"I will be dumb, excellency."
"A good deal depends on your prudence in this, and you must take care not to fail. Now to business, and keep your ears open and your head clear. How do we stand as regards funds?"
Jacopo, to whom I had entrusted my money, pulled out a leather purse and counted the contents.
"There are five-and-thirty crowns with me, signore, and five I gave your worship this morning, making forty in all," and he restored the purse to its hiding-place under his belt.
"Enough for our needs at present, and more will be forthcoming soon, for there is business in hand."
"I said that luck would turn," repeated Jacopo, his face showing joy at the news.
"Never mind the luck, but attend to me. I want to enlist half-a-dozen good men, men who will go anywhere and do anything. They must bring their own arms and horses, and I will engage them for a month, and pay each man five crowns."
"That is at the rate of sixty crowns a year for each man. We could enlist half Rome for that."
"Probably, but it isn't half Rome, only half-a-dozen men I want."
"Very true, your worship, and I will doubtless be able to find them; but, excellency----"