lled his head back. Into his ear he muttered words that I could
not overhear, but it was matter that stilled Farnese's last struggle.
Only the Duke's eyes moved, rolling in his head as he sought to look
upon the face of the man who spoke to him. And in that moment Galeotto
wrenched his victim's head still farther back, laying entirely bare the
long brown throat, across which he swiftly drew his dagger.

Copallati screamed and covered his face with his hands; Sforza-Fogliani,
white to the lips, looked on like a man entranced.

There was a screech from Farnese that ended in a gurgle, and suddenly
the blood spurted from his neck as from a fountain. Galeotto let him go.
He dropped to his chair and fell forward against the table, drenching it
in blood. Thence he went over sideways and toppled to the floor, where
he lay twitching, a huddle of arms and legs, the head lolling sideways,
the eyes vitreous, and blood, blood, blood all about him.

CHAPTER XIII. THE OVERTHROW

The sight turned me almost physically sick.

I faced about, and sprang from the room out into the ante-chamber, where
a battle was in progress. Some three or four of the Duke's gentlemen
and a couple of Swiss had come to attempt a rescue. They had compelled
Galeotto's six men to draw and defend themselves, the odds being
suddenly all against them. Into that medley I went with drawn sword,
hacking and cutting madly, giving knocks and taking them, glad of the
excitement of it; glad of anything that would shut out from my mind the
horror of the scene I had witnessed.

Presently Confalonieri came out to take a hand, leaving Galeotto
on guard within, and in a few minutes we had made an end of that
resistance--the last splutter of resistance within those walls.

Beyond some cuts and scratches that some of us had taken, not a man
of ours was missing, whilst of the Duke's followers not a single one
remained alive in that ante-chamber. The place was a shambles. Hangings
that had been clutched had been torn from the walls; a great mirror was
cracked from top to bottom; tables were overset and wrecked; chairs were
splintered; and hardly a pane of glass remained in any of the windows.
And everywhere there was blood, everywhere dead men.

Up the stairs came trooping now our assembled forces led by Landi
and the Pallavicini. Below all was quiet. The Swiss garrison taken by
surprise at table, as was planned, had been disarmed and all were safe
and impotent un