It was Cavalcanti, at last, who came to his daughter's rescue by a
peremptory offer to escort the Duke and his retinue within.
CHAPTER IV
MADONNA BIANCA
Pier Luigi's original intent had been to spend no more than a night at
Pagliano. But when the morrow came, he showed no sign of departing, nor
upon the next day, nor yet upon the next.
A week passed, and still he lingered, seeming to settle more and more in
the stronghold of the Cavalcanti, leaving the business of his Duchy to his
secretary Filarete and to his council, at the head of which, as I learnt,
was my old friend Annibale Caro.
And meanwhile, Cavalcanti, using great discreetness, suffered the Duke's
presence, and gave him and his suite most noble entertainment.
His position was perilous and precarious in the extreme, and it needed all
his strength of character to hold in curb the resentment that boiled within
him to see himself thus preyed upon; and that was not the worst. The worst
was Pier Luigi's ceaseless attentions to Bianca, the attentions of the
satyr for the nymph, a matter in which I think Cavalcanti suffered little
less than did I.
He hoped for the best, content to wait until cause for action should be
forced upon him. And meanwhile that courtly throng took its ease at
Pagliano.
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