The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [351]
Tomorrow, the decision. The next day, the ducal Palace. The day after, the height of the Carnival, and the verdict, and the meeting with Gelis. If she kept her promise. If she feared God or Ludovico da Bologna, as she did not fear him.
If, after the discussion tomorrow, he could keep his part of the bargain.
Next morning, six men sat with Nicholas round the board in his chamber, and Father Moriz, who occasionally used his cloth to chasten a patron, opened the talk with a prayer. Under the bat-like eyebrows his eyes rested on Gregorio and transmitted calm. Gregorio felt a dim sense of gratitude. He didn’t, as yet, know much of Father Moriz: it was John and Nicholas with whom the metallurgical priest had spent the winter in the Tyrol, and Julius and Cefo with whom he had since worked in Venice. He was only now coming to receive Tobie’s confidence, and of course he had hardly met Margot before she went off. Father Moriz knew nothing of Margot, except that she and Gregorio had been together for a very long time. Until recently.
Then Nicholas took over the meeting.
It was not, to begin with, controversial. It ran, point by point, over what Venice and the half-formed Christian-Muslim alliance were going to ask them to do, and how far they should do it. Having presented the case, Nicholas himself intervened less than usual and where points of difference arose, showed an unusual tendency to leave the outcome to be settled by vote. Each time it happened, Tobie looked cross.
Occasionally, and without recourse to Nicholas, Gregorio felt required to remind the other five of the likely views of Astorre or of Diniz. He tried not to do it too often. It encouraged Julius, and later Cristoffels to observe that, in devoting so much to the East, the Bank risked neglecting the West where, after all, the core of the business still lay. It was a valid opinion.
The use of their highly trained mercenary company was a case they proceeded to argue. Before the Duke of Burgundy’s war, this force was intended for Uzum Hasan, if not Cyprus. Now (it was gradually accepted) it made more sense to leave the troop where it was, between Burgundy, France and the Switzers. They would also need to retain arms and gunners, leaving fewer of both for the Levant.
Father Moriz said, ‘It will have occurred to you that we are now tendering substantially less help than was talked of in Rhodes, and to that extent we are deriving less use from our gold. We dismissed the idea of claiming it back, but perhaps we should talk of it. We should be forced to, for example, if Venice rejects our proposals and appoints the Vatachino as their suppliers.’
‘We should never get it back,’ said Gregorio. He made it sound conclusive.
‘I think we could,’ Julius said. ‘You’re thinking of Flemish law. And if we could, why do we need to help Uzum at all? Why not put all the Bank’s resources at the service of Burgundy? They’ve got Astorre and a lot more already.’
‘Preserve me from two lawyers,’ Nicholas said. ‘We’ve been into all that. We’d never get the gold out of Rhodes, or not without paying its worth in litigation.’
‘And it looks magnanimous,’ Tobie said. ‘Our contribution to Christendom.’ Gregorio looked at him, then away.
Cefo said, ‘What, then, if we leave the gold with the Order, accept some limited contracts, but put all the rest into the Western wars? It might make sense. If the Turks can’t be stopped, then they’ll overrun Cyprus and Cairo, and the African trade may compensate. You’ve heard the Portuguese have sailed much further down the coast since you went?’
‘If they overrun Cairo, they will overrun North Africa,’ Nicholas said. ‘I’d rather help Uzum.’
‘I shouldn’t,’ said Father Moriz. ‘I’m with Cristoffels and Julius. I think we let them keep the gold, and look West.’
‘Leaving them to trade with the Vatachino, and pay them out of our gold?’ said Gregorio.
As he hoped, they thought about that. Then Julius said, ‘No. We go to litigation. As I said, I think we’d win. It’s our bullion. And anyway, it would freeze the gold meantime. Venice and Uzum would have