'Never mind what the Signor said,' interrupted Emily; 'but tell me, at
once, the circumstance, which has thus alarmed you.'
'Aye, ma'amselle,' rejoined Annette, 'that is just what Ludovico said:
says he, Never mind what the Signor says to you. So I told him what I
thought about the Signor. He is so strangely altered, said I: for now he
is so haughty, and so commanding, and so sharp with my lady; and, if he
meets one, he'll scarcely look at one, unless it be to frown. So much
the better, says Ludovico, so much the better. And to tell you the
truth, ma'amselle, I thought this was a very ill-natured speech of
Ludovico: but I went on. And then, says I, he is always knitting his
brows; and if one speaks to him, he does not hear; and then he sits up
counselling so, of a night, with the other Signors--there they are, till
long past midnight, discoursing together! Aye, but says Ludovico,
you don't know what they are counselling about. No, said I, but I
can guess--it is about my young lady. Upon that, Ludovico burst out
a-laughing, quite loud; so he put me in a huff, for I did not like that
either I or you, ma'amselle, should be laughed at; and I turned away
quick, but he stopped me. "Don't be affronted, Annette," said he, "but I
cannot help laughing;" and with that he laughed again. "What!" says he,
"do you think the Signors sit up, night after night, only to counsel
about thy young lady! No, no, there is something more in the wind than
that.
And these repairs about the castle, and these preparations about
the ramparts--they are not making about young ladies." Why, surely, said
I, the Signor, my master, is not going to make war? "Make war!" said
Ludovico, "what, upon the mountains and the woods? for here is no living
soul to make war upon that I see."
'What are these preparations for, then? said I; why surely nobody
is coming to take away my master's castle! "Then there are so many
ill-looking fellows coming to the castle every day," says Ludovico,
without answering my question, "and the Signor sees them all, and talks
with them all, and they all stay in the neighbourhood! By holy St.
Marco! some of them are the most cut-throat-looking dogs I ever set my
eyes upon." 'I asked Ludovico again, if he thought they were coming to take away my
master's castle; and he said, No, he did not think they were, but he did
not know for certain. "Then yesterday," said he, but you must not tell
this, ma'amselle, "yesterday, a party of these men came, and left all
their horses in the castle stables, where, it seems, they are to
stay, for the Signor ordered them all to be entertained with the
best provender in the manger; but the men are, most of them, in the
neighbouring cottages."