Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett [253]
Chapter 37
IN MILAN, M. GASTON DU LYON, deeply bored and deeply frustrated in the Hospitio Puthei, discovered to his surprise that two members of that extraordinary little Charetty company had come without warning into the city.
Enquiry showed that they were passing one night in a tavern, although not their usual Inn of the Hat. They had made one call, to report to the Duke of Milan’s secretary on this unbelievable news of the rout at San Fabiano (which on top of the losses at Sarno was enough to make the Duke weep). The young men had then returned to their inn, so his informant said, without attempting to visit the Castello, or the Acciajuoli, or the Piazza Mercanti, or even have a pleasant evening walk about the piazzas.
They were leaving for the north in the morning. One of them was the likely youth interviewed by Gaston’s master the Dauphin while hunting outside Genappe. If he was carrying dispatches, Gaston wanted to know what they were. And there were some of his own he could add to them.
Gaston du Lyon, chamberlain, chief equerry and carver to the most serene and excellent lord Dauphin of Vienne, first son of the Most Christian King of France, sent a gift of marzipan and five household servants to collect M. Nicholas and his companion and deliver them both to the Hospitio before it grew any later.
They came without having changed, which was disrespectful but not unknown when men rode hard bringing news. They had even taken part in the actual battle. The merry one, Nicholas, had altered quite a lot since the memorable episode of the avalanche. It was not surprising, considering what he now was meddling with. The other, a well-built fellow whom he remembered seeing on the same occasion, was the Charetty notary, M. Julius. They had a black servant with them, a huge fellow, who waited for them outside.
M. du Lyon was given, briefly, an account of the fighting in the Abruzzi. The notary did most of the talking. Disappointingly, the boy Nicholas was not carrying papers, and wouldn’t accept any. He didn’t rise, either, to the news that Prosper de Camulio was in the city and about to leave for Genappe. Gaston du Lyon, who had a fine ear for rumours, rather wanted to know why this fellow Nicholas had spent some time, it was said, with Prosper de Camulio and the Venetians before going south to the Abruzzi. Laudomia Acciajuoli, delicately sounded, had professed not to know or to care. The Duke’s doctor, Giammatteo Ferrari, on the other hand, had shown a mild interest.
Gaston du Lyon was disappointed in Nicholas. He himself had, after all, performed several services for him. But for him, M. Nicholas would never have got that youngster Felix away from Geneva in May. The boy was dead. He had asked. In any case, the Dauphin had finished with young Master Felix. He had not been discreet.
Piqued, the chamberlain didn’t at once take the trouble to pass on his own news. He ignored Nicholas and spoke of the Naples war: after Sarno it seemed that Duke John, unexpectedly, had failed to take advantage of his victory and march straight in Naples. They might save the city yet, with the fighting season soon ending. The merchants would be glad. So would the Duke of Milan. He had expended 100,000 gold ducats, it was said, on keeping Duke John out of Genoa and Naples. Or trying to. And the Pope, they said, was already planning to avenge what happened in Sarno by sending a new army under San Severino.
In England, the Yorkists were in London. So that King Henry looked like losing the war, and his Most Serene Majesty the Dauphin’s father was unlikely, one supposed, to attempt anything against Burgundy now.
The notary, who was bright enough, responded suitably, and asked intelligent questions. The youth Nicholas continued to say very little. Since Geneva, the scar on his cheek had faded considerably. And one must not forget. He had broken the Medici cipher.
Gaston du Lyon said, with courtesy only slightly exaggerated, “I shouldn’t keep you both, tired as you are. Is your