'I am too sure of myself,' he answered.
'And God knows you have cause to be, more cause than any man of whom ever I heard tell. Do you know, Lord Prince, that in these five years there is no evil I have not believed of you? I even deemed you a coward, on the word of that vain boaster Carmagnola.'
'He was none so wrong, by his own lights. I am not a fighter of his pattern. I have ever been careful of myself.'
'Your condition now proves that.'
'Oh, this, to-day ... That was different. Too much depended on the issue. It was the last throw. I had to take a hand, much though I dislike a rough-and-tumble. So that we won through, it would not much have mattered if the vamplate of that fellow's lance had brought up against my throat. There are no more fights for me, so what matter if I left my life in the last one?'
'The last one, Lord Prince!'
'And that is not my title any more. I am a prince no longer. I leave the rank behind with all the other vanities of the world.'
'You leave it behind?' She found him obscure.
'When I go back to Cigliano, which will be as soon as I can move.'
'What do you go to do at Cigliano?'