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Alexander had ever shown himself the fondest of fathers to his children, and now he overflowed with pride in this son who already gave such excellent signs of his capacity as a condottiero, and justified his having put off the cassock to strap a soldier's harness to his lithe and comely body.
He stalked past them unmoved, taking their measure as he went, and estimating their true value with the unerring eye of the practised condottiero who has had to do with the enrolling of men and the handling of them. So little did he like their looks that on the threshold of the hall he paused and stayed Gonzaga. "I am loath to leave my servant at the mercy of those ruffians, sir.
"I would place such matters as the levying of money by taxation in the hands of Messer Despuglio, and at whatever sacrifice to your own extravagance, I would see that for months to come the bulk of these moneys is applied to the levying and arming of suitable men. I have some skill as a condottiero leastways, so more than one foreign prince has been forced to acknowledge.
The condottiero swung down from his saddle unaided a thing which he could do even when full-armed and stood before Farnese, a grim, dust-stained figure, with a curious smile twisting his scarred face. "Why," said he, in answer, "I have been upon business that concerns your magnificence somewhat closely."
In addition to the condottiero, a couple of gentlemen on horseback attended the Duke, and half a score of his Swiss lanzknechte in gleaming corselets and steel morions, shouldering their formidable pikes, went afoot to hedge his excellency.
He urged that in this matter of the Holy Office was a trap set for him to place him in Farnese's power. "A trap?" roared the condottiero, leaping up. "What trap? Where is this trap?
His great reputation as a condottiero, the fame of his wealth and his notorious liberality, stood him now in excellent stead. The response to his call was instantaneous. Soldiers of fortune and mercenaries showed the trust they had in him, and flocked to his standard from every quarter.
True, he had gone to offer himself to Spain as a condottiero when naught else was left to him; but he took no army with him he went alone, a servant, not an ally, as that false letter pretends. He had never come to draw his sword against France, and certainly no loss had been suffered by France in consequence of any action of his.
"The by-blow of some condottiero, who blends with his father's bullying arrogance the peasant soul of his careless mother. And I fear that such a one as that shall touch the heart of my peerless Valentina? Why, it is a thought that does her but poor honour."
"And you, sir," said Galeotto, smiling his sweetest in return, "are, I trust, a better charlatan than a condottiero." He went up the stairs, the gaudy throng making way before him, and he came at last to the top, where stood the Lord of Pagliano awaiting him, a great trouble in his eyes. They clasped hands in silence, and Cavalcanti went in person to lead his guest to his apartments.
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