Rafael Sabatini

“ He did not think it necessary to explain that all the magic he had employed had been to enter as if in attendance upon Madonna Bianca de' Fioravanti, and then to slip silently behind the black arras with which, to serve his purposes of deception, Messer Corvinus hung his walls.
But the magician was not duped. Who makes the image does not worship it. The truth—the precise truth—of magic was known undoubtedly to Corvinus, and it therefore follows that he could not for a moment suppose that the means by which the Duke had gained admittance had been other than perfectly natural ones. ”

“ Is there no other happiness for you save that of death? Have I shown anger? Do I show aught but gladness that for me you should have dared so much?'
To Messer Lorenzo it seemed in that moment that something was amiss with the world, or else with his poor brain. Was it conceivable that this noble lady should herself have turned the eyes of favour upon him? Was it possible that she should return this love of his, which he had deemed of such small account that in his urgent need he had not scrupled to parade it for purposes of deceit, where he would not have dared parade it otherwise? ”

“ It was a quarter of the town admirably suited to a man of the magician's studious habits. The greater streets of Urbino might tremble under the tramp of armed multitudes in those days when the Lord Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois and Romagna, was master of the city, and the peaceful, scholarly Duke Guidobaldo a fugitive outcast. Down that narrow, ill-paved gap of sordid dwellings came no disturbers of the peace. So that Corvinus Trismegistus was left to pursue his studies unmolested, to crush his powders, and distil his marvellous elixirs. ”

“ What is his name, did you say?' she faltered.
'Lorenzo Castrocaro—a captain of Valentino's,' he repeated.
'Lorenzo Castrocaro?' she said in her turn, but on her lips the name seemed another, so differently did she utter it.
'Ay, Madonna,' he replied.
Suddenly she gripped his arm, so that she hurt him.
'And he is wounded—to the death?' she cried with a sudden fierceness, as it seemed to him.
'Nay; not wounded. He is to die, having been captured. That is all. Messer Tolentino will have him jump from the rock. You will have a good view from the battlements, Madonna. ”

“ Above him towered the grey cliff, abrupt and sheer as the very walls of the fortress that crowned its summit, a climb that well might have appalled the hardiest mountaineer, that might, indeed, have baffled even a goat. Surveying it with his calm blue eyes, Messer Lorenzo realized that the worst danger he had to face that night was the danger of this climb. By comparison, the rest—the scaling of the castle wall, the poniarding of a sentry or two, and the opening of the gate—were safe and simple matters. ”

“ IV LOCKED in the guard-house—since a man who was to die so soon was not worth the trouble of consigning to a dungeon, Messer Lorenzo Castrocaro spent, as you may conceive, a somewhat troubled night. He was too young and too full of life and the zest and warmth of it to be indifferent about quitting it, to look with apathy upon death. He had seen death and a deal of it—in the past two years of his martial career. But it had been the death of others, and never until now had it seemed to him that death was a thing that very much concerned himself. ”

“ My men have been searching for your body all day at the foot of the rock.'
'I deplore your disappointment and their wasted labour,' said Lorenzo, smiling; and Della Volpe swore again.
'How came you to fail, and, having failed, how come you out alive?'
'I have not failed,' was the answer. 'I am riding to the Duke with the garrison's terms of capitulation.'
Della Volpe very rudely refused to believe him, whereupon Messer Lorenzo thrust under the condottiero's single eye Madonna Bianca's letters. At that the veteran sneered unpleasantly.
'Ha! By the horns of Satan! I see! ”

“ Castrocaro on the instant became very haughty
'Take me to your captain—to Messer Tolentino,' he demanded. 'He shall learn what manner of watch you keep. You dogs, the place might be burnt about your ears while you sit there cheating one another at cards, and set a fellow who appears to be both deaf and blind to pace your walls.'
The note of cool authority in his voice produced its effect. They were entirely duped by it. That a man should so address them whose right to do so was not entirely beyond question seemed to them—as it might indeed to any—altogether incredible. ”

“ On the faces of those five men amazement grew and spread. Looking beyond them into the room, which was lighted by torches set in iron sconces in the walls, Messer Lorenzo beheld the explanation of the silence they had kept. There was a table on which remained spread a pack of greasy cards. They had been at play.
'Body of God,' he went on, 'you keep a fine watch here! The Borgia soldiery may be at your very gates. I myself can effect an entrance, and no man to hinder or challenge me, or so much as give the alarm! ”

“ Even when he had imagined that he realized the dangers before him in this enterprise of San Leo, he had felt a certain confidence that it was not for him to die. He was, in fact, in that phase of youth and vigour when a man seems to himself immortal. And even now that he lay on the wooden bench in the guard-room, in the dark, he could hardly conceive that the end of him was really at hand. The catastrophe had overtaken him so suddenly, so very casually; and surely death was too great a business to be heralded so quietly. ”

“ A tall, clean-limbed young man was this last, very proud in his bearing, very splendid in his apparel, with golden hair and handsome, dreamy eyes of a blue as dark as sapphires. Cesare held him in great regard, knowing him valiant, resourceful, and ambitious. To-night he regarded him with a fresh interest, in view of what at the magician's he had overheard.
The Duke waved his officers to their seats about his council board, and craved of Della Volpe, who was in charge of the siege operations, news of the fortress of San Leo. ”

“ Up a winding staircase, the walls and ceilings very rudely frescoed, they led Messer Lorenzo to the apartments of Tolentino, the castellan who had been ruler of San Leo since the death, ten days ago, of the Lord Fioravanti.
As he went the young condottiero took heart once more. So far all had gone well. He had played his part shrewdly, and his demeanour had so successfully imposed upon the men that no shadow of suspicion did they entertain. ”

“ Yet she dared not deny him the knowledge he demanded, lest, vexed by her refusal, he should withhold his aid.
'His name,' she faltered at length, 'is Lorenzo Castrocaro—a gentleman of Urbino a condottiero who serves under the banner of the Duke of Valentinois.'
'A condottiero blind to beauty, blind to such warm loveliness as yours, Madonna?' cried Corvinus. 'So anomalous a being, such a '’lusus naturæ'’ will require great medicine.'
'Opportunity has served me none too well,' she explained, almost in self-defence. 'Indeed, circumstance is all against us. ”

“ Madonna Bianca, at least, believes in that impostor.'
'You had foreseen this, highness, when you sent Castrocaro on that dangerous errand?' Agabito ventured to inquire.
'What else? Where should I have found me a man for whom the matter was less dangerous? He did not know that Madonna Bianca was there. I had the foresight to keep that matter secret. I sent him, confident that, should he fail to open the gates to Della Volpe and be taken, he was crafty enough not to betray himself, and Madonna must, of course, assume that it was her love philtre had brought him to her irresistibly. ”

“ Precipitancy in making promises has never yet helped a man to greatness. Bear that in mind.'
'But she was in such sore affliction!' cried Messer Lorenzo, protesting.
'Aye!' said the Duke dryly. 'And she used you so kindly, eyed you so fondly, gave you such sweet wine to drink, that you had no strength to resist her soft appeal.'
Cesare, watching his condottiero closely, observed the flicker of the young man's eyelids at the mention of the wine, and was satisfied. But even more fully was he to have the assurance that he sought. ”

“ But the lady did not at once pass on.
'Why all this haste to chapel?' quoth she, accounting it strangely unusual in one of Tolentino's men.
'Messer Father Girolamo is required,' said he. 'There is a man about to die who must be shriven.'
'A man?' said she, with a show of tender solicitude, conceiving that one of the all too slender garrison had been wounded to the death.
'Aye, a captain of Valentino's—one Lorenzo Castrocaro—who came hither in the night. And,' he added vaingloriously, 'it was I, Madonna, who took him.'
But the Lady Bianca de' Fioravanti never heard his last words. ”

“ His single eye—he had lost the other in the Duke's service—avoided his master's penetrating glance. He sighed wearily.
'We make no progress,' he confessed, 'nor can make any. San Leo is not a place to be carried by assault, as your magnificence well knows. It stands there upon its mountain-top like a monument upon a plinth, approached by a bridle-path offering no cover. And, for all that it is reported to be held by scarcely more than a score of men, a thousand cannot take it. ”

“ But Messer Lorenzo's pretence was, of necessity, that he bore his message by word of mouth.
'I am bidden by my lord to enjoin you to make surrender with the honours of war, which shall be conceded you by the Duke of Valentinois,' said he; and seeing the surprise, doubt, and suspicion that instantly began to spread upon Tolentino's face for all to read, he launched himself into explanations. 'Cesare Borgia has made terms with Duke Guidobaldo, and has promised him certain compensations if all the fortresses of his dominions make surrender without more ado. ”

“ It is perilous even for a goat, yet it is practicable with care to one who knows it. Myself, as a boy, have made the ascent more often than I should have cared to tell my mother. In quest of an eagle's nest I have more than once reached the little plateau that thrusts out under the very wall of the fortress on the southern side. Thence, to enter the castle, all that would be needed would be a rope and a grappling-hook; for the wall is extremely low just there—not more than twelve feet high.'
The Duke pondered the young soldier with very thoughtful eyes, in silence, for some moments. ”

“ With few mouths to feed, as they have, they can hold us in check for ever.'
'There is a rumour to-day,' said Della Volpe, 'that the Lord Fioravanti is sick, and that it is feared he may not live.'
'Not a doubt but Venice will say I poisoned him,' said Cesare, sneering. 'Still, even if he dies, it will be no gain to us. There is his castellan, Tolentino, to take his place; and Tolentino is the more obstinate of the two. We must consider some way to reduce them. ”

“ And now, at last, Corvinus began to apprehend the real scope of Cesare's visit. It was true that he had set it about that the Sultan Djem had been poisoned, and that he had boasted that he himself had supplied the Borgias with the fabulous secret drug that at such a distance of time had killed the Grand Turk's brother; and, as a consequence, he had made great profit by the sale of what he alleged was the same poison—a subtle veneno a termine, as he called it—so convenient for wives who were anxious for a change of husbands, so serviceable to husbands grown weary of their wives. ”

“ All night he had left Della Volpe and his men to await in vain the unbarring of the gate. For having failed there could be no excuse other than death or captivity. That he should not only remain living, but that he should later be discovered to have made alliance with Madonna Bianca de' Fioravanti was a matter that could have no issue but one. ”

“ Madonna.' He held out his hands, bruised, swollen, and gashed. 'I am something in this state from head to foot.' He turned. 'Look yonder.' And he pointed down the sheer face of the cliff. 'That way I came last night—in the dark, risking death at every step. You see that ledge, where there is scarce room to stand. Along that ledge I crept, to yonder wider space, and thence I leapt across that little gulf.' She shuddered as she followed his tale. 'By that crevice I came upwards, tearing knees and elbows, and so until I had gained the platform on the southern side, there.'
'How brave!' she cried. ”

“ Then he dropped softly down upon the parapet, exulting to realize that his journey was accomplished, and that he was within the fortress.
His mission was all but ended. The rest was easy. Within a few moments the Borgia troops would be pouring into San Leo, and the soldiers of the garrison, surprised in their beds, would make a very ready surrender. It no longer appeared even necessary to Messer Lorenzo to butcher that single sentry. If he but wisely chose his moment for the unbarring of the gates, the whole thing might be done without the man's suspicions being aroused until it was too late. ”

“ Every little projection of that cliff, every fissure that afforded foothold, every gap to be overcome, he knew before he reached it.
At the end of an hour he had not accomplished more than a third of the ascent, and the most difficult part of it was yet to come. He sat down upon a grassy ledge, unusually spacious, and there he rested him awhile and recovered breath.
Thence he viewed the Emilian plain, revealed for miles in the moon's white light, the glittering, silvery spread of sea away in the distance to the east, the glimmering snow-capped peaks of the Apennines to westward. ”

“ There is no foothold at the summit for more than a dozen men at a time, and as for using guns against it, it were easier to mount a park of artillery upon a fiddle-string.'
'Yet until San Leo is ours we are not fully masters of Urbino,' said the Duke. 'We cannot leave the place in the hands of Fioravanti.'
'We shall have to starve him out, then,' said Della Volpe.
'And that would take a year at least,' put in Corella, who had been gathering information. 'They have great store of wheat and other victuals and they are watered by a well in the inner bailie of the fortress. ”

“ Thereafter, Messer Lorenzo was cared for as became a man in his position. A bath was prepared for him; fresh garments were found to fit him, the richest and most becoming being selected; the garrison was disappointed of its execution, and the Borgia captain went to dine at Madonna's table. For this banquet the choicest viands that the besieged commanded were forthcoming, and the rarest wines from Fioravanti's cellar were procured. ”

“ Della Volpe's troops would, meanwhile, have crept up by the bridle-path to await the signal, upon which they would pour forth against the unbarred gate, and so San Leo might be reduced at last with little loss of life.'
Messer Lorenzo considered for some moments, the Duke watching him.
'It is shrewd,' he said, approvingly. 'It is shrewd and easy, and likely to succeed, provided the man who goes is one who knows the rock and the fortress itself.'
'Provided that, of course,' said Cesare; and he looked steadily at the young man. ”