"To a cinder——"
"To a heap of ashes!" said another. "There is nothing but the bastion, red hot——"
"As you should know, da Ribera," laughed the officer next him, "seeing you tried to ride over it."
"And killed his horse," said another.
"And saved myself!" shouted da Ribera. "I look for a reward for that, my lord—the saving of a valiant officer of yours——"
"Shall not be forgotten!" laughed Visconti. "Be paid by this advice—remember burning towns are dangerous, as to his mortal cost a certain great Frenchman found at Rouen, and several great Germans more recently at Milan——"
"When they lay along the ramparts like flies, I have heard my grandfather say, striving to loot in the midst of the very flames," said de Lana, "like da Ribera here."
"Had I been in Milan, Barbarossa himself would have burned in the midst of it," said Visconti, sweeping back the glass and silver before him. "The town had weeks to prepare."
"Had you been there, Milan would not have burned at all, my lord!" said a flattering voice.