Poor Blanche Marie was the only one to be pitied, and she was very sad. Even the thought that she was loved--that the timid dream of her youth's dawning twilight was already verified, could not console her. She was losing her loved companion, her bright cousin, and her lover all at once. For the loss of the two first, indeed, she had in some degree to blame herself; for, with girlish enthusiasm, she had resolved, from the moment she heard that Lorenzo was about to return to Italy, that he should fall in love with Leonora, and she rejoiced that all had gone according to her plans, but she would rather have had them remain at the Villa Rovera, and make love there beside her. Then, as to De Vitry, she would not have withheld him from the field of fame for the world; but she would rather have had the lists where glory was to be gained, at the back of the garden than far away at the end of Italy. Sometimes she asked herself if she really loved him--if she were not too young to know what love was; but then the pain she felt at the thought of his leaving her for months, perhaps for years, convinced her little heart that there was something in it which had never been there before.
Thus waned the day of the king's halt at the villa gates, and the morning came, when Lorenzo and his train, now amounting to twenty lances and some forty inferior soldiers, were to depart. Besides these, however, were Leonora's servants, male and female, Lorenzo's personal attendants, horses and mules and pannieris, and a baggage-wagon, with six silver-grey oxen to draw it. Moreover, with the baggage-wagon were six foot soldiers, armed with hand-guns, then a new invention, for the manufacture of which, as I think I have mentioned before, Milan had become famous. It made altogether a grand cavalcade, occupying so much of the road while the party waited for their young leader and the fair lady he was to escort, that the peasant carts could hardly get past on their way to supply the market of Pavia with all the luxuries which the King of France's arrival in the city had brought into demand.
Much and sage advice had to be given by the old Count of Rovera both to Lorenzo and Leonora; and long was their leave-taking with poor Blanche Marie; but, in some sort it was fortunate it was so; for, before all was over, the Seigneur de Vitry appeared among them, exclaiming, in his usually gay tone, though there was a certain degree of shadow on his brow, "To horse! to horse, Visconti! You are to have a longer march than you contemplated. It has been decided by the king that seven miles is too short a ride for a young cavalier like you; and you are to march straight by Pavia, and act as an advance party on the way to Naples."
"But where am I to halt?" asked the young cavalier; "remember, Signeur de Vitry, that it is long since I quitted this land, and I know not the distances."
"All that is arranged," answered De Vitry--"arranged upon the very best judgment and authority, that of a man who knows not the worthy count regent, but who knows the country well. At Belgiojoso, just seven miles beyond Pavia, you will find the route-card, as far as Bologna, with every day's march laid down, in the hands of the king's harbinger, old St. Pierre, who goes with you, with twenty lances more, to mark out the royal quarters. But, remember, you command the whole party, and the king relies upon your fidelity and discretion. From each station you will march forward at eight in the morning, unless contrary orders from the court reach you earlier. If you should obtain information of any hostile movements in the front, you will send back intelligence, unless you meet with an enemy, in which case you will fall back upon the van."
"Without fighting?" asked Lorenzo.
"Why, methinks," said De Vitry, with a gay glance at Leonora, "that, considering that you have some non-combatants of your party, the less you fight the better till they are safely bestowed in the rear. But you must use your own discretion in that matter. It would not do to see a French pennon retreat before a handful. But you must be careful."
"I will, depend upon it, on the signora's account," answered Lorenzo.
"'Tis a good guarantee," said De Vitry; "but does the king know she goes with you?--Well, well, do not colour and look perplexed; I will arrange all that for you, only you must tell me what tale I am to relate to his majesty. Am I to say aught about hasty marriages and a Signora Visconti? or that the days of knight errantry have been fully revived by you and De Terrail, and that you are escorting a distressed demoiselle to a place of safety?"
Though Leonora blushed deeply, Bianca Maria laughed gaily. "Why, you might have heard all about it yesterday, my lord," she said, "had you waited till Leonora opened her letter from her father, or till Lorenzo came back. It is by his command she goes--at his request my cousin escorts her. But you were in such a hurry to leave us, you would stay for nothing."