It next occurred to her that she could not go alone into that castle with
just Gonzaga and the men he was about to enrol. His answer came with a
promptness that showed he had considered, also, that.

"By no means," he answered her. "When the time comes you must select
such of your ladies--say three or four--as appear suitable and have your
trust. You may take a priest as well, a page or two, and a few
servants."

Thus, in the gloaming, amid the shadows of that old Italian garden, was
the plot laid by which Valentina was to escape alliance with his Highness
of Babbiano. But there was more than that in it, although that was all
that Valentina saw. It was, too, a plot by which she might become the
wife of Messer Romeo Gonzaga.

He was an exiled member of that famous Mantua family, which has bred some
scoundrels and one saint. With the money which, at parting, a doting
mother had bestowed upon him, he was cutting a brave figure at the Urbino
court, where he was tolerated by virtue of his kinship with Guidobaldo's
Duchess, Monna Elizabetta. But his means were running low, and it
behoved him to turn his attention to such quarters as might yield him
profit. Being poor-spirited, and--since his tastes had not inclined that
way--untrained in arms, it would have been futile for him to have sought
the career common to adventurers of his age. Yet an adventurer at heart
he was, and since the fields of Mars were little suited to his nature, he
had long pondered upon the possibilities afforded him by the lists of
Cupid. Guidobaldo--purely out of consideration for Monna Elizabetta--had
shown him a high degree of favour, and upon this he had been vain enough
to found great hopes--for Guidobaldo had two nieces. High had these