'Are you implying it, too, Belluno?' His tone had changed. There was now in his voice a note that the Princess had never heard, a note that made Belluno's blood run cold. 'Speak out, man! Though I give licence for innuendo to a lady, I require clear speech from every man. So let us have this thing quite plainly.' Belluno was brave and obstinate. He conquered his fear of Bellarion sufficiently to make a show of standing his ground. 'It is clear,' he answered sullenly, 'that we have been betrayed.' 'How is it clear, you fool?' Bellarion shifted again from cold wrath with an insubordinate inferior to argument with a fellow man. 'Are you so inept at the trade by which you live that you can conceive of a soldier in the Marquis Theodore's position neglecting to throw out scouts to watch the enemy and report his movements? Are you so much a fool as that? If so, I shall have to think of replacing you in your command.' Carmagnola interposed aggressively; and this partly to protect Belluno who was one of his own lieutenants, and partly because the sneer at the fellow's lack of military foresight was a reflection upon Carmagnola himself. 'Do you pretend that you foresaw this action of Theodore's?' 'I pretend that any but a fool must have foreseen it. It is precisely what any soldier in his place would do: allow you to waste time, material, and energy on building bridges, and then promptly destroy them for you.' 'Why, then, did you not say this ten days ago?' 'Why?' Bellarion's voice sounded amused. His face they could not see. 'Because I never spend myself in argument with those who learn only by experience.' Again the Princess intervened. 'Is that the best reason you can give? You allowed time, material, and energy, and now even a detachment of men to be wasted, merely that you might prove his folly to my Lord of Carmagnola? Is that what you ask us to believe?' 'He thinks us credulous, by God!' swore Carmagnola.