'He was slain on his way to Mass this morning, at just about the hour that I arrived here from Bergamo.'
The accusing arm fell heavily to the Prince's obese flank. The beady, lack-lustre eyes still peered at the young condottiero.
'Almost I thought ... And Giannino is dead ... murdered! God rest him!' The phrase was mechanical. 'Tell me about it.'
Bellarion recited what he knew, then staggered out, on the arm of the servant who was to conduct him to the room prepared for him.
'What a world! What a dunghill!' he muttered as he went. 'And how well the old abbot knows it. Pax multa in cella, foris autem plurima bella!'
CHAPTER VI
THE INHERITANCE
Facino Cane, Count of Biandrate, Lord of Novara, Dertona, Varese, Rosate, Valsassina, and of all the lands on Lake Maggiore as far as Vogogna, was buried with great pomp in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro.
His chief mourners were his captains summoned from Bergamo to do that last honour to their departed leader. At their head, as mourner in chief, walked Facino's adoptive son Bellarion Cane, Count of Gavi. The others included Francesco Busone of Carmagnola, Giorgio Valperga, Nicolino Marsalia, Werner von Stoffel, and Vaugeois the Burgundian.
Koenigshofen and the Piedmontese Giasone Trotta were absent, having remained at Bergamo with the army.