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Indeed, I think that among the grooms and serving-men at Mondolfo I must have been held in a certain measure of contempt, as one who would never come to more manhood than that of the cassock. "Come here," I bade him, and as he appeared to hesitate I had to repeat the order more peremptorily. At last he turned and came. "What now, Agostino?" cried my mother, setting a pale hand upon my sleeve
You are very choicely mated. Begone from Mondolfo, and never let me see either of you more." She staggered to her great chair and sank into it, whilst we stood there, mute, regarding her. For myself, it was with difficulty that I repressed the burning things that rose to my lips. Had I given free rein to my tongue, I had made of it a whip of scorpions.
Arcolano hesitated, and his gluttonous mouth quivered and twitched. But he excused himself in the end. He must on. He had business to discharge in the town, and he must return at once and render an account of our safe journey to the Countess at Mondolfo. If he tarried now it would grow late ere he reached Mondolfo, and late travelling pleased him not at all.
He halted before me, and set one hand of his upon my shoulder, looking up into my face. "It has been my fondest dream, Agostino," he said. I groaned. "It is a dream that never can be realized now," said I miserably. "Never, indeed, if Cosimo d'Anguissola continues to be Lord of Mondolfo," he answered, his keen, friendly eyes considering me. I reddened and paled under his glance.
Now I submit to your excellency, and to your worthinesses," he added, turning aside, "that this confiscation is grotesque and impossible, since Mondolfo and Carmina never were the property of Agostino d'Anguissola, and could no more be taken from him than can a coat be taken from the back of a naked man unless," he added, sneering, "a papal bull is capable of miracles."
This is Agostino d'Anguissola, of Mondolfo and Carmina." Surprise overspread Gonzaga's face. He seemed about to speak, and checked, and his eyes were very searchingly bent upon Galeotto's face, which remained inscrutable as stone. Then the Governor looked at me, and from me back again at Galeotto. At last he smiled, whilst I bowed before him, but very vaguely conscious of what might impend.
"I am Agostino d'Anguissola, Lord of Mondolfo and..." "Pass over your titles," he boomed. "The Holy Office takes no account of worldly rank. What is your age?" "I am in my twenty-first year." "Benedicamus Dominum," he commented, though I could not grasp the appositeness of the comment. "You stand accused, Agostino d'Anguissola, of sacrilege and of defiling holy things. What have you to say?
"Madonna has decided," he informed me then. "She fears that having once resisted her authority, you are now utterly beyond her control; and that to keep you here would be bad for yourself and for her. Therefore she has resolved that to-morrow you leave Mondolfo." A faint excitement began to stir in me.
I would to God I had flung back my head and told my mother as he prompted me that I was lord of Mondolfo, and that Falcone must remain since I so willed it. I strove to do so out of my love for him rather than out of any such fine spirit as he sought to inspire in me.
Three hours I slept upon a litter of straw in an outhouse; whereupon, strengthened by my repose, I renewed my claim to be the Lord of Mondolfo and my demand for a horse to carry me to my fortress. Still doubting me too much to trust me alone with any beast of his, the peasant nevertheless fetched out a couple of mules and set out with me for Mondolfo.
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