"Madonna," cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, "they are Borgia
soldiers."

"Your fear is father to that opinion," she answered scornfully. "How can
you descry it at this distance?"

Now, either God had given that knave an eagle's sight, or else, as she
suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what he
thought he saw.

"The leader's bannerol bears the device of a red bull," he answered
promptly.

I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.

"In God's name, let us get forward, then!" cried Giacopo. "Orsu! To
horse, knaves!"

No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were in
the saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule of
the litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no more
ceremony than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no ado. A
chase is an interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if a
greater safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener excitement with the
hunted.

Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at a
pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace us
from any party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to the unreasoning