Slowly she raised her eyes to look at him fully for the first time since he had joined that board. They were very sorrowful and her pallor was deathly.
'There are other matters, sir, besides that, which I remember. There is the death of Enzo Spigno, for one.'
He recoiled as if she had struck him. 'Spigno!' he echoed, and uttered a queer little laugh. 'So it is Spigno who rises from his grave for vengeance?'
'Not for vengeance, sir. For justice. There would be that if there were not the matter that Messer Carmagnola has urged to convict you.'
'To convict me! Am I then convicted without trial?'
None answered him, and in the pause that followed the men-at-arms summoned by Belluno clanked in, and at a sign from Carmagnola closed about Bellarion. There were four of them. One of the captains deprived him of his dagger, the only weapon upon him, and flung it on the table. At last Bellarion roused himself to some show of real heat.
'Oh, but this is madness! What do you intend by me?'
'That is to be deliberated. But be under no delusive hope, Bellarion.'
'You are to decide my fate? You?' From Carmagnola, he looked at the others. He had paled a little; but amazement still rode above fear.
Stoffel, unable longer to contain himself, turned furiously upon Carmagnola. 'You rash, vainglorious fool. If Bellarion is to be tried there is none under the Duke's magnificence before whom he may be arraigned.'