an excessive drain of blood——'
But he stopped short, for the doctor looked at him with freezing irony.
''Tis time you knew that of the twenty-four pounds of blood in the human body you may let twenty without damage. I have bled sucking babes and seen them recover.'
Leonardo listened to this conversation, but reminded himself that to dispute with doctors was vain as to argue with alchemists. He held his peace till the empirics had departed and the dwarf had covered the patient and shaken his pillows. Above the bed hung a little green parrot in a cage; cards and dice strewed the table. On it was also a glass with gold-fish, at the duke's feet slept a little white dog,—all the faithful servant's last attempts at ministering to his master's amusement.
'Has the letter been sent?' asked the sick man, not opening his eyes.
'Excellency, Messer Leonardo has come. We waited, fearing to disturb your Grace's slumber.'
A feeble smile illuminated the duke's countenance. He tried to raise himself.
'Master, at last! And I had been fearing you would not come!'
Gian Galeazzo took the artist's hand in his, and a faint colour spread over his beautiful young face:—he was but four-and-twenty. The dwarf left the room to keep guard at the door.