'It is no disadvantage if we make proper provision.' 'And you think that your bridges will afford that provision.' Bellarion's manner was almost supercilious. Carmagnola resented it. 'Can you deny it?' 'I can do more. I can foresee what will happen. Sometimes, Francesco, you leave me wondering where you learnt the art of war, or how ever you came to engage in it.' They held their discussion in the kitchen of a peasant's house which for the Princess Valeria's sake they had invaded. And the Princess and her brother were its only witnesses. When Carmagnola now moved wrathfully in great strides about the dingy chamber, stamping upon the earthen floor and waving his arms as he began to storm, one of those witnesses became an actor to calm him. The Princess Valeria laid a hand upon one of those waving arms in its gorgeous sleeve of gold-embroidered scarlet. 'Do not heed his taunts, Messer Carmagnola. You have my utter trust and confidence. It is my wish that you should build your bridges.' Bellarion tilted his chin to look at her between anger and amusement. 'If you are to take command, highness, I'll say no more.' He bowed, and went out. 'One of these days I shall give that upstart dog a lesson in good manners,' said Carmagnola between his teeth. The Princess shook her head. 'It is not his manners, sir, that trouble me; but his possible aims. If I could trust him ...' 'If you could trust his loyalty, you should still mistrust his skill.' 'Yet he has won great repute as a soldier,' put in Gian Giacomo, who instinctively mistrusted the thrasonical airs of the swaggering Carmagnola, and mistrusted still more his fawning manner towards Valeria. 'He has been fortunate,' Carmagnola answered, 'and his good fortune has gone to his head.' Meanwhile Bellarion went straight from that interview to despatch Werner von Stoffel with five hundred arbalesters and six hundred horse to Carpignano. There was a fresh breeze with Carmagnola when the latter discovered this. He demanded to know why it should have been done without previous consultation with himself and the Princess, and Valeria was beside him when he asked the question. Bellarion's answer was a very full one. 'You will be a week building your bridges. In that time it may occur to Theodore to do what he should have done already, to destroy the bridge at Carpignano.' 'And what do I care about the bridge at Carpignano when I shall have bridges of my own here?' 'When you have bridges of your own here, you need not care. But I have a notion that it will be longer than you think before you have these bridges, and that we may have to go by way of Carpignano in the end.' 'I shall have my bridges in a week,' said Carmagnola. Bellarion smiled. 'When you have them, and when you have put two thousand men across to hold them, I'll bid Stoffel return from Carpignano.' 'But in the meantime ...' Bellarion interrupted him, and suddenly he was very stern.