"Let me take her, Lorenzo," said a voice she had not heard for years; "joy kills as well as sorrow. Leonora--cousin Leonora, it is De Vitry: wake up--wake up. Things are not so bad as they seemed. It was the corpse of a murdering villain you saw, justly condemned to death yesterday at this hour. Visconti is safe."
Leonora opened her eyes again, and found herself in the arms of De Vitry. She gazed anxiously round. There stood Lorenzo with his head uncovered, and his upper garment off; and a smile, like that of an angel, came upon her lips; but when he advanced a step towards her, she shrunk back in De Vitry's arms, murmuring, "Take me to my father! Oh! where is my father?" and, covering her eyes with her hands, she wept profusely.
"A litter is coming speedily from the inn there," said Leonardo da Vinci; "let me escort her, my lord. You have other matters to attend to just now, and she will be well in privacy for a time. Here comes Antonio with a litter."
De Vitry lifted her in his stalwart arms, and placed her, as tenderly as if she had been an infant, in the sort of covered bier then commonly used in Italy by ladies too feeble or too timid to travel on horseback. Leonardo drew the curtains round; but, leaning his hand upon the woodwork, he walked on by her side, while four stout bearers carried her on toward the gate leading to the villa. Twice Leonora drew back the curtain and looked out. Once she asked, "Where is my father? Is this all true, signor maestro, or am I dreaming still?"
"Your father is at the citadel waiting for the French and Roman lords," replied Leonardo. "All is real, my child, and happy is it that it is so; for both Antonio and I had nearly been too late. The number of men we could introduce last night was too small; and, had you not left the postern key in my hands, the Lord of Vitry and the French forces could hardly have entered ere the axe had fallen."
Leonora shuddered and let fall the curtain; but after a moment or two she looked out again on the other side, saying--
"Oh! good Antonio, is that you? Surely I saw him--surely I saw your lord."
"Yes, dear lady, you saw him safe," replied Antonio; "we were preparing to force the gate; but we should have been too late had not the maestro brought round the French forces from the other side of the town and let us in."
"God be praised!" murmured Leonora; "but oh, Antonio, does any one believe him guilty still? If they do, that will kill him by a sharper death than that of the axe.
"No one does--no one can," replied Antonio. "Mardocchi--that is, Father Peter--made full confession last night of the darkest and most damnable plot that ever was hatched. I could not tell the Duke of Valentinois all, for there were many things I could not discover; but when I showed him plainly that Mardocchi had betrayed some of his most terrible secrets, he had him put to the torture; and then the bloody-minded knave confessed the whole, filling up all the gaps that my tale had left. The duke showed no reverence for his shaved head, but struck it off, and sent it to Imola, with his whole evidence written down by the Dominican who was there present. No, no, lady, no one can entertain even a suspicion now."