She was interrupted by Messer Luigi Marliani, the first of the court physicians, who came from the sick room, followed by his colleagues.
'Well? well?' asked Ludovico.
There was a silence; then Messer Luigi spoke.
'Your Excellency, we have done all that is possible. Now we must put our hope in the clemency of the Lord.'
'No! No!' cried the Duke seizing his hand, 'there must be some means! It is unendurable! Try something!'
The physicians exchanged glances like augurs, hoping thus to reassure him. Then Marliani, knitting his brows, said in Latin to the young doctor beside him:—
'Three ounces of river snails, with nutmeg and red coral,'
'A bleeding, perhaps?' suggested another, an old man, with a gentle and diffident face.
'I had thought of it,' said Marliani; 'but Mars is in Cancer and in the fourth house of the sun. And, further, to-day's date is an uneven number.'
The old man sighed, shook his head and forbore to urge his point. Various other loathsome medicaments were proposed, till the Duke could no longer contain himself. He turned furiously to the doctors.