It was as if his rage grew coldly purposeful; and the next words he uttered acted upon me as a dagger-prod, and reawakened my mind from its momentary stupefaction.
"Do you think these poor laths can save you from my vengeance, my Lord Gambara ?" quoth he, with a chuckle horrible to hear.
My Lord Gambara! He mistook me for the Legate! In an instant I saw the reason of this.

It was as Giuliana had conceived.

The boy had run to warn him wherever he was--at Roncaglia, perhaps, a league away upon the road to Parma.

And the boy's news was that my Lord the Governor had gone to Fifanti's house.

The boy had never waited to see the Legate come forth again; but had obeyed his instructions to the letter, and it was Gambara whom Fifanti came to take red-handed and to kill as he had the right to do.
When he had espied my flying shape, the length of the corridor had lain between us, Fifanti was short-sighted, and since it was Gambara whom he expected to find, Gambara at once he concluded it to be who fled before him.
There was no villainy for which I was not ripe that night, it seemed.
For no sooner did I perceive this error than I set myself to scheme how I might profit by it.