Rafael Sabatini

“ It was not much; but men of a high order of intelligence, as was Ferrante, are of a singularly swift receptivity to impressions. The Cardinal-Count, he had observed, was watching him furtively from under lowered brows, a something cruel and cunning in his glance. Then it was that, as in a flash of recollection, he remembered his subconscious observation that the wine for his followers and himself had not been poured from the same jug as that which had supplied the gentlemen of Reggio. ”

“ The remaining eye glowered fiercely out of that scarred face. “My eye was my own to lose.”
“As is your temper—though you were wiser to retain it, Ser Taddeo.”
“And I thank God I lost my eye,” went on the condottiero, “since, had I two, I might see as much danger as do you.”
“I think,” said Ferrante, “that you have made that jest before.”
“Sirs, sirs!” cried Ramires, intervening. “We are concerned at present with the attack on Reggio.”
“For myself, and to be frank,” said Ferrante, “I am more concerned with breakfast. But let that be. I can listen as I eat. Expound me your plans.” ”

“ For Ferrante had encamped, meanwhile, in the valley; and in this matter he was effectively assisted by the forest to pursue the comedy of his pageant.
When the curtain of mist was rolled aside, Reggio had beheld on the wood's edge no more than a matter of a thousand men. But there was such constant coming and going, into and out of the forest, that it was clear the Duke had bivouacked his countless legions under the shelter of the trees, and that this matter of a thousand men or so was but an overflow—a supposition confirmed by the fact that there were no horses to be seen. ”

“ And then, as Ferrante was resuming his seat, the Cardinal still watching him—Messer Annibale uttered a scream, clutched at his girdle as if to loosen it, and went over backwards, taking his chair with him. Chair and man crashed to the ground. Out of it rolled the nephew of the Cardinal-Count, and some little way along the floor; then he lay prone, his legs drawn under him, his contracted hands clawing at the tesselated floor, whilst his drawn mouth emitted scream after scream of anguish. ”

“ Go up, and look at it, I beg.”
“What will take one place will take another,” said della Volpe.
“Always granting that that other is not Reggio,” put in Ferrante. “Go up; go up, and survey the town; and, ere you go, put off your armour, lest it glitter. When you have seen, perhaps you will have help to offer me.”
As they were departing, by no means in the best of moods, he stayed them.
“Can you make fogs, Messer Taddeo?” he asked.
“Fogs?” quoth Taddeo, bewildered.
“It is plain you cannot. Can you, Ramires?”
“Is it a jest?” quoth the Spaniard, with a great dignity. ”

“ They were the outward manifestation of the delight that Ferrante took in this game of strategy he had set himself to play; this pitting of quick wits against the clumsy murderous plan of the Cardinal-Count. In anticipation, he was already relishing the deadly jest he had prepared.
“My message to you,” he began—and carelessly, abstractedly, as he spoke, he passed the goblet into his left hand, “is a message of good will. Had bloodshed been necessary ere Reggio di Monte had raised her gates to us——”
He broke off abruptly, staring at the Cardinal-Count. ”

“ The manœvre of the foot was repeated with the horse, and after these came again more foot, more guns and baggage carts, and lastly more horse. For upwards of an hour did the fearsome pageant which Ferrante's cunning had devised to terrorise the defenders of Reggio continue to parade before the scared eyes of the watchers on the walls. For an hour and upwards did the Cardinal-Count himself observe those vast forces pouring over the summit of Monte Quarto in a never-ending torrent of steel-cased men and splendid horses, flashing and glittering in the morning sun that shone upon the heights. ”

“ He tore aside the door-curtain with an angry hand, and in an angry voice he shouted for the men of Taddeo's foot.
The entire company had risen now, the Cardinal-Count among the rest, dismay and vexation overspreading his white face. “What would you do, my lord?” he asked. “This man has done no more than——”
“I have no concern with him,” Ferrante broke in rudely, facing the table again, and towering there, the very incarnation of wrath. “But if I am to sup with your Magnificence I'll not be served by swineherds and bathed in fish-stews. ”

“ Ferrante continued—a rambling speech full of words of great sound but little meaning, out of which it transpired that the people of Reggio might rest assured that in the Lord Cesare Borgia they would find an overlord to care for them as for his very children. It was hardly what he had seemed to promise at the outset, and it provoked the secret scorn of most of the Lord Guancia's friends. When he had done he raised his goblet on high.
“I drink,” he said, “to the peace and prosperity of Reggio di Monte, and to the success and victory of our Duke's arms.” ”

“ Ferrante's brows went up; his officers muttered their astonishment. He crossed to the table, and peered into the goblet. It was more than half full. He smiled thoughtfully. It was not the end he had expected, but it was very curious; it was most quaintly humorous in its way. The man had been fulminated by his terror; destroyed by his imagination.
As he stood there, considering the dead prelate, Ferrante gave utterance to his thoughts.
“Most strange,” said he, “how deadly a man's terrors may become. ”

“ Ferrante's sneer grew broader. “An excellent plan, Messer Taddeo, but for one tiling which you have overlooked.”
“And what may that be?” challenged the truculent veteran.
“That they are not all stone-deaf in Reggio, and therefore that a thousand men winding about a hard mountain road would be heard before they were half way up. Then, Messer Taddeo, we shall have as pretty a shower of rocks and boiling pitch to greet us as ever rained on a parcel of fools.”
Taddeo was angry, and he had the support of Ramires, whilst Orsini—as became his youth—stood neutral. ”

“ Then close the gates, and make yourself master of the palace.”
Ramires went out. The dozen men that had come to fill the place of lacqueys sprang to their pikes at a word from Ferrante.
“Sirs,” said he amiably to the company, “you will assemble at that end of the chamber—all save my lord, the Cardinal-Count.” And seeing a hand or two steal furtively to the breast of a doublet: “The man who bares a weapon,” he told them fiercely, “shall be strangled out of hand in the yard below. Be warned, sirs! I do not lack the means to constrain the unwilling!” ”

“ A crowd of men had surrounded them on their approach, and so hemmed them about that they had feared for their very lives and had been in no case to look round and take notice of the real extent of the Borgia forces. Thus they were hustled into Ferrante's presence.
Messer Annibale, the spokesman, looked from one to the other of the occupants of the tent, and blinked. Ferrante was seated, with Taddeo standing on one hand and Ramires on the other, both the lieutenants being armed at all points. ”

“ His men-at-arms drove the gentlemen of Reggio out of the chamber and out of the palace, of which Ferrante remained in full possession. And ere they sought their beds he explained to his mystified lieutenants how he had juggled the affair, how fooled the Cardinal-Count for the second time that day.
“And now he sits there,” he ended, smiling, “with a cup of wine before him that is as wholesome and innocent as the milk he suckled in his infancy, yet believing it poisoned he dares not touch it; sooner will he suffer agonies of hunger and of thirst ”

“ I have a plan for bringing the arrogant Messer Guancia to his knees. But my plan requires a fog. Since you cannot make me a fog, perhaps you'll go pray for one; and whilst you're gone, I'll try to think of something better. ”

“ Mockery smouldered in his eyes and curled his strong lips as he broke the awful silence.
“It seems, my lord of Reggio,” said he, “that here is some mistake. Your seneschal has lacked the care that is so necessary when it is proposed to serve the guests with poisoned wine. It seems that you have been caught in your own toils.”
An effeminate youth across the board, who had no doubt drunk freely, uttered a piercing scream, and fell forward in a swoon. Ferrante smiled inwardly to see his plans thus furthered by the terror of a fool.
“Ramires,” said he quietly, “send up a score of men. ”

“ By the time the thinning mist warned Ferrante that he should make an end, the Cardinal-Count computed that ten thousand men at least composed the army that was come against him, and drew from this the only possible conclusion—that the very thing he had deemed unlikely had come to pass, and that Cesare Borgia had turned aside and come with his entire army to compel Reggio to surrender. ”

“ Not so, it seemed, thought Cesare, for his glance quickened as it rested upon Ferrante, as though the condottiero's words had awakened in the Duke's mind some notion of the means by which the task he was imposing might be carried through.
“Be it so, then,” he said. “You shall have the guns. All will be ready for you by sunrise. ”

“ Will you undertake it with that?”
“Since you can spare no more, that must suffice,” said Ferrante, with a fine show of confidence in his own powers to achieve the impossible.
“Very well,” said the Duke. “You will take your own condotta of horse; Ramires shall lead it for you; della Volpe shall command your foot, and Fabio Orsini shall act as your lientenant. Are you content with these officers?
Content with them! Two—Diego Ramires and Taddeo della Volpe—were among the most famous condottieri in Cesare's train. And they were to serve under him! His fortunes soared on giant pinions. ”

“ And presently the early summer dawn crept over the silent land, pale and colourless as a moonstone at first, then quickening to the iridescence of the opal, and lastly flaming into a glory of gold and purple in the east, behind the stark black mass of mountains that were Italy's backbone. ”

“ To the sentry standing by his tent he gave an order. “There is a farmstead over the hill. Let six men go there at once, secure every member of the household and bring all prisoners to the camp here.”
It was a precautionary measure against word of their presence being prematurely conveyed to Reggio. He entered his tent, flung off his cloak, all sodden with dew, pulled off his long boots, and flung himself on his couch, tired from his long vigil. Presently the flap was lifted and Fabio Orsini came in.
“Well returned,” the lieutenant greeted Ferrante. “Where have you spent the night?” ”

“ Annibale hesitated a moment; but the point raised by Ferrante was a just one, and being moreover impressed by the calm assurance of these officers, he formally made offer of surrender in the lord of Reggio's name, subject to safe-conduct being granted to Reggio's defenders, one and all.
“That is to say, you accept the offer made you by the Duke's Highness. It is well.” He turned to Orsini. “Set it down.” he commanded. Then to the ambassadors: “Is there aught else?” he asked. ”

“ Now Ferrante's condotta formed part of that division of the army of Cesare Borgia that descended the Valley of Cecina to go against Piombino. But he was not destined to take part in that siege, for the Duke, it seemed, had other work for his very capable hands. At Castelnuovo—on the night the army encamped there—Cesare Borgia summoned him to his tent. He found the Duke in a furred gown, seated upon his camp-bed, studying a map ”