I have fought with the French against the Spaniards, and with the Spaniards against the French, and I have served the Borgia, who is plotting against both.

I have trailed a pike in the emperor's following, and I have held the rank of captain, too, in the army of the King of Naples.

Now, young sir, you have learned something of me, and if my name is not written in letters of fire from one end of Italy to the other, it is--Body of God!--because the hands that hired me to the work garnered the glory of my deeds." "A noble record," said Gonzaga, who had credulously absorbed that catalogue of lies, "a very noble record." "Not so," the other contradicted, for the lust of contradiction that was a part of him.

"A great record, if you will, to commend me to hireling service.

But you may not call the service of a hireling noble." "It is a matter we will not quarrel over," said Gonzaga soothingly.