He was
flushed, and his eyes gleamed as they measured me with haughty triumph.
From me they passed to Bianca, who followed after me with her women, pale,
but intrepid and self-contained, her face the whiter by contrast with the
mourning-gown which she still wore for her father, and which it might well
come to pass that she should continue hereafter to wear for me.
I did not look at her again as she passed on and up towards Galeotto, who
had risen to receive her. He came some few steps to meet her, and escorted
her to a seat next to his own, so that Falcone moved down to another vacant
stool. Her women found place behind her.
An usher set a chair for me, and I, too, sat down, immediately facing the
Emperor's Lieutenant. Then another usher in a loud voice summoned Cosimo
to appear and state his grievance.
He advanced a step or two, when Gonzaga raised his hand, to sign to him to
remain where he was so that all could see him whilst he spoke.
Forthwith, quickly, fluently, and lucidly, as if he had got the thing by
heart, Cosimo recited his accusation: How he had married Bianca de'
Cavalcanti by her father's consent in her father's own Castle of Pagliano;
how that same night his palace in Piacenza had been violently invested by
myself and others abetting me, and how we had carried off his bride and
burnt his palace to the ground; how I had since held her from him, shut up
in the Castle of Pagliano, which was his fief in his quality as her
husband; and how similarly I had unlawfully held Pagliano against him to
his hurt.
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