I let him see it, perhaps, which was unwise, and, may be, even ungrateful.

He seemed deeply wounded, and the subject was abandoned.

But I have since thought that perhaps I acted with a rashness that was--" "With a rashness that was eminently justifiable," I interrupted her.
"You could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such a man." But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in store for me.

At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion in the courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its cause, I was informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had arrived.
Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he served, where Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to probe, I descended to the banqueting-hall at supper time.
They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in the centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and crimson, brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of my own quarters but that his wolf's eye had already fastened on me.
"Body of God!" he swore, and that was all.

But his eyes were on me in a marvellous stare, as were now--impelled by that oath of his--the eyes of all the company.