“Heed him not!” screamed Gian Maria, now in a white heat of passion. “He is a smooth-tongued dog that would argue the very devil out of hell. Make no terms with the hind! I have a hundred men, and——” He swung suddenly round. “Let down that drawbridge, cowards!” he bawled at them, “and sweep me those animals from my tents.”
“Gian Maria, I give you warning,” cried Francesco, loudly and firmly. “I have trained your own guns on to that bridge, and at the first attempt to lower it I'll blow it into splinters. You come not out of Roccaleone save at my pleasure and upon my terms, and if you lose your duchy by your obstinacy, it will be your own work; but answer me now, that I may take my course.”
Guidobaldo, too, restrained Gian Maria, and countermanded his order for the lowering of the bridge. And now on his other side Gonzaga crept up to him, and whispered into his ear the suggestion that he should wait until night had fallen.
“Wait until night, fool!” blazed the Duke, turning on him, in a fierce joy at finding one whom he might rend. “If I wait until then, my throne is lost to me. This comes of sorting with traitors. It is your fault, you Judas!” he cried more fiercely still, his face distorted; “but you at least shall pay for what you have done.”
Gonzaga saw a sudden flash of steel before his eyes, and a piercing scream broke from him as Gian Maria's dagger buried itself in his breast. Too late Guidobaldo put forward a hand to stay the Duke.
And so, by a strangely avenging justice, the magnificent Gonzaga sank dead on the very spot on which he had so cravenly and dastardly poniarded Aventano.
“Throw me that carrion into the moat,” growled Gian Maria, still quivering with rage that had prompted his ferocious act.
He was obeyed, and thus murdered and murderer were united in a common grave.
After the first attempt to restrain Gian Maria, Guidobaldo had looked on in unconcern, deeming the act a very fitting punishment of a man with whose treachery he, at least, had never been in sympathy.
As he saw the body vanish in the torrent below, Gian Maria seemed to realise what he had done. His anger fell from him, and with bent head he piously crossed himself. Then turning to an attendant who stood at his elbow: