For arms, when invited to choose a device, he announced that he would adopt a variant of Facino's own: a dog's head argent on a field azure. At the conclusion a herald proclaimed a joust to be held in the Castle of Porta Giovia on the morrow when the knight Bellarion would be given opportunity of proving publicly how well he deserved the honour to which he had acceded. It was a prospect which he did not relish. He knew himself without skill at arms, in which he had served only an elementary apprenticeship during those days at Abbiategrasso. Nor did it increase his courage that Carmagnola should come swaggering towards him, his florid countenance wreathed in smiles of simulated friendliness, to claim for the morrow the honour of running a course and breaking a lance with his new brother-knight. He smiled, nevertheless, as falsely as Carmagnola himself. 'You honour me, Ser Francesco. I will do my endeavour.' He noted the gleam in Carmagnola's eyes, and went, so soon as he was free, in quest of Stoffel, with whom his friendship had ripened during their journey from Travo. 'Tell me, Werner, have you ever seen Carmagnola in the tilt-yard?' 'Once, a year ago, in the Castle of Porta Giovia.' 'Ha! A great hulking bull of a man.' 'You describe him. He charges like a bull. He bore off the prize that day against all comers. The Lord of Genestra had his thigh broken by him.' 'So, so!' said Bellarion, very thoughtful. 'It's my neck he means to break to-morrow. I read it in his smile.' 'A swaggerer,' said Stoffel. 'He'll take a heavy fall one day.' 'Unfortunately that day is not to-morrow.' 'Are you to ride against him, then?' There was concern in Stoffel's voice. 'So he believes. But I don't. I have a feeling that to-morrow I shall not be in case to ride against any one. I have a fever coming on: the result of hardships suffered on the way from Travo. Nature will compel me, I suspect, to keep my bed to-morrow.' Stoffel considered him with grave eyes. 'Are you afraid?' 'What else?' 'And you confess it?' 'It asks courage. Which shows that whilst afraid I am not a coward. Life is full of paradox, I find.' Stoffel laughed. 'No need to protest your courage to me. I remember Travo.' 'There I had a chance to succeed. Here I have none. And who accepts such odds is not a brave man, but a fool. I don't like broken bones; and still less a broken reputation. I mean to keep what I've won against the day when I may need it. Reputation, Stoffel, is a delicate bubble, easily pricked. To be unhorsed in the lists is no proper fate for a hero.' 'You're a calculating rogue!' 'That is the difference between me and Carmagnola, who is just a superior man-at-arms. Each to his trade, Werner, and mine isn't of the tilt-yard, however many knighthoods they bestow on me. Which is why to-morrow I shall have the fever.' This resolve, however, went near to shipwreck that same evening.