'Oh, aye, to be sure, you can throw out your chest and roar and strut. But use your brains for once, man.' The boldly humorous red face was overspread by a sardonic grin. 'Master Theodore took your measure shrewdly when he thought to impose upon you with this foxy piece of buffoonery, and, my faith, if Bellarion had been less nimble, this trick would have served its purpose. Nay, now don't puff and blow and swell! Read the letter again. Ask yourself if it would have borne that full signature and that superscription if it had been sincere, and considering that it imparts no useful information save that Bellarion was betraying you, ask yourself if it would have been written at all had anything it says been true.' 'The very arguments that Bellarion used,' cried the Marquis. 'To which we would not listen,' said the Princess bitterly. Carmagnola sniffed. 'They are the arguments any man in his case would use. You overlook that the letter is an incentive, an undertaking to reward him suitably if he ...' Barbaresco broke in, exasperated by the man's grandiose stupidity. 'To the devil with that, numskull!' 'Numskull, sir? To me? By Heaven ...' 'Sirs, sirs!' The Princess laid her hand on Barbaresco's great arm. 'This is not seemly to my Lord Carmagnola ...' 'I know it. I know it. I crave his pardon. But I was never taught to suffer fools gladly. I ...' 'Sir, your every word is an offence. You ...' Valeria calmed them. 'Don't you see, Messer Carmagnola, that he but uses you as a whipping-boy instead of me. It is I who am the fool, the numskull in his eyes; for these deeds are more mine than any other's. But my old friend Barbaresco is too courteous to say so.' 'Courteous?' snorted Carmagnola. 'That is the last term I should apply to his boorishness. By what right does he come hectoring here?' 'By the right of his old affection for me and my brother. That is what makes him hot. For my sake, then, bear with him, sir.' The great man bowed, his hand upon his heart, signifying that for her sake there was no indignity he would not suffer. Thereafter he defended himself with great dignity. If the letter had been all, he might have taken Barbaresco's views. But it was, he repeated, the traitor Bellarion's avowed intention to raise the siege. That, in itself, was a proof of his double-dealing. 'How did this letter come to you?' Barbaresco asked. Gian Giacomo answered whilst Valeria added in bitter self-reproach, 'And this messenger was never examined, although Bellarion demanded that he should be brought before us.' 'Do you upbraid me with that, madonna?' Carmagnola cried. 'He was a poor clown, who could have told us nothing. He was not examined because it would have been waste of time.' 'Let us waste it now,' said Barbaresco. 'To what purpose, sir?' 'Why, to beguile our leisure. No other entertainment offers.' Carmagnola contained himself under that sardonic leer.