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Updated: May 28, 2025
For after all, it was but begun. In the town the alarm-bell was ringing from the tower of the Communal Palace, and at the sound I saw Galeotto's eyes kindling. He took command, none disputing it him, and under his orders men went briskly to turn the cannon of the fortress upon the square, that an attack might be repulsed if it were attempted.
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.
He dismissed them at last with the promise that they should hear from him, and on the morrow, attended by Falcone only, he rode forth again from Pagliano, to seek out the dal Verme and the Sforza of Santafiora and endeavour to engage their interest against the man who had outraged them. And that was early in August of the year '46. I remained at Pagliano by Galeotto's request.
In that moment there came from the ante-chamber the sound of swiftly moving feet, and the clash of steel mingling with cries. The sound heartened him. He conceived that someone came to his assistance. He raised his voice in a desperate screech: "To me! To me! Help!" As he shouted I sprang towards him, to find my passage suddenly barred by Galeotto's arm.
Within ten minutes, Galeotto's three score men and another score of those who garrisoned Pagliano for Cavalcanti were in the saddle and galloping hell-for-leather to Piacenza. Ahead on fresh horses went Falcone and I, the Lord of Pagliano spurring beside me and pestering me with questions as to the source of my knowledge.
As I turned out of the fine road that Gambara had built, I was joined by the brothers Pallavicini, a pair of resolute, grizzled gentlemen, the elder of whom, as you will remember, was slightly lame. With an odd sense of fitness they had dressed themselves in black. They were accompanied by half a dozen of Galeotto's men, but these bore no device by which they could be identified.
Then she considered the curt summons that gave no clue, and lastly looked at me. "It is the end," I said. "One way or the other, it is the end. But for Galeotto's letter, I think I should have refused to obey, and made myself an outlaw indeed. As it is there is surely hope!" "O, Agostino, surely, surely!" she cried. "Have we not suffered enough?
The blood that had earlier surged to my face had now all receded again, and my pulses throbbed like hammers. Then Galeotto spoke, his voice very calm and level. "Will your excellency first permit me to see the papal brief upon which you acted in summoning hither the accused?" Silently Gonzaga delivered a parchment into Galeotto's hands. The condottiero studied it, frowning.
"Thus is Giovanni d'Anguissola at last avenged!" he said to me in a deep voice that thrilled me. "I would that he were here to know," I answered. And again Galeotto's eyes grew wistful as they looked at me. We won out of the town at last, and when we came to the high ground beyond the river, we saw in the plain below phalanx upon phalanx of a great army. It was Ferrante Gonzaga's Imperial force.
"And do you know what you have done?" I went on. "Do you know to what you have sold her? Must I tell you?" And I told him, in a dozen brutal words that brought him to his feet, the lion in him roused at last, his eyes ablaze. "We must after them," I urged. "We must wrest her from these beasts, and make a widow of her for the purpose. Galeotto's lances are below and they will follow me.
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