'We never agreed that I should attack. But only that I should pretend to attack. I had not the means to push home an escalade.' His suavity suddenly departed. 'But it seems to me that I begin to defend myself.' He reached for his steel cap, and stood up. 'It becomes necessary!' cried Carmagnola, who in two strides was at his side. 'Only that I should defend myself from a charge of rashness in having yielded to your insistence to attempt this night-attack. There was a chance, I thought, of success, and since the alternative of starving the place would entail a delay of months, I took that chance. It has missed, and so forces me to a course I've been considering from the outset. To-morrow I shall raise the siege.' 'You'll raise the siege!' That ejaculation of amazement came in chorus. 'Not only of Vercelli, but also of Mortara.' 'You'll raise the siege, sir?' It was Gian Giacomo who spoke now. 'And what then?' 'That shall be decided to-morrow in council. It is almost daybreak. I'll wish you a good repose, madonna, and you, sirs.' He bowed to the company and moved to the door. Carmagnola put himself in his way. 'Ah, but wait, Bellarion ...' 'To-morrow,' Bellarion's voice was hard and peremptory. 'By then your wits may be cooler and clearer. If you will all gather here at noon, you shall learn my plans. Good-night.' And he went out. They gathered there, not at noon on the morrow, but an hour before that time, summoned by messages from Carmagnola, who was the last to arrive and a prey to great excitement. Belluno, da Tenda, Stoffel, and three other officers awaited him with the Princess and the Marquis Gian Giacomo. Bellarion was not present. He had not been informed of the gathering, for reasons which Carmagnola's first words made clear to all. When Bellarion did arrive, punctually at noon, for the council to which he had bidden the captains, he was surprised to find them already seated about the table in debate and conducting this with a vehemence which argued that matters had already gone some way. Their voices raised in altercation reached him as he mounted the short flight of stone steps, at the foot of which a half-dozen men of Belluno's company were lounging. A silence fell when he entered, and all eyes at once were turned upon him. He smiled a greeting, and closed the door. But as he advanced, he began to realise that the sudden silence was unnatural and ominous. He came to the foot of the table, where there was a vacant place. He looked at the faces on either side of it, and lastly at Carmagnola seated at its head, between Valeria and Gian Giacomo. 'What do you debate here?' he asked them. Carmagnola answered him. His voice was hard and hostile; his blue eyes avoided the steady glance of Bellarion's. 'We were about to send for you. We have discovered the traitor who is communicating with Theodore of Montferrat, forewarning him of our every measure, culminating in last night's business.'