The Duke looked round wildly.
"A town, a fortune to the one who will have compassion"; and with a shrug and a grimace, a rough soldier stepped forward, his drawn sword in his hand, and opening the door, pushed something back before him and went out.
Gian breathed heavily, listening, but the next second the soldier was in the room again, with altered face, and the door ajar behind him.
"I cannot," he gasped—"it's blind, struggling—it—does not look like a man—I——"
"Shut the door!" yelled Visconti, and then fell back against de Lana, shaking, for a livid face appeared, with dim eyes and a bare throat streaked with blood. For one moment the ghastly apparition showed there, then fell into the dark again.
There was a sickening pause. Visconti spoke first, looking around.
"Are we fools or women?—he came to murder me, and he is slain—what is there in that? Go and see now if he be dead."
Some one went, fearfully.
"He lies very still, my lord; he is dead——"