"As do all the others," said Valentine, bitterly. "You are blinded by splendor and power--you see no deeper than the skin!" "Maybe," said the other lightly. "Yet am I glad the Duke hath triumphed, and not Mastino della Scala, who is as sullen as a peasant, and a foe to all display." "And his wife?" asked Valentine in a low tone. "Have you no thought for her?" Costanza shrugged her shoulders. "Methinks I have done much to show I have! But she is a prisoner of war, and must take her chances like another. Were it the Visconti's wife in such a case--she would not be a prisoner long! Let Mastino della Scala tear her from his foe himself--let him do as Visconti did when the Lady Graziosa was in danger." "Hold thy tongue," returned Valentine angrily. "You talk as a child--you know not what you say." "I only know this," retorted the other, "I would _I_ were the Lady Graziosa," and she looked defiantly at Visconti's angry sister. "For shame, Costanza," said Valentine. "Remember yourself." They rode in silence till, at the turn of the street, another splendid cavalcade crossed theirs. It was the Lady Graziosa and her suite. Tisio Visconti and d'Orleans were in attendance; she rode a white palfrey. The sun lay tenderly in her soft hair; her green dress was covered with pearls, and round her throat she wore the emeralds Visconti had promised his sister, the first jewels in Italy, robbed from Della Scala. Valentine noticed them, she noticed Graziosa's happy face, the joy she took in the homage paid her, in Visconti's success that so galled her, Visconti's sister, and a sudden purpose rose in her eyes. She smiled sweetly on Graziosa, and rode up to d'Orleans; the Frenchman remarked with pleasure how she outshone the Duke's betrothed. The deep blue of her velvet robe made her skin appear of dazzling fairness, her hair was like burnished gold, her mouth like a red flower, but her eyes, for all her smile, as dangerous as Gian Maria's could be, as mad, almost as wicked. "We are well met, my lord," she said, smiling. "Have there been even greater victories?" "I know not, lady; they say something of Lucca having fallen," returned d'Orleans. "I have been escorting the Lady Graziosa to view the new church--by the Duke's orders"; he added in a lower tone, "could I have chosen my companion, it had not been she." Valentine listened with downcast eyes, playing with the rubies at her wrist. Her escort was grouped about her, and Costanza glanced aside at her curling lips with some mistrust. "The Lady Graziosa is happier and fair to-day," she whispered to her companion, and Valentine overheard and smiled the more. "And my brother, the Duke?" she asked. "I have not seen the Duke all day," replied the Frenchman. "There is talk of an embassy to the enemy--confusion and crowds----"