![]() ![]() The rest of the day passed in a bewildering pageant. The patterns of light and shadow before my eyes had no meaning-I was walking like a blind woman-yet for some reason I turned back at the top of the steps for a last glimpse of the duke. With relief I felt my hand taken in a firm clasp, and I was drawn out of the heat of the sun. "Faith, but I never thought of that! Ippolito shall guide you." "I do not know the way." In spite of myself my voice sounded forlorn, and he laughed. Domenico's arm came around me from behind, so unexpectedly that I jumped. The sun's heat and the unfamiliar activity had drained what strength I had left-it seemed years, not less than a day, since I had left the dank silence of the prison.Ī groom gripped the gelding's bridle, and I slid from the saddle without waiting for anyone's aid. ![]() When at last the horses clattered to a standstill in the palace courtyard, I was swaying in the saddle. The courtiers were grimacing, and Maddalena's exclamation of disgust was meant for me to hear-then at my side the duke's head turned with a glint of living silver, and my gaze dropped before the hard curiosity in his. Then, when the city gates opened before us, I forgot everything in the sudden familiarity of the sights and sounds of the crowded streets, the dust-choked air, the stink of foul humanity. But I took it for imagination that first morning, and when the talk drifted to the latest amorous intrigues, I stopped listening altogether. Outwardly it was no more than shallow, frivolous gossip, yet here and there I caught dark allusions, hints of a mystery I could not understand. Gradually, almost insensibly, I was becoming used to the motion of the horse, and as the party moved in a half-circle away from the gorge and its looming guardian, I began to notice the undercurrents in their gossip. But I have been brought up to fight for all I want, and the language of war comes naturally to me." The moment passed lightly, but the sense of oppression remained with me until we had passed back again into the sun. But it would not support a single armed rider." And westwards"-he pointed-"close by the city, there is a collection of rotten planks that some still use who do not mind risking their lives. "By ship, there, where the river runs into the bay, but in battle the city's cannon could sink any vessel before it got halfway. I said, "Yet it frightens me-is there no other way across?" ![]()
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