Still Bellarion avoided answering.
'Would the condition make my employment impossible?' And now it was Theodore who hesitated, or seemed to hesitate. 'It would,' he said at last. Very quickly he added: 'Nothing is less likely than that Facino and I should be opposed to each other. Yet you'll understand that I could not possibly employ a condottiero who would have the right to desert me in such a contingency.'
'Oh, yes. I understand that. I have understood it from the first. I am foolish, I suppose, to hesitate where the terms are so generous.' He sighed, a man whose conscience was in labour. 'My Lord Facino could hardly blame me ...' He left the sentence unfinished. And Theodore to end the rogue's hesitation threw more weight into the scales.
'And there will be guarantees,' he said.
'Guarantees? Ah!'
'The lands of Asti along the Tanaro from Revigliasco to Margaria to be made into a fief, and placed under your vicarship with the title of Count of Asti.'
Bellarion caught his breath. He turned to face the Marquis, and in the moonlight his countenance looked very white.
'My lord, you promise something that is not yours to bestow.'
'It is to make it mine that I require your service. I am frank, you see.'
Bellarion saw more. He saw the infernal subtlety with which this tempter went to work. He made clear his intentions, which must amount to no less than the conquest and occupation of all those rich lands which lay between High and Low Montferrat. To accomplish this, Alessandria, Valenza, and a score of other cities now within the Duchy of Milan would pass under his dominion. Inevitably, then, must there be war with Facino, who to the end of his days would be in arms to preserve the integrity of the Duchy. And Theodore offered this condottiero, whose services he coveted, a dazzling reward to be gained only when those aims were fulfilled.