'Just now my lord had another name for you,' said Valeria, and Bellarion, observing the set of her lips and the scorn in her glance as it flickered over Theodore, marvelled at the power of hate in one naturally so gracious. He had had a taste of it, himself, he remembered, and perhaps she was but passing on to Theodore what rightly had belonged to him throughout. 'He is a rash man,' she continued, 'who will not trouble to conciliate the arbiter of his fate. My Lord Theodore has lost his guile, I think, together with the rest.' 'Aye,' said Bellarion, 'we have stripped him of all save his life. Even his mask of benignity is gone.' 'You are noble!' said Theodore. 'You gird at a captive! Am I to remain here to be mocked?' 'Not for me, faith,' Bellarion answered him. 'I have never contemplated you with any pleasure. Take him away, Ugolino. Place him securely under guard. He shall have judgment to-morrow.' 'Dog!' said Theodore with venom, as he drew himself up to depart. 'That's my device, as yours is the stag. Appropriate, all things considered. I had you in my mind when I adopted it.' 'I am punished for my weakness,' said Theodore. 'I should have left Justice to wring your neck when you were its prisoner here in Casale.' 'I'll repay the debt,' Bellarion answered him. 'Your own neck shall remain unwrung so that you withdraw to your principality of Genoa and abide there. More of that to-morrow.' Peremptorily he waved him away and Ugolino hustled him out. As the door closed again, Bellarion, relaxing the reins of his will, sank forward in a swoon. CHAPTER XV THE LAST FIGHT When he recovered, he was lying on his sound side on a couch under the window, across which the curtains of painted and gilded leather had been drawn. An elderly, bearded man in black was observing him, and some one whom he could not see was bathing his brow with a cool aromatic liquid. As he fetched a sigh that filled his lungs and quickened his senses into full consciousness, the man smiled. 'There! It will be well with him now. But he should be put to bed.' 'It shall be done,' said the woman who was bathing his brow, and her voice, soft and subdued, was the voice of the Princess Valeria. 'His servants will be below by now. Send them to me as you go.' The man bowed and went out. Slowly Bellarion turned his head, and looked up in wonder at the Princess with whom he was now alone. Her eyes, more liquid than their wont, smiled wistfully down upon him. 'Madonna!' he exclaimed. 'Do you serve me as a handmaid? That is not ...' 'You are thinking it an insufficient return for your service to me. But you must give me time, sir, this is only a beginning.' 'I am not thinking that at all.' 'Then you are not thinking as you should. You are weak. Your wits work slowly. Else you might remember that for five years, in which you have been my loyal, noble, unswerving friend, I, immured in my stupidity, have been your enemy.'