t so much as dream of
the existence of such vileness as that to which I was referring and by
which a saintly man had met his death) I do not imagine that there was
a single person present who did not understand to what foul crime I
alluded.

The silence that followed my words was as oppressive as the silence
which in Nature preludes thunder.

A vivid flame of scarlet had overspread the Duke's countenance. It
receded, leaving his cheeks a greenish white, even to the mottling
pimples. Abashed, his smouldering eyes fell away before my bold, defiant
glance. The fingers of his trembling hand tightened about the slender
stem of his Venetian goblet, so that it snapped, and there was a gush
of crimson wine upon the snowy napery. His lips were drawn back--like a
dog's in the act of snarling--and showed the black stumps of his broken
teeth. But he made no sound, uttered no word. It was Cosimo who spoke,
half rising as he did so.

"This insolence, my lord Duke, must be punished; this insult wiped out.
Suffer me..."

But Pier Luigi reached forward across Bianca, set a hand upon my
cousin's sleeve, and pressed him back into his seat silencing him.

"Let be," he said. And looked up the board at Cavalcanti. "It is for
my Lord of Pagliano to say if a guest shall be thus affronted at his
board."

Cavalcanti's face was set and rigid. "You place a heavy burden on my
shoulders," said he, "when your excellency, my guest, appeals to me
against another guest of mine--against one who is all but friendless and
the son of my own best friend."

"And my worst enemy," cried Pier Luigi hotly.

"That is your excellency's own concern, not mine," said Cavalcanti
coldly. "But since you appeal to me I will say that Messer
d'Anguissola's words were ill-judged in such a season. Yet in justice
I must add that it is not the way of youth to weigh its words too
carefully; and you gave him provocation. When a man--be he never so
high--permits himself to taunt another, he would do well to see that he
is not himself vulnerable to taunts."

Farnese rose with a horrible oath, and every one of his gentlemen with
him.

"My lord," he said, "this is to take sides against me; to endorse the
affront."

"Then you mistake my intention," rejoined Cavalcanti, with an icy
dignity. "You appeal to me for judgment. And between guests I must hold
the scales dead-level, with no thought for the rank of either. Of your
chivalry, my lord Duke, you must perceive that I