“Of what sacrilege can I be guilty?” I asked.
“The tribunal will inform you,” replied the familiar--a tall, sallow, elderly man.
“The tribunal will need, then, to await some other opportunity,” said Cavalcanti suddenly. “Messer d'Anguissola is my guest; and my guests are not so rudely plucked forth from Pagliano.”
The Duke drew away, and leaned upon the arm of Cosimo, watching. Behind me in the gallery I heard a rustle of feminine gowns; but I did not turn to look. My eyes were upon the stern sable figure of the familiar.
“You will not be so ill-advised, my lord,” he was saying, “as to compel us to use force.”
“You will not, I trust, be so ill-advised as to attempt it,” laughed Cavalcanti, tossing his great head. “I have five score men-at-arms within these walls, Messer Black-clothes.”
The familiar bowed. “That being so, the force for to-day is yours, as you say. But I would solemnly warn you not to employ it contumaciously against the officers of the Holy Office, nor to hinder them in the duty which they are here to perform, lest you render yourself the object of their just resentment.”
Cavalcanti took a step forward, his face purple with anger that this tipstaff ruffian should take such a tone with him. But in that instant I seized his arm.
“It is a trap!” I muttered in his ear. “Beware!”
I was no more than in time. I had surprised upon Farnese's mottled face a sly smile--the smile of the cat which sees the mouse come venturing from its lair. And I saw the smile perish--to confirm my suspicions--when at my whispered words Cavalcanti checked in his rashness.
Still holding him by the arm, I turned to the familiar.
“I shall surrender to you in a moment, sir,” said I. “Meanwhile, and you, gentlemen--give us leave apart.” And I drew the bewildered Cavalcanti aside and down the courtyard under the colonnade of the gallery.
“My lord, be wise for Bianca's sake,” I implored him. “I am assured that here is nothing but a trap baited for you. Do not gorge their bait as your valour urges you. Defeat them, my lord, by circumspection. Do you not see that if you resist the Holy Office, they can issue a ban against you, and that against such a ban not even the Emperor can defend you? Indeed, if they told him that his feudatory, the Lord of Pagliano, had been guilty of contumaciously thwarting the ends of the Holy Inquisition, that bigot Charles V would be the first to deliver you over to the ghastly practices of that tribunal. It should not need, my lord, that I should tell you this.”