CHAPTER VIII

AMONG THE DREGS OF WINE


And so it befell that whilst by Guidobaldo's orders the preparations for
Valentina's nuptials went forward with feverish haste--whilst painters,
carvers, and artificers in gold and silver applied themselves to their
hurried tasks; whilst messengers raced to Venice for gold leaf and
ultramarine for the wedding-chests whilst the nuptial bed was being
brought from Rome and the chariot from Ferrara; whilst costly stuffs were
being collected, and the wedding-garments fashioned--the magnificent
Romeo Gonzaga was, on his side, as diligently contriving to render vain
all that toil of preparation.

On the evening of the third day of his conspiring he sat in the room
allotted to him in the Palace of Urbino, and matured his plans. And so
well pleased was he with his self-communion that, as he sat at his
window, there was a contented smile upon his lips.

He allowed his glance to stray adown the slopes of that arid waste of
rocks, to the River Metauro, winding its way to the sea, through fertile
plains, and gleaming here silver and yonder gold in the evening light.
Not quite so complacently would he have smiled had he deemed the
enterprise upon which he was engaging to be of that warlike character
which he had represented to Valentina. He did not want for cunning, nor
for judgment of the working of human minds, and he very reasonably opined
that once the Lady Valentina immured herself in Roccaleone and sent word