he loved me a little," complained Gian Maria foolishly.

Guidobaldo looked him over with an eye that smiled inscrutably, and it
may have crossed his mind that this coarse, white-faced Duke was too
ambitious.

"I doubt not that she will," he answered, in tones as inscrutable as
his glance. "So that you woo with grace and ardour, what woman could
withstand your Highness? Be not put off by such modesty as becomes a
maid."

Those words of Guidobaldo's breathed new courage into him. Nor ever
after could he think that her coldness was other than a cloak, a sort of
maidenly garment behind which modesty bade her conceal the inclinations
of her heart. Reasoning thus, and having in support of it his wondrous
fatuity, it so befell that the more she shunned and avoided him, the
more did he gather conviction of the intensity of her affection; the
more loathing she betrayed, the more proof did it afford him of the
consuming quality of her passion. In the end, he went even so far as to
applaud and esteem in her this very maidenly conduct.

There were hunting-parties, hawking-parties, water-parties, banquets,
comedies, balls, and revels of every description, and for a week all
went well at Urbino. Then, as suddenly as if a cannon had been fired
upon the Palace, the festivities were interrupted. The news that an
envoy of Caesar Borgia's was at Babbiano with a message from his master
came like a cold douche upon Gian Maria. It was borne to him in a letter
from Fabrizio da Lodi, imploring his immediate return to treat with this
plenipotentiary of Valentino's.

No longer did he disregard the peril that threatened him from the
all-conquering Borgia, no longer deem exaggerated by his advisers the
cause for fear. This sudden presence of Valentino's messenger, coming,
too, at a time when it would almost seem as if the impending union
with Urbino had spurred the Borgia to act before the alliance was
established, filled him with apprehension.

In one of the princely chambers that had been set aside for his use
during his visit to Urbino he discussed the tragic news with the two
nobles who had accompanied him--Alvaro de Alvari and Gismondo Santi--and
both of them, whilst urging him to take the advice of Lodi and return at
once, urged him, too, to establish his betrothal ere he left.

"Bring the matter to an issue at once, your Highness," said Santi,
"and thus you will go back to Babbiano well-armed to meet the Duca
Valentino's messenger."