Carmagnola contained himself under that sardonic leer.
'Sir, you are resolved, it seems, to try my patience. It requires all my regard and devotion for her highness to teach me to endure it. The messenger shall be brought.'
At Valeria's request not only the messenger, but the captains who had voted Bellarion's death were also summoned. Carmagnola demurred at first, but bowed in the end to her stern insistence.
They came, and when they were all assembled, they were told by the Princess why they had been summoned as well as what she had that morning learnt from Barbaresco. Then the messenger was brought in between the guards, and it was the Princess herself who questioned him.
'You have nothing to fear, boy,' she assured him gently, as he cowered in terror before her. 'You are required to answer truthfully. When you have done so, and unless I discover that you are lying, you shall be restored to liberty.'
Carmagnola, who had come to take his stand at her side, bent over her.
'Is that prudent, madonna?'
'Prudent or not, it is promised.' There was in her tone an asperity that dismayed him. She addressed herself to the clown.
'When you were given this letter you would be given precise instructions for its delivery, were you not?'
'Yes, magnificent madonna.'