Then he laughed in a silly, crackling fashion.
"Eh ?" he queried.

"Gesu!" And he passed a hand over his damp brow, and threw back the hair that cumbered it.

"What is the thing that you would do, Fool ?" "Why, the thing you bade me," I answered firmly.

"Put on your armour, and shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord Giovanni, Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides.

If I do this thing, and put to rout the rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my reward ?" He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint colour kindling in his face.