had the action been.

Galeotto had already left the group about the table, and with a blow of
his great hand he felled the usher who sought to bar his passage to
the Duke's chamber. He tore down the curtains, and he was wrapping
and entangling the fellow in the folds of them when I came to his aid
followed by Confalonieri, whose six men remained to hold the three sound
and the one wounded Swiss in check.

And now from below there rose such a din of steel on steel, of shouts
and screams and curses, that it behoved us to make haste.

Bidding us follow him, Galeotto flung open the door. At table sat
Farnese with two of his gentlemen, one of whom was the Marquis
Sforza-Fogliani, the other a doctor of canon law named Copallati.

Alarm was already written on their faces. At sight of Galeotto--"Ah! You
are still here!" cried Farnese. "What is taking place below? Have the
Swiss fallen to fighting among themselves?"

Galeotto returned no answer, but advanced slowly into the room; and
now Farnese's eyes went past him and fastened upon me, and I saw
them suddenly dilate; beyond me they went and met the cold glance of
Confalonieri, that other gentleman he had so grievously wronged and whom
he had stripped of the last rag of his possessions and his rights. The
sun coming through the window caught the steel that Confalonieri still
carried in his hands; its glint drew the eyes of the Duke, and he must
have seen that the baron's sleeve was bloody.

He rose, leaning heavily upon the table.

"What does this mean?" he demanded in a quavering voice, and his face
had turned grey with apprehension.

"It means," Galeotto answered him, firmly and coldly, "that your rule
in Piacenza is at an end, that the Pontifical sway is broken in these
States, and that beyond the Po Ferrante Gonzaga waits with an army to
take possession here in the Emperor's name. Finally, my Lord Duke, it
means that the Devil's patience is to be rewarded, and that he is at
last to have you who have so faithfully served him upon earth."

Farnese made a gurgling sound and put a jewelled hand to his throat
as if he choked. He was all in green velvet, and every button of
his doublet was a brilliant of price; and that gay raiment by its
incongruity seemed to heighten the tragedy of the moment.

Of his gentlemen the doctor sat frozen with terror in his high-backed
seat, clutching the arms of it so that his knuckles showed white
as marble. In like case were the two a