He tore down the curtains, and he was wrapping and entangling the
fellow in the folds of them when I came to his aid followed by
Confalonieri, whose six men remained to hold the three sound and the one
wounded Swiss in check.
And now from below there rose such a din of steel on steel, of shouts and
screams and curses, that it behoved us to make haste.
Bidding us follow him, Galeotto flung open the door. At table sat Farnese
with two of his gentlemen, one of whom was the Marquis Sforza-Fogliani, the
other a doctor of canon law named Copallati.
Alarm was already written on their faces. At sight of Galeotto--"Ah! You
are still here!" cried Farnese. "What is taking place below? Have the
Swiss fallen to fighting among themselves?"
Galeotto returned no answer, but advanced slowly into the room; and now
Farnese's eyes went past him and fastened upon me, and I saw them suddenly
dilate; beyond me they went and met the cold glance of Confalonieri, that
other gentleman he had so grievously wronged and whom he had stripped of
the last rag of his possessions and his rights. The sun coming through the
window caught the steel that Confalonieri still carried in his hands; its
glint drew the eyes of the Duke, and he must have seen that the baron's
sleeve was bloody.
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