I flattened myself against a wall in the shadow of a doorway lest he should
see me, for my height made me an easy mark in that crowd. But he looked
neither to right nor to left as he rode. Indeed, it was said that he could
no longer bear to meet the glances of the people he had so grossly abused
and outraged with deeds that are elsewhere abundantly related, and with
which I need not turn your stomachs here.
When they had gone by, I followed slowly in their wake towards the castle.
As I turned out of the fine road that Gambara had built, I was joined by
the brothers Pallavicini, a pair of resolute, grizzled gentlemen, the elder
of whom, as you will remember, was slightly lame. With an odd sense of
fitness they had dressed themselves in black. They were accompanied by
half a dozen of Galeotto's men, but these bore no device by which they
could be identified. We exchanged greetings, and stepped out together
across the open space of the Piazza della Citadella towards the fortress.
We crossed the drawbridge, and entered unchallenged by the guard. People
were wont to come and go, and to approach the Duke it was necessary to pass
the guard in the ante-chamber above, whose business it was to question all
comers.
Moreover the only guard set consisted of a couple of Swiss who lounged in
the gateway, the garrison being all at dinner, a circumstance upon which
Galeotto had calculated in appointing noon as the hour for the striking of
the blow.
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