"Whether it was thy move or no, it does not please me thou shouldst be annoyed—remember it, my Lord Duke"; and he turned into his inner room. As he closed the door, his long brooding showed in his face. It was lined and anxious. The position was a dizzy one: a perilous one: his dark dress concealed the gleam of chain armor.
His enemies were many, and some powerful, and Visconti took no chances.
At his side hung a dagger, long and sharp, and his fingers were often on the hilt in readiness. At his old place sat Giannotto.
"I have decided," said Visconti. "I will attempt Carrara."
"You think he is to be bought, my lord?"
"I think he is to be bought," responded Visconti. "At any rate we will try. He and his force are with Della Scala?"
"And fifteen miles outside our walls," said Giannotto; then at the look on the Duke's face, he was sorry he had spoken, and shrank together.
"Read what is on the parchment," said Visconti; and the secretary, glad to have been let off so easily, unwrapt the roll.
Therein Visconti's bribe was plainly set forth:
The town of Cologna, near to Padua, and well fortified, the protection and close alliance of Milan, and the service of ten thousand trained mercenaries, together with the right to trade free of toll in Visconti's dominions——