'Tell him, Messer da Venegono.'
Venegono responded instantly. He spoke rapidly, using gestures freely, his face an ever-shifting mirror of his feelings, so that at once you knew him for a brisk-minded, impulsive man. 'We are here to speak of what is happening in Milan. Do you know nothing of it, my lord?'
'In Milan? Despatches reach me weekly from his highness. They report nothing that is not reassuring.'
The Countess laughed softly, bitterly. Venegono plunged on.
'Is it reassuring to you that the Malatesta of Rimini, Pandolfo, and his brother Carlo are there with an army five thousand strong?'
Facino was genuinely startled. 'They are moving against Milan?'
Again the Countess laughed, and this time Venegono laughed with her.
'Against it?' And he launched his thunderbolt. 'They are there at the express invitation of the Duke.' Without pausing for breath he completed the tale. 'On the second of the month the Lady Antonia Malatesta was married to Duke Gian Maria, and her father has been created Governor of Milan.'
A dead silence followed, broken at last by Facino. The thing was utterly incredible. He refused to believe it, and said so with an oath.
'My lord, I tell you of things that I have witnessed,' Benegono insisted.