The frail boy named started, and looked up with dilating eyes. His sister cried out in very real alarm. But Carmagnola covered them with his answer.
'I am your accuser, sir: not he.'
'You are his deputy, no more,' Bellarion answered, and now the boy came to his feet, white and tense.
'He is in the right,' he announced. 'I cannot refuse him.'
Smiling, Bellarion looked at Carmagnola, confused and awkward.
'Always you overreach yourself,' he mocked him. He turned to Gian Giacomo. 'You could not refuse me if I asked it. But I do not ask it. I only desired to show the value of Carmagnola's offer.'
'You have some decency still,' Carmagnola told him.
'Whilst you cannot lay claim even to that. God made you a fool, and that's the end of the matter.'
'Take him away.'
Already it seemed they had their orders. They laid hands upon him, and, submitting without further words, he suffered them to lead him out.