"To Verona, by way of Milan?"
"We had no choice. The company we traveled with were bound hither, but three days ago we missed them, and came on here alone, lest perhaps they had preceded us. But for this accident we thought to pass the night in Milan—but now, what shall we do? and we hear that Verona has been taken!"
The stranger was bending over Tomaso, and Vittore did not see his face.
"How did this happen?" he asked presently, touching the mark upon Tomaso's face. And Vittore told him.
The stranger was quiet a long breath.
"So this is Visconti's doing," he said at last. "Thy cousin is a brave lad."
And he fell again into a silence which Vittore dared not break, while under the stranger's care Tomaso opened his eyes, and feebly muttered and tried to rise. But the other bade him wait a while, and turned to Vittore again.
"And which way did Visconti ride?" he asked.
The boy pointed. "The peasants said it was toward Brescia."