'That,' said Bellarion quietly, 'is what you should be considering.'
'Considering?' Carmagnola would have added more, but Facino's suddenly raised hand arrested him.
'Considering, yes,' said the condottiero. 'The situation is changed by what Bellarion tells us, and it is for us to study it anew.'
Reluctant though he might be to put this further curb upon his impatience, yet he recognized the necessity.
Not so, however, his lieutenant. 'But Bellarion may be mistaken. This evidence, after all ...'
'Was hardly necessary,' Bellarion interrupted. 'If Vignate had really been in the straits we have supposed, he must have continued, and ever more desperately, his attempts to fight his way out. Having found means to obtain supplies from without, he has remained inactive because he wishes you to believe him starving so that you may attack him. When he has damaged and weakened you by hurling back your assault, then he will come out in force to complete your discomfiture.'
'You have it all clear!' sneered Carmagnola. 'And you see it all in the cast shoe of a mule and a few grains of wheat.' He swung about to the others, flinging wide his arms. 'Listen to him! Learn our trade, sirs! Go to school to Master Bellarion.'
'Indeed, you might do worse,' cut in Facino, and so struck him into gaping, angry amazement. 'Bellarion reasons soundly enough to put your wits to shame. When I listen to him—God help me!—I begin to ask myself if the gout is in my leg or my brains. Continue, boy. What else have you to say?'
'Nothing more until we capture one of these victualling parties. That may be possible to-night, if you double or even treble Stoffel's force.'
'Possible it may be,' said Facino. 'But how exactly do you propose that it be done?'