He immediately summoned Andreoni and announced his unconditional refusal of the terms proposed to him.  He would not give a constitution or promise allegiance to the French.  The minister withdrew, and Odo was left alone.  He had dismissed his gentlemen, and as he sat in his closet a sense of deathlike isolation came over him.  Never had the palace seemed so silent or so vast.  He had not a friend to turn to.  De Crucis was in Germany, and Trescorre, it was reported, had privately attended the Duchess in her flight.  The waves of destiny seemed closing over Odo, and the circumstances of his past rose, poignant and vivid, before his drowning sight.

And suddenly, in that moment of failure and abandonment, it seemed to him again that life was worth the living.  His indifference fell from him like a garment.  The old passion of action awoke and he felt a new warmth in his breast.  After all, the struggle was not yet over:  though Piedmont had called in vain on the Italian states, an Italian sword might still be drawn in her service.  If his people would not follow him against France he could still march against her alone.  Old memories hummed in him at the thought.  He recalled how his Piedmontese ancestors had gone forth against the same foe, and the stout Donnaz blood began to bubble in his veins.

A knock roused him and Gamba entered by the private way.  His appearance was not unexpected to Odo, and served only to reinforce his new-found energy.  He felt that the issue was at hand.  As he expected, Gamba had been sent to put before him more forcibly and unceremoniously the veiled threat of the ministers.  But the hunchback had come also to plead with his master in his own name, and in the name of the ideas for which they had once laboured together.  He could not believe that the Duke’s reaction was more than momentary.  He could not calculate the strength of the old associations which, now that the tide had set the other way, were dragging Odo back to the beliefs and traditions of his caste.

The Duke listened in silence; then he said:  “Discussion is idle.  I have no answer to give but that which I have already given.”  He rose from his seat in token of dismissal.

The moment was painful to both men.  Gamba drew nearer and fell at the Duke’s feet.

“Your Highness,” he said, “consider what this means.  We hold the state in our hands.  If you are against us you are powerless.  If you are with us we can promise you more power than you ever dreamed of possessing.”

The Duke looked at him with a musing smile.  “It is as though you offered me gold in a desert island,” he said.  “Do not waste such poor bribes on me.  I care for no power but the power to wipe out the work of these last years.  Failing that, I want nothing that you or any other man can give.”

Gamba was silent a moment.  He turned aside into the embrasure of the window, and when he spoke again it was in a voice broken with grief.