initial commit of ebook 3408HEADmain

14 files changed, 60159 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/3408-0.txt b/3408-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..287fa11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3408-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9249 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Shame of Motley
+
+Author: Rafael Sabatini
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2001 [eBook #3408]
+[Most recently updated: December 22, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: John Stuart Middleton and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+THE SHAME OF MOTLEY
+
+Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions
+in the Life of Lazzaro Biancomonte, of Biancomonte,
+sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro.
+
+By Rafael Sabatini
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ PART I.FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+ CHAPTER I. THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+ CHAPTER II. THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+ CHAPTER III. MADONNA PAOLA
+ CHAPTER IV. THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+ CHAPTER V. MADONNA’S INGRATITUDE
+ CHAPTER VI. FOOL’S LUCK
+ CHAPTER VII. THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+ CHAPTER VIII. “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN”
+ CHAPTER IX. THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+ CHAPTER X. THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+ PART II.THE OGRE OF CESENA
+ CHAPTER XI. MADONNA’S SUMMONS
+ CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+ CHAPTER XIII. POISON
+ CHAPTER XIV. REQUIESCAT!
+ CHAPTER XV. AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+ CHAPTER XVI. IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+ CHAPTER XVII. THE SENESCHAL
+ CHAPTER XVIII. THE LETTER
+ CHAPTER XIX. DOOMED
+ CHAPTER XX. THE SUNSET
+ CHAPTER XXI. AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+
+For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by
+suspense. It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with
+after I had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from
+Pesaro, and I wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious
+Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia might see fit to offer me the
+honourable employment with which Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that
+he would reward the service I had rendered the House of Borgia by my
+journey.
+
+Three days were sped, yet nought had happened to signify that things
+would shape the course by me so ardently desired; that the means would
+be afforded me of mending my miserable ways, and repairing the wreck my
+life had suffered on the shoals of Fate. True, I had been housed and
+fed, and the comforts of indolence had been mine; but, for the rest, I
+was still clothed in the livery of folly which I had worn on my
+arrival, and, wherever I might roam, there followed ever at my heels a
+crowd of underlings, seeking to have their tedium lightened by jests
+and capers, and voting me—when their hopes proved barren—the sorriest
+Fool that had ever worn the motley.
+
+On that third day I speak of, my patience tried to its last strand, I
+had beaten a lacquey with my hands, and fled from the cursed gibes his
+fellows aimed at me, out into the misty gardens and the chill January
+air, whose sting I could, perhaps, the better disregard by virtue of
+the heat of indignation that consumed me. Was it ever to be so with me?
+Could nothing lift the curse of folly from me, that I must ever be a
+Fool, and worse, the sport of other fools?
+
+It was there on one of the terraces crowning the splendid heights above
+immortal Rome that Messer Gianluca found me. He greeted me courteously;
+I answered with a snarl, deeming him come to pursue the plaguing from
+which I had fled.
+
+“His Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia is asking for
+you, Messer Boccadoro,” he announced. And so despairing had been my
+mood of ever hearing such a summons that, for a moment, I accounted it
+some fresh jest of theirs. But the gravity of his fat countenance
+reassured me.
+
+“Let us go, then,” I answered with alacrity, and so confident was I
+that the interview to which he bade me was the first step along the
+road to better fortune, that I permitted myself a momentary return to
+the Fool’s estate from which I thought myself on the point of being for
+ever freed.
+
+“I shall use the interview to induce his Excellency to submit a tenth
+beatitude to the approval of our Holy Father: Blessed are the bearers
+of good tidings. Come on, Messer the seneschal.”
+
+I led the way, in my impatience forgetful of his great paunch and
+little legs, so that he was sorely tried to keep pace with me. Yet who
+would not have been in haste, urged by such a spur as had I? Here,
+then, was the end of my shameful travesty. To-morrow a soldier’s
+harness should replace the motley of a jester; the name by which I
+should be known again to men would be that of Lazzaro Biancomonte, and
+no longer Boccadoro—the Fool of the golden mouth.
+
+Thus much had Madonna Lucrezia’s promises led me to expect, and it was
+with a soul full of joyous expectation that I entered the great man’s
+closet.
+
+He received me in a manner calculated to set me at my ease, and yet
+there was about him a something that overawed me. Cesare Borgia,
+Cardinal of Valencia, was then in his twenty-third year, for all that
+there hung about him the semblance of a greater age, just as his
+cardinalitial robes lent him the appearance of a height far above the
+middle stature that was his own. His face was pale and framed in a
+silky auburn beard; his nose was aquiline and strong; his eyes the
+keenest that I have ever seen; his forehead lofty and intelligent. He
+seemed pervaded by an air of feverish restlessness, something
+surpassing the vivida vis animi, something that marked him to
+discerning eyes for a man of incessant action of body and of mind.
+
+“My sister tells me,” he said in greeting, “that you are willing to
+take service under me, Messer Biancomonte.”
+
+“Such was the hope that guided me to Rome, Most Excellent,” I answered
+him.
+
+Surprise flashed into his eyes, and was gone as quickly as it had come.
+His thin lips parted in a smile, whose meaning was inscrutable.
+
+“As some reward for the safe delivery of the letter you brought me from
+her?” he questioned mildly.
+
+“Precisely, Illustrious,” I answered in all frankness.
+
+His open hand smote the table of wood-mosaics at which he sat.
+
+“Praised be Heaven!” he cried. “You seem to promise that I shall have
+in you a follower who deals in truth.”
+
+“Could your Excellency, to whom my real name is known, expect ought
+else of one who bears it—however unworthily?”
+
+There was amusement in his glance.
+
+“Can you still swagger it, after having worn that livery for three
+years?” he asked, and his lean forefinger pointed at my hideous motley
+of red and black and yellow.
+
+I flushed and hung my head, and—as if to mock that very expression of
+my shame—the bells on my cap gave forth a silvery tinkle at the
+movement.
+
+“Excellency, spare me,” I murmured. “Did you know all my miserable
+story you would be merciful. Did you know with what joy I turned my
+back on the Court of Pesaro—”
+
+“Aye,” he broke in mockingly, “when Giovanni Sforza threatened to have
+you hanged for the overboldness of your tongue. Not until then did it
+occur to you to turn from the shameful life in which the best years of
+your manhood were being wasted. There! Just now I commended your
+truthfulness; but the truth that dwells in you is no more, it seems,
+than the truth we may look for in the mouth of Folly. At heart, I fear,
+you are a hypocrite, Messer Biancomonte; the worst form of hypocrite—a
+hypocrite to your own self.”
+
+“Did your Excellency know all!” I cried.
+
+“I know enough,” he answered, with stern sorrow; “enough to make me
+marvel that the son of Ettore Biancomonte of Biancomonte should play
+the Fool to Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Oh you will tell me that
+you went there for revenge, to seek to right the wrong his father did
+your father.”
+
+“It was, it was!” I cried, with heated vehemence. “Be flames
+everlasting the dwelling of my soul if any other motive drove me to
+this shameful trade.”
+
+There was a pause. His beautiful eyes flamed with a sudden light as
+they rested on me. Then the lids drooped demurely, and he drew a deep
+breath. But when he spoke there was scorn in his voice.
+
+“And, no doubt, it was that same motive kept you there, at peace for
+three whole years, in slothful ease, the motleyed Fool, jesting and
+capering for his enemy’s delectation—you, a man with the knightly
+memory of your foully-wronged parent to cry hourly shame upon you. No
+doubt you lacked the opportunity to bring the tyrant to account. Or was
+it that you were content to let him make a mock of you so long as he
+housed and fed you and clothed you in your garish livery of shame?
+
+“Spare me, Excellency,” I cried again. “Of your charity let my past be
+done with. When he drove me forth with threats of hanging, from which
+your gracious sister saved me, I turned my steps to Rome at her bidding
+to—”
+
+“To find honourable employment at my hands,” he interrupted quietly.
+Then suddenly rising, and speaking in a voice of thunder—“And what,
+then, of your revenge?” he cried.
+
+“It has been frustrated,” I answered lamely. “Sufficient do I account
+the ruin that already I have wrought in my life by the pursuit of that
+phantom. I was trained to arms, my lord. Let me discard for good these
+tawdry rags, and strap a soldier’s harness to my back.”
+
+“How came you to journey hither thus?” he asked, suddenly turning the
+subject.
+
+“It was Madonna Lucrezia’s wish. She held that my errand would be safer
+so, for a Fool may travel unmolested.”
+
+He nodded that he understood, and paced the chamber with bowed head.
+For a spell there was silence, broken only by the soft fall of his
+slippered feet and the swish of his silken purple. At last he paused
+before me and looked up into my face—for I was a good head taller than
+he was. His fingers combed his auburn beard, and his beautiful eyes
+were full on mine.
+
+“That was a wise precaution of my sister’s,” he approved. “I will take
+a lesson from her in the matter. I have employment for you, Messer
+Biancomonte.”
+
+I bowed my head in token of my gratitude.
+
+“You shall find me diligent and faithful, my lord,” I promised him.
+
+“I know it,” he sniffed, “else should I not employ you.”
+
+He turned from me, and stepped back to his table. He took up a package,
+fingered it a moment, then dropped it again, and shot me one of his
+quiet glances.
+
+“That is my answer to Madonna Lucrezia’s letter,” he said slowly, his
+voice as smooth as silk, “and I desire that you shall carry it to
+Pesaro for me, and deliver it safely and secretly into her hands.”
+
+I could do no more than stare at him. It seemed as if my mind were
+stricken numb.
+
+“Well?” he asked at last; and in his voice there was now a suggestion
+of steel beneath the silk. “Do you hesitate?”
+
+“And if I do,” I answered, suddenly finding my voice, “I do no more
+than might a bolder man. How can I, who am banned by punishment of
+death, contrive to penetrate again into the Court of Pesaro and reach
+the Lady Lucrezia?”
+
+“That is a matter that I shall leave to the shrewd wit which all Italy
+says is the heritage of Boccadoro, the Prince of Fools. Does the task
+daunt you?” His glance and voice were alike harsh.
+
+In very truth it did, and I told him so, but in the terms which the
+shrewd wit he said was mine dictated.
+
+“I hesitate, my lord, indeed; but more because I fear the frustration
+of your own ends—whatever they may be—than because I dread to earn a
+broken neck by again adventuring into Pesaro. Would not some other
+messenger—unknown at the Court of Giovanni Sforza—be in better case to
+acquit himself of such a task?
+
+“Yes, if I had one I could trust,” he answered frankly.
+
+“I will be open with you, Biancomonte. There are such grave matters at
+issue, there are such secrets confided to that paper, that I would not
+for a kingdom, not for our Holy Father’s triple crown, that they should
+fall into alien hands.”
+
+He approached me again, and his slender hand, upon which the sacred
+amethyst was glowing, fell lightly on my shoulder. He lowered his voice
+“You are the man, the one man in Italy, whose interests are bound up
+with mine in this; therefore are you the one man to whom I can entrust
+that package.”
+
+“I?” I gasped in amazement—as well I might, for what interests had
+Boccadoro, the Fool, in common with Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of
+Valencia?
+
+“You,” he answered vehemently, “you, Lazzaro Biancomonte of
+Biancomonte, whose father Costanzo of Pesaro stripped of his domains.
+The matters in those papers mean the ruin of the Lord of Pesaro. We are
+all but ripe to strike at him from Rome and when we strike he shall be
+so disfigured by the blow that all Italy shall hold its sides to laugh
+at the sorry figure he will cut. I would not say so much to any other
+living man but you and if I tell it you it is because I need your aid.”
+
+“The lion and mouse,” I murmured.
+
+“Why yes, if you will.”
+
+“And this man is the husband of your sister!” I exclaimed, almost
+involuntarily.
+
+“Does that imply a doubt of what I have said?” he flashed, his head
+thrown back, his brows drawn suddenly together.
+
+“No, no,” I hastened to assure him. He smiled softly.
+
+“Maddonna Lucrezia knows all—or nearly all. Of what else she may need
+to learn, that letter will inform her. It is the last thread, the last
+knot needed, before we can complete the net in which we are to hold
+that tyrant? Now, will you bear the letter?”
+
+Would I bear it? Dear God! To achieve the end in view I would have
+spent my remaining days in motley, making sport for grooms and kitchen
+wenches. Some such answer did I make him, and he smiled his
+satisfaction.
+
+“You shall journey as you are,” he bade me. “I am guided by my sister,
+assured that the coat of a Fool is stouter protection than the best
+hauberk ever tempered. When you have done your errand come you back to
+me, and you shall have employment better suited to one who bears the
+name of Biancomonte.”
+
+“You may depend upon me in this, my lord,” I promised gravely. “I shall
+not fail you.”
+
+“It is well” said he; and those wondrous eyes of his rested again upon
+my face. “How soon can you set out?”
+
+“At once, my lord. Does not the by-word say that a fool makes little
+preparation for a journey?”
+
+He nodded, and moved to a coffer, a beautiful piece of Venetian work in
+ultramarine and gold. From this he took a heavy bag.
+
+“There,” said he, “you will find the best of all travelling
+companions.” I thanked him, and set the bag on the crook of my left
+arm, and by its weight I knew how true he was to the notorious
+splendour of his race. “And this,” said he, “is a talisman that may
+serve to help you out of any evil plight, and open many a door that you
+may find locked.” And he handed me a signet ring on which was graven
+the steer that is the emblem of the House of Borgia.
+
+He raised aloft the hand on which was glistening the sacred
+amethyst—two fingers crooked and two erect. Wondering what this should
+mean, I stared inquiry.
+
+“Kneel,” he bade me. And realising what he would be about, I sank on to
+my knees whilst he murmured the Apostolic benediction over my bowed
+head. The rushes of the floor were the only witnesses of the smile that
+crept to my lips at this sudden assumption of his churchly office by
+that most worldly prince.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+
+Such preparations as I had to make were soon complete.
+
+Although it was agreed that I was to travel in the motley, yet, in my
+lately-born shame of that apparel, I decided that I would conceal it as
+best might be, revealing it only should the need arise. Moreover, it
+was incumbent that I should afford myself more protection against the
+inclement January night than that of my foliated cape, my crested cap
+and silken hose. So, a black cloak, heavy and ample, a broad-brimmed
+hat, and a pair of riding boots of untanned leather were my further
+equipment. In the lining of one of those boots I concealed the Lord
+Cesare’s package; his money—some twenty ducats—I carried in a belt
+about my waist, and his ring I set boldly on my finger.
+
+Few moments did it need me to make ready, yet fewer, it seems, would
+the Borgia impatience have had me employ; for scarce was I booted when
+someone knocked at my door. I opened, and there entered a very mountain
+of a man, whose corselet flashed back the yellow light of my tapers, as
+might have done a mirror, and whose harsh voice barked out to ask if I
+was ready.
+
+I had had some former acquaintance with this fellow, having first met
+him during the previous year, on the occasion of the Court of Pesaro’s
+sojourn at Rome. His name was Ramiro del’ Orca, and throughout the
+Papal army it stood synonymous for masterfulness and grim brutality. He
+was, as I have said, an enormous man, of prodigious bodily strength,
+heavy, yet of good proportions. Of his face one gathered the impression
+of a blazing furnace. His cheeks and nose were of a vivid red, and
+still more fiery was the hair, now hidden ’neath his morion, and the
+beard that tapered to a dagger’s point. His very eyes kept tune with
+the red harmony of his ferocious countenance, for the whites were ever
+bloodshot as a drunkard’s—which, with no want of truth, men said he
+was.
+
+“Come,” grunted that fiery, self-sufficient vassal, “be stirring, sir
+Fool. I have orders to see you to the gates. There is a horse ready
+saddled for you. It is the Lord Cardinal’s parting gift. Resolve me
+now, which will be the greater ass—the one that rides, or the one that
+is ridden?”
+
+“O monstrous riddle!” I exclaimed, as I took up my cloak and hat. “Who
+am I that I should solve it?”
+
+“It baffles you, sir Fool?” quoth he.
+
+“In very truth it does.” I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells set
+up a jangle. “For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse. But,” I
+pursued, in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of the
+jester’s wit, “were you to make a trio of us, including Messer Ramiro
+del’ Orca, Captain in the army of his Holiness, no doubt would then
+afflict me. I should never hesitate which of the three to pronounce the
+ass.”
+
+“What shall that mean?” he asked, with darkening brows.
+
+“That its meaning proves obscure to you confirms the verdict I was
+hinting at,” I taunted him. “For asses are notoriously of dull
+perceptions.” Then stepping forward briskly: “Come, sir,” I sharply
+urged him, “whilst we engage upon this pretty play of wit, his
+Excellency’s business waits, which is an ill thing. Where is this horse
+you spoke of?”
+
+He showed me his strong, white teeth in a very evil smile.
+
+“Were it not for that same business—” he began.
+
+“You would do fine things, I am assured,” I interrupted him.
+
+“Would I not?” he snarled. “By the Host! I should be wringing your pert
+neck, or laying bare your bones with a thong of bullock-hide, you ill
+conditioned Fool!”
+
+I looked at him with pleasant, smiling eyes.
+
+“You confirm the opinion that is popularly held of you,” said I.
+
+“What may that be?” quoth he, his eyes very evil. “In Rome, I’m told,
+they call you hangman.”
+
+He growled in his throat like an angered cur, and his hands were jerked
+to the level of his breast, the fingers bending talon-wise.
+
+“Body of God!” he muttered fiercely, “I’ll teach one fool, at least—”
+
+“Let us cease these pleasantries, I entreat you,” I laughed. “Saints
+defend me! If your mood incline to raillery you’ll find your match in
+some lad of the stables. As for me, I have not the time, had I the
+will, to engage you further. Let me remind you that I would be gone.”
+
+The reminder was well-timed. He bethought him of the journey I must go,
+on which he was charged to see me safely started.
+
+“Come on, then,” he growled, in a white heat of passion that was only
+curbed by the consideration of that slender, pale young cardinal, his
+master.
+
+Still, some of his rage he vented in roughly taking me by the collar of
+my doublet, and dragging the almost headlong from the room, and so
+a-down a flight of steps out into the courtyard. Meet treatment for a
+Fool—a treatment to which time might have inured me; for had I not for
+three years already been exposed to rough usage of this kind at the
+hands of every man above the rank of groom? And had I once rebelled in
+act as I did in soul, and used the strength wherewith God endowed me to
+punish my ill-users, a whip would have reminded me into what sorry
+slavery had I sold myself when I put on the motley.
+
+It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the
+courtyard when we descended.
+
+At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of
+hoofs, muffled by the snow. Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare
+upon the all-encompassing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward
+the horse that was destined to bear me. I donned my broad-brimmed hat,
+and wrapped my cloak about me. Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears,
+from those minions with whom I had herded during my three days at the
+Vatican. Then Messer del’ Orca thrust me forward.
+
+“Mount, Fool, and be off,” he rasped.
+
+I mounted, and turned to him. He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog
+wore human shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain
+Ramiro.
+
+“Brother, farewell,” I simpered.
+
+“No brother of yours, Fool,” snarled he.
+
+“True—my cousin only. The fool of art is no brother to the fool of
+nature.”
+
+“A whip!” he roared to his grooms. “Fetch me a whip.”
+
+I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and over
+the narrow drawbridge. Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my
+shoulder. They stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men,
+looking black against the whiteness of the ground. Behind them rose the
+brown walls of the rocca illumined by the flare of torches, from which
+the smell of rosin reached my nostrils as I paused. I waved my hat to
+them in token of farewell, and digging my spurless heels into the
+flanks of my horse, I ambled down through the biting wind and drifting
+snow, into the town.
+
+The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell
+from a window, and there stole through the chink of a door to glow upon
+the snow in earnest of the snug warmth within. Silence reigned, broken
+only by the moan of the wind under the eaves, for although it was no
+more than approaching the second hour of night, yet who but the wight
+whom necessity compelled would be abroad in such weather?
+
+All night I rode despite that weather’s foulness—a foulness that might
+have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less attuned
+to his own supreme desires.
+
+Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to
+Magliano, and there I broke my fast and took some rest. My horse had
+suffered by the journey more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh
+one at Magliano, but there was none to be had—so they told me—this side
+of Narni, wherefore I was forced to set out once more upon that poor
+jaded beast that had carried me all night.
+
+It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the
+journey accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster. Here I
+paused to dine, but here, again, they told me that no horses might be
+had. And so, leading by the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride,
+lest I should kill it outright, I entered the territory of Urbino on
+foot, and trudged wearily amain through the snow that was some inches
+deep by now. In this miserable fashion I covered the seven leagues, or
+so, to Spoleto, where I arrived exhausted as night was falling.
+
+There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay. I found a company of
+gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley—when I had
+thrown off my sodden cloak and hat—pressed me, willy-nilly, into
+amusing them. And so I spent the night at my Fool’s trade, giving them
+drolleries from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti—the horn-books of
+all jesters.
+
+I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending
+to travel with a better speed. The snow was thick and soft at first,
+but as I approached the hills it grew more crisp. Overhead the sky was
+of an unbroken blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was
+warmth in the sunshine. All day I rode hard, and never rested until
+towards nightfall I found myself on the spurs of the Apennines in the
+neighborhood of Gualdo, the better half of my journey
+well-accomplished. The weather had changed again at sunset. It was
+snowing anew, and the north wind was howling like a choir of the
+damned.
+
+Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it
+might suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I drew
+rein before that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse.
+Despite the early hour the door was already barred, for the bedding of
+travellers formed no part of the traffic of so lowly a house as this
+nameless, wayside wine-shop. Theirs was a trade that ended with the
+daylight. Nevertheless I was assured they could be made to find me a
+rag of straw to lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
+
+The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the
+light of the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not
+over-clean. Behind him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman
+as you might look to find the mate of such a man: broad and tall of
+frame and most scurvily cross-grained of face. It may well be that had
+he bidden me welcome, she had driven me back into the night; but since
+he made some demur when I asked for lodging, and protested that in his
+house was but accommodation too rude to offer my magnificence, the
+woman thrust him aside, and loudly bade me enter.
+
+I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests
+should suffer were my trade disclosed. I bade the man see to my horse,
+and then escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room above,
+which, in obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my
+convenience.
+
+It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner,
+and in the centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy
+chair beside it. The floor was black with age and filth, and broken
+everywhere by rat-holes. She set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the
+table, and with some apology for the rudeness of the chamber she asked
+in tones almost defiant if my excellency would be content.
+
+“Perforce,” said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key to
+the respect of such a creature; “a king might thank Heaven for a kennel
+on such a night as this.”
+
+She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered
+had I supped. I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have been
+poisoned by such foulnesses as they might have set before me. So I
+answered her that all I needed was a cup of wine.
+
+When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the
+door. It had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three
+legged stool against it that it might give me warning of intrusion.
+Next I threw off my cloak and hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I
+flung myself upon my miserable couch. But jaded though I might be, it
+was not yet my intent to sleep. Now that the half of my journey was
+accomplished, I found myself beset by doubts which had not before
+assailed me, touching the manner in which this mission of mine was to
+be accomplished. It would prove no easy thing for me to penetrate
+unnoticed into the town of Pesaro, much less into the Sforza Court,
+where for three years I had pursued my Fool’s trade. There was scarce a
+man, a woman or a child in the entire domains of Giovanni Sforza to
+whom Boccadoro, the Fool, was not known; and many a villano, who had
+never noticed the features of the Lord of Pesaro, could have told you
+the very colour of his jester’s eyes; which, after all, is no strange
+thing, for—sad reflection!—in a world in which Wisdom may be
+overlooked, Folly goes never disregarded.
+
+The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would
+gain the presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in
+others. And then my thoughts wandered into speculation. What might be
+this momentous letter that I carried? What was this secret traffic
+’twixt Cesare Borgia and his sister? Since Cesare had said that it
+meant the ruin of Giovanni Sforza—a ruin so utter, so complete and
+humiliating that it must provoke the scornful mirth of all Italy—the
+knowledge of it must soon be mine. Meanwhile I was an agent of that
+ruin. Dear God! how that reflection warmed me! What joy I took in the
+thought that, though he knew it not, nor could come to know it, I
+Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he had abused and whose spirit he had
+broken—was become a tool to expedite the work of abasement and
+destruction that was ripening for him. And realizing all this, that
+letter I vowed to Heaven I would carry, suffering no obstacle to daunt
+me, suffering nothing to turn me from my path.
+
+And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out
+impatiently: “Yes, yes; but how?”
+
+I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured
+myself a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive
+rat that had thrust its head above the boards. Then I quenched the
+light, and flung myself once more upon my bed, in the hope that
+darkness would prove a stimulant to thought and bring me to the
+solution I was seeking. It brought me sleep instead. Unconsciously I
+sank to it, my riddle all unsolved.
+
+I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing
+the pattern of my lattice on the ceiling. The stormy night had been
+succeeded by a calm and sunlit day. And by its light the place wore a
+more loathsome look than it had done last night, so that at the very
+sight of it I leapt from my couch and grew eager to be gone. I set a
+ducat on the table, and going to the door I called my hostess. The
+stairs creaked presently ’neath her portentous weight, and, panting
+slightly, she stood before me.
+
+At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed
+in the cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then
+in rage—deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the
+garb of folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some
+scurvy tumbling or some witless jests.
+
+“Ossa di Cristo!” was her cry. “Have I housed a Fool?”
+
+“If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has
+been a singularly choice resort. Woman—”
+
+“Would you ‘woman’ me?” she stormed.
+
+“Why, no,” said I politely. “I was at fault. I’ll keep the title for
+your husband—God help him!”
+
+She smiled grimly.
+
+“And are these,” she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, “the jests with
+which you pay the score?”
+
+“Jests?” quoth I. “Score? Pish! More eyes, less tongue would more befit
+a hostess who has never housed a fool.” And with a splendid gesture I
+pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table. At sight of the gold her
+eyes grew big with greed.
+
+“My master—” she began, and coming forward took the piece in her hand,
+to assure herself that she was not the dupe of magic. “A fool with
+gold!” she marvelled.
+
+“Is a shame to his calling,” I acknowledged. Then—“Get me a needle and
+a length of thread,” said I. She scuttled off to do my bidding, like
+nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty. She
+was back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a
+rent about me she might make bold to stitch. What a key to courtesy is
+gold, my masters! I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went
+at once.
+
+With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which
+it stood in need. Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my
+way below, calling for my horse as I descended.
+
+I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed. That last night’s
+draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was
+theirs to tender. I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and
+stood waiting in the squalid common-room, my mind divided ’twixt
+impatience to resume the road to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the
+means I was to adopt to enter it and yet save my neck—for this was now
+become an obsessing problem.
+
+As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an
+approaching cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs
+upon the thick snow carpet. The company halted at the door, and a loud,
+gruff voice was raised to cry:
+
+“Locandiere! Afoot, sluggard!”
+
+I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four
+mounted men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn
+so that nothing might be seen of him or her that rode within. Grooms
+were those four, as all the world might see at the first glance, and
+the livery they wore was that of the noble House of Santafior—the holy
+white flower of the quince being embroidered on the breast of their
+gabardines.
+
+They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was
+soon guessed they had spent the night in the saddle. Their horses were
+in a foam of sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from
+foot to cap.
+
+Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared,
+leading my horse by the bridle. Now at an inn the traveller that
+arrives is ever of more importance than he that departs. At sight of
+those horsemen, the taverner forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow
+in welcome to the one that seemed the leader.
+
+“Most Magnificent,” said he to that liveried hind, “command me.”
+
+“We need a guide,” the fellow answered with an ill grace.
+
+“A guide, Illustrious?” quoth the host. “A guide?”
+
+“I said a guide, fool,” answered him the groom. “Heard you never of
+such animals? We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the
+shortest road to Cagli.”
+
+The taverner shook his grey head stupidly. He bowed again until I
+fancied I could hear the creak of his old joints.
+
+“Here be no guides, Magnificent,” he deplored. “Perhaps at Gualdo—”
+
+“Animal,” was the retort—for true courtesy commend me to a lacquey!—“it
+is not our wish to pursue the road as far as Gualdo, else had we not
+stopped at this kennel of yours.”
+
+I scarce know what it can have been that moved me to act as I then did,
+for, in the truth, the manner of that rascal of a groom was little
+prepossessing, and his master, I doubted, could be little better that
+he left the fellow to hector it thus over that wretched tavern oaf. But
+I stepped forward.
+
+“Did you say that you were journeying to Cagli?” questioned I.
+
+He eyed me sourly, suspicion writ athwart his round, ill-favoured face,
+But my motley was hidden from his sight. My cloak, my hat and boots
+allowed naught of my true condition to appear, and might as well have
+covered a lordling as a jester. Yet his inveterate surliness the rascal
+could not wholly conquer.
+
+“What may be the purpose of your question?” he growled.
+
+“To serve your master, whoever he may be,” I answered him serenely,
+“although it is a service I do not press upon him. I, too, am
+journeying to Cagli, and like yourselves, I am in haste and go the
+shorter way across the hills, with which I am well acquainted. If it so
+please you to follow me your need of a guide may thus be satisfied.”
+
+It was the tone to take if I would be respected. Had I proposed that we
+should journey in company I should not have earned me the half of the
+deference which was accorded to my haughtily granted leave that they
+might follow me if they so chose.
+
+With marked submission did he give me thanks in his master’s name.
+
+I mounted and set out, and at my heels came now the litter and its
+escort. Thus did we quit the plain and breast the slopes, where the
+snow grew deeper and firmer underfoot as we advanced. And as I went,
+still plaguing my mind to devise a means by which I might penetrate to
+the Court of Pesaro, little did I dream that the matter was being
+solved for me—the solution having begun with my offer to guide that
+company across the hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+MADONNA PAOLA
+
+
+We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted and
+paused awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was to
+lead us down to Cagli. The air was sharp and cold, for all that
+overhead was spread a cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured
+down its light upon the wide expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness
+so dazzling as to be hurtful to the sight.
+
+Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that following
+company as if I had been unconscious of its existence. But now that we
+paused, their fat, white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo,
+approached me and sought to draw me into conversation. I yielded
+readily enough, for I scented a mystery about that closely-curtained
+litter, and mysteries are ever provoking to such a mind as mine. For
+all that it might profit me naught to learn who rode there, and why
+with all this haste, yet these were matters, I confess, on which my
+curiosity was aroused.
+
+“Are you journeying beyond Cagli?” I asked him presently, in an idle
+tone.
+
+He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes
+confirming the existence of the mystery I scented.
+
+“Yes,” he answered, after a pause. “We hope to reach Urbino before
+night. And you? Are you journeying far?”
+
+“That far, at least,” I answered him, emulating the caution he had
+shown.
+
+And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the
+litter were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and so
+far was the vision different from that which—for no reason that I can
+give—I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. A
+lady—a very child, indeed—had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any of
+those grooms could offer her assistance.
+
+She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and
+to one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine
+beauty it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that
+writer’s catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shape and
+stature, despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicately
+featured and of an ivory pallor. Her eyes—blue as the heavens
+overhead—were not of the colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was
+her hair of the golden brown which that arbiter commends. Had
+Firenzuola seen her, it may well be that he had altered or modified his
+views. She was sumptuously arrayed in a loose-sleeved camorra of grey
+velvet that was heavy with costly furs; above the lenza of fine linen
+on her head gleamed the gold thread of a jewelled net, and at her waist
+a girdle of surpassing richness, all set with gems, glowed like a thing
+of fire in the bright sunshine.
+
+She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked
+about her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached
+us across the gleaming snow.
+
+“Is this,” she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfect
+match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, “the traveller who
+so kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?”
+
+Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
+
+“I am in your debt, sir,” she protested, with an odd earnestness. “You
+do not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any
+time Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this
+obligation, you shall find me very willing.”
+
+White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of her
+identity.
+
+I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I
+hated the very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
+
+“Madonna, you overrate my service. It so chanced that I was travelling
+this way.”
+
+She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reason
+of my churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not
+see the motley worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her. No
+doubt she accounted me a clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and
+so she turned away, telling Giacopo that as soon as the horses were
+breathed they might push on.
+
+“We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna,” answered he, “if they are to
+carry us as far as Cagli. Heaven send that we may obtain fresh cattle
+there, else is all lost.”
+
+Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
+
+“You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there any
+for those others.” And she waved her hand towards the valley below and
+the road by which we had come. From this and from what was said I
+gathered that they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at their
+heels.
+
+“They have a warrant which we have not,” was Giacopo’s answer, gloomily
+delivered, “and they will seize cattle where they can find it.”
+
+With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the
+peril that aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
+
+“Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir stranger,”
+said Giacopo to me.
+
+I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
+
+“Better the horse should die of cold than I,” I answered gruffly, and
+turning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood that
+was chilling in my veins.
+
+There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me that
+compelled my glance. To some it might compare but ill with the
+luxuriant splendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a
+wondrously impressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse
+of snow, expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by
+virtue of that very lack of expression. From Fabriano, at our feet, was
+spread to the east, the broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the
+Masone, as far as Mount Comero, which, in the distance, lifted its
+round shoulder from the haze of sea. To the west the country lay under
+the same winding-sheet of snow as far as eye might range, to the towers
+of distant Perugia, to the Lake Trasimeno—a silver sheen that broke the
+white monotony—to Etruscan Cortona, perched like an eyrie on its
+mountain top, and to the line of Tuscan hills, like heavy, low-lying
+clouds upon the blue horizon.
+
+Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded by
+a volley of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to my
+companions. They stood grouped together, and their eyes were on the
+road by which we had scaled those heights. Their first expression of
+loud astonishment had been succeeded by an utter silence. I stepped
+forward to command a better view of what they contemplated, and in the
+plain below, midway between Narni and the slopes, a mile or so behind
+us, I caught a glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the sunshine. A
+company of some dozen men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the
+tracks we had left behind us in the snow. Could these be the pursuers?
+
+Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady’s silvery voice,
+behind me, put it into words. She had drawn aside the curtains of her
+litter and she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points of
+brilliance.
+
+“Madonna,” cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, “they are
+Borgia soldiers.”
+
+“Your fear is father to that opinion,” she answered scornfully. “How
+can you descry it at this distance?”
+
+Now, either God had given that knave an eagle’s sight, or else, as she
+suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what
+he thought he saw.
+
+“The leader’s bannerol bears the device of a red bull,” he answered
+promptly.
+
+I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
+
+“In God’s name, let us get forward, then!” cried Giacopo. “Orsu! To
+horse, knaves!”
+
+No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were
+in the saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading
+mule of the litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with
+no more ceremony than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no
+ado. A chase is an interesting business, whatever your point of view,
+and if a greater safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener
+excitement with the hunted.
+
+Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at
+a pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace
+us from any party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to the
+unreasoning minds of those poltroons, and so from the danger behind us
+we fled, and courted a more deadly and certain peril in the fleeing. At
+first I sought to remonstrate with Giacopo; but he was deaf to the
+wisdom that I spoke. He turned upon me a face which terror had rendered
+whiter than its natural habit, white as the egg of a duck, with a hint
+of blue or green behind it. I had, besides, an ugly impression of teeth
+and eyeballs.
+
+“Death is behind us, sir,” he snarled. “Let us get on.”
+
+“Death is more assuredly before you,” I answered grimly. “If you will
+court it, go your way. As for me, I am over-young to break my neck and
+be left on the mountain-side to fatten crows. I shall follow at my
+leisure.”
+
+“Gesu!” he cried, through chattering teeth. “Are you a coward, then?”
+
+The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it
+was; but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no
+more than provoke my mirth.
+
+“Come on, then, valiant runagate,” I laughed at him.
+
+And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon
+yard of moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than
+these rational animals that bestrode them. Twice did it chance that a
+man was flung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may
+have been uttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of
+reaching the plain with never so much as a broken bone.
+
+Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.
+The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the
+descent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than
+an amble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
+
+At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo. His head was ever
+turned to look behind—unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyes
+were ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to
+behold the flash of the pursuers’ steel. The end soon followed. He drew
+rein and called a halt, sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived
+of wit—which is to pay him the compliment of supposing that he ever had
+wit to be deprived of.
+
+Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola’s head appeared,
+her voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
+
+Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
+
+“Madonna, our horses are done. It is useless to go farther.”
+
+“Useless?” she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could ring
+the voice that I had heard so gentle. “Of what do you talk, you knave?
+Ride on at once.”
+
+“It is vain to ride on,” he answered obdurately, insolence rising in
+his voice. “Another half-league—another league at most, and we are
+taken.”
+
+“Cagli is less than a league distant,” she reminded him. “Once there,
+we can obtain fresh horses. You will not fail me now, Giacopo!”
+
+“There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli,” he reminded her, “and,
+meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri.” And he pointed
+to the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
+
+She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
+
+“You will stand by me, my friends,” she cried. “Giacopo, here, is a
+coward; but you are better men.” They stirred, and one of them was
+momentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
+
+“We will go with you, Madonna,” he exclaimed. “Let Giacopo remain
+behind, if so he will.”
+
+But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nor
+tolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
+
+“You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!” he exclaimed,
+“as caught you will be, and within the hour. If you would save your
+necks, stay here and make surrender.”
+
+His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonna
+leapt from the litter, the better to confront them. The corners of her
+sensitive little mouth were quivering now with the emotion that
+possessed her, and on her eyes there was a film of tears.
+
+“You cowards!” she blazed at them, “you hinds, that lack the spirit
+even to run! Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you
+could not show yourselves more palsied. I was a fool,” she sobbed,
+stamping her foot so that the snow squelched under it. “I was a fool to
+entrust myself to you.”
+
+“Madonna,” answered one of them, “if flight could still avail us, you
+should not find us stubborn. But it were useless. I tell you again,
+Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were
+but a half-league behind. Soon we shall have them over the mountain,
+and we shall be seen.”
+
+“Fool!” she cried, “a half-league behind, you say; and you forget that
+we were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it. If you but press
+on we shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.
+Besides, Giacopo,” she added, turning again to the leader, “you may be
+at fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting
+them our pursuers.”
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
+
+“Arnaldo, there, made no mistake. He told us what he saw.”
+
+“Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!” she
+exclaimed, between grief and anger.
+
+I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved. I
+have said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this
+tender child to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the
+compass of that hatred? I had inferred that her pursuers were of the
+House of Borgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I
+might prove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to
+serve her in this extremity. And to be of service to her, her winsome
+beauty had already inflamed me. For there was I know not what about
+this child that seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me
+that there and then I would have risked my life in her good service.
+Oh, you may laugh who read. Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed
+myself, I think, at the heroics to which I was yielding—I, the Fool,
+most base of lacqueys—over a damsel of the noble House of Santafior. It
+was shame of my motley, maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more
+tightly about me as I urged forward my horse, until I had come into
+their midst.
+
+“Lady,” said I bluntly and without preamble, “can I assist you? I have
+inferred your case from what I have overheard.”
+
+All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise—hers no less than her
+grooms’.
+
+“What can you do alone, sir?” she asked, her gentle glance upraised to
+mine.
+
+“If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I
+may do something.”
+
+“They are,” she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,
+investing her tones.
+
+It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a
+stranger into her confidence. Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in
+which she found herself. Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies
+hot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, or to
+despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem. With both
+hands she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of her
+despair.
+
+“Sir,” she cried, “if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you
+could not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but
+know the details of my sorry circumstance.”
+
+“That power, Madonna, it may be that I have,” said I, and at those
+words of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest.
+They leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a
+sudden hopeful. “And,” I continued, “if you will have utter faith in
+me, I see a way to render doubly certain your escape.”
+
+She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured
+her that I promised no more than I could accomplish. For the rest she
+had to choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
+
+“Sir,” said she, “I do not know you, nor why you should interest
+yourself in the concerns of a desolated woman. But, Heaven knows, I am
+in no case to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I
+doubt the good faith that moves you. Let me hear, sir, how you would
+propose to serve me.”
+
+“Whence are you?” I inquired.
+
+“From Rome,” she informed me without hesitation, “to seek at my
+cousin’s Court of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the Borgia
+family is submitting me.”
+
+At her cousin’s Court of Pesaro! An odd coincidence, this—and while I
+was pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I might
+assist myself. Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serve
+her, I had it now.
+
+“Yet,” said I, surprise investing my voice, “at Pesaro there is Madonna
+Lucrezia of that same House of Borgia.”
+
+She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
+
+“Madonna Lucrezia is my friend,” said she; “as sweet and gentle a
+friend as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her own
+family.”
+
+Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned to
+what was of more immediate interest.
+
+“And you fled,” said I, “with these?” And I indicated her attendants.
+“Not content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you in the snow,
+you have had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of
+Santafior. So that by asking a few questions any that were so inclined
+might follow you with ease.”
+
+She opened wide her eyes at that. Oftentimes have I observed that it
+needs a fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of this
+world. I leapt from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, the
+bridle on my arm.
+
+“Listen now, Madonna. If you would make good your escape it first
+imports that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort. Separate
+from it for a little while. Take you my horse—it is a very gentle
+beast, and it wilt carry you with safety—and ride on, alone, to Cagli.”
+
+“Alone?” quoth she, in some surprise.
+
+“Why, yes,” I answered gruffly. “What of that? At the Inn of ‘The Full
+Moon’ ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escort
+there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection. She
+is a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend you
+readily. But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs.”
+
+“And then?” she inquired eagerly.
+
+“Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning,
+for these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your
+journey.”
+
+“But we—” began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him short.
+
+“You four,” said I, “shall escort me—for I shall replace Madonna in the
+litter—you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus shall we draw the
+pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape.”
+
+They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they
+would lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments
+to persuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us
+all from harm.
+
+“Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with
+you? Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the
+sake of a lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?”
+
+It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have
+had with the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.
+
+“This escutcheon,” said I, “is the shield that shall stand between us
+and danger from any of the house that bears these arms.”
+
+Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey
+me—the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to
+their present situation. In danger they already stood from those that
+followed as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying
+one who was armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape
+that danger. But even as I was convincing them, by the same arguments
+was I sowing doubts in the lady’s subtler mind.
+
+“You are attached to that house?” quoth she, in accents of mistrust.
+She wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering was
+there treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to
+justify suspicion.
+
+“Madonna,” said I, “if you would save yourself I implore that you will
+trust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights,
+and then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you but
+this: Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done
+better than to have left you with your grooms?”
+
+Her face lighted. A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
+
+“I should have thought of that,” said she. And what more she would have
+added I put off by urging her to mount.
+
+Sitting the man’s saddle as best she might—well enough, indeed, to fill
+us all with surprise and admiration—she took her leave of me with
+pretty words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
+
+“You have but to follow the road,” said I, “and it will bring you
+straight to Cagli. The distance is a short league, and you should come
+there safely. Farewell, Madonna!”
+
+“May I not know,” she asked at parting, “the name of him that has so
+generously befriended me?”
+
+I hesitated a second. Then—“They call me Boccadoro,” answered I.
+
+“If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are you
+well-named,” said she. Then, gathering her mantle about her, and waving
+me farewell, she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardly
+hinds who had failed her in the hour of her need.
+
+A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine;
+then stepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
+
+“Now, rogues,” said I to the escort, “strike me that road to Fabriano.”
+
+“I know you not, sir,” protested Giacopo. “But this I know—that if you
+intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for your
+pains.”
+
+“Fool!” I scorned him, “since when has it been worth the while of any
+man to betray such creatures as are you? Plague me no more! Be moving,
+else I leave you to your coward’s fate.”
+
+It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality.
+It quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of those
+knaves had caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter moved
+forward, whilst Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a
+pace as their weary horses would yield. In this guise we took the road
+south, in the direction opposite to that travelled by the lady. As we
+rode, I summoned Giacopo to my side.
+
+“Take your daggers,” I bade him, “and rip me that blazon from your
+coats. See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the
+House of Santafior, or all is lost. It is a precaution you would have
+taken earlier if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper.”
+
+He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of
+my comment on his wit. For the rest, they did my bidding there and
+then.
+
+Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, I
+drew the curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up to
+pondering the manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when
+they overtook me. From that I passed on to the contemplation of the
+position in which I found myself, and the thing that I had done. And
+the proportions of the jest that I was perpetrating afforded me no
+little amusement. It was a burla not unworthy the peerless gifts of
+Boccadoro, and a fitting one on which to close his wild career of
+folly. For had I not vowed that Boccadoro I would be no more once the
+errand on which I travelled was accomplished? By Cesare Borgia’s grace
+I looked to—
+
+A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and the
+realisation that in the last few moments we had increased our pace. I
+put out my head.
+
+“Giacopo!” I shouted. He was at my side in an instant. “Why are we
+galloping?”
+
+“They are behind,” he answered, and fear was again overspreading his
+fat face. “We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last hill.”
+
+“You caught a glimpse of whom?” quoth I.
+
+“Why, of the Borgia soldiers.”
+
+“Animal,” I answered him, “what have we to do with them? They may have
+mistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit. But since we
+are not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonable
+speed. We do not wish to have the air of fugitives.”
+
+He understood me, and I was obeyed. For a half-hour we rode at a more
+gentle pace. That was about the time they took to come up with us,
+still a league or so from Fabriano. We heard their cantering hoofs
+crushing the snow, and then a loud imperious voice shouting to us a
+command to stay. Instantly we brought up in unconcerned obedience, and
+they thundered alongside with cries of triumph at having run their prey
+to earth.
+
+I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtains
+with a jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt. Whom
+my appearance astounded the more—whether the lacqueys of Santafior, or
+the Borgia men-at-arms that now encircled us—I cannot guess. But in the
+crowd of faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look of
+deep amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+
+The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twenty
+men-at-arms, whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del’
+Orca—that same mountain of a man who had attended my departure from the
+Vatican three nights ago. From the circumstance that so important a
+personage should have been charged with the pursuit of the Lady of
+Santafior, I inferred that great issues were at stake.
+
+He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered the
+bannerol bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality to
+Madonna’s servants.
+
+At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for a
+little season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
+
+“Sainted Host!” he roared at last. “What trickery may this be?” And
+sidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my litter.
+
+Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold me
+reclining there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots,
+and my motley garb of red and black and yellow all revealed. I believe
+their astonishment by far surpassed the Captain’s own.
+
+“You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro,” I greeted him. Then, seeing that he
+only stared, and made no shift to speak: “Maybe,” quoth I, “you’ll
+explain why you detain me. I am in haste.”
+
+“Explain?” he thundered. “Sangue di Cristo! The burden of explaining
+lies with you. What make you here?”
+
+“Why,” answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, “I am about the
+business of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master.”
+
+“Davvero?” he jeered. He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by the
+collar of my doublet. “Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there
+will be a fool the less in the world.”
+
+“Indeed, the world might spare more.”
+
+He scowled at my pleasantry. To him, apparently, the situation afforded
+no scope for philosophical reflections.
+
+“Where is the girl?” he asked abruptly.
+
+“Girl?” quoth I. “What girl? Am I a mother-abbess, that you should set
+me such a question?”
+
+Two dark lines showed between his brows. His voice quivered with
+passion.
+
+“I ask you again—where is the girl?”
+
+I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment
+provided for him.
+
+“Here be no girls, Messer del’ Orca,” I answered him in the same tone.
+“Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends.”
+
+My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained the
+expression of it, whispered a doubt into his mind. He released me, and
+turned upon his men, a baffled look in his eyes.
+
+“Was not this the party?” he inquired ferociously. “Have you misled me,
+beasts?
+
+“It seemed the party, Illustrious,” answered one of them.
+
+“Do you dare tell me that ‘it seemed’?” he roared, seeking to father
+upon them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had made.
+“But—What is the livery of these knaves?
+
+“They wear none,” someone answered him, and at that answer he seemed to
+turn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
+
+Then he bridled afresh.
+
+“Yet the party, I’ll swear, is this!” he insisted; and turning once
+more to me: “Explain, animal!” he bade me in terrifying tones.
+“Explain, or, by the Host! be you ignorant or not, I’ll have you
+hanged.”
+
+I accounted it high time to take another tone with him. Hanging was a
+discomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
+
+“Draw nearer, fool,” said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, so
+greatly did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
+
+“I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir captain,”
+I pursued. “But this I know—that if you persist in hindering me, or
+commit the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will answer for
+it, hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
+
+“I am going upon a secret mission”—and here I sank my voice to a
+whisper for his ears alone—“in the service of the house that hires you,
+as for yourself you might easily have inferred. Behold.” And I revealed
+my ring. “Detain me longer at your peril.”
+
+He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in
+Cesare Borgia’s service, and this coupled with the sight of that
+talisman effected in his manner a swift and wholesome change. Had I,
+arrayed in the panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory
+could not have been more complete.
+
+He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenly
+to the four winds of Heaven.
+
+“But this litter,” he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me, “and
+these four knaves—?”
+
+“Tell me,” I questioned, with sudden earnestness, “are you in quest of
+just such a party?”
+
+“Aye that I am,” he answered sharply, intelligence returning to his
+glance, inquiry burning in it.
+
+“And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House of
+Santafior?”
+
+His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
+
+“Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time. Such a
+party passed us at the gallop about an hour ago. It would be an hour,
+would it not, Giacopo?”
+
+“I should say an hour,” answered the lacquey dully.
+
+“In what direction?” came Ramiro’s frenzied question. He doubted me no
+longer.
+
+“In the direction of Fabriano I should say,” I answered. “Although it
+may well be that they were making for Sinigaglia. The road branches
+farther on.”
+
+He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the priceless
+information I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse
+command to his followers. A moment later and they were cantering past
+us, the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last
+of them had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only
+indication of the halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown
+where their horses had crushed the snow.
+
+I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the
+cozening of Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at
+once so much relief and relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on
+the cushions of my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of
+full-souled laughter which was interrupted ere it was half done by
+Giacopo, who had dismounted and approached me.
+
+“You have fooled us finely,” said he, with venom.
+
+I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he,
+and were his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against
+the man who had saved them?
+
+“You have fooled us finely,” he insisted in a louder voice.
+
+“That, knave, is my trade,” said I. “But it rather seems to me that it
+was Messer Ramiro del’ Orca whom I fooled.”
+
+“Aye,” he answered querulously. “But what when he discerns how you have
+played upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you have
+thrown him off the scent? What when he returns?”
+
+“Spare me,” I begged, “I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture.”
+
+“Nay, but you shall answer me,” he cried, livid with a passion that my
+bantering tone had quickened.
+
+“Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
+returns?” I questioned meekly.
+
+“I am,” he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
+
+“It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that
+actuates you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn.”
+
+“That will not I,” he vowed.
+
+“Nor I, nor I, nor I!” chorused his followers.
+
+“Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it of
+ours how Messer del’ Orca shall vent his wrath when he is
+disillusioned. Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for
+Cagli. Seek her at the sign of ‘The Full Moon,’ and then away for
+Pesaro. If you are brisk you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza’s fortress long before Messer del’ Orca again picks up the
+scent, if, indeed, he ever does so.”
+
+Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornful
+mirth of him.
+
+“By my faith, I’m done with the business,” he cried, and the other
+three expressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
+
+“How done with it?” I asked.
+
+“I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps to
+Rome. I’ll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool.”
+
+“If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself,” said I, with
+unmeasured scorn, “you’ll risk it for the greatest fool and the
+cowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man. And your mistress?
+Is she to wait at Cagli until doomsday? If anywhere within the bulk of
+that elephant’s body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you’ll get you
+to horse and ride to the help of that poor lady.”
+
+They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly. Messer
+Giacopo went the length of raising his hand to me. But I am a man of
+amazing strength—amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do not
+have the air of it. Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught that
+miserable vassal by the breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice,
+then tossed him headlong into a drift of snow by the roadside.
+
+At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me. But I
+flung myself on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the
+stout Pistoja dagger that I carried, I presented with it a bold and
+truculent front, no whit intimidated by their numbers. Four to one
+though they were, they thought better of it. A moment they stood off,
+consulting among themselves; then Giacopo mounted, and with some
+mocking counsel as to how I should dispose of the litter and the mules,
+they made off, no doubt, to find their way back to Rome. Giacopo, as I
+was afterwards to discover, was Madonna Paola’s purse-bearer, so that
+they would not lack for means.
+
+Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens that
+they were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli,
+and who would await them in vain. There, on the mule, I sat in the
+noontide sunlight, and pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as to
+have grown forgetful of my own. At last I resolved to ride on to Cagli
+alone, and inform her that her men were fled.
+
+There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramiro
+del’ Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, and
+return hot-foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means
+as I had no stomach for enduring.
+
+First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving
+no sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I
+had tricked him. Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.
+Slowly, then, did I consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way back
+to Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser
+Ramiro would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up the
+trail. I remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my mule
+back to that as fast as it would travel with the litter and the other
+mule attached to it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on the
+very edge of that shallow precipice. Then exerting all my strength, I
+contrived to roll the litter over. Down that steep incline it went,
+over and over, gathering more snow to itself at every revolution, and
+sinking at last into the drift at the bottom. There were signs enough
+to show its presence, but those signs would hardly be read by any but
+the sharpest eyes, or by such as might be looking for it in precisely
+such a position. I must trust to luck that it escaped the notice of
+Messer Ramiro. But even if he did discover it, I did not think that it
+would tell him overmuch.
+
+That done I resumed my hat and cloak—which I had retained—mounted once
+more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as
+might be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That
+distance covered, again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I
+stripped one of the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the
+snow, behind a hedge, then I drove the beast loose into a field. The
+peasant-owner of that land might conclude upon the morrow that it had
+rained asses in the night.
+
+And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I
+had passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of
+the four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.
+Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at
+their cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on
+towards Cagli. It was a short league farther, and in little more than
+half an hour, my mule half-dead, I halted at the door of “The Full
+Moon.”
+
+Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my
+cloak, and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed all
+Cagli had seemed when I rode up. She came forward—a woman with a brown,
+full face, and large kindly eyes—and I asked her whether a lady had
+arrived there in safety that morning. At first she seemed mistrustful,
+but when I had assured her that I was in that lady’s service, she
+frankly owned that Madonna was safe in her own room. Thither I allowed
+her to lead me, at once eager and reluctant. Eager with my own eyes to
+assure myself of her perfect safety; reluctant that, since a man may
+not penetrate to a lady’s chamber hat on head, by uncovering I must
+disclose my shameful trade. Yet there was nothing for it but a bold
+face, and as I mounted the stairs in the woman’s wake, I told myself
+that I was doubly a fool to be tormented by qualms of such a nature.
+
+Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna’s room. The lady rose
+from the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyes
+wearing an anxious look. At sight of my head crowned with the crested,
+horned hood of folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together,
+and she looked more closely to see whether I was indeed the man who had
+befriended her that morning in her extremity. In the eyes of the
+hostess I caught a gleam of recognition. She knew me for the merry loon
+who had entertained her guests one night a fortnight since, when on my
+way from Pesaro to Rome. But before she could give expression to this
+discovery of hers, the lady spoke.
+
+“Leave us awhile, my woman,” she commanded. But I stayed the hostess as
+she was withdrawing.
+
+“This lady,” said I, “will need an escort of three or four stout knaves
+upon a journey that she is going. She will be setting out as soon as
+may be.”
+
+“But what of my grooms?” cried the lady.
+
+“Madonna,” I informed her, “they have deserted you. That is the reason
+of my presence here. You shall hear the story of it presently.
+Meanwhile, we must arrange to replace them.” And I turned again to the
+hostess.
+
+She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face. But as
+I looked at her she shook her head.
+
+“There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli,” she made answer.
+“The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on the
+pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for the
+Feast of the Epiphany.”
+
+It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surely be
+found. She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there because
+they would not be elsewhere.
+
+The lady’s face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence
+she shrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
+
+“There is your ostler,” quoth I at last. “He will do for one.”
+
+“He is the only man I have. My husband and my sons are gone to Pesaro.”
+
+“Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services.”
+
+But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she was
+well-advised, for she contended that there was work to be done such as
+was beyond her years and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off,
+as well might she close her inn—a thing that was impossible.
+
+Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned. It was
+impossible to send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of some ten
+leagues, and the most of it by night—for if she would make sure of
+escaping, she must journey now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
+
+And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, ready
+to my hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despite my
+banishment, and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia. For, surely,
+considering the mission on which ostensibly I should be returning—as
+the saviour and protector of his kinswoman—Giovanni Sforza could not
+enforce that ban against me. Next I bethought me of the other aspect
+that the business wore. In fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgia
+ends; in rescuing Madonna Paola I had perhaps set at naught the
+Cardinal of Valencia’s aims. If so, what then? It would seem that
+because the lady’s eyes were mild and sweet, and because her beauty had
+so deeply wrought upon me, I had indeed fooled away my chance of
+salvation from the life and trade that were grown hateful to me. For
+back to Rome and Cesare Borgia I should dare go no more. Clearly I had
+burned my boats, and I had done it almost unthinkingly, acting upon the
+good impulse to befriend this lady, and never reckoning the cost down
+to its total. For all that the thing I had done, and what I might yet
+do, should offer me the means I needed to enter Pesaro without danger
+to my neck, I did not see that I was to derive great profit in the
+end—unless my profit lay in knowing that I had advanced the ruin of
+Giovanni Sforza by delivering my letter to Lucrezia. That at any rate
+was enough incentive clearly to define for me the line that I should
+take through this tangle into which the ever-jesting Fates had thrust
+me.
+
+I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexing
+situation, the hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenly
+Madonna Paola spoke.
+
+“Sir,” said she, in faltering accents, “I—I have not the right to ask
+you, and I stand already so deeply in your debt. Not a doubt of it, but
+it will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to inform me
+of the flight of my grooms. Yet if you could—” She paused, timid of
+proceeding, and her glance fell.
+
+The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which this
+very evidently noble lady addressed a Fool. I opened the door for her.
+
+“You may leave us now,” said I. “I will come to you presently.”
+
+When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolved
+upon. My hate had conquered my last doubt. What first imported was that
+I should get to Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
+
+“You were about to ask me,” said I, “that I should accompany you to
+Pesaro.”
+
+“I hesitated, sir,” she murmured. I bowed respectfully.
+
+“There was not the need, Madonna,” I assured her. “I am at your
+service.”
+
+“But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you.”
+
+“Surely,” said I, “the claim that every distressed lady has upon a man
+of heart. Let us say no more. It were best not to delay in setting out,
+although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger from
+Ramiro del’ Orca now.”
+
+“Who is he?” she inquired.
+
+“I told her, whereupon—”
+
+“Did they come up with you?” she asked. “What passed between you?”
+
+Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on a
+fool’s errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, and
+of how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule. She heard
+me, her eyes sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee
+that was almost childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was
+brave. I allayed what little fears remained her by pointing out how
+effectively we had effaced our tracks, and how vainly now Messer del’
+Orca might beat the country in quest of a lady in a litter, escorted by
+four grooms.
+
+And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonder
+at my generous readiness to befriend her—a wonder all devoid of
+suspicion touching the single-mindedness of my purpose. But I reminded
+her that we had little leisure to stand talking, and left her to make
+her preparations for the journey, whilst I went below to see that my
+mule and her horse were saddled. I made bold to pay the reckoning, and
+when presently she spoke of it, with flaming cheeks, and would have
+pledged me a jewel, I bade her look upon it as a loan which anon she
+might repay me when I had brought her safely to her kinsman’s Court at
+Pesaro.
+
+Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side by
+side and talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of
+her flight and of her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest
+to her heart, found readiest expression. I went wrapped in my cloak
+once more, my head-dress hidden ’neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that
+the few wayfarers we chanced on need not marvel to see a lady in such
+friendly intercourse with a Fool. And so dull was I that day as not to
+marvel, myself, at such a state of things.
+
+The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on our
+left, casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere
+encompassed us, as we cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
+
+In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping that
+Messer Ramiro del’ Orca might not chance upon the discovery of how
+egregiously I had fooled him. He was dull-witted and slow at inference,
+and upon that I built the hope that he might fail to associate me with
+Madonna Paola’s elusion of his pursuit. Thus the chance might yet be
+mine of returning to Rome and the honourable employment Cesare Borgia
+had promised me. If only that were so to fall out, I might yet contrive
+to mend the wreckage of my life. I was returned, it seems, to the ways
+of early youth, when we build our hopes of future greatness upon
+untenable foundations!
+
+Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that January
+evening, fired by the gentle child that rode beside me. Fate had sent
+me to her aid that day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of
+that circumstance, a certain right in her. Had Fate no other favours
+for me in her lap! I bethought me of the very House of Sforza, to which
+I had been so shamefully attached, and of its humble source in that
+peasant, Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for his abnormal
+strength of body, who rose to great and princely heights.
+
+Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance but
+given me—
+
+I went no further. Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wild
+musings. Cesare Borgia would come to know—he must, whether Ramiro told
+him, or whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro must
+give him of our meeting—how I had thwarted him in one thing, whilst I
+had served him in another. Fate was against me. I had fallen too low to
+ever rise again, and no dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and inspired,
+perhaps, by a child who was beautiful as one of the saints of God,
+would ever come to be realised by poor Boccadoro.
+
+Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets of
+Fossombrone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+MADONNA’S INGRATITUDE
+
+
+We stayed in Fossombrone little more than a half-hour, and having made
+a hasty supper we resumed our way, giving out that we wished to reach
+Fano ere we slept. And so by the first hour of night Fossombrone was a
+league or so behind us, and we were advancing briskly towards the sea.
+Overhead a moon rode at the full in a clear sky, and its light was
+reflected by the snow, so that we were not discomforted by any
+darkness. We fell, presently, into a gentler pace, for, after all,
+there could be no advantage in reaching Pesaro before morning, and as
+we rode we talked, and I made bold to ask her the cause of her flight
+from Rome.
+
+She told me then that she was Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, and
+that Pope Alexander, in his nepotism and his desire to make rich and
+powerful alliances for his family, had settled upon her as the wife for
+his nephew, Ignacio Borgia. He had been emboldened to this step by the
+fact that her only protector was her brother, Filippo di Santafior,
+whom they had sought to coerce. It was her brother, who, seeing himself
+in a dangerous and unenviable position, had secretly suggested flight
+to her, urging her to repair to her kinsman Giovanni Sforza at Pesaro.
+Her flight, however, must have been speedily discovered and the
+Borgias, who saw in that act a defiance of their supreme authority, had
+ordered her pursuit.
+
+But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her
+capture, and once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they
+would have driven her into the alliance by means of which they sought
+to bring her fortune into their own house. This drew her into fresh
+protestations of the undying gratitude she entertained towards me,
+protestations which I would have stemmed, but that she persisted in
+them.
+
+“It is a good and noble thing that you have done,” said she, “and I
+think that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is scarce
+likely that in all Italy I should have found another man who would have
+done so much.”
+
+“Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done?” I cried. “It is
+no less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would have
+done seeing you so beset.”
+
+“Nay, that is more than I can ever think,” she answered. “Who for the
+sake of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have you?
+Who would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the
+defection of my grooms? Who, when other escort failed, would have gone
+the length of journeying all this way to render a service that is
+beyond repayment? And, above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid
+would have submitted to this travesty of yours?”
+
+“Travesty?” quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last.
+“What travesty, Madonna?”
+
+“Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my
+pursuers and that you still wear in my poor service.”
+
+I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly
+saw her eyes meet mine. So! that was the reason of her kindness and of
+the easy familiarity of her speech with me! She deemed me some
+knight-errant who caracoled through Italy in quest of imperilled
+maidens needing aid. Of a certainty she had gathered her knowledge of
+the world from the works of Messer Bojardo, or perhaps from the “Amadis
+of Gaul” of Messer Bernardo Tasso. And, no doubt, she thought that
+suits of motley grew on bushes by the roadside, whence those who had a
+fancy for disguise might cull them.
+
+Well, well, it were better she should know the truth at once, and
+choose such a demeanour as she considered fitting towards a Fool. I had
+no stomach for the courtesies that were meant for such a man as I was
+not.
+
+“Madonna, you are in error,” I informed her, speaking slowly. “This
+garb is no travesty. It is my usual raiment.”
+
+There was a pause and I saw the slackening of her reins. No doubt, had
+we been afoot she would have halted, the better to confront me.
+
+“How?” she asked, and a new note, imperious and chill, was sounding
+already in her voice. “You would not have me understand that you are by
+trade a Fool?
+
+“Allowing that I am not a fool by birth, under what other
+circumstances, think you, I should be likely to wear the garments of a
+Fool?”
+
+“But this morning,” she protested, after a brief pause, “when first I
+met you, you were not so arrayed.”
+
+“I was arrayed even as I am now, in a cloak and hat and boots that hid
+my motley from such undiscerning eyes as were yours and your
+grooms’—all taken up with your own fears as you then were.”
+
+There was in the tail of that a sting, as I meant there should be, for
+the sudden haughtiness of her tone was cutting into me. Was I less
+worthy of thanks because I was a Fool? Had I on that account done less
+to serve and save her? Or was it that the action which, in a spurred
+and armoured knight, had been accounted noble was deemed unworthy of
+thanks in a crested, motleyed jester? It seemed, indeed, that some such
+reasoning she followed, for after that we spoke no more until we were
+approaching Fano.
+
+A many times before had I felt the shame of my ignoble trade, but never
+so acutely as at that moment. It had seared my soul when Giovanni
+Sforza had told my story to his Court, ere he had driven me from Pesaro
+with threats of hanging, and it had burned even deeper when later,
+Madonna Lucrezia, upon entrusting me with her letter to her brother,
+had upbraided me with the supineness that so long had held me in that
+vile bondage. But deepest of all went now the burning iron of that
+disgrace. For my companion’s silence seemed to argue that had she known
+my quality she would have scorned the aid of which she had availed
+herself to such good purpose. If any doubt of this had mercifully
+remained me, her next words would have served to have resolved it. It
+was when the lights of Fano gleamed ahead; we were coming to a
+cross-roads, and I urged the turning to the left.
+
+“But Fano is in front,” she remonstrated coldly.
+
+“This way we can avoid the town and gain the Pesaro road beyond it,”
+answered I, my tone as cool as hers.
+
+“Yet may it not be that at Fano I might find an escort?”
+
+I could have cried out at her cruelty, for in her words I could but
+read my dismissal from her service. There had been no more talk of an
+escort other than that which I afforded, and with which at first she
+had been well content.
+
+I sat my mule in silence for a moment. She had been very justly served
+had I been the vassal that she deemed me, and had I borne myself in
+that character without consideration of her sex, her station or her
+years. She had been very justly served had I wheeled about and left her
+there to make her way to Fano, and thence to Pesaro, as best she might.
+She was without money, as I knew, and she would have found in Fano such
+a reception as would have brought the bitter tears of late repentance
+to her pretty eyes.
+
+But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner
+that was to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and
+the need to use me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might
+yet do, if she lacked the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake
+of that which I had done already.
+
+“Madonna,” said I. “It were wiser to choose the by-road and forego the
+escort, since we have dispensed with it so far. There are many reasons
+why a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night.”
+
+“I know of none,” she interrupted me.
+
+“That may well be. Nevertheless they exist.”
+
+“This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste,” she
+told me sullenly. “I am for Fano.”
+
+She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as
+plainly as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as
+I should choose. In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule’s
+head once more towards the lights of the town.
+
+“Since you are resolved, so be it,” was all my answer; and we
+proceeded.
+
+No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she
+curtly asked me which was the best inn.
+
+“‘The Golden Fish,’” said I, as curtly, and to “The Golden Fish” we
+went.
+
+Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands. She
+dismounted, leaving the reins with a groom, and entering the
+common-room she proclaimed her needs to those that occupied it by
+loudly calling upon the landlord to find her an escort of three or four
+knaves to accompany her at once to Pesaro, where they should be well
+rewarded by the Lord Giovanni, her cousin.
+
+I had followed her in, and I ground my teeth at such an egregious piece
+of folly. Her hood was thrown back, displaying the lenza of fine linen
+on her sable hair, and over this a net of purest gold all set with
+jewels. Her camorra, too, was open, and in her girdle there were gems
+for all to see. There were but a half-dozen men in the room. Two of
+these had a venerable air—they may have been traders journeying to
+Milan—whilst a third, who sat apart, was a slender, effeminate-looking
+youth. The remaining three were fellows of rough aspect, and when one
+of them—a black-browed ruffian—raised his eyes and fastened them upon
+the riches that Madonna Paola with such indifference displayed, I knew
+what was to follow.
+
+He rose upon the instant, and stepping forward, he made her a low bow.
+
+“Illustrious lady,” said he, “if these two friends of mine and I find
+favour with you, here is an escort ready found. We are stout fellows,
+and very faithful.”
+
+Faithful to their cut-throat trade, I made no doubt he meant.
+
+His fellows now rose also, and she looked them over, giving herself the
+airs of having spent her virgin life in judging men by their
+appearance. It was in vain I tugged her cloak, in vain I murmured the
+word “wait” under cover of my hand. She there and then engaged them,
+and bade them make ready to set out at once. One more attempt I made to
+induce her to alter her resolve.
+
+“Madonna,” said I, “it is an unwise thing to go a-journeying by night
+with three unknown men, and of such villainous appearance. To me they
+seem no better than bandits.”
+
+We were standing apart from the others, and she was sipping a cup of
+spiced wine that the host had mulled for her. She looked at me with a
+tolerant smile.
+
+“They are poor men,” said she. “Would you have them robed in velvet?”
+
+“My quarrel is with their looks, Madonna, not their garments,” I
+answered patiently. She laughed lightly, carelessly; even, I thought, a
+trifle scornfully.
+
+“You are very fanciful,” said she, then added—“but if so be that you
+are afraid to trust yourself in their company, why then, sir, I need
+bring you no farther out of the road that you were following when first
+we met.”
+
+Did the child think that some jealousy actuated me, and prompted me to
+inspire her with mistrust of my supplanters? She angered me. Yet now,
+more than ever was I resolved to journey with her. Leave her at the
+mercy of those ruffians, whom in her ignorance she was mad enough to
+trust, I could not—not even had she whipped me. She was so young, so
+frail and slight, that none but a craven could have found it in his
+heart to have deserted her just then.
+
+“If it please you Madonna,” I answered smoothly, “I will make bold to
+travel on with you.”
+
+It may be that my even accents stung her; perhaps she read in them some
+measure of reproof of the ingratitude that lay in her altered bearing
+towards me. Her eyes met mine across the table, and seemed to harden as
+she looked. Her answer came in a vastly altered tone.
+
+“Why, if you are bent that way, I shall be glad to have you avail
+yourself of my escort, Boccadoro.”
+
+I had suffered the scorn now of her speech, now of her silence, for
+some hours, but never was I so near to turning on her as at that
+moment; never so near to consigning her to the fate to which her
+headstrong folly was compelling her. That she should take that tone
+with me!
+
+The violence of the sudden choler I suppressed turned me pale under her
+steady glance. So that, seeing it, her own cheeks flamed crimson, and
+her eyes fell, as if in token that she realised the meanness of her
+bearing. To some natures there can be nothing more odious than such a
+realisation, and of those, I think, was she; for she stamped her foot
+in a sudden pet, and curtly asked the host why there was such delay
+with the horses.
+
+“They are at the door, Madonna,” he protested, bowing as he spoke. “And
+your escort is already waiting in the saddle.”
+
+She turned and strode abruptly towards the threshold. Over her shoulder
+she called to me:
+
+“If you come with us, Boccadoro, you had best be brisk.”
+
+“I follow, Madonna,” said I, with a grim relish, “so soon as I have
+paid the reckoning.”
+
+She halted and half turned, and I thought I saw a slight droop at the
+corners of her mouth.
+
+“You are keeping count of what I owe you?” she muttered.
+
+“Aye, Madonna,” I answered, more grimly still, “I am keeping count.”
+And I thought that my wits were vastly at fault if that account were
+not to be greatly swelled ere Pesaro was reached. Haply, indeed, my own
+life might go to swell it. I almost took a relish in that thought.
+Perhaps then, when I was stiff and cold—done to death in her
+service—this handsome, ungrateful child would come to see how much
+discomfort I had suffered for her sake.
+
+My thoughts still ran in that channel as we rode out of Pesaro, for I
+misliked the way in which those knaves disposed themselves about us. In
+front went Madonna Paola; and immediately behind her, so that their
+horses’ heads were on a level with her saddle-bow, one on each side,
+went two of those ruffians. The third, whom I had heard them call
+Stefano, and who was the one who had made her the offer of their
+services, ambled at my side, a few paces in the rear, and sought to
+draw me into conversation, haply by way of throwing me off my guard.
+
+Mistrust is a fine thing at times. “Forewarned is forearmed,” says the
+proverb, and of all forewarnings there is none we are more likely to
+heed than our own mistrust; for whereas we may leave unheeded the
+warnings of a friend, we seldom leave unheeded the warnings of our
+spirit.
+
+And so, while my amiable and garrulous Ser Stefano engaged me in
+pleasant conversation—addressing me ever as Messer the Fool, since he
+knew me not by name—I wrapped my cloak about me, and under cover of it
+kept my fingers on the hilt of my stout Pistoja dagger, ready to draw
+and use it at the first sign of mischief. For that sign I was all eyes,
+and had I been Argus himself I could have kept no better watch.
+Meanwhile I plied my tongue and maintained as merry a conversation with
+Ser Stefano as you could wish to hear, for he seemed a ready-witted
+knave of a most humorous turn of fancy—God rest his rascally soul! And
+so it came to pass that I did by him the very thing he sought to do by
+me; I lulled him into a careless confidence.
+
+At last the sign I had been waiting for was given. I saw it as plainly
+as if it had been meant for me; I believe I saw it before the man for
+whom it was intended, and but for my fears concerning Madonna Paola, I
+could have laughed outright at their clumsy assurance. The man who rode
+on Madonna’s right turned in his saddle and put up his hand as if to
+beckon Stefano. I was regaling him with one of the choicest of Messer
+Sacchetti’s paradoxes, gurgling, myself, at the humour of the thing I
+told. I paid no heed to the sign. I continued to expound my quip, as
+though we had the night before us in which to make its elusive humour
+clear. But out of the tail of my eye I watched my good friend Stefano,
+and I saw his right hand steal round to the region of his back where I
+knew his dagger to be slung. Yet was I patient. There should be no
+blundering through an excessive precipitancy. I talked on until I saw
+that my suspicions were amply realised. I caught the cold gleam of
+steel in the hand that he brought back as stealthily as he had carried
+it to his poniard. Sant’ Iddio! What a coward he was for all his bulk,
+to go so slyly about the business of stabbing a poor, helpless,
+defenceless Fool.
+
+“But Sacchetti makes his point clear,” I babbled on, most blandly;
+“almost as clear, as comprehensive and as penetrating as should be to
+you the point of this.” And with a swift movement I swung half-round in
+my saddle, and sank my dagger to the hilt in his side even as he was in
+the act of raising his.
+
+He made no sound beyond the faintest gurgle—the first vowel of a
+suddenly choked word of wonder and surprise. He rocked a second in his
+saddle, then crashed over, and lay with arms flung wide, like a huge
+black crucifix, upon the white ground. At the same moment a piercing
+scream broke from Madonna Paola.
+
+I tremble still to think what might have been her fate had not those
+ruffians who had laid hands on her fallen into the sorry error of
+holding their single adversary too lightly. They heard the thud of the
+gallant Stefano’s fall, and they never doubted that mine was the body
+that had gone down. They heard the rapid hoof-beats of my approach,
+yet, they never turned their heads to ascertain whether they might not
+be mistaken in their firm conviction that it was Messer Stefano who was
+joining them.
+
+I kissed my blade for luck, and drove it straight and full into the
+back of the fellow on Madonna Paola’s right. He cried out, essayed to
+turn in his saddle that he might deal with this unlooked-for assailant,
+then, overcome, he lurched forward on to the withers of his horse and
+thence rolled over, and was dragged away at the gallop, his foot caught
+in a stirrup, by the suddenly startled brute he rode.
+
+So far things had gone with an amazing and delightful ease. If only the
+last of them had had the amiability to be intimidated by my prowess and
+to have taken to his heels, I might have issued from that contest with
+the unscathed glory of a very Mars. But from his throat there came, in
+answer to his comrade’s cry, a roar of rage. He fell back from Madonna,
+and wheeled his horse to come at me, drawing his sword as he advanced.
+
+“Ride on, Madonna,” I shouted. “I will rejoin you presently.”
+
+The fellow laughed, a mighty ugly and discomposing laugh, which may or
+may not have shaken her faith in my promise to rejoin her. It certainly
+went near to shaking mine. However, she displayed a presence of mind
+full worthy of the haughtiness and ingratitude of which she had showed
+herself capable. She urged her mule forward, and, so, left him a clear
+road to attack me. I made a mistake then that went mighty near to
+costing me my life. I paused to twist my cloak about my left arm
+intending to use it as a buckler. Had I but risked the arm itself, all
+unprotected, in that task, it may well be that it had served me better.
+As it was, my preparations were far from complete when already he was
+upon me, with the result that the waving slack of my cloak was in my
+way to hamper and retard the movements of my arm.
+
+His sword leapt at me, a murderous blue-white flash of moonlit steel. I
+put up my half-swaddled arm to divert the thrust, holding my dagger
+ready in my right, and gripping my mule with all the strength of my two
+knees. I caught the blade, it is true, and turned aside the stroke
+intended for my heart. But the slack of the cloak clung to the neck of
+my mule, so that I could not carry my arm far enough to send his point
+clear of my body. It took me in the shoulder, stinging me, first icy
+cold then burning hot, as it went tearing its way through. For just a
+second was I daunted, more at knowing myself touched than by the actual
+pain. Then I flung my whole body forward to reach him at the close
+quarters to which he had come, and I buried my dagger in his breast,
+high up at the base of his dirty throat.
+
+The force of the blow carried me forward, even as it bore him backward;
+and so, with his sword-blade in my shoulder, and my dagger where I had
+planted it, we hurtled over together and lay a second amidst what
+seemed a forest of equine legs. Then something smote me across the
+head, and I was knocked senseless.
+
+Conceive me, if you can, a sorrier, or more useless thing. A senseless
+Fool!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+FOOL’S LUCK
+
+
+My return to consciousness seemed to afford me such sensations as a
+diver may experience as he rises up and up through the depth of water
+he has plumbed—or as a disembodied soul may know in its gentle ascent
+towards Heaven. Indeed the latter parallel may be more apt. For through
+the mist that suffused my senses there penetrated from overhead a voice
+that seemed to invoke every saint in the calendar on the behalf of some
+poor mortal. A very litany of intercession was it, not quite, it would
+appear, devoid of self-seeking.
+
+“Sainted Virgin, restore him! Good St. Paul, who wert done to death
+with a sword, let him not perish, else am I lost indeed!” came the
+voice.
+
+I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes, whereat the voice cried out
+gladly that its intercessions had been heard, and I knew that it was on
+my behalf that the saints of Heaven had been disturbed in their
+beatific peace. My head was pillowed in a woman’s lap, and it took me a
+moment or two to realise that that lap was Madonna Paula’s, as was hers
+the voice that had reached my awakening senses, the voice that now
+welcomed me back to life in terms that were very different from the
+last that I could remember her having used towards me.
+
+“Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!” she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
+
+Her face was black with shadow, but in her voice I caught a hint of
+tears, and I wondered whether they were shed on my behalf or on her
+own.
+
+“I do!” I answered fervently. “Have you any notion of what hour it is?”
+
+“None,” she sighed. “You have been so long unconscious that I was
+losing hope of ever hearing your voice again.”
+
+I became aware of a dull ache on the right side of my head. I put up my
+hand, and withdrew it moist. She saw the action.
+
+“One of the horses must have struck you with its hoof after you fell,”
+she explained. “But I was more concerned for your other wound. I
+withdrew the sword with my own hands.”
+
+That other wound she spoke of was now making itself felt as well. It
+was a gnawing, stinging pain in the region of my left shoulder, which
+seemed to turn me numb to the waist on that side of my body, and render
+powerless my arm. I questioned her touching my three adversaries, and
+she silently pointed to three black masses that lay some little
+distance from us in the snow.
+
+“Not all dead?” I cried.
+
+“I do not know,” she answered, with a sob. “I have not dared go near
+them. They frighten me. Mother of Heaven, what a night of horror it has
+been! Oh, that I had taken your advice, Messer Boccacloro!” she
+exclaimed in a passion of self-reproach.
+
+I laughed, seeking to soften her distress.
+
+“To me it seems, that whether you would or not, you have been compelled
+to take it, after all. Those fellows lie there harmless enough, and I
+am still—as I urged that I should be—your only escort.”
+
+“A nobler protector never woman had,” she assured me, and I felt a hot
+pearl of moisture fail upon my brow.
+
+“You were wise, at least, to journey with a Fool,” I answered her. “For
+fools are proverbially lucky folk, and to-night has proven me of all
+fools the luckiest. But, Madonna,” I suggested, in a different tone,
+“should we not be better advised to attempt to resume, this interesting
+journey of ours? We do not seem to lack horses?”
+
+A couple of nags were standing by the road-side, together with our
+mules, and I was afterwards to learn that she, herself, it was had
+tethered them.
+
+“It must be yet some three leagues to Pesaro,” I added, “and if we
+journey slowly, as I fear me that we must, we should arrive there soon
+after daybreak.”
+
+“Do you think that you can stand?” she asked, a hopeful ring in her
+voice.
+
+“I might essay it,” answered I, and I would have done so, there and
+then, but that she detained me.
+
+“First let me see to this hurt in your head,” said she. “I have been
+bathing it with snow while you were unconscious.”
+
+She gathered a fresh handful as she spoke, and, very tenderly she wiped
+away the blood. Then from her own head she took the fine linen lanza
+that she wore, and made a bandage—a bandage sweet with the faint
+fragrance of marsh-mallow—and bound it about my battered skull. When
+that was done she turned her attention to my shoulder. This was a more
+difficult matter, and all that we could do was to attempt to stanch the
+blood, which already had drenched my doublet on that side. To this end
+she passed a long scarf under my arm, and wound it several times about
+my shoulder.
+
+At last her gentle ministrations ended, I sought to rise. A dizziness
+assailed me scarce was I on my feet, and it is odds I had fallen back,
+but that she caught and steadied me.
+
+“Mother in Heaven! You are too weak to ride,” she exclaimed. “You must
+not attempt it.”
+
+“Nay, but I will,” I answered, with more stoutness of tone than I felt
+of body, and notwithstanding that my knees were loosening under my
+weight. “It is a faintness that will pass.”
+
+If ever man willed himself to conquer weakness, that did I then, and
+with some measure of success—or else it was that my faintness passed of
+itself. I drew away from her support, and straightening myself, I
+crossed to where the animals were tethered, staggering at first, but
+presently with a surer foot. She followed me, watching my steps with as
+much apprehension as a mother may feel when her first-born makes his
+earliest attempts at walking, and as ready to spring to my aid did I
+show signs of stumbling. But I kept up, and presently my senses seemed
+to clear, and I stepped out more surely.
+
+Awhile we stood discussing which of the animals we should take. It was
+my suggestion that we should ride the horses but she wisely contended
+that the mules would prove the more convenient if the slower. I agreed
+with her, and then, ere we set out, I went to see to my late opponents.
+One of them—Ser Stefano—was cold and stiff; the other two still lived,
+and from the nature of their wounds seemed likely to survive, if only
+they were not frozen to death before some good Samaritan came upon
+them.
+
+I knelt a moment to offer up a prayer for the repose of the soul of him
+that was dead, and I bound up the wounds of the living as best I could,
+to save them greater loss of blood. Indeed, had it lain in my power, I
+would have done more for them. But in what case was I to render further
+aid? After all, they had brought their fate upon themselves, and I
+doubt not they were paying a score that they had heaped up heavily in
+the past.
+
+I went back to the mules, and, despite my remonstrances, Madonna Paola
+insisted upon aiding me to mount, urging me to have a care of my wound,
+and to make no violent movement that should set it bleeding again. Then
+she mounted too, nimble as any boy that ever robbed an orchard, and we
+set out once more. And now it was a very contrite and humbled lady that
+rode with me, and one that was at no pains to dissemble her contrition,
+but, rather, could speak of nothing else.
+
+It moved me strangely to have her suing pardon from me, as though I had
+been her equal instead of the sometime jester of the Court of Pesaro,
+dismissed for an excessive pertness towards one with whom his master
+curried favour.
+
+And presently, as was perhaps but natural after all that she had
+witnessed, she fell to questioning me as to how it came to pass that
+one of such wit, resource and courage should follow the mean calling to
+which I had owned. In answer I told her without reservation the full
+story of my shame. It was a thing that I had ever most zealously kept
+hidden, as already I have shown.
+
+To be a Fool was evil enough in all truth; but to let men know that
+under my motley was buried the identity of a man patrician-born was
+something infinitely worse. For, however vile the trade of a Fool may
+be, it is not half so vile for a low-born clod who is too indolent or
+too sickly to do honest work as for one who has accepted it out of a
+half-cowardice and persevered in it through very sloth.
+
+Yet on that night and after all that had chanced, no matter how my
+cheeks might burn in the gloom as I rode beside her, I was glad for
+once to tell that ignominious story, glad that she should know what
+weight of circumstance had driven me to wear my hideous livery.
+
+But since my story dealt oddly with that Lord of Pesaro, the kinsman
+whose shelter she was now upon her way to seek, I must first assure
+myself that the candour to which I was disposed would not offend.
+
+“Does it happen, Madonna,” I inquired, “that you are well acquainted
+with the Lord of Pesaro?”
+
+“Nay; I have never seen him,” answered she. “When he was at Rome, a
+year ago in the service of the Pope, I was at my studies in the
+convent. His father was my father’s cousin, so that my kinship is none
+so near. Why do you ask?”
+
+“Because my story deals with him, Madonna, and it is no pretty tale.
+Not such a narrative as I should choose wherewith to entertain you.
+Still, since you have asked for it, you shall hear it.
+
+“It was in the year that Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, celebrated
+his nuptials with the Lady Lucrezia Borgia—three years ago,
+therefore—that one morning there rode into the courtyard of his castle
+of Pesazo a tall and lean young man on a tall and lean old horse. He
+was garbed and harnessed after a fashion that proclaimed him
+half-knight, half-peasant, and caused the castle lacqueys to eye him
+with amusement and greet him with derision. Lacqueys are great arbiters
+of fashion.
+
+“In a loud, imperious voice this cockerel called for Giovanni, Lord of
+Pesaro, whereupon, resenting the insolence of his manner, the
+men-at-arms would have driven him out without more ado. But it chanced
+that from one of the windows of his stronghold the tyrant espied his
+odd visitor. He was in a mood that craved amusement, and marvelling
+what madman might be this, he made his way below and bade them stand
+back and let me speak—for I, Madonna, was that lean young man.
+
+“‘Are you,’ quoth I, ‘the Lord of Pesaro?’
+
+“He answered me courteously that he was, whereupon I did my errand to
+him. I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.
+
+“‘Your father,’ said I, ‘Costanzo of Pesaro, was a foul brigand, who
+robbed my father of his castle and lands of Biancomonte, leaving him to
+a needy and poverty-stricken old age. I am here to avenge upon your
+father’s son my father’s wrongs; I am here to redeem my castle and my
+lands. If so be that you are a true knight, you will take up the
+challenge that I fling you, and you will do battle with me, on horse or
+foot, and with whatsoever arms you shall decree, God defending him that
+has justice on his side.’
+
+“Knowing the world as I know it now, Madonna,” I interpolated, “I
+realise the folly of that act of mine. But in those days my views
+belonged to a long departed age of chivalry, of which I had learnt from
+such books as came my way at Biancomonte, and which I believed was the
+life of to-day in the world of men. It was a thing which some tyrants
+would have had me broken on the wheel. But Giovanni Sforza never so
+much as manifested anger. There was a complacent smile on his white
+face and his fingers toyed carelessly with his beard.
+
+“I waited patiently, very haughty of mien and very fierce at heart, and
+when the amusement began to fade from his eyes, I begged that he would
+deliver me his answer.
+
+“‘My answer,’ quoth he, ‘is that you get you back to the place from
+whence you came, and render thanks to God on your knees every morning
+of the life I am sparing you that Giovanni Sforza is more entertained
+than affronted by your frenzy.’
+
+“At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.
+
+“‘Do you disdain me?’ I questioned, choking with rage. He turned, with
+a shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his
+glove, and conduct him from the castle. Several that had stood at hand
+made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning
+fury that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me. They were
+many, I was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and
+dragging me from my horse.
+
+“They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then
+get me hanged without delay. Had he done that, the world being as it
+is, perhaps none could blame him. But he elected to spare my life, yet
+on such terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the
+consideration of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills
+of Biancomonte whilst I went forth to seek my fortune—such was the tale
+I had told her. I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my
+death must have been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very
+want. The thought of that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in
+durance waiting for my end, and when the priest came, whom they had
+sent to shrive me, he found me weeping, which he took to argue a
+contrite heart. He bore the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of
+Pesaro came to visit me in consequence, and found me sorely changed
+from my furious mood of some hours earlier.
+
+“I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother’s sake. If I
+feared death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to
+her.”
+
+“At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my
+eyes and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had
+been my erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him. I told him the
+truth—that for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother
+in the hills who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were
+thus cut off.
+
+“He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.
+Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious
+depth I was far indeed from suspecting. He asked me would I take solemn
+oath that if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand
+against him. That oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the
+death that was impending.
+
+“‘You have been wise,’ said he,’ and you shall have your life on one
+condition—that you devote it to my service.’
+
+“‘Even that will I do,’ I answered readily. He turned to an attendant,
+and ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley. No word passed between us
+until that man returned with those garish garments. Then Giovanni
+smiled on me in his mocking, infernal way.
+
+“‘Not that,’ I cried, guessing his purpose.
+
+“‘Aye, that,’ he answered me; ‘that or the hangman’s noose. A man who
+could devise so monstrous a jest as was your challenge to the Tyrant of
+Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would. I need such a one. There
+are two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers, deformed vermin
+that excite as much disgust as mirth. I need a sprightlier man, a man
+of some learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would
+seem to be.’
+
+“I recoiled in horror and disgust. Was this his clemency—this sparing
+of my life that he might submit it to an eternal shame? For a moment my
+mother was forgotten. I thought only of myself, and I grew resolved to
+hang.
+
+“‘When you spoke of service,’ said I ‘I thought of service of an
+honourable sort.’
+
+“‘The service that I offer you is honourable,’ he said, with cold
+amusement. ‘Indeed, remembering that your life was forfeit, you should
+account yourself most fortunate. You shall be well housed and well fed,
+you shall wear silk and lie in fine linen, on condition that you are
+merry. If you prove dull our castellan shall have you whipped—for such
+a one as you could not be dull save out of sullenness, of which we
+shall seek to cure you if you show signs of it.’
+
+“‘I will not do it,’ I cried, ‘it were too base.’
+
+“‘My friend,’ he answered me, ‘the choice is yours. You shall have an
+hour in which to resolve what you will do. When they open this door for
+you at sunset, come forth clad as you are, and you shall hang. If you
+prefer to live, then don me that robe and cap of motley, and, on
+condition that you are merry, life is yours.’”
+
+I paused a moment. Our horses were moving slowly, for the tale
+engrossed us both, me in the telling, her in the hearing. Presently—
+
+“I need not harass you with the reflections that were mine during that
+hour, Madonna. Rather let me ask you: how should a man so placed make
+choice to be full worthy of the office proffered him?”
+
+There was a moment’s silence while she pondered.
+
+“Why,” she answered me, at last, “a fool I take it would have chosen
+death: the wise man life, since it must hold the hope of better days.”
+
+“And since it asked a man of wit to play the fool to such a tune as the
+Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly. But was
+that choice indeed so wise? The story ends not there. That young men
+whose early life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed,
+well-housed and fed as the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he
+fell into a slothful spirit, and was content to play the Fool for bed
+and board.
+
+“There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
+tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of
+all, from prince to scullion. But in the three years that I had dwelt
+at Pesaro my identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been
+aware of it. Moreover, a court is a place of changes, and in three
+years there had been such comings and goings at the Court of Giovanni
+Sforza, that not more than one or two remained of those that had
+inhabited it when first I entered on my existence there. Thus had my
+position grown steadily more bearable. I was just a jester and no more,
+and so, in a measure—though I blush to say it—I grew content. I
+gathered consolation from the fact that there were not any who now
+remembered the story of my coming to Pesaro, or who knew of the
+cowardliness I had been guilty of when I consented to mask myself in
+the motley and assume the name of Boccadoro. I counted on the Lord
+Giovanni’s generosity to let things continue thus, and, meanwhile, I
+provided for my mother out of the vails that were earned me by my
+shame. But there came a day when Giovanni in evil wantonness of spirit
+chose to make merry at the Fool’s expense.
+
+“To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such as
+I, and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the
+derision of his Court, haply I had been his jester still. But such
+sport as that would have satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of
+his soul. The man whom his cruel mockery crucified for their
+entertainment was Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he revealed to them,
+relating in his own fashion the tale I have told you.
+
+“At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
+all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live. Passion
+surged up in him, and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the
+bone—in short, to slay me with a whip.
+
+“From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
+Lucrezia. But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it
+happens that I am a wanderer now.”
+
+At that I left it. I had no mind to tell her what motives had impelled
+Lucrezia Borgia to rescue me, nor on what errand I had gone to Rome and
+was from Rome returning.
+
+She had heard me in silence, and now that I had done, she heaved a
+sigh, for which gentle expression of pity out of my heart I thanked
+her. We were silent, thereafter, for a little while. At length she
+turned her head to regard me in the light of the now declining moon.
+
+“Messer Biancomonte,” said she, and the sound of the old name, falling
+from her lips, thrilled me with a joy unspeakable, and seemed already
+to reinvest me in my old estate, “Messer Biancomonte, you have done me
+in these four-and-twenty hours such service as never did knight of old
+for any lady—and you did it, too, out of the most disinterested and
+noble of motives, proving thereby how truly knightly is that heart of
+yours, which, for my sake, has all but beat its last to-night. You must
+journey on to Pesaro with me despite this banishment of which you have
+told me. I will be surety that no harm shall come to you. I could not
+do less, and I shall hope to do far more. Such influence as I may prove
+to have with my cousin of Pesaro shall be exerted all on your behalf,
+my friend; and if in the nature of Giovanni Sforza there be a tithe of
+the gratitude with which you have inspired me, you shall, at least,
+have justice, and Biancomonte shall be yours again.”
+
+I was silent for a spell, so touched was I by the kindness she
+manifested me—so touched, indeed, and so unused to it that I forgot how
+amply I had earned it, and how rudely she had used me ere that was
+done.
+
+“Alas!” I sighed. “God knows I am no longer fit to sit in the house of
+the Biancomonte. I am come too low, Madonna.”
+
+“That Lazzaro, after whom you are named,” she answered, “had come yet
+lower. But he lived again, and resumed his former station. Take your
+courage from that.”
+
+“He lived not at the mercy of Giovanni of Pesaro,” said I.
+
+There was a fresh pause at that. Then—“At least,” she urged me, “you’ll
+come to Pesaro with me?”
+
+“Why yes,” said I. “I could not let you go alone.” And in my heart I
+felt a pang of shame, and called myself a cur for making use of her as
+I was doing to reach the Court of Giovanni Sforza.
+
+“You need fear no consequences,” she promised me. “I can be surety for
+that at least.”
+
+In the east a brighter, yellower light than the moon’s began to show.
+It was the dawn, from which I gathered that it must be approaching the
+thirteenth hour. Pesaro could not be more than a couple of leagues
+farther, and, presently, when we had gained the summit of the slight
+hill we were ascending, we beheld in the distance a blurred mass
+looming on the edge of the glittering sea. A silver ribbon that
+uncoiled itself from the western hills disappeared behind it. That
+silvery streak was the River Foglia; that heap of buildings against the
+landscape’s virgin white, the town of Pesaro.
+
+Madonna pointed to it with a sudden cry of gladness. “See Messer
+Biancomonte, how near we are. Courage, my friend; a little farther, and
+yonder we have rest and comfort for you.”
+
+She had need, in truth, to cry me “Courage!” for I was weakening fast
+once more. It may have been the much that I had talked, or the infernal
+jolting of my mule, but I was losing blood again, and as we were on the
+point of riding forward my senses swam, so that I cried out; and but
+for her prompt assistance I might have rolled headlong from my saddle.
+
+As it was, she caught me about the waist as any mother might have done
+her son. “What ails you?” she inquired, her newly-aroused anxiety
+contrasting sharply with her joyous cry of a moment earlier. “Are you
+faint, my friend?” It needed no confession on my part. My condition was
+all too plain as I leaned against her frail body for support.
+
+“It is my wound,” I gasped. Then I set my teeth in anguish. So near the
+haven, and to fail now! It could not be; it must not be. I summoned all
+my resolution, all my fortitude; but in vain. Nature demanded payment
+for the abuses she had suffered.
+
+“If we proceed thus,” she ventured fearfully, “you leaning against me,
+and going at a slow pace—no faster than a walk—think you, you can bear
+it? Try, good Messer ‘Biancomonte.”
+
+“I will try, Madonna,” I replied. “Perhaps thus, and if I am silent, we
+may yet reach Pesaro together. If not—if my strength gives out—the town
+is yonder and the day is coming. You will find your way without me.”
+
+“I will not leave you, sir,” she vowed; and it was good to hear her.
+
+“Indeed, I hope you may not know the need,” I answered wearily. And
+thus we started on once more.
+
+Sant’ Iddio! What agonies I suffered ere the sun rose up out of the sea
+to flood us with his winter glory! What agonies were mine during those
+two hours or so of that last stage of our eventful journey! “I must
+bear up until we are at the gates of Pesaro,” I kept murmuring to
+myself, and, as if my spirit were inclined to become the servant of my
+will and hold my battered flesh alive until we got that far, Pesaro’s
+gates I had the joy of entering ere I was constrained to give way.
+
+Dimly I remember—for very dim were my perceptions growing—that as we
+crossed the bridge and passed beneath the archway of the Porta Romana,
+the officer turned out to see who came. At sight of me be gaped a
+moment in astonishment.
+
+“Boccadoro?” he exclaimed, at last. “So soon returned?”
+
+“Like Perseus from the rescue of Andromeda,” answered I, in a feeble
+voice, “saving that Perseus was less bloody than am I. Behold the
+Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, the noble cousin of our High and
+Mighty Lord.”
+
+And then as if my task being done, I were free to set my weary brain to
+rest, my senses grew confused, the officer’s voice became a hum that
+gradually waxed fainter as I sank into what seemed the most luxurious
+and delicious sleep that ever mortal knew.
+
+Two days later, when I was conscious once more, I learned what
+excitement those words of mine had sown, with what honours Madonna
+Paola was escorted to the Castle, and how the citizens of Pesaro turned
+out upon hearing the news which ran like fire before us. And Madonna,
+it seems, had loudly proclaimed how gallantly I had served her, for as
+they bore me along in a cloak carried by four men-at-arms, the cry that
+was heard in the streets of Pesaro that morning was “Boccadoro!” They
+had loved me, had those good citizens of Pesaro, and the news of my
+departure had cast a gloom upon the town. To have their hero return in
+a manner so truly heroic provoked that brave display of their
+affection, and I deeply doubt if ever in the days of greatest loyalty
+the name of Sforza was as loudly cried in Pesaro as, they tell me, was
+the name of Sforza’s Fool that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+
+If Madonna Paola did not achieve quite all that she had promised me so
+readily, yet she achieved more than from my acquaintance with the
+nature of Giovanni Sforza—and my knowledge of the deep malice he
+entertained for me—I should have dared to hope.
+
+The Tyrant of Pesaro, as I was soon to learn, was greatly taken with
+this fair cousin of his, whom that morning he had beheld for the first
+time. And being taken with her, it may be that Giovanni listened the
+more readily to her intercessions on my poor behalf. Since it was she
+who begged this thing, he could not wholly refuse. But since he was
+Giovanni Sforza, he could not wholly grant. He promised her that my
+life, at least, should be secure, and that not only would he pardon me,
+but that he would have his own physician see to it that I was made
+sound again. For the time, that was enough, he thought. First let them
+bring me back to life. When that was achieved, it would be early enough
+to consider what course this life should take thereafter.
+
+And she, knowing him not and finding him so kind and gracious, trusted
+that he would perform that which he tricked her into believing that he
+promised.
+
+For some ten days I lay abed, feverish at first and later very weak
+from the great loss of blood I had sustained. But after the second day,
+when my fever had abated, I had some visitors, among whom was Madonna
+Paola, who bore me the news that her intercessions for me with the Lord
+of Pesaro were likely to bear fruit, and that I might look for my
+reinstatement. Yet, if I permitted myself to hope as she bade me; I did
+so none too fully.
+
+My situation, bearing in mind how at once I had served and thwarted the
+ends of Cesare Borgia, was perplexing.
+
+Another visitor I had was Messer Magistri—the pompous seneschal of
+Pesaro—who, after his own fashion, seemed to have a liking for me, and
+a certain pity. Here was my chance of discharging the true errand on
+which I was returned.
+
+“I owe thanks,” said I, “to many circumstances for the sparing of my
+life; but above all people and all things do I owe thanks to our
+gracious Lady Lucrezia. Do you think, Messer Magistri, that she would
+consent to see me and permit me again to express the gratitude that
+fills my heart?”
+
+Mosser Magistri thought that he could promise this, and consented to
+bear my message to her. Within the hour she was at my bedside and
+divining that, haply, I had news to give her of the letter I had born
+her brother, she dismissed Magistri who was in attendance.
+
+Once we were alone her first words were of kindly concern for my
+condition, delivered in that sweet, musical voice that was by no means
+the least charm of a princess to whom Nature had been prodigal of
+gifts. For without going to that length of exaggerated praise which
+some have bestowed—for her own ear, and with an eye to profit—upon
+Madonna Lucrezia, yet were I less than truthful if I sought to belittle
+her ample claims to beauty. Some six years later than the time of which
+I write she was met on the occasion of her entry into Ferrara by a
+certain clown dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd Paris, who
+proffered her the apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that
+since beholding her he had been forced to alter his old-time judgment
+in favour of Venus.
+
+He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for
+which he should have been soundly whipped. Her nose was a shade too
+long, her chin a shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such
+comparisons. Still, that she had a certain gracious beauty, as I have
+said, it is not mine to deny. There was an almost childish freshness in
+her face, an almost childish innocence in her fine gray eyes, and,
+above all, a golden and resplendent hair as brought to mind the tresses
+of God’s angels.
+
+That fair child—for no more than a child was she—drew a chair to my
+bedside.
+
+There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my
+behalf, and answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad
+again in a day or two.
+
+“Brave lad,” she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the
+coverlet, as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool,
+“count me ever your friend hereafter, for what you have done for
+Madonna Paola. For although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you
+did so to serve one who is more to me than any family, more than any
+sister could be.”
+
+“What I did, Madonna,” I answered, “I did with the better heart since
+it opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my
+Lord, your Illustrious brother, set me—one that otherwise might well
+have overtaxed my wits.”
+
+“Ah?” Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a
+glance that revealed to the full their matchless beauty. Care seemed of
+a sudden to have aged her face. The question of her eyes needed no
+translation into words.
+
+“The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
+answer to your own,” I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I
+drew the package, which during Magistri’s absence I had abstracted from
+my boot that I might have it in readiness when she came.
+
+She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of
+her mouth.
+
+“I had hoped he would have found better employment for you,” she said.
+
+“His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the
+future did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch. But by
+aiding Madonna Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim
+the redemption of that promise; though had it not been for Madonna
+Paola and what I did, I scarce know how I should have penetrated here
+to you.”
+
+She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood
+reading the letter, her back toward me. Presently I heard a stifled
+sob. The letter was crushed in her hand. Then moments passed ere she
+confronted me once more. But her manner as all changed; she was
+agitated and preoccupied, and for all that she forced herself to talk
+of me and my affairs, her mind was clearly elsewhere. At last she left
+me, nor did I see her again during the time I was confined to my bed.
+
+On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like,
+I was permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on
+the terrace that overlooks the sea. I found no garments but some suits
+of motley, and so, in despite of my repugnance now to reassume that
+garb, I had no choice but to array myself in one of these. I selected
+the least garish one—a suit of black and yellow stripes, with hose that
+was half black, half yellow, too; and so, leaning upon the crutch they
+had left me, I crept forth into the sunlight, the very ghost of the man
+that I had been a fortnight ago.
+
+I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards
+Ancona, and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air
+of the Adriatic. The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some
+twenty paces off—there was a stretch of soft, green turf.
+
+I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I
+was yet abed. It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with the
+proverbs of one Domenico Lopez—all very proper nourishment for a
+jester’s mind. The odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and
+among the proverbs there were many that were new to me in framing and
+in substance. Moreover, I was glad of this means of improving my
+acquaintance with the tongue of Spain, and I was soon absorbed. So
+absorbed, indeed, as never to hear the footsteps of the Lord Giovanni,
+when presently he approached me unattended, nor to guess at his
+presence until his shadow fell athwart my page. I raised my eyes, and
+seeing who it was I made shift to get on my feet; but he commanded me
+to remain seated, commenting sympathetically upon my weak condition.
+
+He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile
+fluttered across his white face.
+
+“You choose your reading with rare judgment,” said he. “Read on, and
+prime your mind with fresh humour, prepare yourself with new conceits
+for our amusement against the time when health shall be more fully
+restored you.”
+
+It was in such words as these that he intimated to me that I was
+pardoned, and reinstated—as the Fool of the Court of Pesaro. That was
+to be the sum of his clemency. We were precisely where we had been.
+Once before had he granted me my life on condition that I should amuse
+him; he did no more than repeat that mercy now. I stared at him in
+wonder, open-mouthed, whereit he laughed.
+
+“You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro?” said he, his fingers
+straying to his beard as was his custom. “My clemency is no more than
+you deserve in return for the service you have rendered to the House of
+Sforza.” And he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs
+that had borne itself bravely in the chase.
+
+I answered nothing. I sat there as if I had been a part of the stone
+from which my seat was hewn, for I lacked the strength to rise and
+strangle him as he deserved—moreover, I was bound by an oath, which it
+would have damned my soul to break, never to raise my hand against him.
+
+And then, before he could say more, two ladies issued from the doorway
+on my right. They were Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Paola. Upon espying
+me they hastened forward with expressions of pleased surprise at seeing
+me risen and out, and when I would have got to my feet they stayed me
+as Giovanni had done. Madonna Paola’s words seemed addressed to heaven
+rather than to me, for they were words of thanksgiving for this
+recovery of my strength.
+
+“I have no thanks,” she ended warmly, “that can match the deeds by
+which you earned them, Messer Biancomonte.”
+
+My eyes drifting to Giovanni’s face surprised its sudden darkening.
+
+“Madonna Paola,” said he, in an icy voice, “you have uttered a name
+that must not be heard within my walls of Pesaro, if you would prove
+yourself the friend of Boccadoro. To remind me of his true identity is
+to remind me of that which counts not in his favour.”
+
+She turned to regard him, a mild surprise in her blue eyes.
+
+“But, my lord, you promised—” she began.
+
+“I promised,” he interposed, with an easy smile and manner never so
+deprecatory, “that I would pardon him, grant him his life and restore
+him to my favour.”
+
+“But did you not say that if he survived and was restored to strength
+you would then determine the course his life should take?”
+
+Still smiling, he produced his comfit-box, and raised the lid.
+
+“That is a thing he seems to have determined for himself,” he answered
+smoothly—he could be smooth as a cat upon occasion, could this bastard
+of Costanzo Sforza. “I came upon him here, arrayed as you behold him,
+and reading a book of Spanish quips. Is it not clear that he has
+chosen?”
+
+Between thumb and forefinger he balanced a sugar-crusted comfit of
+coriander seed steeped in marjoram vinegar, and having put his question
+he bore the sweet-meat to his mouth. The ladies looked at him, and from
+him to me. Then Madonna Paola spoke, and there seemed a reproachful
+wonder in her voice.
+
+“Is this indeed your choice?” she asked me.
+
+“It is the choice that was forced on me,” said I, in heat. “They left
+me no garment save these of folly. That I was reading this book it
+pleases my lord to interpret into a further sign of my intentions.”
+
+She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of
+Madonna Lucrezia. He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of
+rare loftiness.
+
+“I am more clement than you think,” said he, “in having done so much.
+For the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving
+political issues you little dream of. What is this?”
+
+He had turned abruptly. A servant was approaching, leading a
+mud-splashed courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
+
+“Whence are you?” Giovanni questioned him.
+
+“From the Holy See,” answered the courier, bowing, “with letters for
+the High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his
+noble spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia.”
+
+He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had
+grown overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant. Then
+bidding the servant see to the courier’s refreshment, he dismissed them
+both.
+
+A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he
+would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro
+were, there and then, forgotten by us all. For the thought that rose
+uppermost in our minds—saving always that of Madonna Lucrezia—was that
+these communications concerned the sheltering of Madonna Paola, and
+were a command for her immediate return to Rome. At last Giovanni
+handed his wife the letter intended for her, and, in silence, broke the
+seal of his own.
+
+He unfolded it with a grim smile, but scarce had he begun to read when
+his expression softened into one of terror, and his face grew ashen.
+Next it flared crimson, the veins on his brow stood out like ropes, and
+his eyes flashed furiously upon Madonna Lucrezia. She was reading, her
+bosom rising and falling in token of the excitement that possessed her.
+
+“Madonna,” he cried in an awful voice, “I have here a command from the
+Holy See to repair at once to Rome, to answer certain charges that are
+preferred against me relating to my marriage. Madonna, know you aught
+of this?”
+
+“I know, sir,” she answered steadily, “that I, too, have here a letter
+calling me to Rome. But there is no reason given for the summons.”
+
+Intuitively it flashed across my mind that whatever the matter might
+be, Madonna Lucrezia had full knowledge of it through the letter I had
+brought her from her brother.
+
+“Can you conjecture, Madonna, what are these charges to which my letter
+vaguely alludes?” Giovanni was inquiring.
+
+“Your pardon, but the subject is scarcely of a nature to permit
+discussion in the castle courtyard. Its character is intimate.”
+
+He looked at her very searchingly, but for all that he was a man of
+almost twice her years, her wits were more than a match for his, and
+his scrutiny can have told him nothing. She preserved a calm, unruffled
+front.
+
+“In five minutes, Madonna,” said he, very sternly, “I shall be honoured
+if you will receive me in your closet.”
+
+She inclined her head, murmuring an unhesitating assent. Satisfied, he
+bowed to her and to Madonna Paola—who had been looking on with eyes
+that wonder had set wide open—and turning on his heel he strode briskly
+away. As he passed into the castle, Madonna Lucrezia heaved a sigh and
+rose.
+
+“My poor Boccadoro,” she cried, “I fear me your affairs must wait a
+while. But think of me always as your friend, and believe that if I can
+prevail upon my brother to overlook the ill-turn you did him when you
+entered the service of this child”—and she pointed to Madonna Paola—“I
+shall send for you from Rome, for in Pesaro I fear you have little to
+hope for. But let this be a secret between us.”
+
+From those words of hers I inferred, as perhaps she meant I should,
+that once she left Pesaro to obey her father’s summons, our little
+northern state was to know her no more. Once again, only, did I see
+her, on the occasion of her departure, some four days later, and then
+but for a moment. Back to Pesaro she came no more, as you shall learn
+anon; but behind her she left a sweet and fragrant memory, which still
+endures though many years are sped and much calumny has been heaped
+upon her name.
+
+I might pause here to make some attempt at refuting the base falsehoods
+that had been bruited by that time-serving vassal Guicciardini, and
+others of his kidney, whom the upstart Cardinal Giuliano della
+Rovere—sometime pedlar—in his jealous fury at seeing the coveted
+pontificate pass into the family of Borgia, bought and hired to do his
+loathsome work of calumny and besmirch the fame of as sweet a lady as
+Italy has known. But this poor chronicle of mine is rather concerned
+with the history of Madonna Paola di Santafior, and it were a
+divergence well-nigh unpardonable to set my pen at present to that
+other task. Moreover, there is scarce the need. If any there be who
+doubt me, or if future generations should fall into the error of
+lending credence to the lies of that villain Guicciardini, of that
+arch-villain Giuliano della Rovere, or of other smaller fry who have
+lent their helot’s pens to weave mendacious records of her life,
+dubbing her murderess, adulteress, and Heaven knows what besides—I will
+but refer them to the archives of Ferrara, whose Duchess she became at
+the age of one-and-twenty, and where she reigned for eighteen years.
+There shall it be found recorded that she was an exemplary, God-fearing
+woman; a faithful and honoured wife; a wise, devoted mother; and a
+princess, beloved and esteemed by her people for her piety, her charity
+and her wisdom. If such records as are there to be read by earnest
+seekers after truth be not sufficient to convince, and to reveal those
+others whom I have named in the light of their true baseness, then were
+it idle for me to set up in these pages a passing refutation of the
+falsehoods which it has grieved me so often to hear repeated.
+
+It was two days later that the Lord Giovanni set out for Rome, obedient
+to the command he had received. But before his departure—on the eve of
+it, to be precise—there arrived at Pesaro a very wonderful and handsome
+gentleman. This was the brother of Madonna Paola, the High and Mighty
+Lord Filippo di Santafior. He had had a hint in Rome that his
+connivance at his sister’s defiant escape was suspected at the Vatican,
+and he had wisely determined that his health would thrive better in a
+northern climate for a while.
+
+A very splendid creature was this Lord Filippo, all shimmering velvet,
+gleaming jewels, costly furs and glittering gold. His face was
+effeminate, though finely featured, and resembled, in much, his
+sister’s. He rode a cream-coloured horse, which seemed to have been
+steeped in musk, so strongly was it scented. But of all his
+affectations the one with which I as taken most was to see one of his
+grooms approach him when he dismounted, to dust his wondrous clothes
+down to his shoes, which he wore in the splayed fashion set by the late
+King of France who was blessed with twelve toes on each of his deformed
+feet.
+
+The Lord Giovanni, himself not lacking in effeminacy, was greatly taken
+by the wondrous raiment, the studied lisp and the hundred affectations
+of this peerless gallant. Had he not been overburdened at the time by
+the Papal business that impended, he might there and then have cemented
+the intimacy which was later to spring up between them. As it was, he
+made him very welcome, and placed at his and his sister’s disposal the
+beautiful palace that his father had begun, and he, himself, had
+completed, which was known as the Palazza Sforza. On the morrow
+Giovanni left Pesaro with but a small retinue, in which I was thankful
+not to be included.
+
+Two days later Madonna Lucrezia followed her husband, the fact that
+they journeyed not together, seeming to wear an ominous significance.
+Her eyes had a swollen look, such as attends much weeping, which
+afterwards I took as proof that she knew for what purpose she was
+going, and was moved to bitter grief at the act to which her ambitious
+family was constraining her.
+
+After their departure things moved sluggishly at Pesaro. The nobles of
+the Lord Giovanni’s Court repaired to their several houses in the
+neighboring country, and save for the officers of the household the
+place became deserted.
+
+Madonna Paola remained at the Sforza Palace, and I saw her only once
+during the two mouths that followed, and then it was about the streets,
+and she had little more than a greeting for me as she passed. At her
+side rode her brother, a splendid blaze of finery, falcon on wrist.
+
+My days were spent in reading and reflection, for there was naught else
+to do. I might have gone my ways, had I so wished it, but something
+kept me there at Pesaro, curious to see the events with which the time
+was growing big.
+
+We grew sadly stagnant during Lent, and what with the uneventful course
+of things, and the lean fare proscribed by Mother Church, it was a very
+dispirited Boccadoro that wandered aimlessly whither his dulling fancy
+took him. But in Holy Week, at last, we received an abrupt stir which
+set a whirlpool of excitement in the Dead Sea of our lives. It was the
+sudden reappearance of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+He came alone, dust-stained and haggard, on a horse that dropped dead
+from exhaustion the moment Pesaro was reached, and in his pallid cheek
+and hollow eye we read the tale of some great fear and some disaster.
+
+That night we heard the story of how he had performed the feat of
+riding all the way from Rome in four-and-twenty hours, fleeing for his
+life from the peril of assassination, of which Madonna Lucrezia had
+warned him.
+
+He went off to his Castle of Gradara, where he shut himself up with the
+trouble we could but guess at, and so in Pesaro, that brief excitement
+spent, we stagnated once again.
+
+I seemed an anomaly in so gloomy a place, and more than once did I
+think of departing and seeking out my poor old mother in her mountain
+home, contenting myself hereafter with labouring like any honest
+villano born to the soil. But there ever seemed to be a voice that bade
+me stay and wait, and the voice bore a suggestion of Madonna Paola. But
+why dissemble here? Why cast out hints of voices heard, supernatural in
+their flavour? The voice, I doubt not, was just my own inclination,
+which bade me hope that once again it might be mine to serve that lady.
+
+An eventful year in the history of the families of Sforza and Borgia
+was that year of grace 1497.
+
+Spring came, and ere it had quite grown to summer we had news of the
+assassination of the Duke of Gandia, and the tale that he was done to
+death by his elder brother, Cesare Borgia; a tale which seemed to lack
+for reasonable substantiation, and which, despite the many voices that
+make bold to noise it broadcast, may or may not be true.
+
+In that same month of June messages passed between Rome and Pesaro, and
+gradually the burden of the messages leaked out in rumours that Pope
+Alexander and his family were pressing the Lord Giovanni to consent to
+a divorce. At last he left Pesaro again; this time to journey to Milan
+and seek counsel with his powerful cousin, Lodovico, whom they called
+“The Moor.” When he returned he was more sulky and downcast than ever,
+and at Gradara he lived in an isolation that had been worthy of a
+hermit.
+
+And thus that miserable year wore itself out, and, at last, in
+December, we heard that the divorce was announced, and that Lucrezia
+Borgia was the Tyrant of Pesaro’s wife no more. The news of it and the
+reasons that were put forward as having led to it were roared across
+Italy in a great, derisive burst of laughter, of which the Lord
+Giovanni was the unfortunate and contemptible butt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN”
+
+
+And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine,
+it may be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of
+the next three years of the history of Pesaro.
+
+Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he
+seemed again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been
+before shame overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding.
+Madonna Paola and her brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in
+Pesaro, where they now appeared to have taken up their permanent abode.
+Madonna Paola—following her inclinations—withdrew to the Convent of
+Santa Caterina, there to pursue in peace the studies for which she had
+a taste, whilst her splendid, profligate brother became the
+ornament—the arbiter elegantiarum—of our court.
+
+Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics
+a stew was simmering that demanded all that family’s attention, and of
+whose import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had
+flung aside his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer
+rein to the boundless ambition that consumed him.
+
+With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never
+been. Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce
+left discernible any semblance of reality, for I was once again
+Boccadoro, the golden-mouthed Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every
+jester throughout Italy. My shame that for a brief season had risen up
+in arms seemed to be laid to rest once more, and I was content with the
+burden that was mine. Money I had in plenty, for when I pleased him the
+Lord Giovanni’s vails were often handsome, and much of my earnings went
+to my poor mother, who would sooner have died starving than have bought
+herself bread with those ducats could she have guessed at what manner
+of trade Lazzaro Biancomonte had earned them.
+
+The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa
+Caterina, whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to
+pay his duty to his fair cousin. In the summer of 1500, she being then
+come to the age of eighteen, and as divinely beautiful a lady as you
+could find in Italy, she allowed herself to be persuaded by her
+brother—who, I make no doubt had been, in his turn, persuaded by the
+Lord of Pesaro—to leave her convent and her studies, and to take up her
+life at the Sforza Palace, where Filippo held by now a sort of petty
+court of his own.
+
+And now it fell out that the Lord Giovanni was oftener at the Palace
+than at the Castle, and during that summer Pesaro was given over to
+such merrymaking as it had never known before. There was endless
+lute-thrumming and recitation of verses by a score of parasite poets
+whom the Lord Giovanni encouraged, posing now as a patron of letters;
+there were balls and masques and comedies beyond number, and we were as
+gay as though Italy held no Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who was
+sweeping northward with his all-conquering flood of mercenaries.
+
+But one there was who, though the very centre of all these merry
+doings, the very one in whose honour and for whose delectation they
+were set afoot, seemed listless and dispirited in that boisterous
+crowd. This was Madonna Paola, to whom, rumour had it, that her
+kinsman, the Lord Giovanni, was paying a most ardent suit.
+
+I saw her daily now, and often would she choose me for her sole
+companion; often, sitting apart with me, would she unburden her heart
+and tell me much that I am assured she would have told no other. A
+strange thing may it have seemed, this confidence between the Fool and
+the noble Lady of Santafior—my Holy Flower of the Quince, as in my
+thoughts I grew to name her. Perhaps it may have been because she found
+me ever ready to be sober at her bidding, when she needed sober company
+as those other fools—the greater fools since they accounted themselves
+wise—could not afford her.
+
+That winter adventure betwixt Cagli and Pesaro was a link that bound us
+together, and caused her to see under my motley and my masking smile
+the true Lazzaro Biancomonte whom for a little season she had known.
+And when we were alone it had become her wont to call me Lazzaro,
+leaving that other name that they had given me for use when others were
+at hand. Yet never did she refer to my condition, or wound me by
+seeking to spur me to the ambition to become myself again. Haply she
+was content that I should be as I sas, since had I sought to become
+different it must have entailed my quitting Pesaro, and this poor lady
+was so bereft of friends that she could not afford to lose even the
+sympathy of the despised jester.
+
+It was in those days that I first came to love her with as pure a flame
+as ever burned within the heart of man, for the very hopelessness of it
+preserved its holy whiteness. What could I do, if I would love her, but
+love her as the dog may love his mistress? More was surely not for
+me—and to seek more were surely a madness that must earn me less. And
+so, I was content to let things be, and keep my heart in check,
+thanking God for the mercy of her company at times, and for the
+precious confidences she made me, and praying Heaven—for of my love was
+I grown devout—that her life might run a smooth and happy course, and
+ready, in the furtherance of such an object, to lay down my own should
+the need arise. Indeed there were times when it seemed to me that it
+was a good thing to be a Fool to know a love of so rare a purity as
+that—such a love as I might never have known had I been of her station,
+and in such case as to have hoped to win her some day for my own.
+
+One evening of late August, when the vines were heavy with ripe fruit,
+and the scent of roses was permeating the tepid air, she drew me from
+the throng of courtiers that made merry in the Palace, and led me out
+into the noble gardens to seek counsel with me, she said, upon a matter
+of gravest moment. There, under the sky of deepest blue, crimsoning to
+saffron where the sun had set, we paced awhile in silence, my own
+senses held in thrall by the beauty of the eventide, the ambient
+perfumes of the air and the strains of music that faintly reached us
+from the Palace. Madonna’s head was bent, and her eyes were set upon
+the ground and burdened, so my furtive glance assured me, with a gentle
+sorrow. At length she spoke, and at the words she uttered my heart
+seemed for a moment to stand still.
+
+“Lazzaro,” said she, “they would have me marry.”
+
+For a little spell there was a silence, my wits seeming to have grown
+too numbed to attempt to seek an answer. I might be content, indeed, to
+love her from a distance, as the cloistered monk may love and worship
+some particular saint in Heaven; yet it seems that I was not proof
+against jealousy for all the abstract quality of my worship.
+
+“Lazzaro,” she repeated presently, “did you hear me? They would have me
+marry.”
+
+“I have heard some such talk,” I answered, rousing myself at last; “and
+they say that it is the Lord Giovanni who would prove worthy of your
+hand.”
+
+“They say rightly, then,” she acknowledged. “The Lord Giovanni it is.”
+
+Again there was a silence, and again it was she who broke it.
+
+“Well, Lazzaro?” she asked. “Have you naught to say?”
+
+“What would you have me say, Madonna? If this wedding accords with your
+own wishes, then am I glad.”
+
+“Lazzaro, Lazzaro! you know that it does not.”
+
+“How should I know it, Madonna?”
+
+“Because your wits are shrewd, and because you know me. Think you this
+petty tyrant is such a man as I should find it in my heart to conceive
+affection for? Grateful to him am I for the shelter he has afforded us
+here; but my love—that is a thing I keep, or fain would keep, for some
+very different man. When I love, I think it will be a valorous knight,
+a gentleman of lofty mind, of noble virtues and ready address.”
+
+“An excellent principle on which to go in quest of a husband, Madonna
+mia. But where in this degenerate world do you look to find him?”
+
+“Are there, then, no such men?”
+
+“In the pages of Bojardo and those other poets whom you have read too
+earnestly there may be.”
+
+“Nay, there speaks your cynicism,” she chided me. “But even if my
+ideals be too lofty, would you have me descend from the height of such
+a pinnacle to the level of the Lord Giovanni—a weak-spirited craven, as
+witnesses the manner in which he permitted the Borgias to mishandle
+him; a cruel and unjust tyrant, as witnesses his dealing with you, to
+seek no further instances; a weak, ignorant, pleasure-loving fool,
+devoid of wit and barren of ambition? Such is the man they would have
+me wed. Do not tell me, Lazzaro, that it were difficult to find a
+better one than this.”
+
+“I do not mean to tell you that. After all, though it be my trade to
+jest, it is not my way to deal in falsehood. I think, Madonna, that if
+we were to have you write for us such an appreciation of the High and
+Mighty Giovanni Sforza, you would leave a very faithful portrait for
+the enlightenment of posterity.”
+
+“Lazzaro, do not jest!” she cried. “It is your help I need. That is the
+reason why I am come to you with the tale of what they seek to force me
+into doing.”
+
+“To force you?” I cried. “Would they dare so much?”
+
+“Aye, if I resist them further.”
+
+“Why, then,” I answered, with a ready laugh, “do not resist them
+further.”
+
+“Lazzaro!” she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by what
+she accounted a flippancy.
+
+“Mistake me not,” I hastened to elucidate. “It is lest they should
+employ force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I
+counsel you to offer no resistance. Beg for a little time, vaguely
+suggesting that you are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni’s suit.”
+
+“That were deceit,” she protested.
+
+“A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny,” said I.
+
+“Well? And then?” she questioned. “Such a state of things cannot endure
+for ever. It must end some day.”
+
+I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full
+of confidence.
+
+“That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni’s impatience
+transcends all bounds.”
+
+She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression
+knitting her fine brows.
+
+“I do not take your meaning, my friend,” she complained.
+
+“Then mark the enucleation. I will expound this meaning of mine through
+the medium of a parable. In Babylon of old, there dwelt a king whose
+name was Belshazzar, who, having fallen into habits of voluptuousness
+and luxury, was so enslaved by them as to feast and make merry whilst a
+certain Darius, King of the Medes, was marching in arms against his
+capital. At a feast one night the fingers of a man’s hand were seen to
+write upon the wall, and the words they wrote were a belated warning:
+‘Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.’”
+
+She looked at me, her eyes round with inquiry, and a faint smile of
+uncertainty on her lips.
+
+“Let me confess that your elucidation helps me but little.”
+
+“Ponder it, Madonna,” I urged her. “Substitute Giovanni Sforza for
+Belshazzar, Cesare Borgia for King Darius, and you have the key to my
+parable.”
+
+“But is it indeed so? Does danger threaten Pesaro from that quarter?”
+
+“Aye, does it,” I answered, almost impatiently. “The tide of war is
+surging up, and presently will whelm us utterly. Yet here sits the Lord
+Giovanni making merry with balls and masques and burle and banquets,
+wholly unprepared, wholly unconscious of his peril. There may be no
+hand to write a warning on his walls—or else, as in the case of
+Babylon, the hand will write when it is too late to avert the evil—yet
+there are not wanting other signs for those that have the wit to read
+them; nor is a wondrous penetration needed.”
+
+“And you think then—” she began.
+
+“I think that if you are obdurate with him, he and your brother may
+hurry you by force into this union. But if you temporise with
+half-promises, with suggestions that before Christmas you may grow
+reconciled to his wishes, he will be patient.”
+
+“But what if Christmas comes and finds us still in this position?”
+
+“It will need a miracle for that; or, at least, the death of Cesare
+Borgia—an unlikely event, for they say he uses great precautions.
+Saving the miracle, and providing Cesare lives, I will give the Lord
+Giovanni’s reign in Pesaro at most two months.”
+
+We had halted now, and were confronting each other in the descending
+gloom.
+
+“Lazzaro, dear friend,” she cried, almost with gaiety, “I was wise to
+take counsel with you. You have planted in my heart a very vigorous
+growth of hope.”
+
+We turned soon after, and started to retrace our steps, for she might
+be ill-advised to remain absent overlong.
+
+I left her on the terrace in a very different spirit from that in which
+she had come to me, bearing with me her promise that she would act as I
+had advised her. No doubt I had taken a load from her gentle soul, and
+oddly enough I had taken, too, a load from mine.
+
+Things fell out as I said they would in far as Giovanni Sforza and
+Filippo were concerned. Madonna’s seeming amenability to their wishes
+stayed their insistence, and they could but respect her wishes to let
+the betrothal be delayed yet a little while. And during the weeks that
+followed, it was I scarce know whether more pitiable or more amusing to
+see the efforts that Giovanni made to win her ardently desired
+affection.
+
+Love has sharp eyes at times, and a dullard under the influence of the
+baby god will turn shrewd and exert rare wiles in the conduct of his
+wooing. Giovanni, by some intuition usually foreign to his dull nature,
+seemed to divine what manner of man would be Madonna Paola’s ideal, and
+strove to pass himself off as possessed of the attributes of that
+ideal, with an ardour that was pitiably comical. He became an actor by
+the side of whom those comedians that played impromptus for his
+delectation were the merest bunglers with the art. He gathered that
+Madonna Paola loved the poets and their stately diction, and so, to
+please her better, he became a poet for the season.
+
+“Poeta nascitur” the proverb runs, and that proverb’s truth was
+doubtless forced home upon the Lord Giovanni at an early stage of his
+excursions into the flowery meads of prosody. Fortunately he lacked the
+supreme vanity that is the attribute of most poetasters, and he was
+able to see that such things as after hours of midnight-labour he
+contrived to pen, would evoke nothing but her amusement—unless, indeed,
+it were her scorn—and render him the laughing-stock of all his Court.
+
+So, in the wisdom of despair, he came to me, and with a gentleness that
+in the past he had rarely manifested for me, he asked me was I skilled
+in writing verse. There were not wanting others to whom he might have
+gone, for there was no lack of rhymsters about his Court; but perhaps
+he thought he could be more certain of my silence than of theirs.
+
+I answered him that were the subject to my taste, I might succeed in
+throwing off some passable lines upon it. He pressed gold upon me, and
+bade me there and then set about fashioning an ode to Madonna Paola,
+and to forget, when they were done, under pain of a whipping to the
+bone, that I had written them.
+
+I obeyed him with a right good-will. For what subject of all subjects
+possible was there that made so powerful an appeal to my inclinations?
+Within an hour he had the ode—not perhaps such a poem as might stand
+comparison with the verses of Messer Petrarca, yet a very passable
+effusion, chaste of conceit and palpitating with sincerity and
+adoration. It was in that that I addressed her as the “Holy Flower of
+the Quince,” which was the symbol of the House of Santafior.
+
+So great an impression made that ode that on the morrow the Lord
+Giovanni came to me with a second bribe and a second threat of torture.
+I gave him a sonnet of Petrarchian manner which went near to outshining
+the merits of the ode. And now, these requests of the Lord Giovanni’s
+assumed an almost daily regularity, until it came to seem that did
+affairs continue in this manner for yet a little while, I should have
+earned me enough to have repurchased Biancomonte, and, so, ended my
+troubles. And good was the value that I gave him for his gold. How
+good, he never knew; for how was he, the clod, to guess that this
+despised jester of his Court was pouring out his very soul into the
+lines he wrote to the tyrant’s orders?
+
+It is scant wonder that, at last, Madonna Paola who had begun by
+smiling, was touched and moved by the ardent worship that sighed from
+those perfervid verses. So touched, indeed, was she as to believe the
+Lord Giovanni’s love to be the pure and holy thing those lines
+presented it, and to conclude that his love had wrought in him a
+wondrous and ennobling transformation. That so she thought I have the
+best of all reasons to affirm, for I had it from her very lips one day.
+
+“Lazzaro,” she sighed, “it is occurring to me that I have done the Lord
+Giovanni an injustice. I have misgauged his character. I held him to be
+a shallow, unlettered clown, devoid of any finer feelings. Yet his
+verses have a merit that is far above the common note of these
+writings, and they breathe such fine and lofty sentiments as could
+never spring from any but a fine and lofty soul.”
+
+How I came to keep my tongue from wagging out the truth I scarcely
+know. It may be that I was frightened of the punishment that might
+overtake me did I betray my master; but I rather think that it was the
+fear of betraying myself, and so being flung into the outer darkness
+where there was no such radiant presence as Madonna Paola’s. For had I
+told her it was I had penned those poems that were the marvel of the
+Court, she must of necessity have guessed my secret, for to such quick
+wits as hers it must have been plain at once that they were no
+vapourings of artistry, but the hot expressions of a burning truth. It
+was in that—in their supreme sincerity—that their chief virtue lay.
+
+Thus weeks wore on. The vintage season came and went; the roses faded
+in the gardens of the Palazzo Sforza, and the trees put on their autumn
+garb of gold. October was upon us, and with it came, at last, the fear
+that long ago should have spurred us into activity. And now that it
+came it did not come to stimulate, but to palsy. Terror-stricken at the
+conquering advance of Valentino—which was the name they now gave Cesare
+Borgia; a name derived from his Duchy of Valentinois—Giovanni Sforza
+abruptly ceased his revelling, and made a hurried appeal for help to
+Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua—his brother-in-law, through the Lord
+of Pesaro’s first marriage. The Mantuan Marquis sent him a hundred
+mercenaries under the command of an Albanian named Giacomo. As well
+might he have sent him a hundred figs wherewith to pelt the army of
+Valentino!
+
+Disaster swooped down swiftly upon the Lord of Pesaro. His very people,
+seeing in what case they were, and how unprepared was their tyrant to
+defend them, wisely resolved that they would run no risks of fire and
+pillage by aiding to oppose the irresistible force that was being
+hurled against us.
+
+It was on the second Sunday in October that the storm burst over the
+Lord Giovanni’s head. He was on the point of leaving the Castle to
+attend Mass at San Domenico, and in his company were Filippo Sforza of
+Santafior and Madonna Paola, besides courtiers and attendants,
+amounting in all to perhaps a score of gallant cavaliers and ladies.
+The cavalcade was drawn up in the quadrangle, and Giovanni was on the
+point of mounting, when, of a sudden, a rumbling noise, as of distant
+thunder, but too continuous for that, arrested him, his foot already in
+the stirrup.
+
+“What is that?” he asked, an ashen pallor overspreading his effeminate
+face, as, doubtless, the thought of the enemy came uppermost in his
+mind.
+
+Men looked at one another with fear in their eyes and some of the
+ladies raised their voices in querulous beseeching for reassurance.
+They had their answer even as they asked. The Albanian Giacomo, who was
+now virtually the provost of the Castle, appeared suddenly at the gates
+with half a score of men. He raised a warning hand, which compelled the
+Lord Giovanni to pause; then he rasped out a brisk command to his
+followers. The winches creaked, and the drawbridge swung up even as
+with a clank and rattle of chains the portcullis fell.
+
+That done, he came forward to impart the ominous news which one of his
+riders had brought him at the gallop from the Porta Romana.
+
+A party of some fifty men, commanded by one of Cesare’s captains, had
+ridden on in advance of the main army to call upon Pesaro to yield to
+the forces of the Church. And the people, without hesitation, had
+butchered the guard and thrown wide the gates, inviting the enemy to
+enter the town and seize the Castle. And to the end that this might be
+the better achieved, a hundred or so had traitorously taken up arms,
+and were pressing forward to support the little company that came, with
+such contemptuous daring, to storm our fortress and prepare the way for
+Valentino.
+
+It was a pretty situation this for the Lord Giovanni, and here were
+fine opportunities for some brave acting under the eyes of his adored
+Madonna Paola. How would he bear himself now? I wondered.
+
+He promised mighty well once the first shock of the news was overcome.
+
+“By God and His saints!” he roared, “though it may be all that it is
+given me to do, I’ll strike a blow to punish these dastards who have
+betrayed me, and to crush the presumption of this captain who attacks
+us with fifty men. It is a contempt which he shall bitterly repent
+him.”
+
+Then he thundered to Giacomo to marshal his men, and he called upon
+those of his courtiers who were knights to put on their armour that
+they might support him. Lastly he bade a page go help him to arm, that
+he might lead his little force in person.
+
+I saw Madonna Paola’s eyes gleam with a sudden light of admiration, and
+I guessed that in the matter of Giovanni’s valour her opinions were
+undergoing the same change as the verses had caused them to undergo in
+the matter of his intellect.
+
+Myself, I was amazed. For here was a Lord Giovanni I seemed never to
+have known, and I was eager to behold the sequel to so fine a prologue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+
+That valorous bearing that the Lord Giovanni showed whilst, with
+Madonna Paola’s glance upon him, his fear of seeming afraid was greater
+than his actual fear of our assailants, he cast aside like a mantle
+once he was within the walls of his Castle, and under the eyes of none
+save the page and myself, for I followed idly at a respectful distance.
+
+He stood irresolute and livid of countenance, his eagerness to arm and
+to lead his mercenaries and his knights all departed out of him. It was
+that curiosity of mine to see the sequel to his stout words that had
+led me to follow him, and what I saw was, after all, no more than I
+might have looked for—the proof that his big talk of sallying forth to
+battle was but so much acting. Yet it must have been acting of such a
+quality as to have deceived even his very self.
+
+Now, however, by the main steps, he halted in the cool gloom of the
+gallery, and I saw that fear had caught his heart in an icy grip and
+was squeezing it empty. In his irresolution he turned about, and his
+gloomy eye fell upon me loitering in the porch. At that he turned to
+the page who followed in obedience to his command.
+
+“Begone!” he growled at the lad, “I will have Boccadoro, there, to help
+me arm.” And with a poor attempt at mirth—“The act is a madness,” he
+muttered, “and so it is fitting that folly should put on my armour for
+it. Come with me, you,” he bade me, and I, obediently, gladly, went
+forward and up the wide stone staircase after him, leaving the page to
+speculate as he listed on the matter of his abrupt dismissal.
+
+I read the Lord Giovanni’s motives, as clearly as if they had been
+written for me by his own hand. The opinion in which I might hold him
+was to him a matter of so small account that he little cared that I
+should be the witness of the weakness which he feared was about to
+overcome him—nay, which had overcome him already. Was I not the one man
+in Pesaro who already knew his true nature, as revealed by that matter
+of the verses which I had written, and of which he had assumed the
+authorship? He had no shame before me, for I already knew the very
+worst of him, and he was confident that I would not talk lest he should
+destroy me at my first word. And yet, there was more than that in his
+motive for choosing me to go with him in that hour, as I was to learn
+once we were closeted in his chamber.
+
+“Boccadoro,” he cried, “can you not find me some way out of this?”
+Under his beard I saw the quiver of his lips as he put the question.
+
+“Out of this?” I echoed, scarce understanding him at first.
+
+“Aye, man—out of this Castle, out of Pesaro. Bestir those wits of
+yours. Is there no way in which it might be done, no disguise under
+which I might escape?”
+
+“Escape?” quoth I, looking at him, and endeavouring to keep from my
+eyes the contempt that was in my heart. Dear God! Had revenge been all
+I sought of him, how I might have gloated over his miserable downfall!
+
+“Do not stand there staring with those hollow eyes,” he cried, anger
+and fear blending horridly in his voice and rendering shrill its pitch.
+“Find me a way. Come, knave, find me a way, or I’ll have you broken on
+the wheel. Set your wits to save that long, lean body from destruction.
+Think, I bid you.”
+
+He was moving restlessly as he spoke, swayed by the agitation of terror
+that possessed him like a devil. I looked at him now without
+dissembling my scorn. Even in such an hour as this the habit of
+hectoring cruelty remained him.
+
+“What shall it avail me to think?” I asked him in a voice that was as
+cold and steady as his was hot and quavering. “Were you a bird I might
+suggest flight across the sea to you. But you are a man, a very human,
+a very mortal man, although your father made you Lord of Pesaro.”
+
+Even as I was speaking, the thunder of the besiegers reached our
+ears—such a dull roar it was as that of a stormy sea in winter time.
+Maddened by his terror he stood over me now, his eyes flashing wildly
+in his white face.
+
+“Another word in such a tone,” he rasped, his fingers on his dagger,
+“and I’ll make an end of you. I need your help, animal!”
+
+I shook my head, my glance meeting his without fear. I was of twice his
+strength, we were alone, and the hour was one that levelled ranks. Had
+he made the least attempt to carry out his threat, had he but drawn an
+inch of the steel he fingered, I think I should have slain him with my
+hands without fear or thought of consequences.
+
+“I have no help for you such as you need,” I answered him. “I am but
+the Fool of Pesaro. Whoever looked to a Fool for miracles?”
+
+“But here is death,” he almost moaned.
+
+“Lord of Pesaro,” I reminded him, “your mercenaries are under arms by
+your command, and your knights are joining them. They wait for the
+fulfilment of your promise to lead them out against the enemy. Shall
+you fail them in such an hour as this?”
+
+He sank, limp as an empty scabbard, to a chair.
+
+“I dare not go. It is death,” he answered miserably.
+
+“And what but death is it to remain here?” I asked, torturing him with
+more zest than ever he had experienced over the agonies of some poor
+victim on the rack. “In bearing yourself gallantly there lies a slender
+chance for you. Your people seeing you in arms and ready to defend them
+may yet be moved to a return of loyalty.”
+
+“A fig for their loyalty,” was his peevish, craven answer. “What shall
+it avail me when I’m slain!”
+
+God! was there ever such a coward as this, such a weak-souled,
+water-hearted dastard?
+
+“But you may not be slain,” I urged him. And then I sounded a fresh
+note. “Bethink you of Madonna Paola and of the brave things you
+promised her.”
+
+He flushed a little, then paled again, then sat very still. Shame had
+touched him at last, yet its grip was not enough to make a man of him.
+A moment he remained irresolute, whilst that shame fought a hard battle
+with his fears.
+
+But those fears proved stronger in the end, and his shame was
+overthrown by them.
+
+“I dare not,” he gasped, his slender, delicate hands clutching at the
+arms of his chair. “Heaven knows I am not skilled in the use of arms.”
+
+“It asks no skill,” I assured him. “Put on your armour, take a sword
+and lay about you. The most ignorant scullion in your kitchens could
+perform it given that he had the spirit.”
+
+He moistened his lips with his tongue, and his eyes looked dead as a
+snake’s. Suddenly he rose and took a step towards the armour that was
+piled about a great leathern chair. Then he paused and turned to me
+once more.
+
+“Help me to put it on,” he said in a voice that he strove to render
+steady. Yet scarcely had I reached the pile and taken up the
+breast-plate, when he recoiled again from the task. He broke into a
+torrent of blasphemy.
+
+“I will not sacrifice myself,” he almost screamed. “Jesus! not I. I
+will find a way out of this. I will live to return with an army and
+regain my throne.”
+
+“A most wise purpose. But, meanwhile, your men are waiting for you;
+Madonna Paola di Santafior is waiting for you, and—hark!—the bellowing
+crowd is waiting for you.”
+
+“They wait in vain,” he snarled. “Who cares for them? The Lord of
+Pesaro am I.”
+
+“Care you, then, nothing for them? Will you have your name written in
+history as that of a coward who would not lift his sword to strike one
+blow for honour’s sake ere he was driven out like a beast by the mere
+sound of voices?”
+
+That touched him. His vanity rose in arms.
+
+“Take up that corselet,” he commanded hoarsely. I did his bidding, and,
+without a word, he raised his arms that I might fit it to his breast.
+Yet in the instant that I turned me to pick up the back-piece, a crash
+resounded through the chamber. He had hurled the breastplate to the
+ground in a fresh access of terror-rage. He strode towards me, his eyes
+glittering like a madman’s.
+
+“Go you!” he cried, and with outstretched arms he pointed wildly across
+the courtyard. “You are very ready with your counsels. Let me behold
+your deeds, Do you put on the armour and go out to fight those
+animals.”
+
+He raved, he ranted, he scarce knew what he said or did, and yet the
+words he uttered sank deep into my heart, and a sudden, wild ambition
+swelled my bosom.
+
+“Lord of Pesaro,” I cried, in a voice so compelling that it sobered
+him, “if I do this thing what shall be my reward?”
+
+He stared at me stupidly for a moment. Then he laughed in a silly,
+crackling fashion.
+
+“Eh?” he queried. “Gesu!” And he passed a hand over his damp brow, and
+threw back the hair that cumbered it. “What is the thing that you would
+do, Fool?”
+
+“Why, the thing you bade me,” I answered firmly. “Put on your armour,
+and shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord
+Giovanni, Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides. If I do this thing, and put to
+rout the rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what
+shall be my reward?”
+
+He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint
+colour kindling in his face. He saw how easy the thing might be.
+Perhaps he recalled that he had heard that I was skilled in arms—having
+spent my youth in the exercise of them, against the time when I might
+fling the challenge that had brought me to my Fool’s estate. Maybe he
+recalled how I had borne myself against long odds on that adventure
+with Madonna Paola, years ago. Just such a vanity as had spurred him to
+have me write him verses that he might pretend were of his own making,
+moved him now to grasp at my proposal. They would all think that
+Giovanni’s armour contained Giovanni himself. None would ever suspect
+Boccadoro the Fool within that shell of steel. His honour would be
+vindicated, and he would not lose the esteem of Madonna Paola. Indeed,
+if I returned covered with glory, that glory would be his; and if he
+elected to fly thereafter, he might do so without hurt to his fair
+name, for he would have amply proved his mettle and his courage.
+
+In some such fashion I doubt not that the High and Mighty Giovanni
+Sforza reasoned during the seconds that we stood, face to face and eye
+to eye, in that room, the cries of the impatient ones below almost
+drowned in the roar of the multitude beyond.
+
+At last he put out his hands to seize mine, and drawing me to the light
+he scanned my face, Heaven alone knowing what it was he sought there.
+
+“If you do this,” said he, “Biancomonte shall be yours again, if it
+remains in my power to bestow it upon you now or at any future time. I
+swear it by my honour.”
+
+“Swear it by your fear of Hell or by your hope of Heaven and the
+compact is made,” I answered, and so palsied was he and so fallen in
+spirit that he showed no resentment at the scorn of his honour my words
+implied, but there and then took the oath I that demanded.
+
+“And now,” I urged, “help me to put on this armour of yours.”
+
+Hurriedly I cast off my jester’s doublet and my head-dress with its
+jangling bells, and with a wild exultation, a joy so fierce as almost
+to bring tears to my eyes, I held my arms aloft whilst that poor craven
+strapped about my body the back and breast plates of his corselet. I,
+the Fool, stood there as arrogant as any knight, whilst with his noble
+hands the Lord of Pesaro, kneeling, made secure the greaves upon my
+legs, the sollerets with golden spurs, the cuissarts and the
+genouilleres. Then he rose up, and with hands that trembled in his
+eagerness, he put on my brassarts and shoulder-plates, whilst I,
+myself, drew on my gauntlets. Next he adjusted the gorget, and handed
+me, last of all, the helm, a splendid head-piece of black and gold,
+surmounted by the Sforza lion.
+
+I took it from him and passed it over my head. Then ere I snapped down
+the visor and hid the face of Boccadoro, I bade him, unless he would
+render futile all this masquerade, to lock the door of his closet, and
+lie there concealed till my return. At that a sudden doubt assailed
+him.
+
+“And what,” quoth he, “if you do not return?”
+
+In the fever that had possessed me this was a thing that had not
+entered into my calculations, nor should it now. I laughed, and from
+the hollow of my helmet not a doubt but the sound must have seemed
+charged with mockery. I pointed to the cap and doublet I had shed.
+
+“Why, then, Illustrious, it will but remain for you to complete the
+change.”
+
+“Dog!” he cried; “beast, do you deride me?”
+
+My answer was to point out towards the yard.
+
+“They are clamouring,” said I. “They wax impatient. I had better go
+before they come for you.” As I spoke I selected a heavy mace for only
+weapon, and swinging it to my shoulder I stepped to the door. On the
+threshold he would have stayed me, purged by his fear of what might
+befall him did I not return. But I heeded him not.
+
+“Fare you well, my Lord of Pesaro,” said I. “See that none penetrates
+to your closet. Make fast the door.”
+
+“Stay!” he called after me. “Do you hear me? Stay!”
+
+“Others will hear you if you commit this folly,” I called back to him.
+“Get you to cover.” And so I left him.
+
+Below, in the courtyard, my coming was hailed by a great, enthusiastic
+clamour. They had all but abandoned hope of seeing the Lord Giovanni,
+so long had he been about his arming. As they brought forward my
+charger, I sought with my eyes Madonna Paola. I beheld her by her
+brother—who, it seemed, was not going with us—in the front rank of the
+spectators. Her cheeks were tinged with a slight flush of excitement,
+and her eyes glowed at the brave sight of armed men.
+
+I mounted, and as I rode past her to take my place at the head of that
+company, I lowered my mace and bowed. She detained me a moment, setting
+her hand upon the glossy neck of my black charger.
+
+“My Lord,” she said, in a low voice, intended for my ear alone, “this
+is a brave and gallant thing you do, and however slight may be your
+hope of prevailing, yet your honour will be safe-guarded by this act,
+and men will remember you with respect should it come to pass that a
+usurper shall possess anon your throne. Bear you that in mind to lend
+you a glad courage. I shall pray for you, my Lord, till you return.”
+
+I bowed, answering never a word lest my voice should betray me; and
+musing on the matter of the strange roads that lead to a woman’s heart,
+I passed on, to gain the van.
+
+Two months ago, knowing Giovanni as he was, he had been detestable to
+her, and she contemplated with loathing the danger in which she stood
+of being allied to him by marriage. Since then he had made good use of
+a poor jester’s mental gifts to incline her by the fervour of some
+verses to a kindlier frame of mind, and now, making good use of that
+same jester’s courage, he completed her subjection by the display of
+it. She was prepared to wed the Lord Giovanni with a glad heart and a
+proud willingness whensoever he should desire it.
+
+But Giacomo was beside me now, and in the quadrangle a silence reigned,
+all waiting for my command. From without there came such a din as
+seemed to argue that all hell was at the Castle gates. There were
+shouts of defiance and screams of abuse, whilst a constant rain of
+stones beat against the raised drawbridge.
+
+They thought, no doubt, that Giovanni and his followers were at their
+prayers, cowering with terror. No notion had they of the armed force,
+some six score strong, that waited to pour down upon them. I briskly
+issued my command, and four men detached themselves and let down the
+bridge. It fell with a crash, and ere those without had well grasped
+the situation we had hurled ourselves across and into them with the
+force of a wedge, flinging them to right and to left as we crashed
+through with hideous slaughter. The bridge swung up again when the last
+of Giacomo’s mercenaries was across, and we were shut out, in the midst
+of that fierce human maelstrom.
+
+For some five minutes there raged such a brief, hot fight as will be
+remembered as long as Pesaro stands. No longer than that did it take
+for the crowd of citizens to realise that war was not their trade, and
+that they had better leave the fighting to Cesare Borgia’s men; and so
+they fell away and left us a clear road to come at the men-at-arms. But
+already some forty of our saddles were empty, and the fight, though
+brief, had proved exhausting to many of us.
+
+Before us, like an array of mirrors in the October sun, shone the
+serried ranks of the steel-cased Borgia soldiers, their lances in rest,
+waiting to receive us. Their leader, a gigantic man whose head was
+armed by no more than a pot of burnished steel, from which escaped the
+long red ringlets of his hair, was that same Ramiro del’ Orca who had
+commanded the party pursuing Madonna Paola three years ago. He was,
+since, become the most redoubtable of Cesare’s captains, and his name
+was, perhaps, the best hated in Italy for the grim stories that were
+connected with it.
+
+As we rode on he backed to join the foremost rank of his soldiers, and
+his voice—a voice that Stentor might have envied—trumpeted a laugh at
+sight of us.
+
+“Gesu!” he roared, so that I heard him above the thunder of our hoofs.
+“What has come to Giovanni Sforza. Has he, perchance, become a man
+since Madonna Lucrezia divorced him? I will bear her the news of it, my
+good Giovanni—my living thunderbolt of Jove!”
+
+His men echoed his boisterous mood, infected by it, and this, I argued,
+boded ill for the courage of those that followed me. Another moment and
+we had swept into them, and many there were who laughed no more, or
+went to laugh with those in Hell.
+
+For myself I singled out the blustering Ramiro, and I let him know it
+by a swinging blow of my mace upon his morion. It was a most
+finely-tempered piece of steel, for my stroke made no impression on it,
+though Ramiro winced and raised his stout sword to return the
+compliment.
+
+“Body of God!” he croaked, “you become a very god of war, Giovanni. To
+me, then, my lusty Mars! We’ll make a fight of it that poets shall sing
+of over winter fires. Look to yourself!”
+
+His sword caught me a cunning, well-aimed blow on the side of my helm,
+and thence, glanced to my shoulder. But for the quality of Giovanni’s
+head-piece of a truth there had been an end to the warring of a Fool. I
+smote him back, a mighty blow upon his epauliere that shore the steel
+plate from his shoulder, and left him a vulnerable spot. At that he
+swore ferociously, and his bloodshot eyes grew wicked as the fiend’s. A
+second time he essayed that side-long blow upon my helm, and with such
+force and ready address that he burst the fastening of my visor on the
+left, so that it swung down and left my beaver open.
+
+With a cry of triumph he closed with me, and shortened his sword to
+stab me in the face. And then a second cry escaped him, for the
+countenance he beheld was not the countenance he had looked to see.
+Instead of the fair skin, the handsome features and the bearded mouth
+of the Lord Giovanni, he beheld a shaven face, a hooked nose and a
+complexion swarthy as the devil’s.
+
+“I know you, rogue,” he roared. “By the Host! your valour seemed too
+fierce for Giovanni Sforza. You are Bocca—”
+
+Exerting all the strength that I had been gradually collecting, I
+hurled him back with a force that almost drove him from the saddle, and
+rising in my stirrups I rained blow after blow upon his morion ere he
+could recover.
+
+“Dog!” I muttered softly, “your knowledge shall be the death of you.”
+
+He drew away from me at last, and during the moments that I spent in
+readjusting my visor he sallied, and charged me again. His blustering
+was gone and his face grown pale, for such blows as mine could not have
+been without effect. Not a doubt of it but he was taken with amazement
+to find such fighting qualities in a Fool—an amazement that must have
+eclipsed even that of finding Boccadoro in the armour of Giovanni
+Sforza.
+
+Again he swung his sword in that favourite stroke of his; but this time
+I caught the edge upon my mace, and ere he could recover I aimed a blow
+straight at his face. He lowered his head, like a bull on the point of
+charging, and so my blow descended again upon his morion, but with a
+force that rolled him, senseless, from the saddle.
+
+Before I could take a breathing space I was beset by, at least, a dozen
+of his followers who had stood at hand during the encounter, never
+doubting that victory must be ultimately with their invincible captain.
+They drove me back foot by foot, fighting lustily, and performing—it
+was said afterwards by the anxious ones that watched us from the
+Castle, among whom was Madonna Paola—such deeds of strength and prowess
+as never romancer sang of in his wildest flight of fancy.
+
+My men had suffered sorely, but the brave Giacomo still held them
+together, fired by the example that I set him, until in the end the day
+was ours. Discouraged by the disabling of their captain, so soon as
+they had gathered him up our opponents thought of nothing but retreat;
+and retreat they did, hotly pursued by us, and never allowed to pause
+or slacken rein until we had hurled them out of the town of Pesaro, to
+get them back to Cesare Borgia with the tale of their ignominious
+discomfiture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+As we rode back through the town of Pesaro, some fifty men of the six
+score that had sallied from the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the
+streets well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citizens having fled back to
+the shelter of their homes, like rats to their burrows in time of
+peril.
+
+As we advanced through the shambles that we had left about the Castle
+gates, it occurred to me that within the courtyard a crowd would be
+waiting to receive and welcome me, and it became necessary to devise
+some means of avoiding this reception. I beckoned Giacomo to my side.
+
+“Let it be given out that I will speak to no man until I have rendered
+thanks to Heaven for this signal victory,” I muttered to the
+unsuspecting Albanian. “Do you clear a way for me so soon a we are
+within.”
+
+He obeyed me so well that when the bridge had been let down, he
+preceded me with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back
+those that would have approached—among the first of whom were Madonna
+Paola and her brother.
+
+“Way!” he shouted. “Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of Pesaro!”
+
+Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed
+still to conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the
+eastern wing and dismounted. Two or three attendants sprang forward,
+ready to go with me that they might assist me to disarm. But I waved
+them imperiously back, and mounted the stairs alone. Alone I crossed
+the ante-chamber, and tapped at the door of the Lord Giovanni’s closet.
+Instantly it opened, for he had watched my return and been awaiting me.
+Hastily he drew me in and closed the door.
+
+He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf. Yet at the
+sight that I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to
+stare at my armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning
+stains, which loudly proclaimed the fray through which I had been.
+
+He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had
+rendered him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me,
+all in terms of a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more
+than ever his cruelties had done. I took off my helmet whilst he spoke,
+and let it fall with a crash. The face I revealed to him was livid with
+fatigue, and blackened with the dust that had caked upon my sweat. He
+came forward again and helped hastily to strip off my harness, and when
+that was done he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer of embossed
+gold from which he poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash.
+Macerated sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better
+that I might cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by my
+ablutions, he poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that
+seemed to infuse fresh life into my veins. And all the time he spoke of
+the prowess I had shown, and lamented that all these years he should
+have had me at his Court and never guessed my worth.
+
+At length I turned to resume my clothes. And since it must excite
+comment and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my
+jester’s garish livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap
+and bells.
+
+“Wear it yet for a little while,” he said, “and thus complete the
+service you have done me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and
+resume your true estate. Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours
+again. The Lord of Pesaro does not betray his word.”
+
+I smiled grimly at the pride of his utterance.
+
+“It is an easy thing,” said I, “freely to give that which is no longer
+ours.”
+
+He coloured with the anger that was ever ready.
+
+“What shall that mean?” he asked.
+
+“Why, that in a few days you will have Cesare Borgia here, and you will
+be Lord of Pesaro no more. I have saved your honour for you. More than
+that it were idle to attempt.”
+
+“Think not that I shall submit,” he cried. “I shall find in Italy the
+help I need to return and drive the usurper out. You must have faith in
+that, yourself, else had you never bargained with me as you have done
+for the return of your Estates.”
+
+To that I answered nothing, but urged him to go below and show himself;
+and the better that he might bear himself among his courtiers, I
+detailed to him the most salient features of that fight.
+
+He went, not without a certain uneasiness which, however, was soon
+dispelled by the thunder of acclamation with which he was received; not
+only by his courtiers, but by the soldiers who had fought in that hot
+skirmish, and who believed that it was he had led them.
+
+Meanwhile I sat above, in the closet he had vacated, and thence I
+watched him, with such mingling feelings in my heart as baffle now my
+halting pen. Scorn there was in my mood and a hot contempt of him that
+he could stand there and accept their acclamation with an air of
+humility that I am persuaded was assumed: a certain envious anger was
+there, too, to think that such a weak-kneed, lily-livered craven should
+receive the plaudits of the deeds that I, his buffoon, had performed
+for him. Those acclamations were not for him, although those who
+acclaimed him thought so. They were for the man who had routed Ramiro
+del’ Orca and his followers, and that man assuredly was I. Yet there I
+crouched above, behind the velvet curtains where none might see me,
+whilst he stood smiling and toying with his brown beard and listening
+to the fine words of praise that, I could imagine, were falling from
+the lips of Madonna Paola, who had drawn near and was speaking to him.
+
+There is in my nature a certain love of effectiveness, a certain taste
+for theatrical parade and the contriving of odd situations. This bent
+of mine was whispering to me then to throw wide the window, and,
+stemming their noisy plaudits, announce to them the truth of what had
+passed. Yet what if I had done so? They would have accounted it but a
+new jest of Boccadoro, the Fool, and one so ill-conceived that they
+might urge the Lord Giovanni to have him whipped for it.
+
+Aye, it would have been a folly, a futile act that would have earned me
+unbelief, contempt and anger. And yet there was a moment when jealousy
+urged me almost headlong to that rashness. For in Madonna Paola’s eyes
+there was a new expression as they rested on the face of Giovanni
+Sforza—an expression that told me she had come to love this man whom a
+little while ago she had despised.
+
+God! was there ever such an irony? Was there ever such a paradox? She
+loved him, and yet it was not him she loved. The man she loved was the
+man who had shown the qualities of his mind in the verses with which
+the Court was ringing; the man who had that morning given proof of his
+high mettle and knightly prowess by the deeds of arms he had performed.
+I was that man—not he at whom so adoringly she looked. And so—I argued,
+in my warped way and with the philosophy worthy of a Fool—it was I whom
+she loved, and Giovanni was but the symbol that stood for me. He
+represented the songs and the deeds that were mine.
+
+But if I did not throw wide that window and proclaim the fact to ears
+that would have been deaf to the truth of them, what think you that I
+did? I took a subtler vengeance. I repaired to my own chamber, procured
+me pen and ink, and, there, with a heart that was brimming over with
+gall, I penned an epic modelled upon the stately lines of Virgil,
+wherein I sang the prowess of the Lord Giovanni Sforza, describing that
+morning’s mighty feat of arms, and detailing each particular of the
+combat ’twixt Giovanni and Ramiro del’ Orca.
+
+It was a brave thing when it was done; a finer and worthier poetical
+achievement than any that I had yet encompassed, and that night, after
+they had supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been
+heard of, and whilst they were still sitting at their wine, I got me a
+lute and stole down to the banqueting hall.
+
+I announced myself by leaping on a table and loudly twanging the
+strings of my instrument. There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of
+acclamation. They were in a high good-humour, and the Fool with a new
+song was the very thing they craved.
+
+When silence was restored I began, and whilst my fingers moved
+sluggishly across the strings, striking here and there a chord, I
+recited the epic I had penned. My voice swelled with a feverish
+enthusiasm whose colossal irony none there save one could guess. He, at
+first surprised, grew angry presently, as I could see by the cloud that
+had settled on his brow. Yet he restrained himself, and the rest of the
+company were too enthralled by the breathless quality of my poem to
+bestow their glances on any countenance save mine.
+
+Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro’s right, and her blue eyes
+were round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded. And when
+presently I came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro
+del’ Orca, when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni’s visor,
+was on the point of driving his sword into his adversary’s face, I saw
+her shrink in a repetition of the morning’s alarm, and her bosom heaved
+more swiftly, as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines
+and she were made anxious again for the life of the man whom she had
+learnt to love.
+
+I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling
+softly, after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety
+that had succeeded the Lord of Pesaro’s brave exploits, and how upon
+his return from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his
+closet, his battered and bloody harness on his back, that he might
+kneel ere he disarmed and render thanks to God for the victory
+vouchsafed him.
+
+On that “Te Deum” I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
+vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my
+reward.
+
+Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the
+table on which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one
+noble woman kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth
+was indeed a mouth of gold.
+
+Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining
+with excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance,
+and I knew that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by
+causing her to realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure
+that I sang. The sight of it almost turned me faint, and I would have
+eluded them and got away as I had come but that they lifted me up and
+bore me so to the table at which the Lord Giovanni sat. He smiled, but
+his face was very pale. Could it be that I had touched him? Could it be
+that I had driven the iron into his soul, and that he could not bear to
+confront me, knowing what a dastard I must deem him?
+
+The splendid Filippo of Santafior had risen to his feet, and was waving
+a white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence. When at
+last it came he spoke, his voice silvery and his accents mincing.
+
+“Lord of Pesaro; I demand a boon. He who for years has suffered the
+ignominy of the motley is at last revealed to us as a poet of such
+magnitude of soul and richness of expression that he would not suffer
+by comparison with the great Bojardo or tim greater Virgil. Let him be
+stripped for ever of that hideous garb he wears, and let him be
+treated, hereafter, with the dignity his high gifts deserve. Thus shall
+the day come when Pesaro will take honour in calling him her son.”
+
+Loud and long was the applause that succeeded his words, and when at
+last it had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved equal to the occasion,
+like the consummate actor that he was.
+
+“I would,” said he, “that these high gifts, of which to-night he has
+afforded proof, could have been employed upon a worthier subject. I
+fear me that since you have heard his epic you will be prone to
+overestimate the deed of which it tells the story. I would, too, my
+friends,” he continued, with a sigh, “that it were still mine to offer
+him such encouragement as he deserves. But I am sorely afraid that my
+days in Pesaro are numbered, that my sands are all but run—at least,
+for a little while. The conqueror is at our gates, and it would be vain
+to set against the overwhelming force of his numbers the handful of
+valiant knights and brave soldiers that to-day opposed and scattered
+his forerunners. It is my intention to withdraw, now that my honour is
+safe by what has passed, and that none will dare to say that it was
+through fear that I fled. Yet my absence, I trust, may be but brief. I
+go to collect the necessary resources, for I have powerful friends in
+this Italy whose interests touching the Duca Valentino go hand in hand
+with mine, and who will, thus, be the readier to lend me assistance.
+Once I have this, I shall return and then—woe to the vanquished!”
+
+The tide of enthusiasm that had been rising as he spoke, now
+overflowed. Swords leapt from their scabbards—mere toy weapons were
+they, meant more for ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest
+of the stouter arms those gentlemen were ready to wield when the time
+came. He quieted their clamours with a dignified wave of the hand.
+
+“When that day comes I shall see to it that Boccadoro has his deserts.
+Meanwhile let the suggestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon,
+and let this gifted poet be arrayed in a manner that shall sort better
+with the nobility of his mind that to-night he has revealed to us.”
+
+Thus was it that I came, at last, to shed the motley and move among men
+garbed as themselves. And with my outward trappings I cast off, too,
+the name of Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte.
+
+But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon
+which I was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that
+followed that first Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the
+Lord Giovanni’s Court passed out of being.
+
+It came about with his flight to Bologna, accompanied by the Albanian
+captain and his men, as well as by several of the knights who had
+joined in Sunday’s fray. Ardently, as I came afterwards to learn, did
+he urge Madonna Paola and her brother to go with them, and I believe
+that the lady would have done his will in this had not the Lord Filippo
+opposed the step. He was no warrior himself, he swore—for it was a
+thing he made open boast of, affecting to despise all who followed the
+coarse trade of arms—and, as for his sister, it was not fitting that
+she should go with a fugitive party made up of a handful of knights and
+some fifty rough mercenaries, and be exposed to the hardships and
+perils that must be theirs. Not even when he was reminded that the
+advancing conqueror was Cesare Borgia did it affect him, for despite
+his shallow, mincing ways, and his paraded scorn of war and warriors,
+the Lord Filippo was stout enough at heart. He did not fear the Borgia,
+he answered serenely, and if he came, he would offer him such
+hospitality as lay within his power.
+
+He came at last, did the mighty Cesare, although between his coming and
+Giovanni’s flight a full fortnight sped. As for myself, I spent the
+time at the Sforza Palace, whither the Lord Filippo had carried me as
+his guest, he being greatly taken with me and determined to become my
+patron. We had news of Giovanni, first from Bologna and later from
+Ravenna, whither he was fled. At first he talked of returning to Pesaro
+with three hundred men he hoped to have from the Marquis of Mantua. But
+probably this was no more than another piece of that big talk of his,
+meant to impress the sorrowing and repining Madonna Paola, who suffered
+more for him, maybe, than he suffered himself.
+
+She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his
+mental gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and for
+all that my gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this
+injustice to myself, I held my peace. Indeed, indeed, it was better so.
+For all that I was no longer Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, the poet, I was not so much better that I could indulge
+any mad aspirations of my own such as might have led me to betray the
+dastard who had arrayed his craven self in the peacock feathers of my
+achievements.
+
+In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me
+I made bold, on the eve of Cesare’s arrival, to suggest to him that he
+should remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of
+Santa Caterina whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of
+her should remind Cesare of the old-time marriage plans which his
+family had centred round this lady, and lead to their revival. Filippo
+heard me kindly, and thanked me freely for the solicitude which my
+counsel argued. For the rest, however, it was a counsel that he frankly
+admitted he saw no need to follow.
+
+“In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained
+such plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the
+fortunes of the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a
+desirable match for one of its members is now scarcely worthy of their
+attention. I do not think,” he concluded, “that we have the least
+reason to fear a renewal of that suit.”
+
+It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble
+motives in men’s actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord
+Filippo would not be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to
+reopen negotiations for the bestowing of Madonna Paola’s hand upon the
+Pope’s nephew Ignacio. That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in
+the three years had taken place and which, he contended, would render
+them more ambitious than to seek alliance with the House of Santafior,
+rendered them, nevertheless, in his eyes a more desirable family to be
+allied with than in the days when he had counselled his sister’s flight
+from Rome. And so, I thought, despite what stood between her and the
+Lord Giovanni, Filippo would know no scruple now in urging her into an
+alliance with the House of Borgia, should they manifest a willingness
+to have that old affair reopened.
+
+On the 29th of that same month of October, Cesare arrived in Pesaro.
+His entry was a triumphant procession, and the orderliness that
+prevailed among the two thousand men-at-arms that he brought with him
+was a thing that spoke eloquently for the wondrous discipline enforced
+by this great condottiero.
+
+The Lord Filippo was among those that met him, and like the time-server
+that he was, he placed the Sforza Palace at his disposal.
+
+The Duca Valentino came with his retinue and the gentlemen of his
+household, among whom was ever conspicuous by his great size and red
+ugliness the Captain Ramiro del’ Orca, who now seemed to act in many
+ways as Cesare’s factotum. This captain, for reasons which it is
+unnecessary to detail, I most sedulously avoided.
+
+On the evening of his arrival Cesare supped in private with Filippo and
+the members of Filippo’s household—that is to say, with Madonna Paola
+and two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of
+the Lord Filippo. Cesare’s only attendants were two cavaliers of his
+retinue, Bartolomeo da Capranica, his Field-Marshal, and Dorio Savelli,
+a nobleman of Rome.
+
+Cesare Borgia, this man whose name had so terrible a sound in the ears
+of Italy’s little princelings, this man whose power and whose great
+gifts of mind had made him the subject of such bitter envy and fear,
+until he was the best-hated gentleman in Italy—and, therefore, the most
+calumniated—was little changed from that Cardinal of Valencia, in whose
+service I had been for a brief season. The pallor of his face was
+accentuated by the ill-health in which he found himself just then, and
+the air of feverish restlessness that had always pervaded him was grown
+more marked in the years that were sped, as was, after all, but
+natural, considering the nature of the work that had claimed him since
+he had deposed his priestly vestments. He was splendidly arrayed, and
+he bore himself with an imperial dignity, a dignity, nevertheless,
+tempered with graciousness and charm, and as I regarded him then, it
+was borne in upon me that no fitter name could his godfathers have
+bestowed on him than that of Cesare.
+
+The Lord Filippo exerted all his powers worthily to entertain his noble
+and illustrious guest, and by his extreme, almost servile affability it
+not only would seem that he had forgotten the favour and shelter he had
+received at the hands of the Lord Giovanni, but it confirmed my
+suspicions of his willingness to advance his own fortunes by breaking
+with the fallen tyrant in so far as his sister was concerned.
+
+Short of actually making the proposal itself, it would seem that
+Filippo did all in his power to urge his sister upon the attention of
+Cesare. But Duke Valentino’s mind at that time was too full of the
+concerns of conquest and administration to find room for a matter to
+him so trifling as the enriching of his cousin Ignacio by a wealthy
+alliance. To this alone, I thought, was it due that Madonna Paola
+escaped the persecution that might then have been hers.
+
+On the morrow Cesare moved on to Rimini, leaving his administrators
+behind him to set right the affairs of Pesaro, and ensure its proper
+governing, in his name, hereafter.
+
+And now that, for the present, my hopes of ever seeing my own wrongs
+redressed and my estates returned to me were too slender to justify my
+remaining longer in Pesaro, I craved of the Lord Filippo permission to
+withdraw, telling him frankly that my tardily aroused duty called me to
+my widowed mother, whom for some six years I had not seen. He threw no
+difficulty in the way of my going; and I was free to depart. And now
+came the hidden pain of my leave-taking of Madonna Paola. She seemed to
+grieve at my departure.
+
+“Lazzaro,” she cried, when I had told her of my intention, “do you,
+too, desert me? And I have ever held you my best of friends.”
+
+I told her of the mother and of the duty that I owed her, whereupon she
+remonstrated no more, nor sought to do other than urge me to go to her.
+And then I spoke of Madonna’s kindness to me, and of the friendship
+with which she had honoured one so lowly, and in the end I swore, with
+my hand on my heart and my soul on my lips, that if ever she had work
+for me, she would not need to call me twice.
+
+“This ring, Madonna,” said I, “was given me by the Lord Cesare Borgia,
+and was to have proved a talisman to open wide for me the door to
+fortune. It did better service than that, Madonna. It was the talisman
+that saved you from your pursuers that day at Cagli, three years ago.”
+
+“You remind me, Lazzaro,” she cried, “of how much you have sacrificed
+in my service. Yours must be a very noble nature that will do so much
+to serve a helpless lady without any hope of guerdon.”
+
+“Nay, nay,” I answered lightly, “you must not make so much of it. It
+would never have sorted with my inclinations to have turned
+man-at-arms. This ring, Madonna, that once has served you, I beg that
+you will keep, for it may serve you again.”
+
+“I could not, Lazzaro! I could not!” she exclaimed, recoiling, yet
+without any show of deeming presumptuous my words or of being offended
+by them.
+
+“If you would make me the reward that you say I have earned, you will
+do this for me. It will make me happier, Madonna. Take it”—I thrust it
+into her unwilling hand—“and if ever you should need me send it back to
+me. That ring and the name of the place where you abide by the lips of
+the messenger you choose, and with a glad heart, as fast as horse can
+bear me, shall I ride to serve you once again.”
+
+“In such a spirit, yes,” said she. “I take it willingly, to treasure it
+as a buckler against danger, since by means of it I can bring you to my
+aid in time of peril.”
+
+“Madonna, do not overestimate my powers,” I besought her. “I would have
+you see in me no more than I am. But it sometimes happens that the
+mouse may aid the lion.”
+
+“And when I need the lion to aid the mouse, my good Lazzaro, I will
+send for you.”
+
+There were tears in her voice, and her eyes were very bright.
+
+“Addio, Lazzaro,” she murmured brokenly. “May God and His saints
+protect you. I will pray for you, and I shall hope to see you again
+some day, my friend.”
+
+“Addio, Madonna!” was all that I could trust myself to say ere I fled
+from her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the
+sobs that were threatening to betray the anguish that was ravaging my
+soul.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+MADONNA’S SUMMONS
+
+
+However great the part that my mother—sainted woman that she was—may
+have played in my life, she nowise enters into the affairs of this
+chronicle, so that it would be an irrelevance and an impertinence to
+introduce her into these pages. Of the joy with which she welcomed me
+to the little home near Biancomonte, in which the earnings of Boccadoro
+the Fool had placed her, it could interest you but little to read in
+detail, nor could it interest you to know of the gentle patience with
+which she cheered and humoured me during the period that I sojourned
+there, tilling the little plot she owned, reaping and garnering like
+any born villano. With a woman’s quick intuition she guessed perhaps
+the canker that was eating at my heart, and with a mother’s blessed
+charity she sought to soothe and mitigate my pain.
+
+It was during this period of my existence that the poetic gifts I had
+discovered myself possessed of whilst at Pesaro, burst into full bloom;
+and not a little relief did I find in the penning of those
+love-songs—the true expression of what was in my heart—which have since
+been given to the world under the title of Le Rime di Boccadoro. And
+what time I tended my mother’s land by day, and wrote by night of the
+feverish, despairing love that was consuming me, I waited for the call
+that, sooner or later, I knew must come. What prophetic instinct it was
+had rooted that certainty in my heart I do not pretend to say. Perhaps
+my hope was of such a strength that it assumed the form of certainty to
+solace the period of my hermitage. But that some day Madonna Paola’s
+messenger would arrive bringing me the Borgia ring, I was as confident
+as that some day I must die.
+
+Two years went by, and we were in the Autumn of 1502, yet my faith knew
+no abating, my confidence was strong as ever. And, at last, that
+confidence was justified. One night of early October, as I sat at
+supper with my mother after the labours of the day, a sound of hoofs
+disturbed the peace of the silent night. It drew rapidly nearer, and
+long before the knock fell upon our door, I knew that it was the
+messenger from my lady.
+
+My mother looked at me across the board, an expression of alarm
+overspreading her old face. “Who,” her eyes seemed to ask me, “was this
+horseman that rode so late?”
+
+My hound rose from the hearth with a growl, and stood bristling, his
+eyes upon the door. White-haired old Silvio, the last remaining
+retainer of the House of Biancomonte, came forth from the kitchen, with
+inquiry and fear blending on his wrinkled, weather-beaten countenance.
+
+And I, seeing all these signs of alarm, yet knowing what awaited me on
+the threshold, rose with a laugh, and in a bound had crossed the
+intervening space. I flung wide the door, and from the gloom without a
+man’s voice greeted me with a question.
+
+“Is this the house of Messer Lazzaro Biancomonte?”
+
+“I am that Lazzaro Biancomonte,” answered I. “What may your pleasure
+be?”
+
+The stranger advanced until he came within the light. He was plainly
+dressed, and wore a jerkin of leather and long boots. From his air I
+judged him a servant or a courier. He doffed his hat respectfully, and
+held out his right hand in which something was gleaming yellow. It was
+the Borgia ring.
+
+“Pesaro,” was all he said.
+
+I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh
+himself ere he returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
+
+“I am not returning,” the man informed me. “I am a courier riding to
+Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in passing.”
+
+Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set
+before him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him
+to tell me what he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news
+there was of the Lord Giovanni. He had little enough to tell. Pesaro
+was flourishing and prospering under the Borgia dominion. Of the Lord
+Giovanni there was little news, saving that he was living under the
+protection of the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so long as he was
+content to abide there the Borgias seemed disposed to give him peace.
+
+Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and
+Madonna Paola. On this subject he was better informed. Madonna Paola
+was well and still lived with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro. The
+Lord Filippo was high in favour with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had
+been frequently his guest at Pesaro, whilst once, for a few days, the
+Lord Ignacio de Borgia had accompanied his illustrious cousin.
+
+I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her
+summons no longer asked conjecture. It was an easy thing for me,
+knowing what I knew, to fill in the details which the courier omitted
+in ignorance from the story.
+
+The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister
+upon the notice of the Borgia family—perhaps even approached Cesare—in
+such a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to
+Ignacio, who had, meanwhile, remained unmarried. I could read that
+opportunist’s motives as easily as if he had written them down for my
+instruction. Giovanni Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I
+could imagine how he had plied his wits to aid his sister to forget
+him, or else to remember him no longer with affection. Whether he had
+succeeded or not I could not say until I had seen her; but meanwhile,
+deeming ripe the soil of her heart for the new attachment that should
+redound so much to his own credit—now that the House of Borgia had
+risen to such splendid heights—he was driving her into this alliance
+with Ignacio.
+
+Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out
+that same night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising
+to return as soon as might be. All night I rode, my soul now tortured
+with anxiety, now exalted at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which
+was so soon to be mine. I was at the gates of Pesaro before matins, and
+within the Palazzo Sforza ere its inmates had broken their fast.
+
+The Lord Filippo welcomed me with a certain effusion, chiding me for my
+long absence and the ingratitude it had seemed to indicate, and never
+dreaming by what summons I was brought back.
+
+“You are well-returned,” he told me in conclusion. “We shall need you
+soon, to write an epithalamium.”
+
+“You are to be wed, Magnificent?” quoth I at last, at which he laughed
+consumedly.
+
+“Nay, we shall need the song for my sister’s nuptials. She is to wed
+the Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas.”
+
+“A lofty theme,” I answered with humility, “and one that may well
+demand resources nobler than those of my poor pen.”
+
+“Then get you to work at once upon it. I will have your chamber
+prepared.”
+
+He sent for his seneschal, a person—like most Of the servants at the
+Palace—strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be sumptuously
+lodged. He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity that
+seemed to surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had
+undergone such changes and been so enriched during the past two years
+as to go near defying recognition.
+
+When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for
+me, I made bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
+
+“She is in the garden, Illustrious,” answered the seneschal, deeming
+me, no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had
+indicated should be shown me. “Madonna has the wisdom to seek the
+little sunshine the year still holds. Winter will be soon upon us.”
+
+I agreed with the old man, and dismissed him. So soon as he was gone, I
+quitted my chamber, and all dust staineded as I was I made my way down
+to the garden. A turn in one of the boxwood-bordered alleys brought me
+suddenly face to face with Madonna Paola.
+
+A moment we stood looking at each other, my heart swelling within me
+until I thought that it must burst. Then I advanced a step and sank on
+one knee before her.
+
+“You sent for me, Madonna. I am here.” There was a pause, and when
+presently I looked up into her blessed face I saw a smile of infinite
+sorrow on her lips, blending oddly with the gladness that shone from
+her sweet eyes.
+
+“You faithful one,” she murmured at last. “Dear Lazzaro, I did not look
+for you so soon.”
+
+“Within an hour of your messenger’s arrival I was in the saddle, nor
+did I pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro. I am here to serve
+you to the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails
+me is that my power may be all too small for the service that you
+need.”
+
+“Is its nature known to you?” she asked in wonder. Then, ere I had
+answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
+
+“I have guessed it,” answered I, “guided by such scraps of information
+as from your messenger I gleaned. It concerns, unless I err, the Lord
+Ignacio Borgia.”
+
+“Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness,” she said, with a sad
+smile, “and I doubt me you know all.”
+
+“The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me—that you
+are to be wed before Christmas. He has ordered me to write your
+epithalamium.”
+
+She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by
+side, and, as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to
+make a carpet for our fret, she told me in her own way more or less
+what I have set down, even to her brother’s self-seeking share in the
+transaction that she dubbed hideous and abhorrent.
+
+She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped.
+She was in her twenty-first year, but in reality she seemed to me no
+older than she had been on that day when first I saw her arguing with
+her grooms upon the road to Cagli. And from this I reassured myself
+that she had not been fretted overmuch by the absence of the Lord
+Giovanni.
+
+Presently she spoke of him and of her plighted word which her brother
+and those supple gentlemen of the House of Borgia were inducing her to
+dishonour.
+
+“Once before, in a case almost identical, when all seemed lost, you
+came—as if Heaven directed—to my rescue. This it is that gives me
+confidence in such aid as you might lend me now.”
+
+“Alas! Madonna,” I sighed, “but the times are sorely changed and the
+situations with them. What is there now that I can do?”
+
+“What you did then. Take me beyond their reach.”
+
+“Ah! But whither?”
+
+“Whither but to the Lord Giovanni? Is it not to him that my troth is
+plighted?”
+
+I shook my head in sorrow, a thrust of jealousy cutting me the while.
+
+“That may not be,” said I. “It were not seemly, unless the Lord
+Giovanni were here himself to take you hence.”
+
+“Then I will write to the Lord Giovanni,” she cried. “I will write, and
+you shall bear my letter.”
+
+“What think you will the Lord Giovanni do?” I burst out, with a scorn
+that must have puzzled her. “Think you his safety does not give him
+care enough in the hiding-place to which he has crept, that he should
+draw upon himself the vengeance of the Borgias?”
+
+She stared at me in ineffable surprise. “But the Lord Giovanni is brave
+and valiant,” she cried, and down in my heart I laughed in bitter
+mockery.
+
+“Do you love the Lord Giovanni, Madonna?” I asked bluntly.
+
+My question seemed to awaken fresh astonishment. It may well be that it
+awakened, too, reflection. She was silent for a little space. Then—
+
+“I honour and respect him for a noble, chivalrous and gifted
+gentleman,” she answered me, and her answer made me singularly content,
+spreading a balm upon the wounds my soul had taken. But to her fresh
+intercessions that I should carry a letter to him, I shook my head
+again. My mood was stubborn.
+
+“Believe me, Madonna, it were not only unwise, but futile.”
+
+She protested.
+
+“I swear it would be,” I insisted, with a convincing force that left
+her staring at me and wondering whence I derived so much assurance. “We
+must wait. From now till Christmas we have more than two months. In two
+months much may befall. As a last resource we may consider
+communication with the Lord Giovanni. But it is a forlorn hope,
+Madonna, and so we will leave it until all else has failed us.”
+
+She brightened at my promise that at least if other measures proved
+unavailing, we should adopt that course, and her brightening flattered
+me, for it bore witness to the supreme confidence she had in me.
+
+“Lazzaro,” said she, “I know you will not fail me. I trust you more
+than any living mam; more, I think, than even the Lord Giovanni, whom,
+if God pleases, I shall some day wed.”
+
+“Thanks, Madonna mia,” I answered, gratefully indeed. “It is a trust
+that I shall ever strive to justify. Meanwhile have faith and hope, and
+wait.”
+
+Once before, when, to escape the schemes of her brother who would have
+wed her to the Lord Giovanni, she had appealed to me, the counsel I had
+given her had been much the same as that which I gave her now. At the
+irony of it I could have laughed had any other been in question but
+Madonna Paola—this tender White Flower of the Quince that was like to
+be rudely wilted by the ruthless hands of scheming men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+
+That night I would have supped in my own quarters but that Filippo sent
+for me and bade me join him and swell the little court he kept. At
+times I believe he almost thought that he was the true Lord of
+Pesaro—an opinion that may have been shared by not a few of the
+citizens themselves. Certainly he kept a greater state and was better
+housed than the duke of Valentinois’ governor.
+
+It was a jovial company of perhaps a dozen nobles and ladies that met
+about his board, and Filippo bade his servants lay for me beside him.
+As we ate he questioned me touching the occupation that I had found
+during my absence from Pesaro. I used the greatest frankness with him,
+and answered that my life had been partly a peasants, partly a poet’s.
+
+“Tell me what you wrote,” he bade me his eyes resting on my face with a
+new look of interest, for his love of letters was one of the few things
+about him that was not affected.
+
+“A few novelle, dealing with court-life; but chiefly verses,” answered
+I.
+
+“And with these verses—what have you done?”
+
+“I have them by me, Illustrious,” I answered. He smiled, seemingly well
+pleased.
+
+“You must read them to us,” he cried. “If they rival that epic of
+yours, which I have never forgotten, they should be worth hearing.”
+
+And presently, supper being done, I went at his bidding to my chamber
+for my precious manuscripts, and, returning, I entertained the company
+with the reading of a portion of what I had written. They heard me with
+an attention that might have rendered me vain had my ambition really
+lain in being accounted a great writer; and when I paused, now and
+again, there was a murmur of applause, and many a pat on the shoulder
+from Filippo whenever a line, a phrase or a stanza took his fancy.
+
+I was perhaps too absorbed to pay any great attention to the impression
+my verses were producing, but presently, in one of my pauses, the Lord
+Filippo startled me with words that awoke me to a sense of my
+imprudence.
+
+“Do you know, Lazzaro, of what your lines remind me in an extraordinary
+measure?”
+
+“Of what, Excellency?” I asked politely, raising my eyes from my
+manuscript. They chanced to meet the glance of Madonna Paola. It was
+riveted upon me, and its expression was one I could not understand.
+
+“Of the love-songs of the Lord Giovanni Sforza,” answered he. “They
+resemble those poems infinitely more than they resemble the epic you
+wrote two years ago.”
+
+I stammered something about the similarity being merely one of subject.
+But he shook his head at that, and took good note of my confusion.
+
+“No,” said he, “the resemblance goes deeper. There is the same facile
+beauty of the rhymes the same freshness of the rhythm—remotely
+resembling that of Petrarca, yet very different. Conceits similar to
+those that were the beauty spots of the Lord Giovanni’s verses are
+ubiquitous in yours, and above all there is the same fervent
+earnestness, the same burning tone of sincerity that rendered his
+strambotti so worthy of admiration.”
+
+“It may be,” I answered him, my confusion growing under the steady gaze
+of Madonna Paola, “it may be that having heard the verses of the Lord
+Giovanni, I may, unconsciously, have modelled my own lines upon those
+that made so deep an impression on me.”
+
+He looked at me gravely for a moment.
+
+“That might be an explanation,” he answered deliberately, “but frankly,
+if I were asked, I should give a very different one.”
+
+“And that would be?” came, sharp and compelling, the voice of Madonna.
+
+He turned to her, shrugged his shoulders and laughed. “Why, since you
+ask me,” he said, “I should hazard the opinion that Lazzaro, here, was
+of considerable assistance to the Lord Giovanni in the penning of those
+verses with which he delighted us all—and you, Madonna, I believe,
+particularly.”
+
+Madonna Paola crimsoned, and her eyes fell. The others looked at us
+with inquiring glances—at her, at Filippo and at me. With a fresh laugh
+Filippo turned to me.
+
+“Confess now, am I not right?” he asked good-humouredly.
+
+“Magnificent,” I murmured in tones of protest, “ask yourself the
+question. Was it a likely thing that the Lord Giovanni would enlist the
+services of his jester in such a task?”
+
+“Give me a straightforward answer,” he insisted. “Am I right or wrong?”
+
+“I am giving you more than a straightforward answer, my lord,” I still
+evaded him, and more boldly now. “I am setting you on the high-road to
+solve the matter for yourself by an appeal to your own good sense and
+reason. Was it in the least likely, I repeat, that the Lord Giovanni
+would seek the services of his Fool to aid him write the verses in
+honour of the lady of his heart?”
+
+With a burst of mocking laughter, Filippo smote the table a blow of his
+clenched hand.
+
+“Your prevarications answer me,” he cried. “You will not say that I am
+wrong.”
+
+“But I do say that you are wrong!” I exclaimed, suddenly inspired. “I
+did not assist the Lord Giovanni with his verses. I swear it.”
+
+His laughter faded; and his eyes surveyed me with a sudden solemnity.
+
+“Then why did you evade my question?” he demanded shrewdly. And then
+his countenance changed as swiftly again. It was illumined by the light
+of sudden understanding. “I have it,” he cried. “The answer is plain.
+You did not assist the Lord Giovanni to write them. Why? Because you
+wrote them yourself, and you gave them to him that he might pass them
+off as his own.”
+
+It was a merciful thing for me that the whole company fell into a burst
+of laughter and applauded Filippo’s quick discernment, which they never
+doubted. All talked at once, and a hundred proofs were advanced in
+support of Filippo’s opinion. The Lord Giovanni’s celebrated dullness
+of mind, amounting almost to stupidity, was cited, and they reminded
+one another of the profound astonishment with which they had listened
+to the compositions that had suddenly burst from him.
+
+Filippo turned to his sister, on whose pale face I saw it written that
+she was as convinced as any there, and my feelings were those of a
+dastard who has broken faith with the man who trusted him.
+
+“Do you appreciate now, Madonna,” he murmured, “the deceits and wiles
+by which that craven crept like a snake into your esteem?”
+
+I guessed at once that by that thrust he sought to incline her more to
+the union he had in view for her.
+
+“At least he was no craven,” answered she. “His burning desire to
+please me may have betrayed him into this foolish duplicity. But he
+still must live in my memory as a brave and gallant gentleman; or have
+you forgotten, Filippo, that noble combat with the forces of Ramiro
+del’ Orca?”
+
+To such a question Filippo had no answer, and presently his mood
+sobered a little. For myself, I was glad when the time came to withdraw
+from that company that twitted and pestered me and played upon my sense
+of shame at the imprudence I had committed.
+
+Now that I look back, I can scarce conceive why it should have so
+wrought upon me; for, in truth, the little love I bore the Lord
+Giovanni might rather have led me to rejoice that his imposture should
+be laid bare to the eyes of all the world. I think that really there
+was an element of fear in my feelings—fear that, upon reflection,
+Madonna Paola might ask herself how came that burning sincerity into
+the love-songs written in her honour which it was now disclosed that I
+had penned. The answer she might find to such a question was one that
+might arouse her pride and so outrage it as to lead her to cast me out
+of her friendship and never again suffer me to approach her.
+
+Such a conclusion, however, she fortunately did not arrive at. Haply
+she accounted the fervour of those lines assumed, for when on the
+morrow she met me, she did no more than gently chide me for the deceit
+that I had had a hand in practising upon her. She accepted my
+explanation that my share in that affair had been wrung from me with
+threats of torture, and putting it from her mind she returned to the
+matter of the approaching alliance she sought to elude, renewing her
+prayers that I should aid her.
+
+“I have,” she told me then, “one other friend who might assist us, and
+who has the power perhaps if he but has the will. He is the Governor of
+Cesena, and for all that he holds service under Cesare Borgia, yet he
+seems much devoted to me, and I do not doubt that to further my
+interests he would even consent to pit his wits against those of the
+family he serves.”
+
+“In which case, Madonna,” answered I, spurred to it, perhaps, by an
+insensate pang of jealousy at the thought that there should be another
+beside myself to have her confidence, “he would be a traitor. And it is
+ever an ill thing to trust a traitor. Who once betrays may betray
+again.”
+
+That she manifested no resentment, but, on the contrary, readily agreed
+with me, showed me how idle had been that jealousy of mine, and made me
+ashamed of it.
+
+“Why yes,” she mused, “it is the very thought that had occurred to me,
+and caused me to spurn the aid he proffered when last he was here.”
+
+“Ah!” I cried. “What aid was that?”
+
+“You must know, Lazzaro,” said she, “that he comes often to Pesaro from
+Cesena, being a man in whom the Duke places great trust, and on whom he
+has bestowed considerable powers. He never fails to lie at the Palace
+when he comes, and he seems to—to have conceived a regard for me. He is
+a man of twice my years,” she added hurriedly, “and haply looks upon me
+as he might upon a daughter.”
+
+I sniffed the air. I had heard of such men.
+
+“A week ago, when last he came, I was cast down and grieved by the
+affair of this marriage, which Filippo had that day disclosed to me.
+The Governor of Cesena, observing my sadness, sought my confidence with
+a kindliness of which you would scarce believe him capable; for he is a
+fierce and blustering man of war. In the fulness of my heart there was
+nothing that seemed so desirable as a friendly ear into which I might
+pour the tale of my affliction. He heard me gravely, and when I had
+done he placed himself at my disposal, assuring me that if I would but
+trust myself to him, he would defeat the ends of the House of Borgia.
+Not until then did I seem to bethink me that he was the servant of that
+house, and his readiness to betray the hand that paid him sowed
+mistrust and a certain loathing of him in my mind. I let him see it,
+perhaps, which was unwise, and, may be, even ungrateful. He seemed
+deeply wounded, and the subject was abandoned. But I have since thought
+that perhaps I acted with a rashness that was—”
+
+“With a rashness that was eminently justifiable,” I interrupted her.
+“You could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such a
+man.”
+
+But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in
+store for me. At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion
+in the courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its
+cause, I was informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had
+arrived.
+
+Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he
+served, where Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to
+probe, I descended to the banqueting-hall at supper time.
+
+They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in
+the centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and
+crimson, brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of
+my own quarters but that his wolf’s eye had already fastened on me.
+
+“Body of God!” he swore, and that was all. But his eyes were on me in a
+marvellous stare, as were now—impelled by that oath of his—the eyes of
+all the company. We looked at each other for a moment, then a great
+laugh burst from him, shaking his vast bulk and wrinkling his hideous
+face. He thrust the intervening men aside as if they had been a growth
+of sedges he would penetrate, and he advanced towards me; the Lord
+Filippo and his sister looking on with all the rest in interested
+surprise.
+
+In front of me he halted, and setting his hands on his hips he regarded
+me with a brutal mirth.
+
+“What may your trade be now?” he asked at last contemptuously.
+
+I had taken rapid stock of him in the seconds that were sped, and from
+the surpassing richness of his apparel, his gold-broidered doublet and
+crimson, fur-edged surcoat, I knew that Messer Ramiro del’ Orca was
+grown to the high estate of Governor of Cesena.
+
+“A new trade even as yours,” I answered him.
+
+“Nay, that is no answer,” he cried, overlooking my offensiveness. “Do
+you still follow the trade of arms?”
+
+“I think,” Filippo interposed, “that our Excellency is in some error.
+This gentleman is Lazzaro Biancomonte, a poet of whom Italy will one
+day be proud, despite the fact that for a time he acted as the Lord
+Giovanni Sforza’s Fool.”
+
+Ramiro looked at his interlocutor, as the mastiff may look at the lap
+dog. He grunted, and blew out his cheeks.
+
+“There is yet another part he played,” said he, “as I have good cause
+to remember—for he is the only man that can boast of having unhorsed
+Ramiro del’ Orca. He was for a brief season the Lord Giovanni Sforza
+himself.”
+
+“How?” asked the profoundly amazed Filippo, whilst all present pressed
+closer to miss nothing of the disclosure that seemed to impend. Myself,
+I groaned. There was naught that I could say to stem the tide of
+revelation that was coming.
+
+“Do you then keep this paladin here arrayed like a clerk?” quoth Ramiro
+in his sardonic way. “And can it be that the secret of his feat of arms
+has been guarded so well that you are still in ignorance of it?”
+
+Filippo’s wits worked swiftly, and swiftly they pieced together the
+hints that Ramiro had let fall.
+
+“You will tell us,” said he, “that the fight in the streets of Pesaro,
+in which your Excellency’s party suffered defeat, was led by
+Biancomonte in the armour of Giovanni Sforza?”
+
+Ramiro looked at him with that displeasure with which the jester visits
+the man who by anticipation robs his story of its points.
+
+“It was known to you?” growled he.
+
+“Not so. I have but learnt it from you. But it nowise astonishes me.”
+
+And he looked at his sister, whose eyes devoured me, as if they would
+read in my soul whether this thing were indeed true. Under her eyes I
+dropped my glance like a man ashamed at hearing a disgraceful act of
+his paraded.
+
+“Had it indeed been the Lord Giovanni, he had been dead that day,”
+laughed Ramiro grimly. “Indeed it was nothing but my astonishment at
+sight of the face I was about to stab, after having broken the
+fastenings of his visor that stayed my hand for long enough to give him
+the advantage. But I bear you no grudge for that,” he ended, turning on
+me with a ferocious smile, “nor yet for that other trick by which—as
+Boccadoro the Fool—you bested me. I am not a sweet man when thwarted,
+yet I can admire wit and respect courage. But see to it,” he ended,
+with a sudden and most unreasonable ferocity, his visage empurpling if
+possible still more, “see to it that you pit neither that courage nor
+that wit against me again. I have heard the story of how you came to be
+Fool of the Court of Pesaro. Cesena is a dull place, and we might
+enliven it by the presence of a jester of such nimble wits as yours.”
+
+He turned without awaiting my reply, and strode away to take his place
+at table, whilst I walked slowly to my accustomed seat, and took little
+part in the conversation that ensued, which, as you may imagine, had me
+and that exploit of mine for scope.
+
+Anon an elephantine trumpeting of laughter seemed to set the air
+a-quivering. Ramiro was lying back in his chair a prey to such a
+passion of mirth that it swelled the veins of his throat and brow until
+I thought that they must burst—and, from my soul, I hoped they would.
+Adown his rugged cheeks two tears were slowly trickling. The Lord
+Filippo, as presently transpired, had been telling him of the epic I
+had written in praise of the Lord Giovanni’s prowess. Naught would now
+satisfy that ogre but he must have the epic read, and Filippo, who had
+retained a copy of it, went in quest of it, and himself read it aloud
+for the delight of all assembled and the torture of myself who saw in
+Madonna Paola’s eyes that she accounted the deception I had practised
+on her a thing beyond pardon.
+
+Filippo had a taste for letters, as I think I have made clear, and he
+read those lines with the same fire and fervour that I, myself, had
+breathed into them two years ago. But instead of the rapt and
+breathless attention with which my reading had been attended, the
+present company listened with a smile, whilst ever and anon a short
+laugh or a quiet chuckle would mark how well they understood to-night
+the subtle ironies which had originally escaped them.
+
+I crept away, sick at heart, while they were still making sport over my
+work, cursing the Lord Giovanni, who had forced me to these things, and
+my own mad mood that had permitted me in an evil hour to be so forced.
+Yet my grief and bitterness were little things that night compared with
+what Madonna was to make them on the morrow.
+
+She sent for me betimes, and I went in fear and trembling of her wrath
+and scorn. How shall I speak of that interview? How shall I describe
+the immeasurable contempt with which she visited me, and which I felt
+was perhaps no more than I deserved.
+
+“Messer Biancomonte,” said she coldly, “I have ever accounted you my
+friend, and disinterested the motives that inspired a heart seemingly
+noble to do service to a forlorn and helpless lady. It seems that I was
+wrong. That the indulging of a warped and malignant spirit was the
+inspiration you had to appear to befriend me.”
+
+“Madonna, you are over-cruel,” I cried out, wounded to the very soul of
+me.
+
+“Am I so?” she asked, with a cold smile upon her ivory face. “Is it not
+rather you who were cruel? Was it a fine thing to do to trick a lady
+into giving her affection to a man for gifts which he did not possess?
+You know in what manner of regard I held the Lord Giovanni Sforza so
+long as I saw him with the eyes of reason and in the light of truth.
+And you, who were my one professed friend, the one man who spoke so
+loudly of dying in my service, you falsified my vision, you masked
+him—either at his own and at my brother’s bidding, or else out of the
+malignancy of your nature—in a garb that should render him agreeable in
+my eyes. Do you realise what you have done? Does not your conscience
+tell you? You have contrived that I have plighted my troth to a man
+such as I believed the Lord Giovanni to be. Mother of Mercy!” she
+ended, with a scorn ineffable; “when I dwell upon it now, it almost
+seems that it was to you I gave my heart, for yours were the deeds that
+earned my regard—not his.”
+
+Such was the very argument that I had hugged to my starving soul, at
+the time the things she spoke of had befallen, and it had consoled me
+as naught in life could have consoled me. Yet now that she employed it
+with such a scornful emphasis as to make me realise how far beneath her
+I really was, how immeasurably beyond my reach was she, it was as much
+consolation to me as confession without absolution may be to the
+perishing sinner. I answered nothing. I could not trust myself to
+speak. Besides, what was there that I could say?
+
+“I summoned you back to Pesaro,” she continued pitilessly, “trusting in
+your fine words and deeming honest the offer of services you made me.
+Now that I know you, you are free to depart from Pesaro when you will.”
+
+Despite my shame, I dared, at last, to raise my eyes. But her face was
+averted, and she saw nothing of the entreaty, nothing of the grief that
+might have told her how false were her conclusions. One thing alone
+there was might have explained my actions, might have revealed them in
+a new light; but that one thing I could not speak of.
+
+I turned in silence, and in silence I quitted the room; for that, I
+thought, was, after all, the wisest answer I could make.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+POISON
+
+
+Despite Madonna Paola’s dismissal, I remained in Pesaro. Indeed, had I
+attempted to leave, it is probable that the Lord Filippo would have
+deterred me, for I was much grown in his esteem since the disclosures
+that had earned me the disfavour of Madonna. But I had no thought of
+going. I hoped against hope that anon she might melt to a kinder mood,
+or else that by yet aiding her, despite herself, to elude the Borgia
+alliance, I might earn her forgiveness for those matters in which she
+held that I had so gravely sinned against her.
+
+The epithalamium, meanwhile, was forgotten utterly and I spent my days
+in conceiving wild plans to save her from the Lord Ignacio, only to
+abandon them when in more sober moments their impracticable quality was
+borne in upon me.
+
+In this fashion some six weeks went by, and during the time she never
+once addressed me. We saw much during those days of the Governor of
+Cesena. Indeed his time seemed mainly spent in coming and going ’twixt
+Cesena and Pesaro, and it needed no keen penetration to discern the
+attraction that brought him. He was ever all attention to Madonna, and
+there were times when I feared that perhaps she had been drawn into
+accepting the aid that once before he had proffered. But these fears
+were short-lived, for, as time sped, Madonna’s aversion to the man grew
+plain for all to see. Yet he persisted until the very eve, almost, of
+her betrothal to Ignacio.
+
+One evening in early December I chanced, through the purest accident,
+to overhear her sharp repulsion of the suit that he had evidently been
+pressing.
+
+“Madonna,” I heard him answer, with a snarl, “I may yet prove to you
+that you have been unwise so to use Ramiro del’ Orca.”
+
+“If you so much as venture to address me again upon the subject,” she
+returned in the very chilliest accents, “I will lay this matter of your
+odious suit before your master Cesare Borgia.”
+
+They must have caught the sound of my footsteps in the gallery in which
+they stood, and Ramiro moved away, his purple face pale for once, and
+his eyes malevolent as Satan’s.
+
+I reflected with pleasure that perhaps we had now seen the last of him,
+and that before that threat of Madonna’s he would see fit to ride home
+to Cesena and remain there. But I was wrong. With incredible effrontery
+and daring he lingered. The morrow was a Sunday, and, on the Tuesday or
+Wednesday following, Cesare Borgia and his cousin Ignacio were
+expected. Filippo was in the best of moods, and paid more heed to the
+Governor of Cesena’s presence at Pesaro than he did to mine. It may be
+that he imagined Ramiro del’ Orca to be acting under Cesare’s
+instructions.
+
+That Sunday night we supped together, and we were all tolerably gay,
+the topic of our talk being the coming of the bridegroom. Madonna’s was
+the only downcast face at the board. She was pale and worn, and there
+were dark circles round her eyes that did much to mar the beauty of her
+angel face, and inspired me with a deep and sorrowing pity.
+
+Ramiro announced his intention of leaving Pesaro on the morrow, and ere
+he went he begged leave to pledge the beautiful Lady of Santafior, who
+was so soon to become the bride of the valiant and mighty Ignacio
+Borgia. It was a toast that was eagerly received, so eager and
+uproariously that even that poor lady herself was forced to smile, for
+all that I saw it in her eyes that her heart was on the point of
+breaking.
+
+I remember how, when we had drunk, she raised her goblet—a beautiful
+chaste cup of solid gold—and drank, herself, in acknowledgment; and I
+remember, too, how, chancing to move my head, I caught a most singular,
+ill-omened smile upon the coarse lips of Messer Ramiro.
+
+At the time I thought of it no more, but in the morning when the
+horrible news that spread through the Palace gained my ears, that smile
+of Ramiro del’ Orca recurred to me at once.
+
+It was from the seneschal of the Palace that I first heard that tragic
+news. I had but risen, and I was descending from my quarters, when I
+came upon him, his old face white as death, a palsy in his limbs.
+
+“Have you heard the news, Ser Lazzaro?” he cried in a quavering voice.
+
+“The news of what?” I asked, struck by the horror in his face.
+
+“Madonna Paola is dead,” he told me, with a sob.
+
+I stared at him in speechless consternation, and for a moment I seemed
+forlorn of sense and understanding.
+
+“Dead?” I remember whispering. “What is it you say?” And I leaned
+forward towards him, peering into his face. “What is it you say?”
+
+“Well may you doubt your ears,” he groaned. “But, Vergine Santissima!
+it is the truth. Madonna Paola, that sweet angel of God, lies cold and
+stiff. They found her so this morning.”
+
+“God of Heaven!” I cried out, and leaving him abruptly I dashed down
+the steps.
+
+Scarce knowing what I did, acting upon an impulsive instinct that was
+as irresistible as it was unreasoning, I made for the apartments of
+Madonna Paola. In the antechamber I found a crowd assembled, and on
+every face was pallid consternation written. Of my own countenance I
+had a glimpse in a mirror as I passed; it was ashen, and my hollow eyes
+were wild as a madman’s.
+
+Someone caught me by the arm. I turned. It was the Lord Filippo, pale
+as the rest, his affectations all fallen from him, and the man himself
+revealed by the hand of an overwhelming sorrow. With him was a grave,
+white-bearded gentleman, whose sober robe proclaimed the physician.
+
+“This is a black and monstrous affair, my friend,” he murmured.
+
+“Is it true, is it really true, my lord?” I cried in such a voice that
+all eyes were turned upon me.
+
+“Your grief is a welcome homage to my own,” he said. “Alas, Dio Santo!
+it is most hideously true. She lies there cold and white as marble, I
+have just seen her. Come hither, Lazzaro.” He drew me aside, away from
+the crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been
+Madonna’s oratory. With us came the physician.
+
+“This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned,
+Lazzaro.”
+
+“Poisoned?” I echoed. “Body of God! but by whom? We all loved her.
+There was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid
+down his life in her service. Who was there, then, to poison that dear
+saint?”
+
+It was then that the memory of Ramiro del’ Orca, and the look that in
+his eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my
+mind.
+
+“Where is the Governor of Cesena?” I cried suddenly. Filippo looked at
+me with quick surprise.
+
+“He departed betimes this morning for his castle. Why do you ask?”
+
+I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro’s attentions
+to Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he
+had seemed to threaten. Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done
+he shook his head.
+
+“Why, all being as you say, should he work so wanton a destruction?” he
+asked stupidly, as if jealousy were not cause enough to drive an evil
+man to destroy that which he may not possess. “Nay, nay, your wits are
+disordered. You remember that he looked at Madonna whilst she drank,
+and you construe that into a proof that he had poisoned the cup she
+drank from. But then it is probable that we all looked at her in that
+same moment.”
+
+“But not with such eyes as his,” I insisted.
+
+“Could he have administered the poison with his own hands?” asked the
+doctor gravely.
+
+“No,” said I, “that were a difficult matter. But he might have bribed a
+servant to drop a powder in her wine.”
+
+“Why then,” said he, “it should be an easy thing to find the servant.
+Do you chance to remember who served the wine?”
+
+“I remember,” answered Filippo readily.
+
+“Let the man be questioned; let him be racked if necessary. Thus shall
+you probably arrive at a true knowledge; thus discover under whose
+directions he was working.”
+
+It was the only thing to do, and Filippo sent me about it there and
+then, telling me the servant in question was a Venetian of the name of
+Zabatello. If confirmation had been needed that this fellow had been
+the tool of the poisoner—there was no reason to suppose that he would
+have done the thing to have served any ends of his own—that
+confirmation I had upon discovering that Zabatello was fled from
+Pesaro, leaving no trace behind him.
+
+Men were sent out by the Lord Filippo in every direction to endeavour
+to find the rogue and bring him back. Whether they caught him or not
+seemed, after all a little thing to me. She was dead; that was the one
+all-absorbing, all-effacing fact that took possession of my mind,
+blotting out all minor matters that might be concerned with it. Even
+the now assured fact that she had been poisoned was a thing that found
+little room in my consideration on that day of my burning grief.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead! The hideous phrase boomed again and again
+through my distracted mind. Compared with that overwhelming
+catastrophe, what signified to me the how or why or when she had died.
+She was dead, and the world was empty.
+
+For hours I sat on the rocks, alone by the sea, on that stormy day of
+December, and I indulged my grief where no prying eyes could witness
+it, amid the solitude of wild and angry Nature. And the moan and thud
+with which the great waves hurled themselves against the base of the
+black rock on which I was perched afforded but a feeble echo of the
+storm that raged and beat within my desolated soul.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead! The waves seemed to shout it as they leapt up
+and spattered me with brine; the wind now moaned it piteously, now
+shrieked it fiercely as it scudded by, wrapping its invisible coils
+about me, and seeming intent on tearing me from my resting-place.
+
+Towards evening, at last, I rose, and skirting the Castle, I entered
+the town, dishevelled and bedraggled, yet caring nothing what spectacle
+I might afford. And presently a grim procession overtook me, and at
+sight of the black, cowled and visored figures that advanced in the
+lurid light of their wax torches, I fell on my knees there in the
+street, and so remained, my knees deep in the mud, my head bowed, until
+her sainted body had been borne past. None heeded me. They bore her to
+San Domenico, and thither I followed presently, and in the shadow of
+one of the pillars of the aisle I crouched whilst the monks chanted
+their funereal psalms.
+
+The singing ended, the friars departed, and presently those of the
+Court and the sight-seers from the streets began to leave the church.
+In an hour I was alone—alone with the beloved dead, and there, on my
+knees, I stayed, and whether I prayed or blasphemed during that horrid
+hour, my memory will not let me say.
+
+It may have been towards the third hour of night when at last I
+staggered up—stiff and cramped from my long kneeling on the cold stone.
+Slowly, in a half-dazed condition, I move down the aisle and gained the
+door of the church. I essayed to open it. It resisted my efforts, and
+then I realised that it was locked for the night.
+
+The appreciation of my position afforded me not the slightest dismay.
+On the contrary, I think my feelings were rather of relief. I had not
+known whither I should repair—so distraught was my mood—and now chance
+had settled the matter for me by decreeing that I should remain.
+
+I turned and slowly I paced back until I stood beside the great black
+catafalque, at each corner of which a tall wax taper was burning. My
+footsteps rang with a hollow sound through the vast, gloomy spaces of
+that cold, empty church; my very breathing seemed to find an echo in
+it. But these were not things to occupy my mind in such a season, no
+more than was the icy cold by which I was half-numbed—yet of which I
+seemed to remain unconscious in the absorbing anguish that possessed
+me.
+
+Near the foot of the bier there was a bench, and there I sat me down,
+and resting my elbows on my knees I took my dishevelled head between my
+frozen hands. My thoughts were all of her whose poor murdered clay was
+there encased above me. I reviewed, I think, each scene of my life
+where it had touched on hers; I evoked every word she had addressed to
+me since first I had met her on the road to Cagli.
+
+And anon my mood changed, and, from cold and frozen that it had been by
+grief, it grew ablaze with the fire of anger and the lust to wreak
+vengeance upon him that had brought her to this condition. Let Filippo
+fear to move without proofs, let him doubt such proofs as I had set
+before him and deem them overslender to warrant action. Such scruples
+should not serve to restrain me. I was no lukewarm brother. Here in
+Pesaro I would remain until her poor body was delivered to the earth,
+and then I would set out upon a last emprise. Messer Ramiro del’ Orca
+should account to me for this vile deed.
+
+There in the House of Peace I sat gnawing my hands and maturing my
+bloody plans whilst the night wore on. Later a still more frenzied mood
+obsessed me—a burning desire to look again upon the sweet face of her I
+had loved, the sainted visage of Madonna Paola. What was there to deter
+me? Who was there to gainsay me?
+
+I stood up and uttered that challenge aloud in my madness. My voice
+echoed mournfully up the aisles, and the sound of the echo chilled me,
+yet my purpose gathered strength.
+
+I advanced, and after a moment’s pause, with the silver-broidered hem
+of the pall in my hands, I suddenly swept off that mantle of black
+cloth, setting up such a gust of wind as all but quenched the tapers. I
+caught up the bench on which I had been sitting, and, dragging it
+forward, I mounted it and stood now with my breast on a level with the
+coffin-lid. I laid hands on it and found it unfastened. Without thought
+or care of how I went about the thing, I raised it and let it crash
+over to the ground. It fell on the stone flags with a noise like that
+of thunder, which boomed and reverberated along the gloomy vault above.
+
+A figure, all in purest white, lay there under my eyes, the face
+covered by a veil. With deepest reverence, and a prayer to her sainted
+soul to forgive the desecration of my loving hands, I tremblingly drew
+that veil aside. How beautiful she was in the calm peace of death! She
+lay there like one gently sleeping, the faintest smile upon her lips,
+and as I looked it seemed hard to believe that she was truly dead. Why,
+her lips had lost nothing of their colour; they were as rosy red—or
+nearly so—as ever I had seen them in life. How could this be? The lips
+of the dead are wont to put on a livid hue. I stared a moment, my
+reverence and grief almost effaced by the intensity of my wonder. This
+face, so ivory pale, wore not the ashen aspect of one that would never
+wake again. There was a warmth about that pallor. And then I caught my
+nether lip in my teeth until it bled, and it is a miracle that I did
+not scream, seeing how overwrought was my condition.
+
+For it had seemed to me that the draperies on her bosom had slightly
+moved, a gentle, almost imperceptible heave as if she breathed. I
+looked, and there it came again.
+
+God! into what madness was I come that my eyes could so deceive me? It
+was the draught that stirred the air about the church and blew great
+shrouds of wax adown the taper’s yellow sides. I manned myself to a
+more sober mood, and looked again.
+
+And now my doubts were all dispelled. I knew that I had mastered any
+errant fancy, and that my eyes were grown wise and discriminating, and
+I knew, too, that she lived. Her bosom slowly rose and fell; the colour
+of her lips, the hue of her cheeks confirmed the assurance that she
+breathed. The poison had failed in its work.
+
+I paused a second yet to ponder. That morning her appearance had been
+such that the physician had been deceived by it, and had pronounced her
+cold. Yet now there were these signs of life. What could it portend but
+that the effects of the poison were passing off and that she was
+recovering?
+
+In the wild madness of joy that sent the blood drumming and beating
+through my brain, my first impulse was to run for help. Then I
+bethought me of the closed doors, and I realised that no matter how I
+shouted none would hear me. I must succour her myself as best I could,
+and meanwhile she must be protected from the chill air of that December
+night in that church that was colder than the tomb. I had my cloak, a
+heavy, serviceable garment; and if more were needed, there was the pall
+which I had removed, and which lay in a heap about the legs of my
+bench.
+
+I leaned forward, and passing my hand under her head, I gently raised
+it. Then slipping it downwards, I thrust my arm after it until I had
+her round the waist in a firm grip. Thus I raised her from the coffin,
+and the warmth of her body on my arm, the ready, supple bending of her
+limbs, were so many added proofs that she was not dead.
+
+Gently and reverently I lifted her in my arms, an intoxication of holy
+joy pervading me, and the prayers falling faster from my lips than ever
+they had done since as a lad I had recited them at my mother’s knee. A
+moment I laid her on the bench, whilst I divested myself of my cloak.
+Then suddenly I paused, and stood listening, holding my breath.
+
+Steps were advancing towards the door.
+
+My first impulse was to rush forward and call to those who came,
+shouting my news and imploring their help. Then a sudden, an almost
+instinctive suspicion caught and chilled me. Who was it came at such an
+hour? What could any man seek in the Church of San Domenico at dead of
+night? Was the church indeed their goal, or were they but passers-by?
+
+That last question went not long unanswered. The steps came nearer,
+whilst I stood appalled, my skin roughening like a dog’s. They halted
+at the door. Something heavy hurtled against it.
+
+A voice, the voice of Ramiro del’ Orca—I knew it upon the
+instant—reached my ears which concentration had rendered superacute.
+
+“It is locked, Baldassare. Get out those tools of yours and force it.”
+
+My wits were working now at fever-pace. It may be that I am swift of
+thought beyond the ordinary man, or it may be that what then came to me
+was either a flash of inspiration or the conclusion to which I leapt by
+instinct. But in that moment the whole plot of Madonna’s poisoning was
+revealed to me. Poisoned she had been—aye, but by some drug that did
+but produce for a little while the outward appearance of death so truly
+simulated as to deceive the most experienced of doctors. I had heard of
+such poisons, and here, in very truth, was one of them at work. His
+vengeance on her for her indifference to his suit was not so clumsy and
+primitive as that of simply slaying her. He had, by his infernal
+artifice, intended, secretly, to bear her off. To-morrow when men found
+a broken church-door and a violated bier, they would set the sacrilege
+down to some wizard who had need of the body for his dark practices of
+magic.
+
+I cursed myself in that hour that I had not earlier been moved to peer
+into her coffin whilst yet there might have been time to have saved
+her. Now? The sweat stood out in beads upon my brow. At that door there
+were, to judge by the sound of footsteps and of voices, some three or
+four men besides Messer Ramiro. For only weapon I had my dagger. What
+could I do with that to defend her? Ramiro’s plan would suffer no
+frustration through my discovery; when to-morrow the sacrilege was
+discovered the cold body of Lazzaro Biancomonte lying beside the
+desecrated bier would be but an item in the work of profanation they
+would find—an item that nowise would modify the conclusion to which I
+anticipated they would come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+REQUIESCAT!
+
+
+A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human
+mind. Some it renders incapable of thought or action, paralysing their
+limbs and stagnating the blood in their veins; such creatures die in
+anticipating death. Others under the stress of that grim passion have
+their wits preternaturally sharpened. The instinct of self-preservation
+assumes command of all their senses, and urges them to swift and
+feverish action.
+
+I thank God with a full heart that to this latter class do I belong.
+After one gelid moment, spent with eyes and mouth agape, my hands
+fallen limp beside me and my hair bristling with affright, I became
+myself again and never calmer than in that dread moment. I went to work
+with superhuman swiftness. My cheeks may have been livid, my very lips
+bloodless; but my hands were steady and my wits under full control.
+
+Concealment—concealment for myself and her—was the thing that now
+imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were
+devised. Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case to
+be exacting, and since they were the best the place afforded I must
+trust to them without demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might
+lack the wit to search. And with that fresh hope it came to me that I
+must find a way so to dispose as to make him believe that to search
+would be a futile waste of energy.
+
+The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal. Yet a little
+time there was. The door was stout, and Messer Ramiro might take no
+violent means of bursting it, lest the noise should arouse the
+street—and I well could guess how little he would relish having lights
+to shine upon this deed of night of his.
+
+With what tools his sbirro was at work I could not say; but surely they
+must be such as would leave me a few moments. Already the fellow had
+begun. I could make out a soft crunching sound, as of steel biting into
+wood. To act, then!
+
+With movements swift as a cat’s, and as silent, I went to work. Like a
+ghost I glided round the coffin to the other side, where the lid was
+lying. I took it up, and when for a moment I had deposited Madonna
+Paola on the ground, I mounted the bench and gently but quickly set
+back that lid as it had been. Next, I gathered up the cumbrous pall,
+and mounting the bench once more I spread it across the coffin. This
+way and that I pulled it, straightening it into the shape that it had
+worn when first I had entered, and casting its folds into regular lines
+that would lend it the appearance of having remained undisturbed.
+
+And what time I toiled, the half of my mind intent upon my task, the
+other half was as intent upon the progress of the worker at the door.
+
+At last it was done. I set the bench where first it had been, at the
+foot of the catafalque, and gathering up Madonna in my arms, as though
+her weight had been an infant’s, I bore her swiftly out of the circle
+of light of those four tapers into the black, impenetrable gloom
+beyond. On I sped towards the high-altar, flying now as men fly in evil
+dreams, with the sensation of an enemy upon them and their progress a
+mere standing-still.
+
+Thus I gained the chancel, hurtling against the railing as I passed,
+and pausing for an instant, wondering whether those without could have
+heard the noise which in my clumsiness I had made. But the grinding
+sound continued uninterrupted, and I breathed more freely. I mounted
+the altar-steps, the distant light behind me still feebly guiding me; I
+ran round to the right, and heaved a great sigh of relief to find my
+hopes verified, and that the altar of San Domenico was as the altar of
+other churches I had known. It stood a pace or so from the wall, and
+behind it there was just such narrow hiding-room as I had looked to
+find.
+
+I paused at the mouth of that black opening, and even as I paused,
+something hard that gave out a metallic sound fell at the far end of
+the church. Instinct told me it was the lock which those miscreants had
+cut from the door. I waited for no more, but like a beast scudding to
+cover I plunged into that black space.
+
+Madonna, wrapped in my cloak as she was, I set down upon the ground,
+and then I crept forward on hands and knees and thrust out my head,
+trusting to the darkness to envelop me.
+
+I waited thus for some seconds, my heart beating now against my ribs as
+if it would hurl itself out of my bosom, my head and face on fire with
+the fever of reaction that succeeded my late cold pallor.
+
+From where I watched it was impossible to see the door hidden in the
+black gloom. Away in the centre of the church, an island of light in
+that vast sea of blackness, stood the catafalque with its four wax
+torches. Something creaked, and almost immediately I saw the flames of
+those tapers bend towards me, beaten over by the gust that smote them
+from the door. Thus I surmised that Ramiro and his men had entered. The
+soft fall of their feet; for they were treading lightly now, succeeded,
+and at last they came into view, shadowy at first, then sharply
+outlined as they approached the light.
+
+A moment they stood in half-whispered conversation, their voices a mere
+boom of sound in which no word was to be distinguished. Then I saw
+Ramiro suddenly step forward—I knew him by his great height—and drag
+away, even as I had done, the pall that hid the coffin. Next he seized
+the bench and gave a brisk order to his men in a less cautious voice,
+so that I caught his words.
+
+“Spread a cloak,” said he, and, in obedience, the four that were with
+him took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. It was
+thus that he meant to bear her with him.
+
+He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind
+he put out his hands to remove the coffin-lid. As well as if his soul
+had been transformed into a book conceived for my amusement did I
+surmise the exultant mood that then possessed him. He had tricked
+Filippo; he had out-witted us all—Madonna herself, included—and he was
+leaving no trace behind him that should warrant any so much as to dare
+to think that this vile deed was the work of Messer Ramiro del’ Orca,
+Governor of Cessna.
+
+But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the gods, delights in
+mighty contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and
+hollow lures on the very eve of working our discomfiture. From the soul
+that but a moment back had been aglow with evil satisfaction there
+burst a sudden blasphemous cry of rage that disregarded utterly the
+sanctity of that consecrated place.
+
+“By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!”
+
+It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy
+crash as he let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder
+sound awoke the night-echoes of that silent place. In a burst of
+maniacal frenzy he had caught the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty
+fist, and hurled it from its trestles.
+
+Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds
+in the excitement that possessed him.
+
+“It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo,” he cried. “They
+have laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves.”
+
+I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling
+veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror
+spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully
+though he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
+
+“Out of this!” he growled at them. “See that your swords hang ready.
+Away!”
+
+One of them murmured something that I could not catch. Mother in
+Heaven! if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place,
+a suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it?
+But Ramiro’s answer speedily relieved my fears.
+
+“I’ll take no risks,” he barked. “Come! Let us go separately. I first,
+and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can.” His
+voice grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words,
+“Cesena” and “to-morrow night,” from which I gathered that he was
+appointing that as their next meeting-place.
+
+Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere
+the others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap
+that was here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the
+instant by their still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
+
+Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it had
+lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those
+ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola. Her breathing was grown
+more heavy and more regular, so that in all respects she was as one
+sleeping healthily. Soon I hoped that she might awaken, for to seek to
+bear her thence and to the Palace in my arms would have been a madness.
+And now it occurred to me that I should have restoratives at hand
+against the time of her regaining consciousness. Inspiration suggested
+to me the wine that should be stored in the sacristy for altar
+purposes. It was unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in
+using it.
+
+I crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle-branch
+protruded, standing no higher than my head. It held some three or four
+tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at
+early Mass on dark winter mornings. I plucked one of the candles from
+its socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the
+burning tapers of the bier. Screening it with my hand, I retraced my
+steps and regained the chancel. Then turning to the left, I made for a
+door that I knew should give access to the sacristy. It yielded to my
+touch, and I passed down a short stone-flagged passage, and entered the
+spacious chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed against one wall, and
+above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix. Facing it against
+the other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard,
+half-buffet. On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal,
+whilst a few vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of
+this austere and white-washed chamber. Setting my candle on the buffet,
+I opened one of the drawers. It was full of garments of different
+kinds, among which I noticed several monks’ habits. I rummaged to the
+bottom only to find some odd pairs of sandals.
+
+Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better
+fortune. Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and
+fragrant with rosemary. I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to
+the cupboard above. It was locked, but the key was there. It opened,
+and my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated
+chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of
+solid gold, set with precious stones. But in a corner I espied a
+dark-brown, gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine, and, with a
+half-suppressed cry of joy, I seized it. In that instant a piercing
+scream rang through the stillness of the church, and startled me so
+that I stood there for some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild
+conjectures leaping to my mind.
+
+Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned? Did the scream mean
+that Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
+
+A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell
+that its first utterance had cast over me. Dropping the leather bottle,
+I sped back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the
+chancel.
+
+There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous
+and ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim
+rays of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her
+limbs were hung. She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the
+very natural fear consequent upon awakening in such a place that had
+provoked the cry I had heard.
+
+“Madonna,” I called, advancing swiftly towards her. “Madonna Paola!”
+There was a gasp, a moment’s stillness, then—
+
+“Lazzaro?” She cried, questioningly. “What has happened? Why am I
+here?”
+
+I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
+
+“Something horrible has happened, Madonna,” I answered. “But it is over
+now, and the evil is averted.”
+
+“But how came I here?”
+
+“That you shall learn.” I stooped to gather up the cloak which had
+slipped from her shoulders as she advanced. “Do you wrap this about
+you,” I urged her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in
+that mantle. “Are you faint, Madonna?” I asked.
+
+“I scarce know,” she answered in a frightened voice. “There is a black
+horror upon me. Tell me,” she implored again, “what does it mean?”
+
+I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner
+once she were out of these forbidding surroundings. I led her to the
+sacristy and seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once
+again.
+
+At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was
+insistent.
+
+“It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna,” I told her. “The wine
+will warm and revive you. Come Madonna mia, drink.”
+
+She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she
+drank a lusty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour
+to replace the ashen pallor of her cheeks.
+
+“I am so cold, Lazzaro,” she complained.
+
+I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks’ habits,
+and pulling one out I held it for her to don. She sat there now, in
+that garment of coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her
+shoulder, the fairest postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
+
+“You are good to me, Lazzaro,” she murmured plaintively, “and I have
+used you very ill.” She paused a second, passing her hand across her
+brow. Then—“What is the hour?” she asked.
+
+It was a question that I left unheeded. I bade her brace herself and
+have courage for the tale I was to tell. I assured her that the horror
+of it was all passed and that she had naught to fear. So soon as her
+natural curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to
+her brother at the Palace.
+
+“But how came I thence?” she cried. “I must have lain in a swoon, for I
+remember nothing.” And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable
+conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered
+catafalque which she had seen—“Did they account me dead, Lazzaro?” she
+asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they
+were turned upon my own.
+
+“Yes, Madonna,” answered I, “you were accounted dead.” And, with that,
+I told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I
+left my own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune
+presence in the church. When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his
+knaves she shuddered and closed her eyes in very awe. At length, when I
+had done, she opened them again, and again she turned them full upon
+me. Their brightness seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that
+she was quietly weeping.
+
+“And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?” she murmured brokenly.
+“Lazzaro mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of
+you. You are indeed my one true friend—the one true friend that never
+fails me.”
+
+“Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?” I asked abruptly, roughly almost.
+
+“Yes, I am stronger.” She stood up as if to test her strength. “Indeed
+little ails me saving the horror of this thing. The thought of it seems
+to turn me sick and dizzy.”
+
+“Sit then and rest,” said I. “Presently, when you are more recovered,
+we will set out.”
+
+“Whither shall we go?” she asked.
+
+“Why, to the Palace, to your brother.”
+
+“Why, yes,” she answered, as though it were the last suggestion that
+she had been expecting, “And to-morrow—it will be to-morrow, will it
+not?—comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride. He will owe you no mean
+thanks, Lazzaro.”
+
+There was a pause. I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my
+mind, but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be
+from matins, and how soon we might be discovered by the monks.
+Presently she spoke again.
+
+“Lazzaro,” she inquired very gently, “what was it brought you to the
+church?”
+
+“I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service,” answered I,
+and fearing such questions as might follow—questions that I had been
+dreading ever since I had brought her to the sacristy—“If you are
+recovered we had best be going,” I told her gruffly.
+
+“Nay, I am not yet enough recovered,” answered she. “And before we go,
+there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have you
+make clear to me. Meanwhile, we are very well here. If the good fathers
+come upon us, what shall it signify?”
+
+I groaned inwardly, and I grew, I think, more afraid than when Ramiro
+and his men had broken into the church an hour ago.
+
+“What kept you here after all were gone?”
+
+“I remained to pray, Madonna,” I answered brusquely. “Is aught else to
+be done in a church?”
+
+“To pray for me, Lazzaro?” she asked.
+
+“Assuredly, Madonna.”
+
+“Faithful heart,” she murmured. “And I had used you so cruelly for the
+deception you practised. But you merited my cruelty, did you not,
+Lazzaro? Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse.”
+
+“Perhaps I deserved it, Madonna. But perhaps not so much as you
+bestowed, had you but understood my motives,” I said unguardedly.
+
+“If I had understood your motives?” she mused. “Aye, there is much I do
+not understand. Even in this night’s transactions there are not wanting
+things that remain mysterious despite the explanations you have
+supplied me. Tell me, Lazzaro, what was it led you to suppose that I
+still lived?
+
+“I did not suppose it,” I blundered like a fool, never seeing whither
+her question led.
+
+“You did not?” she cried, in deep surprise; and now, when it was too
+late, I understood. “What was it, then, induced you to lift the
+coffin-lid?”
+
+“You ask me more than I can tell you,” I answered, almost roughly. “Do
+you thank God, Madonna, that it was so, and never plague your mind to
+learn the ‘why’ of it.”
+
+She looked at me with eyes that were singularly luminous.
+
+“But I must know,” she insisted. “Have I not the right? Tell me now:
+Was it that you wished to see my face again before they gave me over to
+the grave?”
+
+“Perhaps it was that, Madonna,” I answered in confusion, avoiding her
+glance. Then—“Shall we be going?” I suggested fiercely. But she never
+heeded that suggestion.
+
+She spoke as if she had not heard, and the words she uttered seemed to
+turn me into stone.
+
+“Did you love me then so much, dear Lazzaro?”
+
+I swung round to face her now, and I know that my face was white—whiter
+than hers had been when I had beheld her in her coffin. My eyes seemed
+to burn in their sockets as they met hers. A madness overtook me and
+whelmed my better judgment. I had undergone so much that day through
+grief, and that night through a hundred emotions, that I was no longer
+fully master of myself. Her words robbed me, I think, of my last
+lingering shred of reason.
+
+“Love you, Madonna?” I echoed, in a voice that was as unlike my own as
+was the mood that then possessed me. “You are the air I breathe, the
+sun that lights my miserable world. You are dearer to me than honour,
+sweeter than life. You are the guardian angel of my existence, the
+saint to whom I have turned morning and evening in my prayers for
+grace. Do I love you, Madonna—?”
+
+And there I paused. The thought of what I did and what the consequences
+must be rushed suddenly upon me. I shivered as a man shivers in
+awaking. I dropped on my knees before her, bowing my head and flinging
+wide my arms.
+
+“Forgive, Madonna,” I cried entreatingly. “Forgive and forget. Never
+again will I offend.”
+
+“Neither forgive nor forget will I,” came her voice, charged with an
+ineffable sweetness, and her hands descended on my bowed bead, as if
+she would bless and soothe me. “I am conscious of no offence that
+craves forgiveness, and what you have said I would not forget if I
+could. Whence springs this fear of yours, dear Lazzaro? Am I more than
+woman, or you less than man that you should tremble for the confession
+that in a wild moment I have dragged from you? For that wild moment I
+shall be thankful to my life’s end; for your words have been the
+sweetest ever my poor ears listened to. Once I thought that I loved the
+Lord Giovanni Sforza. But it was you I loved; for the deeds that earned
+him my affection were deeds of yours and not of his. Once I told you so
+in scorn. Yet since then I have come soberly to ponder it. I account
+you, Lazzaro, the noblest friend, the bravest gentleman and the truest
+lover that the world has known. Need it surprise you, then, that I love
+you and that mine would be a happy life if I might spend it in growing
+worthy of this noble love of yours?”
+
+There was a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes—a matter at which I
+take no shame. Air seemed to fail me for a moment, and I almost thought
+that I should swoon, so overcome was I. Transport the blackest soul
+from among the damned of Hell, wash it white of its sins and seat it on
+one of the glorious thrones of Heaven, then ponder its emotions, and
+you may learn something of what I felt. At last, when I had mastered
+the exquisite torture of my joy—
+
+“Madonna mia,” I cried, “bethink you of what you say. You are the noble
+lady of Santafior, and I—”
+
+“No more of this,” she interrupted me. “You are Lazzaro Biancomonte, of
+patrician birth, no matter to what odd shifts a cruel fortune may have
+driven you. Will you take me?”
+
+She had my face between her palms, and she forced my glance to meet her
+own saintly eyes.
+
+“Will you take me, Lazaro?” she repeated.
+
+“Holy Flower of the Quince!” was all that I could murmur, whereat she
+gently smiled. “Santo Fior di Cotogno!”
+
+And then a great sadness overwhelmed me. A tide that neaped the frail
+bark of happiness high and dry upon the shores of black despair.
+
+“To-morrow Madonna, comes the Lord Ignacio Borgia,” I groaned.
+
+“I know, I know,” said she. “But I have thought of that. Paula Sforza
+di Santafior is dead. Requiescat! We must dispose that they will let
+her rest in peace.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+
+Speechless I stared at her a moment, so taken was I with the immensity
+of the thing that she suggested. Fear, amazement, and joy jostled one
+another for the possession of my mind.
+
+“Why do you look so, Lazzaro?” she exclaimed at last. “What is it
+daunts you?
+
+“How is the thing possible?” quoth I.
+
+“What difficulty does it present?” she questioned back. “The Governor
+of Cesena has rendered very possible what I propose. We may look on him
+to-morrow as our best friend.”
+
+“But Ramiro knows,” I reminded her.
+
+“True, but do you think that he will dare to tell the world what he
+knows? He might be asked to say how he comes by his knowledge, and that
+should prove a difficult question to answer. Tell me, Lazzaro,” she
+continued, “if he had succeeded in carrying me away, what think you
+would have been said in Pesaro to-morrow when the coffin was found
+empty?”
+
+“They would assume that your body had been stolen by some wizard or
+some daring student of anatomy.”
+
+“Ah! And if we were quietly to quit the church and be clear of Pesaro
+before morning, would not the same be said?”
+
+“Probably,” answered I.
+
+“Then why hesitate? Is it that you do not love me enough, Lazzaro?”
+
+I smiled, and my eyes must have told her more than any protestation
+could. Then I sighed. “I hesitate, Madonna, because I would not have
+you do now what you might come, hereafter, bitterly to repent. I would
+not let you be misled by the impulse of a moment into an act whose
+consequences must endure as long as life itself.”
+
+“Is that the reasoning of a lover?” she asked me, very quietly. “Is
+this cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the stormy
+passion you professed so lately?”
+
+“It is,” I answered stoutly. “It is because I love you more than I love
+myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life upon
+such a broken raft as mine. You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and I—”
+
+“Enough of that,” she interrupted me, rising. She swept towards me, and
+before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and
+her blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
+
+“Lazzaro,” said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in her
+low tones, “moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me,
+and bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time. Will you
+wait until escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered,
+before you will decide to save me, and to grasp with both hands this
+happiness of ours that is not twice offered in a lifetime?”
+
+She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her
+heart. Some subtle perfume reaching me and combining with the dominion
+that her eyes seemed to have established over me completed my
+subjugation. I was as warm wax in her hands. Forgotten were all
+considerations of rank and station. We were just a man and a woman
+whose fates were linked irrevocably by love. I stooped suddenly, under
+the sway of an impulse, I could not resist, and kissed her upturned
+face, turning almost dizzy in the act. Then I broke from her clasp, and
+bracing myself for the task to which we stood committed by that kiss—
+
+“Paola,” said I, “we must devise the means to get away. I will bear you
+to my mother’s home near Biancomonte, that you may dwell there at least
+until we are wed. But the thing that exercises my mind is how to make
+our unobserved escape from Pesaro.”
+
+“I have thought of it already,” she informed me quietly.
+
+“You have thought of it?” I cried. “And of what have you thought?”
+
+For answer she stepped back a pace, and drew the cowl of the monk’s
+habit over her head until her features were lost in the shadows of it.
+She stood before me now, a diminutive Dominican brother. Her meaning
+was clear to me at once. With a cry of gladness I turned to the drawer
+whence I had taken the habit in which she was arrayed, and selecting
+another one I hastily donned it above the garments that I wore.
+
+No sooner was it done than I caught her by the arm.
+
+“Come, Madonna,” I bade her in an urgent voice. At the first step she
+stumbled. The habit was so long that it cumbered her feet. But that was
+a difficulty soon conquered. With my dagger I cut a piece from the
+skirt of it, enough to leave her freedom of movement; and, that
+accomplished, we set out.
+
+We crossed the church swiftly and silently, and a moment I left her in
+the porch whilst I surveyed the street. All was quiet. Pesaro still
+slept, and it must have wanted some two hours or more to the dawn.
+
+A fine rain was falling as we sallied out, and there was a sting in the
+December wind which made us draw our cowls the tighter about our face.
+Abandoning the main street, I led her down some narrow alleys, deserted
+like all the rest of the city, and not so much as a stray cat abroad in
+that foul weather. It was very dark, and a hundred times we stumbled,
+whilst in some places I almost carried her bodily to avoid the filth of
+the quarter we were traversing. At length we gained the space in front
+of the gates that open on to the northern road, known as Porta Venezia,
+and I would have blundered on and roused the guard to let us out, using
+the Borgia ring once more—that talisman whose power had grown during
+these years, so that it would now open me almost any door in Italy. But
+Paola stayed me. Wisely she counselled that we should do nothing that
+might draw too much attention upon ourselves, and she urged me to wait
+until the dawn, when the guard would be astir and the gates opened.
+
+So we fled to the shelter of a porch, and there we waited, huddling
+ourselves out of the reach of the icy rain. We talked little during the
+time we spent there. For my own part I had overmuch food for thought,
+and a very natural anxiety racked me. Soon the monks would be
+descending to the church, and they would discover the havoc there, and
+spread the alarm.
+
+Who could say but that they might even discover the abstraction of the
+two habits from the sacristy, and the hue and cry for two men in the
+sackcloth of Dominicans would be afoot—for they would infer that two
+men so disguised had made off with the body of Madonna Paola. The
+thought stirred me like a goad. I stood up. The night was growing
+thinner, and, suddenly, even as I rose, a light gleamed from one of the
+Windows of the guard-house.
+
+“God be thanked for that fellow’s early rising,” I cried out. “Come,
+Madonna, let us be moving.”
+
+And I added my newly-conceived reasons for quitting the place without
+further delay.
+
+Cursing us for being so early abroad—a curse to which I responded with
+a sonorous “Pax Domini sit tecum” the still somnolent sentinel opened
+the post and let us pass. I was glad in the end that we had waited and
+thus avoided the necessity of showing my ring, for should inquiries be
+made concerning two monks, that ring of mine might have betrayed the
+identity of one of them. I gave thanks to Heaven that I knew the
+country well. A quarter of a league or so from Pesaro we quitted the
+high-road and took to the by-paths with which I was well acquainted.
+
+Day came, grey and forbidding at first, but presently the rain ceased
+and the sun flashed out a thousand diamonds from the drenched
+hedge-rows.
+
+We plodded on; and at length, towards noon, when we had gained the
+neighbourhood of the village of Cattolica, we halted at the hut of a
+peasant on a small campagna. I had divested myself of my monk’s habit,
+and cut away the cowl from Madonna’s. She had thereafter fashioned it
+by means that were mysterious to my dull man’s mind into a more
+feminine-looking garb.
+
+Thus we now presented ourselves to the old man who was the sole tenant
+of that lonely and squalid house. A ducat opened his door as wide as it
+would go, and gave us free access to every cranny of his dwelling. Food
+he procured us—rough black bread, some pieces of roasted goat, and some
+goat’s milk—and on this we regaled ourselves as though it had been a
+ducal banquet, for hunger had set us in the mood to account anything
+delicious. And when we had eaten we fell to talking, the old man having
+left us to go about such peasant duties as claimed his attention, and
+our talk concerned ourselves, our future first, and later on our past.
+I remember that Madonna returned to the matter of the deception that I
+had practised, seeking to learn what reasons had impelled me, and I
+answered her in all truth.
+
+“Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love. When Giovanni
+Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook
+the task with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out
+the tale of the passion that was consuming my poor heart. It occurred
+to me that if those verses were worthy, you might come to love their
+author for their beauty, and so I strove to render them beautiful. It
+was the same spirit urged me to don the Lord Giovanni’s armour and
+fight in that splendid if futile skirmish. Even as you had come to love
+the author for his verses, so might you come to love the warrior for
+his valour. That you should account the one and the other the work of
+Giovanni Sforza was to me a little thing, since I was well content to
+think that you but loved him because you accounted his the things that
+I had performed. Therefore was I the one you truly loved, although you
+did not know it. Could you but conceive what consolation that
+reflection was to me, you would deal lightly with me for my deceit.”
+
+“I can conceive it,” she answered, very gently, her eyes downcast; “and
+now that I know the motives that impelled you, I almost love you for
+that deceit itself, for it seems to me that it holds some quality well
+worthy of devotion.”
+
+Such was our talk, all of a nature to help us to a better understanding
+of each other, and all seeming to endear us more and more by showing us
+how close the past had already drawn us.
+
+Later I rose and announced my intention of adventuring into Cattolica,
+there to procure her garments more seemly than those she wore, in which
+she might journey on and come into the presence of my mother. Also,
+there was in Cattolica a man I knew, of whom I hoped for the loan of
+enough money to enable me to purchase mules, to the end that we might
+journey in more dignity and comfort. It was then about the twentieth
+hour, and I hoped to return by nightfall. I took my leave of Madonna,
+enjoining her to rest and to seek sleep whilst I was absent; and with
+that I set out.
+
+Cattolica was no more than a half-league distant, and I looked to reach
+it in a half-hour or so. I fell into thought as I trudged along, and I
+was building plans for the sunlit future that was to be ours. I was a
+man transformed that day, and I could have sung in spite of the chill
+December wind that buffeted me, so full of joy and gladness was my
+heart.
+
+At Biancomonte I was likely to spend my days as little better than a
+peasant, but surely a peasant’s estate with such a companion as was to
+be mine was preferable to an emperor’s throne without her.
+
+The bleak landscape seemed to me invested with a beauty that at no
+other time I should have noticed. God was good. I swore a thousand
+times, the world was a good world—so good that Heaven could scarce be
+better.
+
+I had come, perhaps, the better half of the distance I had to travel,
+and I was giving full rein to my joyous fancy, when suddenly I espied
+ahead a company of horsemen. They were approaching me at a brisk pace,
+but I took no thought of them, accounting myself secure from any
+molestation. If it so happened that it was a search party from Pesaro,
+seeking two men disguised as monks who had ravished the coffin of
+Madonna Paola di Santafior, what should they want of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte? And so, in my confidence, I advanced even as they trotted
+quickly towards me.
+
+Not until they were within a matter of a hundred paces did I raise my
+eyes to take their measure; and then I halted on my step, smitten of a
+sudden by an unreasoning and unreasonable fear, to see at their head
+the bulky form of the Governor of Cesena. He saw me, too, and, what was
+worse, he recognised me on the instant, for he clapped spurs to his
+horse and came at me as if he would ride me down. Within three paces of
+me he drew up his steed. Whether the memory of the other two occasions
+on which I had thwarted him arose now in his mind and made him wonder
+had not some fatality brought me across his path again to send awry his
+pretty schemes concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for certain; yet
+some suspicion of it occurred to me and filled me with apprehension.
+
+“Body of Bacchus!” he roared. “Is it truly you, Boccadoro?”
+
+“They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent,” I answered him. But my
+tone was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
+
+“A fig for what they call you,” he snapped contemptuously. “Whence are
+you?”
+
+“From Pesaro,” I answered truthfully.
+
+“From Pesaro? But you are travelling towards it.”
+
+“True. I was making for Cattolica, but I missed my way in seeking to
+shorten it. I am now returning by the high-road.”
+
+The explanation satisfied him on that point, and being satisfied, he
+asked me when I had left Pesaro. A moment I hesitated.
+
+“Late last night,” said I at last. He looked, at me, my foolish
+hesitation having perhaps unslipped a suspicion that was straining at
+its leash.
+
+“In that case,” said he, “you can scarcely have heard the strange story
+that is being told there?”
+
+I looked at him, as if puzzled, for a second. “If you mean the story of
+Madonna Paoia’s end, I heard it yesterday.”
+
+“Why, what story was that?” quoth he in some surprise, his beetling
+brows coming together in one broad line of fur.
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. “Men said that she had been poisoned.”
+
+“Oh, that,” he cried indifferently. “But men say to-day that her body
+was stolen from the Church of San Domenico where it lay. An odd
+happening, is it not?” And his eyes covered me in a fierce scrutiny
+that again suggested to me those suspicions of his that I might be the
+man who had anticipated him. I was soon to learn that he had more
+grounds than at first I thought for those same suspicions.
+
+“Odd, indeed,” I answered calmly, for all that I felt my pulses
+quickening with apprehension. “But is it true?” I added.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders. “Rumour’s habit is to lie,” he answered.
+“Yet for such a lie as that, so monstrous an imagination would be
+needed that, rather, am I inclined to account it truth. There are no
+more poets in Pesaro since you left. But at what hour was it that you
+quitted the city?”
+
+To hesitate again were to betray myself; it were to suggest that I was
+seeking an answer that should sort well with the rest of my story.
+Besides, what could the hour signify?
+
+“It would be about the first hour of night,” I said. He looked at me
+with increasing strangeness.
+
+“You must indeed have wandered from your road to have got no farther
+than this in all that time. Perhaps you were hampered by some heavy
+burden?” He leered evilly, and I turned cold.
+
+“I was burdened with nothing heavier than this body of mine and a
+rather uneasy conscience.”
+
+“Where, then, have you tarried?”
+
+At this I thought it time to rebel. Were I too meekly to submit to this
+examination, my very meekness might afford him fresh grounds for
+doubts.
+
+“Once have I told you,” I answered wearily, “that I lost my way. And,
+however much it may flatter me to have your Excellency evincing such an
+interest in my concerns, I am at a loss to find a reason for it.”
+
+He leered prodigiously once more, and his eyebrows shot up to the level
+of his cap.
+
+“I will tell you, brute beast,” he answered me. “I question you because
+I suspect that you are hiding something from me.”
+
+“What should I hide from your Excellency?”
+
+He dared not enlighten me on that point, for should his suspicions
+prove unfounded he would have uselessly betrayed himself.
+
+“If you are honest, why do you lie?”
+
+“I?” I ejaculated. “In what have I lied?”
+
+“In that you have told me that you left Pesaro at the first hour of
+night. At the third hour you were still in the Church of San Domenico,
+whither you followed Madonna Paola’s bier.”
+
+It was my turn to knit my brows. “Was I indeed?” quoth I. “Why, yes, it
+may well be. But what of that? Is the hour in which I quitted Pesaro a
+matter of such moment as to be worth lying over? If I said that I left
+about the first hour, it is because I was under the impression that it
+was so. But I was so distraught by grief at Madonna’s death that I may
+have been careless in my account of time.”
+
+“More lies,” he blazed with sudden passion. “It may have been the third
+hour, you say. Fool, the gates of Pesaro close at the second hour of
+night. Where are your wits?”
+
+Outwardly calm, but inwardly in a panic—more for Madonna’s sake than
+for my own—I promptly held out the hand on which I wore the Borgia
+ring. In a flash of inspiration did that counter suggest itself to me.
+
+“There is a key that will open any gate in Romagna at any hour.”
+
+He looked at the ring, and of what passed in his mind I can but offer a
+surmise. He may have remembered that once before I had fooled him with
+the help of that gold circlet; or he may have thought that I was
+secretly in the service of the Borgias, and that, acting in their
+interests, I had carried off Madonna Paola. Be that as it may, the
+sight of the ring threw him into a fury. He turned on his horse.
+
+“Lucagnolo!” he called, and a man of officer’s rank detached himself
+from the score of men-at-arms and rode forward. “Let six men escort me
+home to Cesena. Take you the remainder and beat up the country for
+three leagues about this spot. Do not leave a house outside Cattolica
+unsearched. You know what we are seeking?”
+
+The man inclined his head.
+
+“If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it,” he
+answered confidently.
+
+“Set about it,” was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me.
+“You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro,” he sneered. “We
+shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe betide you,
+should it be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena.”
+
+“So be it then,” I answered as calmly as I might. “Meanwhile, perhaps
+you will now suffer me to go my ways.”
+
+“The readier since your way must lie with ours.”
+
+“Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica.”
+
+“Not so, animal,” he mimicked me with elephantine grace, “you are for
+Cesena, and you had best go with a good will. Our manner of
+constraining men is reputed rude.” He turned again. “Ercole, take you
+this man behind you. Assist him, Stefano.”
+
+And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to
+the steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride. Thus at every
+stride the anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they
+must find her rose ever higher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+
+I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were
+mine as we sped northward towards Cesena. If you are a person of some
+imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to
+surmise them; if you are not—why then, my tale is not for you, and it
+is more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it
+aside long before you reach this page.
+
+We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had
+fallen we were within the walls of the citadel. It was when we had
+dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of
+the soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.
+
+“Animal,” said he, “they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures
+and rough ways. You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am
+maligned. For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your
+lying tongue with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until
+my men return with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me. But
+if I then discover that you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter
+from Ramiro del’ Orca’s flagstaff.”
+
+He pointed up to the tower of the Castle, from which a beam protruded,
+laden at that moment with a ghastly burden just discernible in the
+thickening gloom. He named it well when he called it his “flagstaff,”
+and the miserable banner of carrion that hung from it was a fitting
+pennon for the ruthless Governor of Cesena. Worthy was he to have worn
+the silver hauberk of Werner von Urslingen with its motto, “The enemy
+of God, of pity and of mercy.”
+
+Forbidding, black-browed men caught me with rough hands and dragged me
+off to a dank, unlighted prison, as empty of furniture as it was full
+of noisome smells. And there they left me to my ugly thoughts and my
+deeply despondent mood what time the Governor of Cesena supped with his
+officers in the hall of the Castle.
+
+Ramiro drank deep that night as was his habit, and being overladen with
+wine it entered his mind that in one of his dungeons lay Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, who, at one time, had been known as Boccadoro, the
+merriest Fool in Italy. In his drunkenness he grew merry, and when
+Ramiro del’ Orca grew merry men crossed themselves and betook them to
+their prayers. He would fain be amused, and to serve that end he
+summoned one of his sbirri and bade the fellow drag Boccadoro from his
+dungeon and fetch him into his presence.
+
+When they came for me I turned cold with fear that Madonna was already
+taken, and, by contrast with such a fear as that, the reflection that
+he might carry out his threat to hang me from that black beam of his,
+faded into insignificant proportions.
+
+They ushered me into a great hall, not ill-furnished, the floor strewed
+plentifully with rushes, and warmed by an enormous fire of blazing oak.
+By the door stood two pikemen in armour, like a pair of statues; in the
+centre of the floor was a heavy oaken board, laden now with flagons and
+beakers, at which sat Ramiro with a pair of gossips so villainous to
+look at, that the sight of them reminded me of the adage “God makes a
+man and then accompanies him.”
+
+The Governor made a hideous noise at sight of me, which I was
+constrained to accept as an expression of horrid glee.
+
+“Boccadoro,” said he, “do you recall that when last I had the honour of
+being entertained by your pert tongue, I promised you that did you ever
+cross my path again I would raise you to the dignity of Fool of my
+Court of Cesena?”
+
+Into what magniloquence does vanity betray us! His Court of Cesena! As
+well might you describe a pig-sty as a bower of roses.
+
+But his words, despite the unsavoury thing of which they seemed to hold
+a promise, fell sweetly on my ear, inasmuch as for the time they
+relieved my fears touching Madonna. It was not to advise me of her
+capture that he had had me haled into his odious presence. I gathered
+courage.
+
+“Have you not fools enough already at Cesena?” I asked him.
+
+A moment he looked as if he were inclining to anger. Then he burst into
+a coarse laugh, and turned to one of his gossips.
+
+“Did I not tell you, Lampugnani, that his wit was quick and
+penetrating? Hear him, rogue. Already has he discerned your quality.”
+He laughed consumedly at his own jest, and turning to me he pointed to
+a crimson bundle on a chair beside me. “Take those garments,” he
+roughly bade me. “Go dress yourself in them, then come you back and
+entertain us.”
+
+Without answering him, and already anticipating the nature of the
+clothes he bade me don, I lifted one of the garments from the heap. It
+was a foliated jester’s cap, with a bell hanging from every point,
+which gave out a tinkling sound as I picked it up. I let it fall again
+as though it had scorched me, the memory of what stood between Madonna
+Paola and me rising like a warning spectre in my mind. I would not
+again defile myself by the garb of folly; not again would I incur the
+shame of playing the Fool for the amusement of others.
+
+“May it please your Excellency to excuse me,” I answered in a firm
+tone. “I have made a vow never again to put on motley.”
+
+He eyed me sardonically for a moment, as if enjoying in anticipation
+the pleasure of compelling me against my will. He sat back in his chair
+and threw one heavily-booted leg across the other.
+
+“In the Citadel of Cesena,” said he, “we fear neither God nor Devil,
+and vows are as water to us—things we cannot stomach. It does not
+please me to excuse you.”
+
+I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he
+accompanied his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
+
+“It is not,” said I, “a question of what a vow may be to you and yours,
+but of what a vow is to me. It is a thing I cannot break.”
+
+“Sangue di Cristo!” he snarled, “we will break it for you, then—that or
+your bones. Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the rack—or yet, if
+you prefer it, there is the cord yonder.” And he pointed to the far end
+of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a pulley, the
+implements of the ghastly torture of the cord. Of such a nature was
+this monster that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
+
+“Let the rogue make acquaintance with it,” laughed Lampugnani, showing
+a mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
+“I’ll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his quips.
+Swing him up, Illustrious.”
+
+But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
+
+“You shall have five minutes in which to decide,” he informed me
+presently. “They say that I am cruel. Behold how patient is my
+clemency. Five minutes shall you have where many another would hang you
+out of hand for bearding him as you have done me.”
+
+“You may begin at once,” said I. “neither five minutes nor five years
+will alter my determination.”
+
+His brow grew black with anger. “We shall see,” was all he said.
+
+There was a silence now in which we waited, a storm of thoughts
+battling in my mind. Presently Ramiro caught up one of the flagons and
+applied it to his cup. It proved empty, and in a gust of passion he
+hurled it against the wall where it burst into a thousand pieces.
+Clearly he was very angry, and it taxed my wits to account for the
+little measure of patience he was showing me.
+
+“Beppo!” he called. A page lounging by the buffet sprang to attention.
+He was a slender, rather delicate lad, fair of hair and blue of eyes,
+not more than twelve years of age. An elderly man who stood beside
+him—one Mariani, the seneschal of Cesena—stepped forward also,
+solicitude in his glance.
+
+“Bring me wine,” bawled the ogre. “Must I tell you what I need? If you
+do not put those eyes of yours to better service, I’ll have them
+plucked from your empty head. Bestir, animal.”
+
+The old man caught up a beaker from the buffet and handed it to the
+boy.
+
+“Here, my son,” said he. “Hasten to his Excellency.”
+
+The lad took the beaker from his father’s hands, and trembling in his
+fear of Ramiro’s anger, he sprang forward to serve him. In his haste
+the poor youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes. In
+seeking to recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the
+halberdiers that guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at
+Ramiro’s feet, flooding the Governor’s legs with the wine he carried.
+
+How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
+
+For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes
+glowing like a madman’s. Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one
+hand to the boy’s belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin. Feeling
+himself lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him,
+poor Beppo uttered a single scream of terror. Then Ramiro swung him
+round with an ease that displayed the man’s prodigious strength. For
+just a second he seemed to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle
+that he held. Then, as if suddenly taking his resolve, that devil
+hurled the lad across the little intervening space, straight into the
+heart of the blazing fire.
+
+Beppo hurtled against the logs with a sickening crash, and a thousand
+sparks leapt up and vanished in the cavern of the chimney. Ramiro
+wheeled sharply about, and snatching the pike from the hands of one of
+my guards, he pinned down the poor body of the boy to make sure of his
+victim’s entire destruction.
+
+Away by the buffet old Mariani looked on with a face as grey as ashes,
+his eyes protruding in horror at the thing they witnessed. One glimpse
+I had of him, and I scarce know which was the sight that sickened me
+more, the fathers anguish or the twitching limbs of the burning child.
+Two legs and two arms protruded from the blaze and writhed and wriggled
+horribly what time the flames peeled the garments from them and licked
+the flesh from the bones. At length they fell still and sank down into
+the white heat of the logs, a hideous, pungent odour spreading through
+the chamber. From the old man by the buffet, who had stood spellbound
+during this ghastly scene, there broke at last an anguished cry.
+
+“Mercy, my lord, mercy!”
+
+The Governor of Cesena straightened himself from his task, pulled the
+pike from the flames, and restored it to the man-at-arms. Then turning
+to Mariani:
+
+“Fetch me wine,” he bade him curtly, as he seated himself once more
+upon the chair from which he had risen to perform that deed of ghastly
+ruthlessness.
+
+A torch spluttered suddenly in its sconce, and the fierce hissing of
+the fire—like some monster licking its chops over a bloody meal—were
+the only sounds that disturbed the stillness that ensued.
+
+Every man there, including Ramiro’s table companions, was white to the
+lips; for accustomed though they might be to horrors in that brigand’s
+nest, this was a horror that surpassed anything they had ever
+witnessed. The silence irked Messer Ramiro. He looked round from under
+his shaggy brows, and he spluttered out an oath.
+
+“Will you bring me this wine, pig?” he growled at the almost senseless
+Mariani, and in his air and voice there was a promise of such terrific
+things that the old man put aside his horror to make room for his
+fears, and mechanically seizing another flagon he hurried forward to
+minister to the wants of his fearful lord.
+
+Ramiro eyed him with cynical amusement.
+
+“Your hand shakes, Mariani,” he derided him. “Are you cold? Go warm
+yourself,” he added, with a brutal laugh and a jerk of his thumb
+towards the fire.
+
+My eyes have looked upon some gruesome sights, and I have heard such
+tales of ruthless cruelty as you would deem almost passing possibility.
+I have read of the awful doings of the Lord Bernabo Visconti at Milan
+in the olden time, but I believe that compared with this monster of
+Cesena that same Bernabo was no worse than a sucking dove. How it
+befell that men permitted him to live, how it was that none bethought
+him to put poison in his wine or a knife in his back, is something that
+I shall never wholly understand. Could it be that these robbers of whom
+he made a hedge for his protection were no better than himself, or was
+it that the man’s terrific brutality was on such a scale that it filled
+them with an almost supernatural awe of him? To men better versed than
+am I in the mysterious ways of human nature do I leave the answering of
+these questions.
+
+The ogre turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, as with his hand he
+caressed his tawny beard. He seemed to have cooled a little now, and to
+have regained some mastery of his drunken self. Old Mariani tottered
+back to his buffet, and stood leaning against it, his eyes wandering,
+with the look of a man demented, to the fire that had devoured his
+child. There, indeed, if he escaped the madness with which the
+poignancy of his grief was threatening him, was a tool that might turn
+its edge against this inhuman monster, this devil, this bloody carnifex
+of a Governor.
+
+“Chance,” said Ramiro, “has designed that you should see something of
+how we deal with clumsy knaves at Cesena, Boccadoro. To disobedient
+ones I can assure you that we are not half so merciful. There is no
+such short shrift for them. You have had more than the time I promised
+you for reflection. The garments await you yonder. Let us know—”
+
+The door opened suddenly, and a servant entered.
+
+“A courier from the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli, Tyrant of Città di
+Castello,” he announced, unwittingly breaking in upon Ramiro’s words,
+“with urgent messages for the high and Mighty Governor of Cesena.”
+
+On the instant Ramiro rose, the expression of his face changing from
+cynical amusement to sober concern, the task upon which he was engaged
+forgotten.
+
+“Admit him instantly,” he commanded. And whilst he waited he paced the
+chamber in long strides, his chin thrust slightly forward, suggestive
+of deep thought. And during that pause, I, too, was thinking. Not
+indeed of him, nor vainly speculating upon such matters as might be
+involved in the message, the announcement of which seemed so deeply to
+engage his mind, but chiefly of my own and Madonna Paola’s concerns.
+
+It was not fear of what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new
+channel and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del’ Orca’s
+behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his
+diversion. It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what
+the consequences of my death might be to Paola di Santafior.
+
+However desperate a position may seem, unlooked-for loopholes often
+present themselves, and so long as we live and have sound limbs to aid
+us to seize such opportunities as may offer, it is a weak thing utterly
+to abandon hope.
+
+Was it, then, not better to submit to the shame of the motley once
+again for a little time, when by so doing I might perhaps live to work
+my own salvation, and Madonna’s should she suffer capture, rather than
+stubbornly to invite him to put me to death out of a feeling of false
+pride?
+
+The very resolve seemed to lend me strength and to revive the hope that
+lay moribund in my breast. And then, scarce was it taken, when the door
+again opened, and a man, who was splashed from head to foot with mud,
+in earnest of how hard he had ridden, was ushered in.
+
+He advanced to Meser Ramiro, bowed and presented a package. Ramiro
+broke the seal, and standing with his back to the fire, immediately in
+the light shed by one of the wax torches, he read the letter. Then his
+eyes wandered to the man who had brought it, and to me it seemed that
+they dwelt particularly upon the hat the courier was holding in his
+hand.
+
+“Take this good fellow to the kitchen,” he bade the servant that had
+introduced him, “let him be fed and rested.” Then, turning to the man,
+himself, “I shall require you to set out at daybreak with my answer,”
+he said; and so, with a wave of the hand, he dismissed him. As the
+messenger departed Ramiro returned to the table, filled himself a cup
+of wine and drank.
+
+“What says the Lord Vitelli?” Lampugnani ventured to ask him.
+
+“If he knew you,” answered Ramiro, with a scowl, “he would counsel me
+to strangle some of the over-inquisitive rascals that surround me.”
+
+“Over-inquisitive?” echoed Lampugnani boldly. “Body of God! It were
+enough to wake the curiosity of an ecstatic hermit to have a
+mud-splashed courier from Citta di Castello at Cesena three times
+within one little week.”
+
+Ramiro looked at him, and by his glance it was plain to see that the
+words had jarred his temper. Whatever it was that Vitelli wrote to
+Ramiro, this gentleman was not minded to divulge it.
+
+“If you have supped, Lampugnani,” said the Governor slowly, his eyes
+upon his offending officer, “perhaps you will find some duty to perform
+ere you seek your bed.”
+
+Lampugnani turned crimson, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. Then he
+rose. He was a man of choleric aspect, and that he served under Ramiro
+del’ Orca was as much a danger to the Governor as to himself. He had
+not the air of one whom it was wise to threaten in however veiled a
+manner.
+
+“Shall I fetch you this fellow’s hat ere I sleep?” he inquired, with
+contemptuous insolence.
+
+Not a word did Ramiro answer him, but his glance fastened upon
+Lampugnani with an expression before which that impudent ruffian
+lowered his own bold eyes. Thus for a moment; then with an awkward
+laugh to cover the intimidation that he felt, Lampugnani walked heavily
+from the room and banged the door after him.
+
+There was about it all a strangeness that set my wits to work in a
+mighty busy fashion. That work suffered interruption by the harsh voice
+of Ramiro.
+
+“Are you resolved, Boccadoro?” he growled at me. “Have you decided for
+the motley or the cord?”
+
+Instantly I fell into the part I was to play.
+
+“Did I choose the latter,” said I, with an assumption of sudden
+airiness and such a grimace as was part and parcel of my old-time
+trade, “then were I truly worthy of the former, for I should have
+proved myself, indeed, a fool. Yet if I choose the former, I pray that
+you’ll not follow the same course of reasoning, and hold me worthy of
+the latter.”
+
+When he had understood its subtleties; for his wits were of a quality
+that would have disgraced a calf, he roared at the conceit, and
+seemingly thrown into a better humour by the promise of more such
+entertainment, he bade my guards release me, and urged me to assume the
+motley without more delay.
+
+What time I was obeying him my mind was returning to that matter of
+Lampugnani’s words, and it is not difficult to understand how I should
+arrive at the only possible conclusion they suggested. The hats of the
+other messengers from Vitelli, that the officer had mentioned, had been
+brought to Ramiro. The reason for this that at once arose in my mind
+was that within the messenger’s hat there was a second and more secret
+communication for the Governor.
+
+This secrecy and Ramiro’s display of anger at seeing a hint of it
+betrayed by Lampugnani struck me, not unnaturally, as suspicious. What
+were these hidden communications that passed between Vitellozzo Vitelli
+and the Governor of Cesena? It was a matter of which I could not
+pretend to offer a solution, but, nevertheless, it was one, I thought,
+that promised to repay investigation.
+
+Ramiro grew impatient, and my reflections suffered interruption by his
+rough command that I should hasten. One of the men-at-arms helped me to
+truss my points, and when that was done I stepped forward—Boccadoro the
+Fool once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+THE SENESCHAL
+
+
+For an hour or so that night I played the Fool for Messer Ramiro’s
+entertainment in a manner which did high justice to the fame that at
+Pesaro I had earned for the name of Boccadoro.
+
+Beginning with quip and jest and paradox, aimed now at him, now at the
+officer who had remained to keep him company in his cups, now at the
+servants who ministered to him, now at the guards standing at
+attention, I passed on later to play the part of narrator, and I
+delighted his foul and prurient mind with the story of Andreuccio da
+Perugia and another of the more licentious tales of Messer Giovanni
+Boccacci. I crimson now with shame at the manner in which I set myself
+to pander to his mood that with my wit I might defend my life and
+limbs, and preserve them for the service of my Holy Flower of the
+Quince in the hour of her need.
+
+One man alone of all those present did I spare my banter. This was the
+old seneschal, Miriani. He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever
+and anon he would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro’s cup in
+obedience to the monsters imperious orders.
+
+What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so
+calm? His face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and
+rigid, its colour ashen. But his step was tolerably firm, and his hand
+seemed to have lost the trembling that had assailed it under the first
+shock of the horror he had witnessed.
+
+As I watched him furtively I thought that were I Ramiro I should beware
+of him. That frozen calm argued to me some terrible labour of the mind
+beneath that livid mask. But the Governor of Cesena appeared
+insensible, or else he was contemptuous of danger from that quarter. It
+may even have delighted his outrageous nature to behold a man whose son
+he had done to death with such brutality continue obedient and
+submissive to his will, for it may have flattered his vanity by the
+concession that bearing seemed to make to his grim power.
+
+An hour went by, my second tale was done, and I was now entrancing
+Messer Ramiro with some impromptu verses upon the divorce of Giovanni
+Sforza, a theme set me by himself, when I was interrupted by the
+arrival of a soldier, who entered unannounced.
+
+I paled and turned cold at the cry with which Ramiro rose to greet him,
+and the words he dropped, which told me that here was one of the riders
+of the party that, under Lucagnolo, had been ordered to search the
+country about Cattolica. Had they found Madonna?
+
+“Messer Lucagnolo,” the fellow announced, “has sent me to report to you
+the failure of his search to the west and north of Cattolica. He has
+beaten the country thoroughly for three leagues of the town on those
+two sides, as you desired him, but unfortunately without result. He is
+now spreading his search to the south, and not a house is being left
+unvisited. By morning he hopes to report again to your Excellency.”
+
+A wild wave of joy swept through my soul. They had ransacked the
+country west and north of Cattolica without result. Why then,
+assuredly, they had missed the peasant’s hut that sheltered her, and
+where she waited yet for my return. Their search to the south I knew
+would prove equally futile. I could have fallen on my knees in a prayer
+of thanksgiving had my surroundings been other than they were.
+
+Ramiro’s eye wandered round to me and settled on me in a lowering
+glance. By his face it was plain that the message disappointed him.
+
+“I wonder,” said he, “whether we could make you talk?” And from me his
+eyes roamed on to the instrument of torture at the end of that long
+chamber. I grew sick with fear, for if he were to do this thing, and
+maim me by it, how should I avail myself or her hereafter?
+
+“Excellency,” I cried, “since you met me you have hinted at something
+that I am hiding from you, at something touching which I could give you
+information did I choose. What it may be passes all thought of mine.
+But this I do assure you: no torture could make me tell you what I do
+not know, nor is any torture needed to extract from me such information
+as I may be possessed of. I do but beg that you wilt frankly question
+me upon this matter, whatever it may be, and your Excellency shall be
+answered to the best of my knowledge.”
+
+He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the
+seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that
+he believed me. A moment he hesitated yet; then—
+
+“I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior,” he said
+presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table. “As I told you,
+the body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from
+San Domenico. Know you aught of this?”
+
+It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to
+fight this brigand? Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and
+a lie become a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely
+justify such an exception.
+
+“I know nothing,” I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with a
+ring of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, “nor can I
+even believe this rumour. It is a wild story. That the body has been
+stolen may be true enough. Such things occur; though he was a bold man
+who laid hands upon the body of a person of such importance. But that
+she lives—Gesu! that is an old wife’s tale. I had, myself, the word of
+the Lord Filippo’s physician that she was dead.”
+
+“Nevertheless, this old wife’s tale, as you dub it, is one of which I
+have had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall not
+regret it. Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have
+abstracted the body from the church. In seeking this information I am
+acting in the interests of the noble House of Borgia which I serve and
+to which she was to have been allied, as you well know.”
+
+I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
+convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover
+the true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied
+to me of his service to the House of Borgia.
+
+“I will gladly lend you these wits,” said I, “to disprove to you the
+rumour of which you say that you have confirmation. Let us accept the
+statement that the body has been stolen. That much, no doubt, is true,
+for even rumours require some slight foundation. But who in all this
+world could say that when the body was taken it was not dead? Clearly
+but one man—he that administered the poison. And, I ask your
+Excellency, would he be likely to tell the world what he had done?”
+
+He might have answered me: “I am that man.” But he did not. Instead, he
+hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had uttered—words
+meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter; and this they
+achieved, at least in part. He flashed me a look of sudden suspicion,
+it is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his brooding
+eye.
+
+“Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of
+what you say,” he grumbled. “But I incline to believe you, and you are
+a merry rogue. You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as
+you amuse me. But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive
+me. You shall have the cord first and other things after, and your
+death shall be the thing you’ll pray for long before it takes you from
+my vengeance. If you know aught, speak now and you shall find me
+merciful. Your life and liberty shall be the recompense of your honesty
+towards me.”
+
+“I repeat, Excellency,” I answered, without changing colour, “that all
+that I know have I already told you.”
+
+He was convinced, I think, for the time being.
+
+“Get you gone, then,” he bade me. “I have other business to deal with
+ere I sleep. Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged.”
+
+The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently
+motioned me to go with him. I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance,
+and withdrew in the wake of the seneschal.
+
+He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a
+gallery that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted
+presently, and, opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished
+room.
+
+A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.
+
+The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his
+hollow eyes rested on me for a second. I thought that he was on the
+point of saying something, and I waited returning his glance with one
+that quailed before the anguish of his own. I feared to speak, to offer
+an expression of the sympathy that filled my heart; for in that strange
+place I could not tell how far a man was to be trusted—even a man so
+wronged as this one. On his own part it may be that a like doubt beset
+him concerning me, for in the end he departed as he had come, no word
+having passed his ashen lips.
+
+Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had
+left in the iron sconce on the wall. The single window overlooked the
+courtyard, so that even had I been disposed and able to cut through the
+iron that barred it, I should but succeed in falling into the hands of
+the guards who abounded in that nest of infamy.
+
+So that, for the night at least, the notion of flight must be
+abandoned. What the morrow would bring forth we must wait and see.
+Perhaps some way of escape would offer itself. Then my thoughts
+returned to Paola, and I was tortured by surmises as to her fate, and
+chiefly as to how she could have eluded the search that must have been
+made for her in the hut where I had left her. Had the peasant
+befriended her, I wondered; and what did she think of my protracted
+absence? I sat on the edge of the bed and gave rein to my conjectures.
+The noises in the castle had all ceased, and still I sat on,
+unconscious of time, my taper burning low.
+
+It may have been midnight when I was startled by the sound of a
+stealthy step in the corridor near my door. A heavy footfall I should
+have left unheeded, but this soft tread aroused me on the instant, and
+I sat listening.
+
+It halted at my door, and was succeeded by a soft, scratching sound.
+Noiselessly I rose, and with ready hands I waited, prepared, in the
+instinct of self-preservation, to fall upon the intruder, however
+futile the act might be. But the door did not open as I expected.
+Instead, the scratching sound continued, growing slightly louder. Then
+it occurred to me, at last, that whoever came might be a friend craving
+admittance, and proceeding stealthily that others in the castle might
+not overhear him.
+
+Swiftly I crossed to the door, and opened. On the threshold a dark
+figure straightened itself from a stooping posture, and the light of
+the taper behind me fell on a face of a pallor that seemed to glisten
+in its intensity. It was the face of Mariani, the seneschal of the
+Castle of Cessna.
+
+One glance we exchanged, and intuitively I seemed to apprehend the
+motive of this midnight visit. He came either to bring me aid or to
+seek mine, with vengeance for his guerdon. I stood aside, and silently
+he entered my room and closed the door.
+
+“Quench your taper,” he bade me in a husky whisper.
+
+Without hesitation I obeyed him, a strange excitement thrilling me. For
+a second we stood in the dark, then another light gleamed as he plucked
+away the cloak that masked a lanthorn which he had brought with him. He
+set the lanthorn on the floor, and held the cloak in his hand, ready at
+a moment’s notice to conceal the light in its folds. Then pulling me
+down beside him on the bed, where he had perched himself:
+
+“My friend,” said he, “it may be that I bring you assistance.”
+
+“Speak, then,” I bade him. “You shall not find me slow to act if there
+is the need or the way.”
+
+“So I had surmised,” he said. “Are you not that same Boccadoro, Fool of
+the Court of Pesaro, who donned the Lord Giovanni’s armour and rode out
+to do battle in his stead?”
+
+I answered him that I was that man.
+
+“I have heard the tale,” said he. “Indeed, all Italy has heard it, and
+knows you for a man of steel, as strong and audacious as you are
+cunning and resourceful. I know against what desperate odds you fought
+that day, and how you overcame this terrible Ramiro. This it is that
+leads me to hope that in the service of your own ends you may become
+the instrument of my vengeance.”
+
+“Unfold your project, man,” I muttered, fiercely almost, in my burning
+eagerness. “Let me hear what you would have me do.”
+
+He did not answer me until a sob had shaken his old frame.
+
+“That boy,” he muttered brokenly, “that golden-haired angel sent me for
+the consolation of my decaying years, that lad whom Ramiro destroyed so
+foully and wantonly, was my son. Futile though the attempt had proved,
+I had certainly set my hands at the tyrants neck, but that I founded
+hopes on you of a surer and more terrible revenge. That thought has
+manned me and upheld me when anguish was near to slaying me outright.
+To see the boy burn so under my very eyes! God of mercy and pity! That
+I should have lived so long!”
+
+“Your child burned but a moment, suffered but an instant; for the deed,
+Ramiro will burn in Hell through countless generations, through
+interminable ages.”
+
+It was a paltry consolation, perhaps, but it was the best that then
+occurred to me.
+
+“Meanwhile,” I begged him, “do you tell me what you would have me do.”
+
+I urged him to it that he might, thereby, suffer his mind to rest a
+moment from pondering that ghastly thing that he had witnessed, that
+scene that would live before his eyes until they closed in their last
+sleep.
+
+“You heard Lampugnani quip Ramiro with the fact that three messengers
+have ridden desperately within the week from Citta di Castello to
+Cesena, and you heard, perhaps, his obscure reference to the hat?”
+
+“I heard both, and both I weighed,” said I. The old man looked at me as
+if surprised.
+
+“And what,” he asked, “was the conclusion you arrived at?”
+
+“Why, simply this: that whilst the messenger bore some letter from
+Vitelli to Ramiro that should serve to lull the suspicions of any who,
+wondering at so much traffic between these two, should be moved to take
+a peep into those missives, the true letter with which the courier
+rides is concealed within the lining of his hat—probably unknown even
+to himself.”
+
+He stared at me as though I had been a wizard.
+
+“Messer Boccadoro—” he began.
+
+“My name,” I corrected him, “is Biancomonte—Lazzaro Biancomonte.”
+
+“Whatever be your name,” he returned, “of the quality of your wits
+there can be no question. You have guessed for yourself the half of
+what I was come to tell you. Has your shrewdness borne you any further?
+Have you concluded aught concerning the nature of those letters?”
+
+“I have concluded that it might repay some trouble to discover what is
+contained in letters that are sent with so much secrecy. I can conceive
+nothing that might lie between the Lord of Citta di Castello and this
+ruffian of Cesena, and yet—treason lurks often where least it is
+expected, and treason makes stranger bed-fellows than misfortune.”
+
+“Lampugnani was no fool, and yet a great fool,” the old man murmured.
+He surmised what you have surmised. With each of the messengers Ramiro
+has dealt in the same manner. He has sent each to be fed and refreshed
+whilst waiting to return with the answer he was penning. For their
+refreshment he has ordered a very full, stout wine—not drugged, for
+that they might discover upon awaking; but a wine that of itself would
+do the work of setting them to sleep very soundly. Then, when all
+slept, and only he remained at table, like the drunkard that he is, it
+has been his habit to descend himself to the kitchen and possess
+himself of the messenger’s hat. With this he has returned to the hall,
+opened the lining and withdrawn a letter.
+
+“Then, as I suppose, he has penned his answer, thrust it into the
+lining, where the other one had been, and secured it, as it was before,
+with his own hands. He has returned the hat to the place from whence he
+took it, and when the courier awakens in the morning there is another
+letter put into his hand, and he is bidden to bear it to Vitelli.”
+
+He paused a moment; then continued: “Lampugnani must have suspected
+something and watched Ramiro to make sure that his suspicions were well
+founded. In that he was wise, but he was a fool to allow Ramiro to see
+what lie he had discovered. Already he has paid the penalty. He is
+lying with a dagger in his throat, for an hour ago Ramiro stabbed him
+while he slept.”
+
+I shuddered. What a place of blood was this! Could it be that Cesare
+Borgia had no knowledge of what things were being performed by his
+Governor of Cesena?
+
+“Poor Lampugnani!” I sighed. “God rest his soul.”
+
+“I doubt but he is in Hell,” answered Mariani, without emotion. “He was
+as great a villain as his master, and he has gone to answer for his
+villainy even as this ugly monster of a Ramiro shall. But let
+Lampugnani be. I am not come to talk of him.
+
+“Returning from his bloody act, Ramiro ordered me to bed. I went, and
+as I passed Lampugnani’s room I saw the door standing wide. It was thus
+that I learnt what had befallen. I remembered his words concerning the
+hat and I remembered old suspicions of my own aroused by the thought of
+the potent wine which Ramiro had ordered me to see given to the
+couriers. I sped back to the gallery that overlooks the hall. Ramiro
+was absent, and I surmised at once that he was gone to the kitchen.
+Then was it that I thought of you and of what service you might render
+if things were indeed as I now more than suspected. Like an inspiration
+it came to me how I might prepare your way. I ran down to the hall,
+sweating in my terror that he should return ere I had performed the
+task I went on. From the buffet I drew a flagon of that same stout wine
+that Ramiro used upon his messengers. I ripped away the seal and
+crimson cord by which it is distinguished, and placing it on the table
+I removed the flagon I had set for him before I had first departed.
+
+“Then I fled back to the gallery, and from the shadows I watched for
+his return. Soon he came, bearing a hat in his hand; and from that hat
+he took a letter, all as you have surmised. He read it, and I saw his
+face lighten with a fierce excitement. Then he helped himself freely to
+wine, and drank thirstily, for all that he was overladen with it. One
+of the qualities of this wine is that in quenching thirst it produces
+yet a greater. Ramiro drank again, then sat with the letter before him
+in the light of the single taper I had left burning. Presently he grew
+sleepy. He shook himself and drank again. Then again he sat conning his
+epistle, and thus I left him and came hither in quest of you.”
+
+There followed a pause.
+
+“Well?” I asked at length. “What is it you would have me do? Stab him
+as he sleeps?”
+
+He shook his head. “That were too sweet and sudden a death for him. If
+it had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent
+me strength enough. But think you it would repay me for having seen my
+boy pinned by that monster’s pike to the burning logs?”
+
+“What is it, then, you ask of me?”
+
+“If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if
+its treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia—it could scarce be aimed
+at another—would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it?”
+
+“Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone—what then? You know
+this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would ransack
+the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive were
+forthcoming.”
+
+“That,” he groaned, “is what deterred me. If I had the means of getting
+the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from
+Cesena, I should not have hesitated. Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza,
+and I could ride there in a day. But it would be impossible for me to
+leave the place before morning. I have duties to perform in the town,
+and I might get away whilst I am about them, but before then the letter
+will have been missed, and no one will be allowed to leave the
+citadel.”
+
+“Why then,” said I, “the only hope lies in abstracting that letter in
+such a manner that he shall not suspect the loss; and that seems a very
+desperate hope.”
+
+We sat in silence for some moments, during which I thought intently to
+little purpose.
+
+“Does he sleep yet, think you?” I asked presently.
+
+“Assuredly he must.”
+
+“And if I were to go to the gallery, is there any fear that I should be
+discovered by others?”
+
+“None. All at Cesena are asleep by now.”
+
+“Then,” said I, rising, “let us take a look at him. Who knows what may
+suggest itself? Come.” I moved towards the door, and he took up his
+lanthorn and followed me, enjoining me to tread lightly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+THE LETTER
+
+
+On tiptoe I crept down that corridor to the gallery above the
+banqueting-hall, secure from sight in the enveloping darkness, and
+intent upon allowing no sound to betray my presence, lest Ramiro should
+have awakened. Behind me, treading as lightly, came Messer Mariani.
+
+Thus we gained the gallery. I leaned against the stout oaken
+balustrade, and looked down into the black pit of the hall, broken in
+the centre by the circle of light from the two tapers that burnt upon
+the table. The other torches had all been quenched.
+
+At the table sat Messer Ramiro, his head fallen forward and sideways
+upon his right arm which was outstretched and limp along the board.
+Before him lay a paper which I inferred to be the letter whose
+possession might mean so much.
+
+I could hear the old man breathing heavily beside me as I leaned there
+in the dark, and sought to devise a means by which that paper might be
+obtained. No doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to snatch
+it away without disturbing him. But there was always to be considered
+that when he waked and missed the letter we should have to reckon with
+his measures to regain possession of it.
+
+It became necessary, therefore, to go about it in a manner that should
+leave him unsuspicious of the theft. A little while I pondered this,
+deeming the thing desperate at first. Then an idea came to me on a
+sudden, and turning to Mariani I asked him could he find me a sheet of
+paper of about the size of that letter held by Ramiro. He answered me
+that he could, and bade me wait there until he should return.
+
+I waited, watching the sleeper below, my excitement waxing with every
+second of the delay. Ramiro was snoring now—a loud, sonorous snore that
+rang like a trumpet-blast through that vast empty hall.
+
+At last Mariani returned, bringing the sheet of paper I had asked for,
+and he was full of questions of what I intended. But neither the place
+nor the time was one in which to stand unfolding plans. Every moment
+wasted increased the uncertainty of the success of my design. Someone
+might come, or Ramiro might awaken despite the potency of the wine he
+had been given—for on so well-seasoned a toper the most potent of wines
+could have but a transient effect.
+
+So I left Mariani, and moved swiftly and silently to the head of the
+staircase.
+
+I had gone down two steps, when, in the dark, I missed the third, the
+bells in my cap jangling at the shock. I brought my teeth together and
+stood breathless in apprehension, fearing that the noise might awaken
+him, and cursing myself for a careless fool to have forgotten those
+infernal bells. Above me I heard a warning hiss from old Mariani,
+which, if anything, increased my dread. But Ramiro snored on, and I was
+reassured.
+
+A moment I stood debating whether I should go on, or first return to
+divest myself of that cap of mine. In the end I decided to pursue the
+latter course. The need for swift and sudden movement might come ere I
+was done with this adventure, and those bells might easily be the
+undoing of me. So back I went to the surprise and infinite dismay of
+Mariani until I had whispered in his ear the reason. We retreated
+together to the corridor, and there, with his help, I removed my
+jangling headgear, which I left him to restore to my chamber.
+
+Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this
+time I gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the
+hall. Ramiro’s back was towards me. On my right stood the tall buffet
+from which the boy had fetched him wine that evening; this I marked out
+as the cover to which I must fly in case of need.
+
+A second I stood hesitating, still considering my course; then I went
+softly forward, my feet making no sound in the rushes of the floor. I
+had covered half the distance, and, growing bolder, I was advancing
+more swiftly and with less caution, when suddenly my knee came in
+contact with a three-legged stool that had been carelessly left where
+none would have suspected it. The blow may have hurt afterwards,
+indeed, I was conscious of a soreness at the knee; but at the moment I
+had no thought or care for physical pain. The bench went over with a
+crash, and for all that the rushes may have deadened in part the sound
+of its fall, to my nervous ear it boomed like the report of a cannon
+through the stillness of the place.
+
+I turned cold as ice, and the sweat of fear sprang out to moisten me
+from head to foot. Instantly I dropped on all fours, lest Ramiro,
+awaking suddenly, should turn; and I waited for the least sign that
+should render advisable my seeking the cover of the buffet. In the
+gallery above I could picture old Mariani clenching his teeth at the
+noise, his knees knocking together, and his face white with horror; for
+Ramiro’s snoring had abruptly ceased. It came to an end with a choking
+catch of the breath, and I looked to see him raise his head and start
+up to ascertain what it was that had aroused him. But he never stirred,
+and for all that he no longer snored, his breathing continued heavy and
+regular, so that I was cheered by the assurance that I had but
+disturbed his slumber, not dispelled it.
+
+Yet, since I had disturbed and lightened it, a greater precaution was
+now necessary, and I waited there for some ten minutes maybe, a period
+that must have proved a very eternity to the old man upstairs. At last
+I had the reward of hearing the snoring recommence; lightly at first,
+but soon with all its former fullness.
+
+I rose and proceeded now with a caution that must guard me from any
+more unlooked-for obstacles. Moreover, as I approached, the darkness
+was dispelled more and more at every stride in the direction of the
+light. At last I reached the table, and stood silent as a spectre at
+Ramiro’s side, looking down upon the features of the sleeping man.
+
+His face was flushed, and his tawny hair tumbled about his damp brow;
+his lips quivered as he breathed. For a moment, as I stood gazing on
+him, there was murder in my mind. His dagger hung temptingly in his
+girdle. To have drawn it and rid the world of this monster might have
+been a worthy deed, acceptable in the eyes of Heaven. But how should it
+profit me? Rather must it prove my destruction at the hands of his
+followers, and to be destroyed just then, with Paola depending upon me,
+and life full of promise once I regained my liberty, was something I
+had no mind to risk.
+
+My eyes wandered to the letter lying on the table. If this were of the
+nature we suspected, it should prove a safer tool for his destruction.
+
+To read it as it lay was an easy matter, and it came to me then that
+ere I decided upon my course it might be well that I should do so. If
+by chance it were innocent of treason, why, then, I might resort to the
+risk of that other and more desperate weapon—his own dagger.
+
+At the foot of the short flight of steps that led from the hall to the
+courtyard I could hear the slow pacing of the sentry placed there by
+Ramiro. But unless he were summoned, it was extremely unlikely that the
+fellow would leave his post, so that, I concluded, I had little to fear
+from that quarter. I drew back and taking up a position behind Ramiro’s
+chair—a position more favourable to escape in the untoward event of his
+awaking—I craned forward to read the letter over his shoulder. I
+thanked God in that hour for two things: that my sight was keen, and
+that Vitellozzo Vitelli wrote a large, bold hand.
+
+Scarcely breathing, and distracted the while by the mad racing of my
+pulses, I read; and this, as nearly as I can remember, is what the
+letter contained:
+
+“ILLUSTRIOUS RAMIRO—Your answer to my last letter reached me safely,
+and it rejoiced me to learn that you had found a man for our
+undertaking. See that you have him in readiness, for the hour of action
+is at hand. Cesare goes south on the second or third day of the New
+Year, and he has announced to me his intention of passing through
+Cesena on his way, there to investigate certain charges of
+maladministration which have been preferred against you. These concern,
+in particular, certain misappropriation of grain and stores, and an
+excessive severity of rule, of which complaints have reached him. From
+this you will gather that out of a spirit of self-defence, if not to
+earn the reward which we have bound ourselves to pay you, it is
+expedient that you should not fail us. The occasion of the Duke’s visit
+to Cesena will be, of all, the most propitious for our purpose. Have
+your arbalister posed, and may God strengthen his arm and render true
+his aim to the end that Italy may be rid of a tyrant. I commend myself
+to your Excellency, and I shall anxiously await your news.
+
+“VITELLOZZO VITELLI.”
+
+Here indeed were my hopes realised. A plot there was, and it aimed at
+nothing less than the Duca Valentino’s life. Let that letter be borne
+to Cesare Borgia at Faenza, and I would warrant that within a dozen
+hours of his receipt of it he would so dispose that all who had
+suffered by the cruel tyranny of Ramiro del’ Orca would be avenged, and
+those who were still suffering would be relieved. In this letter lay my
+own freedom and the salvation of Madonna Paula, and this letter it
+behoved me at once to become possessed. It was a safer far alternative
+than that dagger of his.
+
+A moment I stood pondering the matter for the last time, then stepping
+sideways and forward, so that I was again beside him, I put out my hand
+and swiftly whipped the letter from the table. Then standing very
+still, to prevent the slightest rustle, I remained a second or two
+observing him. He snored on, undisturbed by my light-fingered action.
+
+I drew away a pace or two, as lightly as I might, and folding the
+letter I thrust it into my girdle. Then from my open doublet I drew the
+sheet that Mariani had supplied me, and, advancing again, I placed it
+on the table in a position almost identical with that which the
+original had occupied, saving that it was removed a half-finger’s
+breadth from his hand, for I feared to allow it actually to touch him
+lest it should arouse him.
+
+Holding my breath, for now was I come to the most desperate part of my
+undertaking, I caught up one of the tapers and set fire to a corner of
+the sheet. That done, I left the candle lying on its side against the
+paper, so as to convey the impression to him, when presently he
+awakened, that it had fallen from it sconce. Then, without waiting for
+more, I backed swiftly away, watching the progress of the flames as
+they devoured the paper and presently reached his hand and scorched it.
+
+At that I dropped again on all fours, and having gained the corner of
+the buffet, I crouched there, even as with a sudden scream of pain he
+woke and sprang upright, shaking his blistered hand. As a matter of
+instinct he looked about to see what it was had hurt him. Then his eyes
+fell upon the charred paper on the table, and the fallen candle, which
+was still burning across one end of it, and even to the dull wits of
+Ramiro del’ Orca the only possible conclusion was suggested. He stared
+at it a moment, then swept that flimsy sheet of ashes from the table
+with an oath, and sank back once more into his great leathern chair.
+
+“Body of God!” he swore aloud, “it is well that I had read it a dozen
+times. Better that it should have been burnt than that someone should
+have read it whilst I slept.”
+
+The idea of such a possibility seemed to rouse him to fresh action, for
+seizing the fallen candle and replacing it in its socket, he rose once
+more, and holding it high above his head he looked about the hall.
+
+The light it shed may have been feeble, and the shadows about my buffet
+thick; but, as I have said, my doublet was open, and some ray of that
+weak candlelight must have found out the white shirt that was showing
+at my breast, for with a sudden cry he pushed back his chair and took a
+step towards me, no doubt intent upon investigating that white
+something that he saw gleaming there.
+
+I waited for no more. I had no fancy to be caught in that corner,
+utterly at his mercy. I stood up suddenly.
+
+“Magnificent, it is I,” I announced, with a calm and boundless
+effrontery.
+
+The boldness of it may have staggered him a little, for he paused,
+although his eyes were glowing horribly with the frenzy that possessed
+him, the half of which was drunkenness, the other fear and wrath lest I
+should have seen his treacherous communication from Vitelli.
+
+“What make you here?” he questioned threateningly.
+
+“I thirsted, Excellency,” I answered glibly. “I thirsted, and I
+bethought me of this buffet where you keep your wine.”
+
+He continued to eye me, some six paces off, his half-drunken wits no
+doubt weighing the plausibility of my answer. At last—
+
+“If that be all, what cause had you to hide?” he asked me shrewdly.
+
+“One of your candles fell over and awakened you,” said I. “I feared you
+might resent my presence, and so I hid.”
+
+“You came not near the table?” he inquired. “You saw nothing of the
+paper that I held? Nay, by the Host! I’ll take no risks. You were born
+’neath an unlucky star, fool; for be your reason for your presence here
+no more than you assert, you have come in a season that must be fatal
+to you.”
+
+He set the candle on the table, then carrying his hand to his girdle he
+withdrew it sharply, and I caught the gleam of a dagger.
+
+In that instant I thought of Mariani waiting above, and like a flash it
+came to me that if I could outpace this drunken brigand, and, gaining
+the gallery well ahead of him, transfer that letter to the old man’s
+hands, I should not die in vain. Cesare Borgia would avenge me, and
+Madonna Paola, at least, would be safe from this villain. If Mariani
+could reach Valentino at Faenza, I would answer for it that within
+four-and-twenty hours Messer Ramiro del’ Orca would be the banner on
+that ghastly beam that he facetiously dubbed his flagstaff; and he
+would be the blackest, dirtiest banner that ever yet had fluttered
+there.
+
+The thought conceived in the twinkling of an eye, I acted upon without
+a second’s hesitation. Ere Ramiro had taken his first step towards me,
+I had sprung to the stairs and I was leaping up them with the frantic
+speed of one upon whose heels death is treading closely.
+
+A singular, fierce joy was blent with my measure of fear; a joy at the
+thought that even now, in this extremity, I was outwitting him, for
+never a doubt had he that the burnt paper he had found on the table was
+all that was left of Vitelli’s letter. His fears were that I might have
+read it, but never a suspicion crossed his mind of such a trick as I
+had played upon him.
+
+So I sped on, the gigantic Ramiro blundering after me, panting and
+blaspheming, for although powerful, his bulk and the wine he had taken
+left him no nimbleness. The distance between us widened, and if only
+Mariani would have the presence of mind to wait for me at the mouth of
+the passage, all would be as I could wish it before his dagger found my
+heart.
+
+I was assuring myself of this when in the dark I stumbled, and striking
+my legs against a stair I hurtled forward. I recovered almost
+immediately, but, in my frenzy of haste to make up for the instant
+lost, I stumbled a second time ere I was well upon my feet.
+
+With a roar Ramiro must have hurled himself forward, for I felt my
+ankle caught in a grip from which there was no escaping, and I was
+roughly and brutally dragged back and down those stairs; now my head,
+now my breast beating against the steps as I descended them one by one.
+
+But even in that hour the letter was my first thought, and I found a
+way to thrust it farther under my girdle so that it should not be seen.
+
+At last I reached the hall, half-stunned, and with all the misery of
+defeat and the certainty of the futility of my death to further torture
+my last moments. Over me stood Ramiro, his dagger upheld, ready to
+strike.
+
+“Dog!” he taunted me, “your sands are run.”
+
+“Mercy, Magnificent,” I gasped. “I have done nothing to deserve your
+poniard.”
+
+He laughed brutally, delaying his stroke that he might prolong my agony
+for his drunken entertainment.
+
+“Address your prayers to Heaven,” he mocked me, “and let them concern
+your soul.”
+
+And then, like a flash of inspiration came the words that should delay
+his hand.
+
+“Spare me,” I cried “for I am in mortal sin.”
+
+Impious, abandoned villain, though he was, he said too much when he
+boasted that he feared neither God nor Devil. He was prone to forget
+his God, and the lessons that as a babe he had learnt at his mother’s
+knee—for I take it that even Ramiro del’ Orca had once been a babe—but
+deep down in his soul there had remained the fear of Hell and an almost
+instinctive obedience to the laws of Mother Church. He could perform
+such ruthless cruelties as that of hurling a page into the fire to
+punish his clumsiness; he could rack and stab and hang men with the
+least shadow of compunction or twinge of conscience, but to slay a man
+who professed himself to be in mortal sin was a deed too appalling even
+for this ruthless butcher.
+
+He hesitated a second, then he lowered his hand, his face telling me
+clearly how deeply he grudged me the respite which, yet, he dared not
+do other than accord me.
+
+“Where shall I find me a priest?” he grumbled. “Think you the Citadel
+of Cesena is a monastery? I will wait while you make an act of
+contrition for your sins. It is all the shrift I can afford you. And
+get it done, for it is time I was abed. You shall have five minutes in
+which to clear your soul.”
+
+By this it seemed to me—as it may well seem to you—that matters were
+but little mended, and instead of employing the respite he accorded me
+in the pious collecting of thoughts which he enjoined, I sat up—very
+sore from my descent of the stairs—and employed those precious moments
+in putting forward arguments to turn him from, his murderous purpose.
+
+“I have lived too ungodly a life,” I protested, “to be able to squeeze
+into Paradise through so narrow a tate. As you would hope for your own
+ultimate salvation, Excellency, I do beseech you not to imperil mine.”
+
+This disposed him, at least, to listen to me, and proceeded to assure
+him of the harmless nature of my visit to the hall in quest of wine to
+quench my thirst. I was running the grave risk of dying with lies on my
+lips, but I was too desperate to give the matter thought just then. His
+mood seemed to relent; the delay, perhaps, had calmed his first access
+of passion, and he was grown more reasonable. But when Ramiro cooled he
+was, perhaps, more malignant than ever, for it meant a return to
+natural condition, and Ramiro’s natural condition was one of cruelty
+unsurpassed.
+
+“It may be as you say,” he answered me at last, sheathing his dagger,
+“and at least you have my word that I will not slay you without first
+assuring myself that you have lied. For to-night you shall remain in
+durance. To-morrow we will apply the question to you.”
+
+The hope that had been reviving in my breast fell dead once more, and I
+turned cold at that threat. And yet, between now and to-morrow, much
+might betide, and I had cause for thankfulness, perhaps, for this
+respite. Thus I sought to cheer myself. But I fear I failed. To-morrow
+he would torture me, not so much to ascertain whether I had spoken
+truly, but because to his diseased mind it afforded diversion to
+witness a man’s anguish. No doubt it was that had urged him now to
+spare my life and accord me this merciless piece of mercy.
+
+In a loud voice he called the sentry who was pacing below; and in a
+moment the man appeared in answer to that summons.
+
+“You will take this knave to the chamber set apart for him up there,
+and you will leave him secure under lock and bar, bringing me the key
+of his door.”
+
+The fellow informed himself which was the chamber, then turning to me
+he curtly bade me go with him. Thus was I haled back to my room, with
+the promise of horrors on the morrow, but with the night before me in
+which to scheme and pray for some miracle that might yet save me. But
+the days of miracles were long past. I lay on my bed and deplored with
+many a sigh that bitter fact. And if aught had been wanting to increase
+the weight of fear and anguish on my already over-burdened mind, and to
+aid in what almost seemed an infernal plot to utterly distract me, I
+had it in fresh, wild conjectures touching Madonna Paola. Where indeed
+could she be that Ramiro’s men had failed to find her for all that they
+had scoured that part of the country in which I had left her to wait
+for my return? What if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture
+with which Ramiro’s lieutenant was charged?
+
+With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter
+inability to take a step in her service, I lay. There for an hour or so
+in such agony of mind as is begotten only of suspense. In my girdle
+still reposed the treasonable letter from Vitelli to Ramiro, a mighty
+weapon with which to accomplish the butcher’s overthrow. But how was I
+to wield it imprisoned here?
+
+I wondered why Mariani had not returned, only to remember that the
+soldier who had locked me in had carried the key of my prison-chamber
+to Ramiro.
+
+Suddenly the stillness was disturbed by a faint tap at my door. My
+instincts and my reason told me it must be Mariani at last. In an
+instant I had leapt from the bed and whispered through the keyhole:
+
+“Who is there?”
+
+“It is I—Mariani—the seneschal,” came the old man’s voice, very softly,
+but nevertheless distinctly. “They have taken the key.”
+
+I groaned, then in a gust of passion I fell to cursing Ramiro for that
+precaution.
+
+“You have the letter?” came Mariani’s voice again.
+
+“Aye, I have it still,” I answered.
+
+“Have you seen what it contains?”
+
+“A plot to assassinate the Duke—no less. Enough to get this bloody
+Ramiro broken on the wheel.”
+
+I was answered by a sound that was as a gasp of malicious joy. Then the
+old man’s voice added:
+
+“Can you pass it under the door? There is a sufficient gap.”
+
+I felt, and found that he was right; I could pass the half of my hand
+underneath. I took the letter and thrust it through. His hands fastened
+on it instantly, almost snatching it from my fingers before they were
+ready to release it.
+
+“Have courage,” he bade me. “Listen. I shall endeavour to leave Cesena
+in the morning, and I shall ride straight for Faenza. If I find the
+Duke there when I arrive, he should be here within some twelve or
+fourteen hours of my departure. Fence with Ramiro, temporise if you can
+till then, and all will be well with you.”
+
+“I will do what I can,” I answered him. “But if he slays me in the
+meantime, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that he
+will not be long in following me.”
+
+“May God shield you,” he said fervently.
+
+“May God speed you,” I answered him, with a still greater fervour.
+
+That night, as you may well conceive, I slept but little, and that
+little ill. The morning, instead of relieving the fears that in the
+darkness had been with me, seemed to increase them. For now was the
+time for Mariani to act, and I was fearful as to how he might succeed.
+I was full of doubts lest some obstacle should have arisen to prevent
+his departure from Cesena, and I spent my morning in wearisome
+speculation.
+
+I took an almost childish satisfaction in the thought that since, being
+a prisoner, I could no longer count myself the Fool of the Court of
+Cesena, I was free to strip the motley and assume the more sober
+garments in which I had been taken, and which—as you may recall—had
+been placed in my chamber on the previous evening. It was the very
+plainest raiment. For doublet I wore a buff brigandine, quilted and
+dagger-proof, and caught at the waist by a girdle of hammered steel; my
+wine-coloured hose was stout and serviceable, as were my long boots of
+untanned leather. Yet prouder was I of this sober apparel than ever
+king of his ermine.
+
+It may have been an hour or so past noon when, at last, my solitude was
+invaded by a soldier who came to order me into the presence of the
+Governor. I had been sitting at the window, leaning against the bars
+and looking out at the desolate white landscape, for there had been a
+heavy fall of snow in the night, which reminded me—as snow ever did—of
+my first meeting with Madonna Paola.
+
+I rose upon the instant, and my fears rose with me. But I kept a bold
+front as I went down into the hall, where Ramiro and the blackguards of
+his Court were sitting, with three or four men-at-arms at attention by
+the door. Close to the pulleys appertaining to the torture of the cord
+stood two leather-clad ruffians—Ramiro’s executioners.
+
+At the head of the board, which was still strewn with fragments of
+food-for they had but dined—sat Ramiro del’ Orca. With him were half a
+dozen of his officers, whose villainous appearance pronounced them
+worthy of their brutal leader. The air was heavy with the pungent odour
+of viands. I looked round for Mariani, and I took some comfort from the
+fact that he was absent. Might heaven please that he was even then on
+his way to Faenza.
+
+Ramiro watched my advance with a smile in which mockery was blent with
+satisfaction, for all that of the resumption of my proper raiment he
+seemed to take no heed. No doubt he had dined well, and he was now
+disposing himself to be amused.
+
+“Messer Bocadaro,” said he, when I had come to a standstill, “there was
+last night a matter that was not cleared up between us and concerning
+which I expressed an intention of questioning you to-day. I should
+proceed to do so at once, were it not that there is yet another matter
+on which I am, if possible, still more desirous you should tell us all
+you know. Once already have you evaded my questions with answers which
+at the time I half believed. Even now I do not say that I utterly
+disbelieve them, but I wish to assure myself that you told the truth;
+for if you lied, why then we may still be assisted by such information
+the cord shall squeeze from you. I am referring to the mysterious
+disappearance of Madonna Paola di Santafior—a disappearance of which
+you have assured me that you knew nothing, being even in ignorance of
+the fact that the lady was not really dead. I had confidently expected
+that the party searching for Madonna Paola would have succeeded ere
+this in finding her. But this morning my hopes suffered disappointment.
+My men have returned empty-handed once more.”
+
+“For which mercy may Heaven be praised!” I burst out.
+
+He scowled at me; then he laughed evilly.
+
+“My men have returned—all save three. Captain Lucagnolo with two of his
+followers, has undertaken to go beyond the area I appointed for the
+search, and to proceed to the village of Cattolica. While he is
+pursuing his inquiries there, I have resolved to pursue my own here. I
+now call upon you, Boccadoro, to tell us what you know of Madonna
+Paola’s whereabouts.”
+
+“I know nothing,” I answered stoutly. “I am prepared to take oath that
+I know nothing of her whereabouts.”
+
+“Tell me, then, at least,” said he, “where you bestowed her.”
+
+I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
+
+“Do you think that I would tell you if I had the knowledge?” was the
+scornful question with which I answered him. “You may pursue your
+inquiries as you will and where you will, but I pray God they may all
+prove as futile as must those that you would pursue here and upon my
+own person.”
+
+This was how I fenced with him, this was the manner in which I followed
+Mariani’s sound advice that I should temporise! Oh! I know that my
+words were the words of a fool, yet no fear that Ramiro would inspire
+me could have restrained them.
+
+There was a murmur at the table, and his fellows turned their eyes on
+Ramiro to see how he would receive this bearding. He smiled quietly,
+and raising his hand he made a sign to the executioners.
+
+Rude hands seized me from behind, and the doublet was torn from my back
+by fingers that never paused to untruss my points.
+
+They turned me about, and hurried me along until I stood under the
+pulleys of the torture, and one of the men held me securely whilst the
+other passed the cords about my wrists. Then both the executioners
+stepped back, to be ready to hoist me at the Governor’s signal.
+
+He delayed it, much as an epicure delays the consumption of a
+delectable morsel, heightening by suspense the keen desire of his
+palate. He watched me closely, and had my lips quivered or my eyelids
+fluttered, he would have hailed with joy such signs of weakness. But I
+take pride in truthfully writing that I stood bold and impassively
+before him, and if I was pale I thank Heaven that pallor was the habit
+of my countenance, so that from that he could gather no satisfaction.
+And standing there, I gave him back look for look, and waited.
+
+“For the last time, Boccadoro,” he said slowly, attempting by words to
+shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of the
+cord, “I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this
+stubbornness. If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the
+third, the torture will compel you to disclose what you may know. Would
+you not be better advised to speak at once, while your limbs are
+soundly planted in their sockets, rather than let yourself be maimed,
+perhaps for life, ere you will do so?”
+
+There was a stir of hoofs without. They thundered on the planks of the
+drawbridge and clattered on the stones of the courtyard. The thought of
+Cesare Borgia rose to my mind. But never did drowning man clutch at a
+more illusory straw. Cold reason quenched my hope at once. If the
+greatest imaginable success attended Mariani’s journey, the Duke could
+not reach Cesena before midnight, and to that it wanted some ten hours
+at least. Moreover, the company that came was small to judge by the
+sound—a half-dozen horses at the most.
+
+But Ramiro’s attention had been diverted from me by the noise.
+Half-turning in his chair, he called to one of the men-at-arms to
+ascertain who came. Before the fellow could do his bidding, the door
+was thrust open and Lucagnolo appeared on the threshold, jaded and worn
+with hard riding.
+
+A certain excitement arose in me at sight of him, despite my confidence
+that he must be returning empty-handed.
+
+Ramiro rose, pushed back his chair and advanced towards the new-comer.
+
+“Well?” he demanded. “What news?”
+
+“Excellency, the girl is here.”
+
+That answer seemed to turn me into stone, so great was the shock of
+this sudden shattering of the confidence that had sustained me.
+
+“My search in the country failing,” pursued the captain, as he came
+forward, “I made bold to exceed your orders by pushing my inquiries as
+far as the village of Cattolica. There I found her after some little
+labour.”
+
+Surely I dreamt. Surely, I told myself, this was not possible. There
+was some mistake. Lucagnolo had drought some wench whom he believed to
+be Madonna Paola.
+
+But even as I was assuring myself of this, the door opened again, and
+between two men-at-arms, white as death, her garments stained with mud
+and all but reduced to rags, and her eyes wild with a great fear, came
+my beloved Paola.
+
+With a sound that was as a grunt of satisfaction, Ramiro strode forward
+to meet her. But her eyes travelled past him and rested upon me,
+standing there between the leather-clad executioners with the cords of
+the torture pinioning my wrists, and I saw the anguish deepen in their
+blue depths.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+DOOMED
+
+
+Across the length of that hall our eyes met—hers and mine—and held each
+other’s glances. To me the room and all within it formed an indistinct
+and misty picture, from out of which there clearly gleamed my Paola’s
+sweet, white face.
+
+All at the table had risen with Ramiro, and now, copying their leader,
+they bared their heads in outward token of such respect as certainly
+would have been felt by any men less abandoned than were they before so
+much saintly beauty and distress.
+
+Lucagnolo had stepped aside, and Ramiro was now bowing low and
+ceremoniously before Madonna. His face I could not see, since his back
+was towards me, but his tones, as they floated across the hall to where
+I stood, came laden with subservience.
+
+“Madonna, I give praise and thanks to Heaven for this,” said he. “I was
+afflicted by the gravest misgivings for your safety, and I am more than
+thankful to behold you safe and sound.”
+
+There was a hypocritical flavour of courtliness about his words, and a
+mincing of his tones that suggested the efforts of a bull-calf to
+imitate the warbling of a throstle.
+
+Madonna paid him no heed; indeed, she appeared not to have heard him,
+for her eyes continued to look past him and at me. At last her lips
+parted, and although she scarcely seemed to raise her voice above a
+whisper, the word uttered reached my ears across the stillness of the
+great room, and the word was “Lazzaro!”
+
+At mention of my name, and at the tone in which it was uttered—a tone
+that betrayed same measure of what was in her heart—Ramiro wheeled
+sharply in my direction, his brows wrinkling. A certain craftiness he
+had, for all that I ever accounted him the dullest-witted clod that
+ever rose to his degree of honour. He must have realised how expedient
+it was that in all he did he should present himself to Madonna in a
+favourite light.
+
+“Release him,” he bade the executioners that held me, and in an instant
+I was set free. The order given, he turned again to Madonna.
+
+“You have been torturing him,” she cried, and her words were hard and
+fierce, her eyes blazing. “You shall repent it, Ser Ramiro. The Lord
+Cesare Borgia shall hear of it.”
+
+Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have
+been to her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my
+destruction. Ramiro laughed easily.
+
+“Madonna, you are at fault. We have not been torturing him, though I
+confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question. But
+your timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were
+asking him concerned your whereabouts!”
+
+I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some
+premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind. But
+realising the futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited
+agonisedly.
+
+“You had tortured him in vain then,” she answered scornfully. “For
+Lazzaro Biancomonte would never have betrayed me. Nor could he have
+betrayed me if he would, for after your men had searched the hut in
+which I was hidden, I walked to Cattolica thinking foolishly that I
+should be safer there.”
+
+Lackaday! She had told him the very thing he had sought to know. Yet to
+make doubly sure he pursued the scent a little farther.
+
+“Indeed it seems to me that had I tortured him I had given him no more
+than he deserved for having abandoned you in that hut. Madonna, I
+tremble to think of the harm that might have come to you through that
+knave’s desertion.” And he scowled across at me, much as the Pharisee
+might have scowled upon the publican.
+
+“He is no knave,” she answered, and I could have groaned to hear her
+working my undoing, though not by so much as a sign might I inspire her
+with caution, for that sign must have been seen by others. “Nor did he
+abandon me. He left me only to go in quest of the necessaries for our
+journey. If harm has come to me the blame of it must not rest on him.”
+
+“Of what harm do you speak, Madonna?” he cried, in a voice laden with
+concern.
+
+“Of what harm,” she echoed, eyeing him with a scorn that would have
+slain him had he any manhood left. “Of what harm? Mother of Mercy,
+defend me! Do you ask the question? What greater harm could have come
+to me than to have fallen into the hands of Ramiro del’ Orca and his
+brigands?”
+
+He stood looking at her, and I doubt not that his face was a very
+picture of simulated consternation.
+
+“Surely, Madonna, you do not understand that we are your friends, that
+you can so abuse us. But you will be faint, Madonna,” he cried, with a
+fresh and deep solicitude. “A cup of wine.” And he waved his hand
+towards the table.
+
+“It would poison me, I think,” she answered coldly.
+
+“You are cruel, and—alas!—mistrustful,” said he. “Can you guess nothing
+of the anxiety that has been mine these two days, of the fears that
+have haunted me as I thought of you and your wanderings?”
+
+Her lip curled, and her face took on some slight vestige of colour. Her
+spirit was a thing for which I might then have come to love her had it
+not been that already I loved her to distraction.
+
+“Yes,” said she, “I can guess something of your dismay when you found
+your schemes frustrated; when you found that you had come too late to
+San Domenico.”
+
+“Will you not forgive me that shift to which my adoration drove me?” he
+implored, in a honeyed voice—and a more fearful thing than Ramiro the
+butcher was Ramiro the lover.
+
+At that scarcely covert avowal of his passion she recoiled a step as
+she might before a thing unclean. The little colour faded from her
+cheek, the scorn departed from her lip, and a sickly, deadly fear
+overspread her lovely face. God! that I should stand there and witness
+this insult to the woman I adored and worshipped with a fervour that
+the Church seeks to instil into us for those about the throne of
+Heaven. It might not be. A blind access of fury took me. Of the
+consequences I thought nothing. Reason left me utterly, and the slight
+hope that might lie in temporising was disregarded.
+
+Before those about me could guess my purpose, or those others, too
+engrossed in the scene at the far end of the hall, could intervene, I
+had sprung from between the executioners and dashed across the space
+that separated me from the Governor of Cesena. One well-aimed blow, and
+there should be an end to Messer Ramiro. That was the only thought that
+found room in my disordered mind.
+
+One or two there were who cried out as I sped past them, swift as the
+hound when it speeds after the fleeing hare. But I was upon Ramiro ere
+any could have sufficiently mastered his surprise to interfere.
+
+By the nape of his great neck I caught him from behind, and setting my
+knee at his spine I wrenched him backward, and so flung him over on the
+floor. Down I went with him, my hand reaching for the dagger at his
+jewelled girdle, and I had found and drawn it in that swift action of
+mine ere he had bethought him of his hands. Up it flashed and down. I
+sank it through the crimson velvet of his rich doublets straight at the
+spot where his heart should be—if he were so human as to have a heart.
+The next instant I turned cold and sick. My desperate effort had been
+all for nothing. In my hand I was left with the bronze hilt of his
+great poniard; the blade had broken off against the mesh of steel the
+coward wore beneath his finery.
+
+There was a rush of feet about us, a piercing scream from Madonna
+Paola, and it was to her that I owed my life in that grim moment. A
+dozen blades were naked and would have transfixed me as I lay, but that
+she covered my body with her own and bade them strike at me through
+her.
+
+A moment later and the powerful hands of the Governor of Cesena were at
+my throat. I was lifted and tossed aside, as though I had been a hound
+and he the bull I had beset. And as he swung me over and crushed me to
+the ground, he knelt above me and grinned horribly into my purpling
+face.
+
+A second we stayed so, and I thought indeed that my hour was come, when
+suddenly I felt the blood in my head released once more. He had taken
+his hands from my throat. He seized me now by the collar and dragged me
+rudely to my feet.
+
+“Take this knave and lock him in his chamber,” he bade a couple of his
+bravi. “I may have need of him ere he dies.”
+
+“Messer Ramiro,” came the interceding voice of Madonna Paola, “what he
+did, he did for me. You will not let him die for it?”
+
+There was a pause during which he looked at her, whilst the men were
+roughly dragging me across the hall.
+
+“Who knows, Madonna?” he said, with a bow and an infernal smile. “If
+you were to beg his life, it might even come to pass that I might spare
+it.”
+
+He did not wait for her answer, but stepping after me he called to the
+men that led me. In obedience they halted, and he came forward. We were
+now at the foot of the staircase.
+
+“Boccadoro,” said he, planting himself before me, and eyeing me with
+eyes that were very full of malice, “you will recall the punishment I
+promised you if I came to discover it was you had thwarted me in
+Pesaro. It is the second time you have fooled Ramiro del’ Orca. There
+does not live the man who can boast that he did it thrice, nor will I
+risk it that you be that man. Make your peace with Heaven, for at
+sunset—in an hour’s time—you hang. There is one little thing that might
+save you even yet, and if you find life sweet, you would do well to
+pray that that little thing may come to pass.”
+
+I answered him nothing, but I bowed my head in token that I had heard
+and he signed to the men to proceed with me, whilst turning on his heel
+he stepped down the hall again to where Madonna Paola, overcome with
+weakness, had sunk upon a stool.
+
+As I was leaving the gallery I had a last glimpse of her, sitting there
+with drawn face and haggard eyes that followed me as I passed from her
+sight, whilst Ramiro del’ Orca stood beside her murmuring words that
+did not reach me. His so-called courtiers and his men-at-arms were
+trooping out of the room, no doubt in obedience to his dismissal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+THE SUNSET
+
+
+I have heard tell of the calm that comes upon brave men when hope is
+dead and their doom has been pronounced. Uncertainty may have tortured
+and made cowards of them; but once that uncertainty is dissolved and
+suspense is at an end, resignation enters their soul, and, possessing
+it, gives to their bearing a noble and dignified peace. By the mercy of
+Heaven they are made, maybe, to see how poor and evanescent a thing is
+life; and they come to realise that since to die is a necessity there
+is no avoiding, as well might it betide to-day as ten years hence.
+
+Such a mood, however, came not to soothe that last hour of mine, and
+yet I account myself no coward. It was an hour of such torture and
+anguish as never before I had experienced—much though I had
+undergone—and the source of all my suffering lay in the fact that
+Madonna Paola was in the hands of the ogre of Cesena. Had it not been
+for that most untoward circumstance I almost believe that while I
+waited for the sun to set on that December afternoon, my mood had not
+only been calm but even in some measure joyous, for it must have
+comforted my last moments to reflect that for all that Messer Ramiro
+was about to hang me, yet had I sown the seeds of his own destruction
+ere he had brought me to this pass.
+
+I did, indeed, reflect upon it, and it may even be that, in spite of
+all, I culled some grain of comfort from the reflection. But let that
+be. My narrative would drag wearily were I to digress that I might tell
+you at length the ugly course of my thoughts whilst the sands of my
+last hour were running swiftly out. For, after all, my concern and
+yours is with the story of Lazzaro Biancomonte, sometime known as
+Boccadoro the Fool, and not with his philosophies—philosophies so
+unprofitable that it can benefit no man that I should set them down.
+
+My windows faced west, and so I was able to watch the fall of the sun,
+and measure by its shortening distance from the horizon the ebbing of
+my poor life. At last the nether rim of that round, fiery orb was on
+the point of touching the line of distant hills, and it was casting a
+crimson glow along the white, snow-sheeted landscape that was
+singularly suggestive of a tide of blood—a very fitting tide to flow
+and ebb about the walls of the Castle of Cesena.
+
+One little thing there was might save me, Ramiro had said. But I had
+shut the thought out of my mind to keep me from utter distraction. The
+only little thing in which I held that my salvation could lie would be
+in the miraculous arrival of Cesare Borgia, and of that not the
+faintest hope existed. If the greatest luck attended Mariani’s errand
+and the greatest speed were made by the Duke once he received the
+letter, he could not reach Cesena in less than another eight hours. And
+another eight minutes, to reckon by the swift sinking of the sun would
+see the time appointed for my hanging. I thought of Joshua in that grim
+hour, and in a mood that approached the whimsical I envied him his
+gift. If I could have stayed the setting of the sun, and held it where
+it was till midnight, all might yet be well if Mariani had been
+diligent and Cesare swift.
+
+The key grating in the lock put an end to my vague musings, and
+reminded me of the fact that I had neglected to employ that last hour
+as would have become a good son of Mother Church. For an instant I
+believe that my heart turned me to thoughts of God, and sent up a
+prayer for mercy for my poor sinful soul. Then the door swung wide. Two
+halberdiers and a carnifex in his odious leathern apron stood before
+me. Clearly Ramiro sought to be exact, and to have me hanging the
+instant the sun should vanish.
+
+“It is time,” said one of the soldiers, whilst the executioner,
+stepping into my chamber, pinioned my wrists behind me, and retaining
+hold of the cord bade me march. He followed, holding that slender cord,
+and so, like a beast to the shambles, went I.
+
+Once more they led me into the hall, where the shadows were lengthening
+in dark contrast to the splashes of sunlight that lingered on the
+floor, and whose blood-red hue was deepened by the gules of the windows
+through which it was filtered.
+
+Ramiro was waiting for me, and six of his officers were in attendance.
+But, for once, there were no men-at-arms at hand. On a chair, the one
+usually occupied by Ramiro, himself, sat Madonna Paola, still in her
+torn and bedraggled raiment, her face white, her eyes wild as they had
+been when first she had been haled into Ramiro’s presence, some two
+hours ago, and her features so rigidly composed that it told the tale
+of the awful self-control she must be exerting—a self-control that
+might end with a sudden snap that would plunge her into madness.
+
+A wild rage possessed me at sight of her. Let Ramiro be ruthless and
+cruel where men were concerned; that was a thing for which forgiveness
+might be found him. But that he should submit a lady, delicately
+nurtured as was Madonna, to such horrors as she had undergone since she
+had awakened from his sleeping-potion in the Church of San Domenico,
+was something for which no Hell could punish him condignly.
+
+Ramiro met me with a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I
+could espy his wicked, infernal mockery peeping forth.
+
+“I deplore your end, Lazzaro Biancomonte,” said he slowly, “for you are
+a brave man, and brave men are rare. You were worthy of better things,
+but you chose to cross swords with Ramiro del’ Orca, and you have got
+your death-blow. May God have mercy on your soul.”
+
+“I am praying,” said I, “for just so much mercy as you shall have
+justice. If my prayer is heard, I should be well-content.”
+
+He changed countenance a little. So, too, I thought, did Madonna Paola.
+My firmness may have yielded her some grain of comfort. Ramiro set his
+hands on his hips, and eyed me squarely.
+
+“You are a dauntless rogue,” he confessed.
+
+I laughed for answer, and in that moment it entered my mind that I
+might yet enjoy some measure of revenge in this life. More than that, I
+might benefit Madonna. For were the seed I was about to sow to take
+root in the craven heart of Ramiro del’ Orca, it would so fully occupy
+his mind that he would have little time to bestow on Paola in the few
+hours that were left him. But before I could bethink me of words, he
+was speaking again.
+
+“I held out to you a slender hope,” said he. “I told you that there was
+one little thing might save you. That hope has borne no fruit; the
+little thing, I spoke of has not come to pass. It rested with Madonna
+Paola, here. She had it in her hands to effect your salvation, but she
+has refused. Your blood rests on her head.”
+
+She shuddered at the words, and a low moan escaped her. She covered her
+face with her hands. A moment I stood looking at her; then I shifted my
+glance to Ramiro.
+
+“Will it please you, Illustrious, to allow me a few moments’
+conversation with Madonna Paola di Santafior?”
+
+I invested my tones with a weight of meaning that did not escape him.
+His face suddenly lightened; whilst one of his officers—a fellow very
+fitly named Lupone—laughed outright.
+
+“Your hero seems none so heroic after all,” he said derisively to the
+Governor. “The imminence of death makes him amenable.”
+
+Ramiro scowled on him for answer. Then, turning to me—“Do you think you
+could bend her stubbornness?” quoth he.
+
+“I might attempt it,” answered I.
+
+His eyes flashed with evil hope; his lips parted in a smile. He shot a
+glance at Madonna, who had withdrawn her hands from her face and was
+regarding me now with a strange expression of horror and
+incredulity—marvelling, no doubt, to find me such a craven as I must
+have seemed.
+
+Ramiro looked at the diminishing sunlight on the floor.
+
+“In some five minutes the sun will have completely set,” said he.
+“Those five minutes you shall have to seek to enlist Madonna’s aid on
+your behalf. If you succeed—and she may tell you on what terms you are
+to have your life—you shall depart from Cesena to-night a free man.”
+
+He paused a moment, and his eyes, lighted by an odious smile, rested
+once more on Madonna Paula. Then he bade all withdraw, and went with
+them into an adjoining chamber, fondly nurturing the hopes that were
+begotten of his belief that Lazzaro Biancomonte was a villain.
+
+When we were alone, she and I, I stood a moment where they had left me,
+my hands pinioned behind me, and the cord which the executioner had
+held trailing the ground like a lambent tail. Then I went slowly
+forward until I stood close before her. Her eyes were on my face, still
+with that same look of unbelief.
+
+“Madonna mia,” said I, “do not for an instant think that it is my
+purpose to ask of you any sacrifice that might save my worthless life.
+Rather was my purpose in seeking these few moments with you, to
+strengthen and encourage you by such news as it is mine to bring.”
+
+She looked now as if she scarcely understood.
+
+“If I will wed him to-night, he has promised that you shall go free,”
+she said in a whisper. “He says that he can bring a priest from the
+neighbourhood at a moment’s notice.”
+
+“Do not heed him,” I cried sternly.
+
+“I do not heed him,” said she, more composedly. “If he seeks to force
+me, I shall find a way of setting myself free. Dear Mother of Heaven!
+death were a sweet and restful thing after all that I have suffered in
+these days.”
+
+Then she fell suddenly to weeping.
+
+“Think me not an utter coward, Lazzaro. Willingly would I do this thing
+to save so noble a life as yours, did I not think that you must hate me
+for it. I was stout and firm in my refusal, confident that you would
+have had me so. Was I not right, my poor, poor Lazzaro?”
+
+“Madonna, you were right,” I answered firmly and calmly.
+
+“And you are to die, amor mio,” she murmured passionately. “You are to
+die when the promise of happiness seemed held out to us. And yet, were
+you to live at the price at which life is offered you, would your life
+be endurable? Tell me the truth, Lazzaro; swear it to me. For if life
+is the dearer thing to you, why then, you shall have your life.”
+
+“Need you ask me, Paola?” questioned I. “Does not your heart tell you
+how much easier is death than would be such life as I must lead
+hereafter, even if we could trust Ramiro, which we cannot. Be brave,
+Madonna, and help me to be brave and to bear thyself with a becoming
+fortitude. Now listen to what I have to tell you. Ramiro del’ Orca is a
+traitor who is plotting the death of his overlord. Proofs of it are by
+now in the hands of Cesare Borgia, and in some seven or eight hours the
+Duke himself should be here to put this monster to the question
+touching these matters. I will say a word in his ear ere I depart that
+will fill his mind with a very wholesome fear, and you will find that
+during the few hours left him he will have little leisure to think of
+you and afflict you with his odious wooing. Be strong, then, for a
+little while, for Cesare is coming to set you free.”
+
+She looked at me now with eyes that were wide open. Suddenly—
+
+“Could we not gain time?” she cried, and in her eagerness she rose and
+set her hands upon my shoulders. “Could I not pretend to acquiesce to
+his wishes, and so delay your end?”
+
+“I have thought of it,” I answered gloomily, “but the thought has
+brought me no hope. Ramiro is not to be trusted. He might tell you that
+he sets me free, but he dare not do so; he fears that I may have
+knowledge of his dealings with Vitelli, and assuredly he would break
+faith with us. Again the coming of the Duke might be delayed. Alas!” I
+ended in despair, “there is nothing to be done but to let things run
+their course.”
+
+There was even more in my mind than I expressed. My mistrust of Ramiro
+went further than I had explained, and concerning Madonna more closely
+than it did me.
+
+“Nay, Lazzaro mine,” she still protested, “I will attempt it. It is, at
+least, well worth the risk.
+
+“You forget,” said I, “that even when Cesare comes we cannot say how he
+will bear himself towards you. You were to have been betrothed to his
+cousin, Ignacio. It is a matter upon which he may insist.”
+
+She looked at me for a moment with anguish in her eyes that turned my
+misery into torture.
+
+“Lazzaro,” she moaned, “was ever woman so beset! I think that Heaven
+must have laid some curse upon me.”
+
+Her face was close to mine. I stooped forward and kissed her on her
+brow.
+
+“May God have you in His keeping, Madonna mia,” I murmured. “The sun is
+gone.”
+
+“Lazzaro!” It was the cry of a breaking heart. Her arms went round my
+neck, and in a passion of grief her kisses burned on my lips.
+
+Then the door of the anteroom opened—and I thanked God for the mercy of
+that interruption. I whispered a word to her, and in obedience she
+sprang back, and sank limp and broken on the chair once again.
+
+Ramiro entered, his men behind him, his face alit with eagerness. There
+and then I swamped his hopes.
+
+“The sun is gone, Magnificent,” said I. “You had best get me hanged.”
+
+His brow darkened, for there was a note of mockery and triumph in my
+voice.
+
+“You have fooled me, animal,” he cried. His jaw set, and his eyes
+continued to regard me with an evil glow. Then he laughed terribly,
+shrugged his shoulders, and spoke again. “After all, it shall avail you
+little.” He turned to the carnifex. “Federigo, do your work,” said he,
+whereupon the fellow stepped behind me, and the halberdiers ranged
+themselves one on either side of me again.
+
+“A word ere I go, Messer del’ Orca,” I demanded insolently.
+
+He looked at me sharply, wondering, maybe, at the fresh tone I took.
+
+“Say it and begone,” he sullenly permitted me.
+
+I paused a moment to choose fitting words for that portentous
+death-song of mine. At length—
+
+“You boasted to me a little while ago,” said I, smiling grimly, “that
+the man did not live who had thrice fooled you. That man does live, for
+that man am I.”
+
+“Bah!” he returned contemptuously, thinking, no doubt, that I referred
+to my interview with Madonna Paola. “You may take what pride you will
+from such a thought. You are upon the threshold of death.”
+
+“True, but the thought is one that affords me more comfort and joy than
+pride. As much comfort and joy as you shall take horror when I tell you
+in what manner I have fooled you.” I paused to heighten the sensation
+of my words.
+
+“To such good purpose have I used my wits that ere another sun shall
+rise and set you will have followed me along the black road that I am
+now treading—the road whose bourne is the gallows. Bethink you of the
+charred paper that last night you brushed from this table when you
+awoke to find a candle fallen on the treacherous letter Vitellozzo
+Vitelli sent you in the lining of a hat.”
+
+His jaw fell, his face flamed redder than ever for a second, then it
+went grey as ashes.
+
+“Of what do you prate, fool?” he questioned huskily, seeking to bluster
+it before the startled glances of his officers.
+
+“I speak,” said I, “of that charred paper. It was I who laid the candle
+across it; but it was a virgin sheet I burned. Vitelli’s letter I had
+first abstracted.”
+
+“You lie!” he almost screamed.
+
+“To prove that I do not, I will tell you what it contained. It held
+proof that bribed by the Tyrant of Citta di Castello you had undertaken
+to pose an arbalister to slay the Duke on the occasion of his coming
+visit to Cesena.”
+
+He glared at me a moment in furious amazement. Then he turned to his
+officers.
+
+“Do not heed him,” he bade them. “The dog lies to sow doubts in your
+minds ere he goes out to hang. It is a puerile revenge.”
+
+I laughed with amused confidence. There was one among them had heard
+Lampugnani’s words touching the messenger’s hat—words that had cost the
+fellow his life. But my concern was little with the effect my words
+might produce upon his followers.
+
+“By to-morrow you will know whether I have lied or not. Nay, before
+then shall you know it, for by midnight Cesare Borgia should be at
+Cesena. Vitellozzo Vitelli’s letter is in his hands by now.”
+
+At that Ramiro burst into a laugh. So convinced was he of the
+impossibility of my having got the letter to the Duke, even if what I
+had said of its abstraction were true, that he gathered assurance from
+what seemed to him so monstrous an exaggeration.
+
+“By your own words are you confounded,” said he. “Out of your own mouth
+have you proven your lies. Assuming that all you say were true, how
+could you, who since last night have been a prisoner, have got a
+messenger to bear anything from you to Cesare Borgia?”
+
+I looked at him with a contemptuous amusement that daunted him.
+
+“Where is Mariani?” I asked quietly. “Where is the father of the lad
+you so brutally and wantonly slew yesternight? Seek him throughout
+Cesena, and when you find him not, perhaps you will realise that one
+who had seen his own son suffer such an outrageous and cruel death at
+your brigand’s hands would be a willing and ready instrument in an act
+that should avenge him.”
+
+Vergine santa! What a consternation was his. He must have missed
+Mariani early in the day, for he took no measure, asked no questions
+that might confirm or refute the thing I announced. His face grew
+livid, and his knees loosened. He sank on to a chair and mopped the
+cold sweat from his brow with his great brown hand. No thought had he
+now for the eyes of his officers or their opinions. Fear, icy and
+horrid, such fear as in his time he had inspired in a thousand hearts
+was now possessed of his. Sweet indeed was the flavour of my vengeance.
+
+His officers instinctively drew away from him before the guilt so
+clearly written on his face, and their eyes were full of doubt as to
+how they should proceed and of some fear—for it must have been passing
+through their minds that they stood, themselves, in danger of being
+involved with him in the Duke’s punishment of his disloyalty.
+
+This was more than had ever entered into my calculations or found room
+in my hopes. By a brisk appeal to them, it almost seemed that I might
+work my salvation in this eleventh hour.
+
+Madonna watched the scene with eyes that suggested to me that the same
+hope had arisen in her own mind. My halberdiers and the carnifex alone
+stood stolidly indifferent. Ramiro was to them the man that hired them;
+with his intriguing they had no concern.
+
+For a moment or two there was a silence, and Ramiro sat staring before
+him, his white face glistening with the sweat of fear. A very coward at
+heart was this overbearing ogre of Cesena, who for years had been the
+terror and scourge of the countryside. At last he mastered his emotion
+and sprang to his feet.
+
+“You have had the laugh of me,” he snarled, fury now ringing in his
+voice. “But ere you die you may regret it that you mocked me.”
+
+He turned to the executioner.
+
+“Strip him,” he commanded fiercely. “He shall not hang as I intended—at
+least not before we have torn every bone of his body from its socket.
+To the cord with him!” And he pointed to the torture at the end of the
+hall.
+
+The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola
+leapt to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new
+excitement.
+
+“Is there none here,” he cried, appealing to Ramiro’s officers, “that
+will draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the Duca Valentino?
+There stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his loyalty to
+Cesare Borgia. The Duke is likely to demand a heavy price for the life
+of that faithful one to whose warning he owes his escape of
+assassination. Will none of you side now with the right that anon you
+may stand well with Cesare Borgia when he comes? Or, by idly allowing
+this traitor to have his way, will you participate in the punishment
+that must be his?”
+
+It was the very spur they needed. And scarce was that final question of
+hers flung at those knaves, when the answer came from one of them. It
+was that same sturdy Lupone.
+
+“I, for one, am for the Duke,” said he, and his sword leapt from its
+scabbard. “I draw my iron for Valentino. Let every loyal man do
+likewise and seize this traitor.” And with his sword he pointed at
+Ramiro.
+
+In an instant three others bared their weapons and ranged themselves
+beside him. The remaining two—of whom was Lucagnolo—folded their hands,
+manifesting by that impassivity that they were minded to take neither
+one side nor the other.
+
+The carnifex paused in his labours of undressing me, and the affair
+promised to grow interesting. But Ramiro did not stand his ground. Fury
+swelling his veins and crimsoning his huge face, he sprang to the door
+and bellowed to his guards. Six men trooped in almost at once, and
+reinforced by the halberdiers that had been guarding me, they made
+short work of the resistance of those four officers. In as little time
+as it takes me to record it, they were disarmed and ranged against the
+wall behind those guards and others that had come to their support—to
+be dealt with by Ramiro after he had dealt with me.
+
+His fear of Cesare’s coming was put by for the moment in his fierce
+lust to be avenged upon me who had betrayed him and the officers who
+had turned against him. Madonna sank back once more in her despair. The
+little spark that she had so bravely fanned to life had been quenched
+almost as soon as it had shown itself.
+
+“Now, Federigo,” said Ramiro grimly, “I am waiting.”
+
+The executioner resumed his work, and in an instant I stood stripped of
+my brigandine. As the fellow led me, unresisting, to the torture—for
+what resistance could have availed me now?—I tried to pray for strength
+to endure what was to come. I was done with life; for some portion of
+an hour I must go through the cruellest of agonies; and then, when it
+pleased God in His mercy that I should swoon, it would be to wake no
+more in this world. For they would bear out my unconscious body, and
+hang it by the neck from that black beam they called Ramiro del’ Orca’s
+flagstaff.
+
+I cast a last glance at Madonna. She had fallen on her knees, and with
+folded hands was praying intently, none heeding her.
+
+Federigo halted me beneath the pulleys, and his horrid hands grew busy
+adjusting the ropes to my wrists.
+
+And then, when the last ray of hope had faded, but before the
+executioner had completed his hideous task, a trumpet-blast, winding a
+challenge to the gates of the Castle of Cesena, suddenly rang out upon
+the evening air, and startled us all by its sudden and imperious note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a
+miracle had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight
+hours before it was possible for Mariani to have fetched him from
+Faenza. The same doubt may have crossed Ramiro’s mind, for he changed
+colour and sprang to the door to bawl an order forbidding his men to
+lower the bridge.
+
+But he was too late. Before he was answered by his followers, we heard
+the creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending
+in a thud that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat. Then
+came the loud continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers.
+Paralysed by fear Ramiro stood where he had halted, turning his eyes
+wildly in this direction and in that, but never moving one way or the
+other.
+
+It must be Cesare, I swore to myself. Who else could ride to Cessna
+with such numbers? But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he
+had seen Mariani, for he could not have ridden from Faenza. Madonna had
+risen too, and with a white face and straining eyes she was looking
+towards the door.
+
+And then our doubts were at last ended. There was a jangle of spurs and
+the fall of feet, and through the open door stepped a straight, martial
+figure in a doublet of deep crimson velvet, trimmed with costly lynx
+furs and slashed with satin in the sleeves and shoulder-puffs; jewels
+gleamed in the massive chain across his breast and at the marroquin
+girdle that carried his bronze-hilted sword; his hose was of red silk,
+and his great black boots were armed with golden spurs. But to crown
+all this very regal splendour was the beautiful, pale, cold face of
+Cesare Borgia, from out of which two black eyes flashed and played like
+sword-points on the company.
+
+Behind him surged a press of mercenaries, in steel, their weapons naked
+in their hands, so that no doubt was left of the character of this
+visit.
+
+Collecting himself, and bethinking him that after all, he had best
+dissemble a good countenance; Ramiro advanced respectfully to meet his
+overlord. But ere he had taken three steps the Duke stayed him.
+
+“Stand where you are, traitor,” was the imperious command. “I’ll trust
+you no nearer to my person.” And to emphasise his words he raised his
+gloved left hand, which had been resting on his sword-hilt, and in
+which I now observed that he held a paper.
+
+Whether Ramiro recognised it, or whether it was that the mere sight of
+a paper reminded him of the letter which on my testimony should be in
+Cesare’s keeping, or whether again the word “traitor” with which Cesare
+branded him drove the iron deeper into his soul, I cannot say; but to
+this I can testify: that he turned a livid green, and stood there
+before his formidable master in an attitude so stricken as to have
+aroused pity for any man less a villain than was he.
+
+And now Cesare’s eye, travelling round, alighted on Madonna Paola,
+standing back in the shadows to which she had instinctively withdrawn
+at his coming. At sight of her he recoiled a pace, deeming, no doubt,
+that it was an apparition stood before him. Then he looked again, and
+being a man whose mind was above puerile superstitions, he assured
+himself that by what miracle the thing was wrought, the figure before
+him was the living body of Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior. He swept
+the velvet cap with its jewelled plume from off his auburn locks, and
+bowed low before her.
+
+“In God’s name, Madonna, how are you come to life again, and how do I
+find you here of all places?”
+
+She made no ado about enlightening him.
+
+“That villain,” said she, and her finger pointed straight and firmly at
+Ramiro, “put a sleeping-potion in my wine on the last night he dined
+with us at Pesaro, and when all thought me dead he came to the Church
+of San Domenico with his men to carry off my sleeping body. He would
+have succeeded in his fell design but that Lazzaro Biancomonte there,
+whom you have stayed him in the act of torturing to death, was
+beforehand and saved me from his clutches for a time. This morning at
+Cattolica his searching sbirri discovered me and brought me hither,
+where I have been for the past three hours, and where, but for your
+Excellency’s timely arrival, I shudder to think of the indignities I
+might have suffered.”
+
+“I thank you, Madonna, for this clear succinctness,” answered Cesare
+coldly, as was his habit. They say he was a passionate man, and such
+indeed I do believe him to have been; but even in the hottest frenzy of
+rage, outwardly he was ever the same—icily cold and tranquil. And this,
+no doubt, was the thing that made him terrible.
+
+“Presently, Madonna,” he pursued, “I shall ask you to tell me how it
+chanced that, having saved you, Messer Biancomonte did not bear you to
+your brother’s house. But first I have business with my Governor of
+Cesena—a score which is rendered, if possible, heavier than it already
+stood by this thing that you have told me.”
+
+“My lord,” cried out Ramiro, finding his tongue at last, “Madonna has
+misinformed you. I know nothing of who administered the
+sleeping-potion. Certainly it was not I. I heard a rumour that her body
+had been stolen, and—”
+
+“Silence!” Cesare commanded sternly. “Did I question you, dog?”
+
+His beautiful, terrible eyes fastened upon Ramiro in a glance that
+defied the man to answer him. Cowed, like a hound at sight of the whip,
+Ramiro whimpered into silence.
+
+Cesare waved his hand in his direction, half-turning to the men-at-arms
+behind him.
+
+“Take and disarm him,” was his passionless command. And while they were
+doing his bidding, he turned to me and ordered the executioner beside
+me to unbind my hands and set me at liberty.
+
+“I owe you a heavy debt, Messer Biancomonte,” he said, without any
+warmth, even now that his voice was laden with a message of gratitude.
+“It shall be discharged. It is thanks to your daring and resource that
+the seneschal Mariani was able to bring me this letter, this piece of
+culminating proof against Ramiro del’ Orca. It is fortunate for you
+that Mariani was not put to it to ride to Faenza to find me, or else I
+am afraid we had not reached Cesena in time to save your life. I met
+him some leagues this side of Faenza, as I was on my way to
+Sinigaglia.”
+
+He turned abruptly to Ramiro.
+
+“In this letter which Vitelli wrote you,” said he, “it is suggested
+that there are others in the conspiracy. Tell me now, who are those
+others? See that you answer me with truth, for I shall compel proofs
+from you of such accusations as you may make.”
+
+Ramiro looked at him with eyes rendered dull by agony. He moistened his
+lips with his tongue, and turning his head towards his men—
+
+“Wine,” he gasped, from very force of habit. “A cup of wine!”
+
+“Let it be supplied him,” said Cesare coldly, and we all stood waiting
+while a servant filled him a cup. Ramiro gulped the wine avidly, never
+pausing until the goblet was empty.
+
+“Now,” said Cesare, who had been watching him, “will it please you to
+answer my question?”
+
+“My lord,” said Ramiro, revived and strengthened in spirit by the
+draught, “I must ask your Excellency to be a little plainer with me. To
+what conspiracy is it that you refer? I know of none. What is this
+letter which you say Vitelli wrote me? I take it you refer to the Lord
+of Citta di Castello. But I can recall no letters passing between us.
+My acquaintance with him is of the slightest.”
+
+Cesare looked at him a second.
+
+“Approach,” he curtly bade him, and Ramiro came forward, one of the
+Borgia halberdiers on either side of him, each holding him by an arm.
+The Duke thrust the letter under his eyes. “Have you never seen that
+before?”
+
+Ramiro looked at it a moment, and his attempt at dissembling
+bewilderment was a ludicrous thing to witness.
+
+“Never,” he said brazenly at last.
+
+Cesare folded the letter and slipped it into the breast of his doublet.
+From his girdle he took a second paper. He turned from Ramiro.
+
+“Don Miguel,” he called.
+
+From behind his men-at-arms a tall man, all dressed in black, stood
+forward. It was Cesare’s Spanish captain, one whose name was as well
+known and as well-dreaded in Italy as Cesare’s own. The Duke held out
+to him the paper that he had produced.
+
+“You heard the question that I asked Messer del’ Orca?” he inquired.
+
+“I heard, Illustrious,” answered Miguel, with a bow.
+
+“See that you obtain me an answer to it, as well as an account of the
+other matters that I have noted on this list—concerning the
+misappropriation of stores, the retention of taxes illicitly levied,
+and the wanton cruelty towards my good citizens of Cesena. Put him to
+the question without delay, and record me his replies. The implements
+are yonder.”
+
+And with the same calm indifference which characterised his every word
+and action Cesare pointed to the torture, and turned to Madonna Paola,
+as though he gave the matter of Ramiro del’ Orca and his misdeeds not
+another thought.
+
+“Mercy, my lord,” rang now the voice of Ramiro, laden with horrid fear.
+“I will speak.”
+
+“Then do so—to Don Miguel. He will question you in my name.” Again he
+turned to Madonna. “Madonna Paola, may I conduct you hence? Things may
+perhaps occur which it is not seemly your gentle eyes should witness.
+Messer Biancomonte, attend us.”
+
+Now, in spite of all that Ramiro had made me suffer, I should have been
+loath to have remained and witnessed his examination. That they would
+torture him was now inevitable. His chance of answering freely was
+gone. Even if he returned meek replies to Don Miguel’s questions, that
+gentleman would, no doubt, still submit him to the cord by way of
+assuring himself that such replies were true ones.
+
+Gladly, then, did I turn to follow the Duke and Madonna Paola into the
+adjoining chamber to which Cesare led the way, even as Don Miguel’s
+voice was raised to command his men to clear the hall, to the end that
+he might conduct his examination in private.
+
+The three of us stood in the anteroom. A servant had lighted the tapers
+and closed the doors, and the Duke turned to me.
+
+“First, Messer Biancomonte, to discharge my debt. You are, if I am not
+misinformed, the lord by right of birth of certain lands that bear your
+name, which suffered sequestration during the reign of the late
+Costanzo, Tyrant of Pesaro, whose son Giovanni upheld that
+confiscation. Am I right?”
+
+“Your Excellency is very well informed. The Lord of Pesaro did make me
+tardy restitution—so tardy, indeed, that the lands which he restored to
+me had already virtually passed from his possession.”
+
+Cesare smiled.
+
+“In recompense for the service you have rendered me this day,” said he,
+and my heart thrilled at the words and at the thought of the joy which
+I was about to bear to my old mother, “I reinvest you in your lands of
+Biancomonte for so long as you are content to recognise in me your
+overlord, and to be loyal, true and faithful to my rule.”
+
+I bowed, murmuring something of the joy I felt and the devotion I
+should entertain.
+
+“Then that is done with. You shall have the deed from my hand by
+morning. And now, Madonna, will you grant me some explanation of your
+conduct in leaving Pesaro in this man’s company, instead of repairing
+to your brother’s house, when you awakened from the effects of the
+potion Ramiro gave you, or must I seek the explanation from Messer
+Biancomonte?”
+
+Her eyes fell before the scrutiny of his, and when they were raised
+again it was to meet my glance, and if Cesare could not, for himself,
+read the message of those eyes, why then, his penetration was by no
+means what the world accounted it.
+
+“My lord,” I cried, “let me explain. I love Madonna Paola. It was love
+of her that led me to the church and kept me there that night. It was
+love of her and the overmastering passion of my grief at her so sudden
+death that led me, in a madness, to desire once more to look upon her
+face ere they delivered it to earth’s keeping. Thus was it that I came
+to discover that she lived; thus was it that I anticipated Ramiro del’
+Orca. He came upon us almost before I had raised her from the coffin,
+yet love lent me strength and craft to delude him. We hid awhile in the
+sacristy, and it was there, after Madonna had revived, that the pent-up
+passion of years burst the bond with which reason had bidden me
+restrain it.”
+
+“By the Host!” cried Cesare, his brows drawn down in a frown. “You are
+a bold man to tell me this. And you, Madonna,” he cried, turning
+suddenly to her, “what have you to say?”
+
+“Only, my lord, that I have suffered more I think in these past few
+days than has ever fallen to the life-time’s share of another woman. I
+think, my lord, that I have suffered enough to have earned me a little
+peace and a little happiness for the remainder of my days. All my life
+have men plagued me with marriages that were hateful to me, and this
+has culminated in the brutal act of Ramiro del’ Orca. Do you not think
+that I have endured enough?”
+
+He stared at her for a moment.
+
+“Then you love this fellow?” he gasped. “You, Madonna Paola Sforza di
+Santafior, one of the noblest ladies in all Italy, confess to love this
+lordling of a few barren acres?”
+
+“I loved him, Illustrious, when he was less, much less, than that. I
+loved him when he was little better than the Fool of the Court of
+Pesaro, and not even the shame of the motley that disgraced him could
+stay the impulse of my affections.”
+
+He laughed curiously.
+
+“By my faith,” said he, “I have gone through life complaining of the
+want of frankness in the men and women I have met. But you two seem to
+deal in it liberally enough to satisfy the most ardent seeker after
+truth. I would that Pontius Pilate could have known you.” Then he grew
+sterner. “But what account of this evening’s adventure am I to bear to
+my cousin Ignacio?”
+
+She hung her head in silence, whilst my own spirit trembled. Then
+suddenly I spoke.
+
+“My lord,” said I, “if you take her back to Pesaro, you may keep the
+deed of Biancomonte. For unless Madonna Paola goes thither with me,
+your gift is a barren one, your reward of no account or value to me.”
+
+“I would not have it so,” said he, his head on one side and his fingers
+toying with his auburn beard. “You saved my life, and you must be
+rewarded fittingly.”
+
+“Then, Illustrious, in payment for my preservation of your life, do you
+render happy mine, and we shall thus be quits.”
+
+“My lord,” cried Paola, putting forth her hands in supplication, “if
+you have ever loved, befriend us now.”
+
+A shadow darkened his face for an instant, then it was gone, and his
+expression was as inscrutable as ever. Yet he took her hands in his and
+looked down into her eyes.
+
+“They say that I am hard, bloodthirsty and unfeeling,” he said in tones
+that were almost of complaint. “But I am not proof against so much
+appeal. Ignacio must find him a bride in Spain; and if he is wise and
+would taste the sweets of life, he will see to it that he finds him a
+willing one.”
+
+“As for you two, Cesare Borgia shalt stand your friend. He owes you no
+less. I will be godfather to your nuptials. Thus shall the blame and
+consequences rest on me. Paola Sforza di Santafior is dead, men think.
+We will leave them thinking it. Filippo must know the truth. But you
+can trust me to make your brother take a reasonable view of what has
+come to pass. After all, there may be a disparity in your ranks. But it
+is purely adventitious, for noble though you may be, Madonna Paola, you
+are wedding one who seems no less noble at heart, whatever the parts he
+may have played in life.” He smiled inscrutably, as he added: “I have
+in mind that you once sought service with me Messer Biancomonte, and if
+a martial life allures you still, I’ll make you lord of something
+better far than Biancomonte.”
+
+I thanked him, and Madonna joined me in that expression of gratitude—an
+expression that fell very short of all that was in our hearts. But
+touching that offer of his that I should follow his fortunes, I begged
+him not to insist.
+
+“The possession of Biancomonte has from my cradle been the goal of all
+my hopes. It is patrimony enough for me, and there, with Madonna Paola,
+I’ll take a long farewell of ambition, which is but the seed of
+discontent.”
+
+“Why, as you will,” he sighed. And then, before more could be said,
+there came from the adjoining room a piercing scream.
+
+Cesare raised his head, and his lips parted in the faintest vestige of
+a smile.
+
+“They are exacting the truth from the Governor of Cesena,” said he. “I
+think, Madonna, that we had better move a little farther off. Ramiro’s
+voice makes indifferent music for a lady’s ear.”
+
+She was white as death at the horrid noise and all the things of which
+it may have reminded her, and so we passed from the antechamber and
+sought the more distant places of the castle.
+
+Here let me pause. We were married on the morrow which was Christmas
+eve, and in the grey dawn of the Christmas morning we set out for
+Biancomonte with the escort which Cesare Borgia placed at our disposal.
+
+As we rode out from the Citadel of Cesena, we saw the last of Ramiro
+del’ Orca. Beyond the gates, in the centre of the public square, a
+block stood planted in the snow. On the side nearer the castle there
+was a dark mass over which a rich mantle had been thrown; it was of
+purple colour, and in the uncertain light it was not easy to tell where
+the cloak ended, and the stain that embrued the snow began. On the
+other side of the block a decapitated head stood mounted on an upright
+pike, and the sightless eyes of Ramiro del’ Orca looked from his
+grinning face upon the town of Cesena, which he had so wantonly
+misruled.
+
+Madonna shuddered and turned her head aside as we rode past that dread
+emblem of the Borgia justice.
+
+To efface from her mind the memory of such a thing on such a day, I
+talked to her, as we cantered out into the country, of the life to
+come, of the mother that waited to welcome us, and of the glad tidings
+with which we were to rejoice her on that Christmas day.
+
+There is no moral to my story. I may not end with one of those graceful
+admonitions beloved of Messer Boccacci to whom in my jester’s days I
+owed so much. Not mine is it to say with him “Wherefore, gentle
+ladies”—or “noble sirs—beware of this, avoid that other thing.”
+
+Mine is a plain tale, written in the belief that some account of those
+old happenings that befell me may offer you some measure of
+entertainment, and written, too, in the support of certain truths which
+my contemporaries have been shamefully inclined and simoniacally
+induced to suppress. Many chroniclers set forth how the Lord Vitellozzo
+Vitelli and his associates were barbarously strangled by Cesare’s
+orders at Sinigaglia, and wilfully—for I cannot believe that it results
+from ignorance—are they silent touching the reason, leaving you to
+imagine that it was done in obedience to a ruthlessness of character
+beyond parallel, so that you may come to consider Cesare Borgia as
+black as they were paid to paint him.
+
+To confute them do I set down these facts of which my knowledge cannot
+be called in question, and also that you may know the true story of
+Paola di Santafior—and more particularly that part of it which lies
+beyond the death she did not die.
+
+The sun of that Christmas day was setting as we drew near to
+Biancomonte and the humble dwelling of my old mother. We fell into talk
+of her once more. Suddenly Paola turned in her saddle to confront me.
+
+“Tell me, Lord of Biancomonte, will she love me a little, think you?”
+she asked, to plague me.
+
+“Who would not love you, Lady of Biancomonte?” counter-questioned I.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
+be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
+United States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+
+START: FULL LICENSE
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
+person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
+1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
+Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
+on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+
+  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
+  United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
+  you are located before using this eBook.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
+other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
+Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+provided that:
+
+* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
+  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+  Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
+  works.
+
+* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+  receipt of the work.
+
+* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
+www.gutenberg.org
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without
+widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
+state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: www.gutenberg.org
+
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
diff --git a/3408-0.zip b/3408-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1631f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3408-0.zip
diff --git a/3408-h.zip b/3408-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..284e560
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3408-h.zip
diff --git a/3408-h/3408-h.htm b/3408-h/3408-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a764553
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3408-h/3408-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,12540 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini</title>
+
+<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+body { margin-left: 20%;
+       margin-right: 20%;
+       text-align: justify; }
+
+h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight:
+normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;}
+
+h1 {font-size: 300%;
+    margin-top: 0.6em;
+    margin-bottom: 0.6em;
+    letter-spacing: 0.12em;
+    word-spacing: 0.2em;
+    text-indent: 0em;}
+h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
+h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;}
+h4 {font-size: 120%;}
+h5 {font-size: 110%;}
+
+.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */
+
+div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;}
+
+hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;}
+
+p {text-indent: 1em;
+   margin-top: 0.25em;
+   margin-bottom: 0.25em; }
+
+a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:hover {color:red}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Shame of Motley</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Rafael Sabatini</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 6, 2001 [eBook #3408]<br />
+[Most recently updated: December 22, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: John Stuart Middleton and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***</div>
+
+<h1>THE SHAME OF MOTLEY</h1>
+
+<h3>Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions<br />
+in the Life of Lazzaro Biancomonte, of Biancomonte,<br />
+sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro.</h3>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">By Rafael Sabatini</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2H_PART1"><b>PART I.FLOWER OF THE QUINCE</b></a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0001">CHAPTER I. THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0002">CHAPTER II. THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0003">CHAPTER III. MADONNA PAOLA</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0004">CHAPTER IV. THE COZENING OF RAMIRO</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0005">CHAPTER V. MADONNA&rsquo;S INGRATITUDE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0006">CHAPTER VI. FOOL&rsquo;S LUCK</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0007">CHAPTER VII. THE SUMMONS FROM ROME</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0008">CHAPTER VIII. &ldquo;MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN&rdquo;</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0009">CHAPTER IX. THE FOOL-AT-ARMS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0010">CHAPTER X. THE FALL OF PESARO</a><br /><br /></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2H_PART2"><b>PART II.THE OGRE OF CESENA</b></a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0011">CHAPTER XI. MADONNA&rsquo;S SUMMONS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0012">CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0013">CHAPTER XIII. POISON</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0014">CHAPTER XIV. REQUIESCAT!</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0015">CHAPTER XV. AN ILL ENCOUNTER</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0016">CHAPTER XVI. IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0017">CHAPTER XVII. THE SENESCHAL</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0018">CHAPTER XVIII. THE LETTER</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0019">CHAPTER XIX. DOOMED</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0020">CHAPTER XX. THE SUNSET</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#link2HCH0021">CHAPTER XXI. AVE CAESAR!</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2H_PART1" id="link2H_PART1"></a>
+PART I.<br />
+FLOWER OF THE QUINCE</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"></a>
+CHAPTER I.<br />
+THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA</h2>
+
+<p>
+For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by
+suspense. It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with after I
+had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from Pesaro, and I
+wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal
+of Valencia might see fit to offer me the honourable employment with which
+Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that he would reward the service I had
+rendered the House of Borgia by my journey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three days were sped, yet nought had happened to signify that things would
+shape the course by me so ardently desired; that the means would be afforded me
+of mending my miserable ways, and repairing the wreck my life had suffered on
+the shoals of Fate. True, I had been housed and fed, and the comforts of
+indolence had been mine; but, for the rest, I was still clothed in the livery
+of folly which I had worn on my arrival, and, wherever I might roam, there
+followed ever at my heels a crowd of underlings, seeking to have their tedium
+lightened by jests and capers, and voting me&mdash;when their hopes proved
+barren&mdash;the sorriest Fool that had ever worn the motley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On that third day I speak of, my patience tried to its last strand, I had
+beaten a lacquey with my hands, and fled from the cursed gibes his fellows
+aimed at me, out into the misty gardens and the chill January air, whose sting
+I could, perhaps, the better disregard by virtue of the heat of indignation
+that consumed me. Was it ever to be so with me? Could nothing lift the curse of
+folly from me, that I must ever be a Fool, and worse, the sport of other fools?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was there on one of the terraces crowning the splendid heights above
+immortal Rome that Messer Gianluca found me. He greeted me courteously; I
+answered with a snarl, deeming him come to pursue the plaguing from which I had
+fled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;His Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia is asking for
+you, Messer Boccadoro,&rdquo; he announced. And so despairing had been my mood
+of ever hearing such a summons that, for a moment, I accounted it some fresh
+jest of theirs. But the gravity of his fat countenance reassured me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let us go, then,&rdquo; I answered with alacrity, and so confident was I
+that the interview to which he bade me was the first step along the road to
+better fortune, that I permitted myself a momentary return to the Fool&rsquo;s
+estate from which I thought myself on the point of being for ever freed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I shall use the interview to induce his Excellency to submit a tenth
+beatitude to the approval of our Holy Father: Blessed are the bearers of good
+tidings. Come on, Messer the seneschal.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I led the way, in my impatience forgetful of his great paunch and little legs,
+so that he was sorely tried to keep pace with me. Yet who would not have been
+in haste, urged by such a spur as had I? Here, then, was the end of my shameful
+travesty. To-morrow a soldier&rsquo;s harness should replace the motley of a
+jester; the name by which I should be known again to men would be that of
+Lazzaro Biancomonte, and no longer Boccadoro&mdash;the Fool of the golden
+mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus much had Madonna Lucrezia&rsquo;s promises led me to expect, and it was
+with a soul full of joyous expectation that I entered the great man&rsquo;s
+closet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He received me in a manner calculated to set me at my ease, and yet there was
+about him a something that overawed me. Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia,
+was then in his twenty-third year, for all that there hung about him the
+semblance of a greater age, just as his cardinalitial robes lent him the
+appearance of a height far above the middle stature that was his own. His face
+was pale and framed in a silky auburn beard; his nose was aquiline and strong;
+his eyes the keenest that I have ever seen; his forehead lofty and intelligent.
+He seemed pervaded by an air of feverish restlessness, something surpassing the
+vivida vis animi, something that marked him to discerning eyes for a man of
+incessant action of body and of mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My sister tells me,&rdquo; he said in greeting, &ldquo;that you are
+willing to take service under me, Messer Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Such was the hope that guided me to Rome, Most Excellent,&rdquo; I
+answered him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Surprise flashed into his eyes, and was gone as quickly as it had come. His
+thin lips parted in a smile, whose meaning was inscrutable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As some reward for the safe delivery of the letter you brought me from
+her?&rdquo; he questioned mildly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Precisely, Illustrious,&rdquo; I answered in all frankness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His open hand smote the table of wood-mosaics at which he sat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Praised be Heaven!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;You seem to promise that I
+shall have in you a follower who deals in truth.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Could your Excellency, to whom my real name is known, expect ought else
+of one who bears it&mdash;however unworthily?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was amusement in his glance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can you still swagger it, after having worn that livery for three
+years?&rdquo; he asked, and his lean forefinger pointed at my hideous motley of
+red and black and yellow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I flushed and hung my head, and&mdash;as if to mock that very expression of my
+shame&mdash;the bells on my cap gave forth a silvery tinkle at the movement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Excellency, spare me,&rdquo; I murmured. &ldquo;Did you know all my
+miserable story you would be merciful. Did you know with what joy I turned my
+back on the Court of Pesaro&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; he broke in mockingly, &ldquo;when Giovanni Sforza
+threatened to have you hanged for the overboldness of your tongue. Not until
+then did it occur to you to turn from the shameful life in which the best years
+of your manhood were being wasted. There! Just now I commended your
+truthfulness; but the truth that dwells in you is no more, it seems, than the
+truth we may look for in the mouth of Folly. At heart, I fear, you are a
+hypocrite, Messer Biancomonte; the worst form of hypocrite&mdash;a hypocrite to
+your own self.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did your Excellency know all!&rdquo; I cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know enough,&rdquo; he answered, with stern sorrow; &ldquo;enough to
+make me marvel that the son of Ettore Biancomonte of Biancomonte should play
+the Fool to Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Oh you will tell me that you went
+there for revenge, to seek to right the wrong his father did your
+father.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was, it was!&rdquo; I cried, with heated vehemence. &ldquo;Be flames
+everlasting the dwelling of my soul if any other motive drove me to this
+shameful trade.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a pause. His beautiful eyes flamed with a sudden light as they rested
+on me. Then the lids drooped demurely, and he drew a deep breath. But when he
+spoke there was scorn in his voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And, no doubt, it was that same motive kept you there, at peace for
+three whole years, in slothful ease, the motleyed Fool, jesting and capering
+for his enemy&rsquo;s delectation&mdash;you, a man with the knightly memory of
+your foully-wronged parent to cry hourly shame upon you. No doubt you lacked
+the opportunity to bring the tyrant to account. Or was it that you were content
+to let him make a mock of you so long as he housed and fed you and clothed you
+in your garish livery of shame?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Spare me, Excellency,&rdquo; I cried again. &ldquo;Of your charity let
+my past be done with. When he drove me forth with threats of hanging, from
+which your gracious sister saved me, I turned my steps to Rome at her bidding
+to&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To find honourable employment at my hands,&rdquo; he interrupted
+quietly. Then suddenly rising, and speaking in a voice of
+thunder&mdash;&ldquo;And what, then, of your revenge?&rdquo; he cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It has been frustrated,&rdquo; I answered lamely. &ldquo;Sufficient do I
+account the ruin that already I have wrought in my life by the pursuit of that
+phantom. I was trained to arms, my lord. Let me discard for good these tawdry
+rags, and strap a soldier&rsquo;s harness to my back.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How came you to journey hither thus?&rdquo; he asked, suddenly turning
+the subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was Madonna Lucrezia&rsquo;s wish. She held that my errand would be
+safer so, for a Fool may travel unmolested.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He nodded that he understood, and paced the chamber with bowed head. For a
+spell there was silence, broken only by the soft fall of his slippered feet and
+the swish of his silken purple. At last he paused before me and looked up into
+my face&mdash;for I was a good head taller than he was. His fingers combed his
+auburn beard, and his beautiful eyes were full on mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That was a wise precaution of my sister&rsquo;s,&rdquo; he approved.
+&ldquo;I will take a lesson from her in the matter. I have employment for you,
+Messer Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I bowed my head in token of my gratitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You shall find me diligent and faithful, my lord,&rdquo; I promised him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; he sniffed, &ldquo;else should I not employ
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned from me, and stepped back to his table. He took up a package,
+fingered it a moment, then dropped it again, and shot me one of his quiet
+glances.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is my answer to Madonna Lucrezia&rsquo;s letter,&rdquo; he said
+slowly, his voice as smooth as silk, &ldquo;and I desire that you shall carry
+it to Pesaro for me, and deliver it safely and secretly into her hands.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could do no more than stare at him. It seemed as if my mind were stricken
+numb.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well?&rdquo; he asked at last; and in his voice there was now a
+suggestion of steel beneath the silk. &ldquo;Do you hesitate?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And if I do,&rdquo; I answered, suddenly finding my voice, &ldquo;I do
+no more than might a bolder man. How can I, who am banned by punishment of
+death, contrive to penetrate again into the Court of Pesaro and reach the Lady
+Lucrezia?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is a matter that I shall leave to the shrewd wit which all Italy
+says is the heritage of Boccadoro, the Prince of Fools. Does the task daunt
+you?&rdquo; His glance and voice were alike harsh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In very truth it did, and I told him so, but in the terms which the shrewd wit
+he said was mine dictated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hesitate, my lord, indeed; but more because I fear the frustration of
+your own ends&mdash;whatever they may be&mdash;than because I dread to earn a
+broken neck by again adventuring into Pesaro. Would not some other
+messenger&mdash;unknown at the Court of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;be in better case
+to acquit himself of such a task?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, if I had one I could trust,&rdquo; he answered frankly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will be open with you, Biancomonte. There are such grave matters at
+issue, there are such secrets confided to that paper, that I would not for a
+kingdom, not for our Holy Father&rsquo;s triple crown, that they should fall
+into alien hands.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He approached me again, and his slender hand, upon which the sacred amethyst
+was glowing, fell lightly on my shoulder. He lowered his voice &ldquo;You are
+the man, the one man in Italy, whose interests are bound up with mine in this;
+therefore are you the one man to whom I can entrust that package.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I?&rdquo; I gasped in amazement&mdash;as well I might, for what
+interests had Boccadoro, the Fool, in common with Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of
+Valencia?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You,&rdquo; he answered vehemently, &ldquo;you, Lazzaro Biancomonte of
+Biancomonte, whose father Costanzo of Pesaro stripped of his domains. The
+matters in those papers mean the ruin of the Lord of Pesaro. We are all but
+ripe to strike at him from Rome and when we strike he shall be so disfigured by
+the blow that all Italy shall hold its sides to laugh at the sorry figure he
+will cut. I would not say so much to any other living man but you and if I tell
+it you it is because I need your aid.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The lion and mouse,&rdquo; I murmured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why yes, if you will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And this man is the husband of your sister!&rdquo; I exclaimed, almost
+involuntarily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does that imply a doubt of what I have said?&rdquo; he flashed, his head
+thrown back, his brows drawn suddenly together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; I hastened to assure him. He smiled softly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Maddonna Lucrezia knows all&mdash;or nearly all. Of what else she may
+need to learn, that letter will inform her. It is the last thread, the last
+knot needed, before we can complete the net in which we are to hold that
+tyrant? Now, will you bear the letter?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Would I bear it? Dear God! To achieve the end in view I would have spent my
+remaining days in motley, making sport for grooms and kitchen wenches. Some
+such answer did I make him, and he smiled his satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You shall journey as you are,&rdquo; he bade me. &ldquo;I am guided by
+my sister, assured that the coat of a Fool is stouter protection than the best
+hauberk ever tempered. When you have done your errand come you back to me, and
+you shall have employment better suited to one who bears the name of
+Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You may depend upon me in this, my lord,&rdquo; I promised gravely.
+&ldquo;I shall not fail you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is well&rdquo; said he; and those wondrous eyes of his rested again
+upon my face. &ldquo;How soon can you set out?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At once, my lord. Does not the by-word say that a fool makes little
+preparation for a journey?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He nodded, and moved to a coffer, a beautiful piece of Venetian work in
+ultramarine and gold. From this he took a heavy bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you will find the best of all travelling
+companions.&rdquo; I thanked him, and set the bag on the crook of my left arm,
+and by its weight I knew how true he was to the notorious splendour of his
+race. &ldquo;And this,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;is a talisman that may serve to
+help you out of any evil plight, and open many a door that you may find
+locked.&rdquo; And he handed me a signet ring on which was graven the steer
+that is the emblem of the House of Borgia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He raised aloft the hand on which was glistening the sacred amethyst&mdash;two
+fingers crooked and two erect. Wondering what this should mean, I stared
+inquiry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Kneel,&rdquo; he bade me. And realising what he would be about, I sank
+on to my knees whilst he murmured the Apostolic benediction over my bowed head.
+The rushes of the floor were the only witnesses of the smile that crept to my
+lips at this sudden assumption of his churchly office by that most worldly
+prince.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"></a>
+CHAPTER II.<br />
+THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR</h2>
+
+<p>
+Such preparations as I had to make were soon complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Although it was agreed that I was to travel in the motley, yet, in my
+lately-born shame of that apparel, I decided that I would conceal it as best
+might be, revealing it only should the need arise. Moreover, it was incumbent
+that I should afford myself more protection against the inclement January night
+than that of my foliated cape, my crested cap and silken hose. So, a black
+cloak, heavy and ample, a broad-brimmed hat, and a pair of riding boots of
+untanned leather were my further equipment. In the lining of one of those boots
+I concealed the Lord Cesare&rsquo;s package; his money&mdash;some twenty
+ducats&mdash;I carried in a belt about my waist, and his ring I set boldly on
+my finger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Few moments did it need me to make ready, yet fewer, it seems, would the Borgia
+impatience have had me employ; for scarce was I booted when someone knocked at
+my door. I opened, and there entered a very mountain of a man, whose corselet
+flashed back the yellow light of my tapers, as might have done a mirror, and
+whose harsh voice barked out to ask if I was ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had had some former acquaintance with this fellow, having first met him
+during the previous year, on the occasion of the Court of Pesaro&rsquo;s
+sojourn at Rome. His name was Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, and throughout the Papal
+army it stood synonymous for masterfulness and grim brutality. He was, as I
+have said, an enormous man, of prodigious bodily strength, heavy, yet of good
+proportions. Of his face one gathered the impression of a blazing furnace. His
+cheeks and nose were of a vivid red, and still more fiery was the hair, now
+hidden &rsquo;neath his morion, and the beard that tapered to a dagger&rsquo;s
+point. His very eyes kept tune with the red harmony of his ferocious
+countenance, for the whites were ever bloodshot as a
+drunkard&rsquo;s&mdash;which, with no want of truth, men said he was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come,&rdquo; grunted that fiery, self-sufficient vassal, &ldquo;be
+stirring, sir Fool. I have orders to see you to the gates. There is a horse
+ready saddled for you. It is the Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s parting gift. Resolve me
+now, which will be the greater ass&mdash;the one that rides, or the one that is
+ridden?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;O monstrous riddle!&rdquo; I exclaimed, as I took up my cloak and hat.
+&ldquo;Who am I that I should solve it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It baffles you, sir Fool?&rdquo; quoth he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In very truth it does.&rdquo; I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells
+set up a jangle. &ldquo;For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse.
+But,&rdquo; I pursued, in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of
+the jester&rsquo;s wit, &ldquo;were you to make a trio of us, including Messer
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, Captain in the army of his Holiness, no doubt would
+then afflict me. I should never hesitate which of the three to pronounce the
+ass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What shall that mean?&rdquo; he asked, with darkening brows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That its meaning proves obscure to you confirms the verdict I was
+hinting at,&rdquo; I taunted him. &ldquo;For asses are notoriously of dull
+perceptions.&rdquo; Then stepping forward briskly: &ldquo;Come, sir,&rdquo; I
+sharply urged him, &ldquo;whilst we engage upon this pretty play of wit, his
+Excellency&rsquo;s business waits, which is an ill thing. Where is this horse
+you spoke of?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He showed me his strong, white teeth in a very evil smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Were it not for that same business&mdash;&rdquo; he began.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You would do fine things, I am assured,&rdquo; I interrupted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Would I not?&rdquo; he snarled. &ldquo;By the Host! I should be wringing
+your pert neck, or laying bare your bones with a thong of bullock-hide, you ill
+conditioned Fool!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked at him with pleasant, smiling eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You confirm the opinion that is popularly held of you,&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What may that be?&rdquo; quoth he, his eyes very evil. &ldquo;In Rome,
+I&rsquo;m told, they call you hangman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He growled in his throat like an angered cur, and his hands were jerked to the
+level of his breast, the fingers bending talon-wise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he muttered fiercely, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll teach one
+fool, at least&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let us cease these pleasantries, I entreat you,&rdquo; I laughed.
+&ldquo;Saints defend me! If your mood incline to raillery you&rsquo;ll find
+your match in some lad of the stables. As for me, I have not the time, had I
+the will, to engage you further. Let me remind you that I would be gone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The reminder was well-timed. He bethought him of the journey I must go, on
+which he was charged to see me safely started.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on, then,&rdquo; he growled, in a white heat of passion that was
+only curbed by the consideration of that slender, pale young cardinal, his
+master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still, some of his rage he vented in roughly taking me by the collar of my
+doublet, and dragging the almost headlong from the room, and so a-down a flight
+of steps out into the courtyard. Meet treatment for a Fool&mdash;a treatment to
+which time might have inured me; for had I not for three years already been
+exposed to rough usage of this kind at the hands of every man above the rank of
+groom? And had I once rebelled in act as I did in soul, and used the strength
+wherewith God endowed me to punish my ill-users, a whip would have reminded me
+into what sorry slavery had I sold myself when I put on the motley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the
+courtyard when we descended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of hoofs,
+muffled by the snow. Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare upon the
+all-encompassing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward the horse that was
+destined to bear me. I donned my broad-brimmed hat, and wrapped my cloak about
+me. Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears, from those minions with whom I had
+herded during my three days at the Vatican. Then Messer del&rsquo; Orca thrust
+me forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mount, Fool, and be off,&rdquo; he rasped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I mounted, and turned to him. He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog wore human
+shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Brother, farewell,&rdquo; I simpered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No brother of yours, Fool,&rdquo; snarled he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;True&mdash;my cousin only. The fool of art is no brother to the fool of
+nature.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A whip!&rdquo; he roared to his grooms. &ldquo;Fetch me a whip.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and over the
+narrow drawbridge. Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my shoulder. They
+stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men, looking black against
+the whiteness of the ground. Behind them rose the brown walls of the rocca
+illumined by the flare of torches, from which the smell of rosin reached my
+nostrils as I paused. I waved my hat to them in token of farewell, and digging
+my spurless heels into the flanks of my horse, I ambled down through the biting
+wind and drifting snow, into the town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell from a
+window, and there stole through the chink of a door to glow upon the snow in
+earnest of the snug warmth within. Silence reigned, broken only by the moan of
+the wind under the eaves, for although it was no more than approaching the
+second hour of night, yet who but the wight whom necessity compelled would be
+abroad in such weather?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All night I rode despite that weather&rsquo;s foulness&mdash;a foulness that
+might have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less attuned to
+his own supreme desires.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to Magliano, and
+there I broke my fast and took some rest. My horse had suffered by the journey
+more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh one at Magliano, but there was
+none to be had&mdash;so they told me&mdash;this side of Narni, wherefore I was
+forced to set out once more upon that poor jaded beast that had carried me all
+night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the journey
+accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster. Here I paused to dine,
+but here, again, they told me that no horses might be had. And so, leading by
+the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride, lest I should kill it outright, I
+entered the territory of Urbino on foot, and trudged wearily amain through the
+snow that was some inches deep by now. In this miserable fashion I covered the
+seven leagues, or so, to Spoleto, where I arrived exhausted as night was
+falling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay. I found a company of
+gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley&mdash;when I had
+thrown off my sodden cloak and hat&mdash;pressed me, willy-nilly, into amusing
+them. And so I spent the night at my Fool&rsquo;s trade, giving them drolleries
+from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti&mdash;the horn-books of all jesters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending to
+travel with a better speed. The snow was thick and soft at first, but as I
+approached the hills it grew more crisp. Overhead the sky was of an unbroken
+blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was warmth in the sunshine. All
+day I rode hard, and never rested until towards nightfall I found myself on the
+spurs of the Apennines in the neighborhood of Gualdo, the better half of my
+journey well-accomplished. The weather had changed again at sunset. It was
+snowing anew, and the north wind was howling like a choir of the damned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it might
+suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I drew rein before
+that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse. Despite the early hour
+the door was already barred, for the bedding of travellers formed no part of
+the traffic of so lowly a house as this nameless, wayside wine-shop. Theirs was
+a trade that ended with the daylight. Nevertheless I was assured they could be
+made to find me a rag of straw to lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the light of
+the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not over-clean. Behind
+him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman as you might look to find
+the mate of such a man: broad and tall of frame and most scurvily cross-grained
+of face. It may well be that had he bidden me welcome, she had driven me back
+into the night; but since he made some demur when I asked for lodging, and
+protested that in his house was but accommodation too rude to offer my
+magnificence, the woman thrust him aside, and loudly bade me enter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests should
+suffer were my trade disclosed. I bade the man see to my horse, and then
+escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room above, which, in
+obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my convenience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner, and in the
+centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy chair beside it.
+The floor was black with age and filth, and broken everywhere by rat-holes. She
+set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the table, and with some apology for the
+rudeness of the chamber she asked in tones almost defiant if my excellency
+would be content.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perforce,&rdquo; said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key
+to the respect of such a creature; &ldquo;a king might thank Heaven for a
+kennel on such a night as this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered had I
+supped. I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have been poisoned by
+such foulnesses as they might have set before me. So I answered her that all I
+needed was a cup of wine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the door. It
+had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three legged stool against
+it that it might give me warning of intrusion. Next I threw off my cloak and
+hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I flung myself upon my miserable couch.
+But jaded though I might be, it was not yet my intent to sleep. Now that the
+half of my journey was accomplished, I found myself beset by doubts which had
+not before assailed me, touching the manner in which this mission of mine was
+to be accomplished. It would prove no easy thing for me to penetrate unnoticed
+into the town of Pesaro, much less into the Sforza Court, where for three years
+I had pursued my Fool&rsquo;s trade. There was scarce a man, a woman or a child
+in the entire domains of Giovanni Sforza to whom Boccadoro, the Fool, was not
+known; and many a villano, who had never noticed the features of the Lord of
+Pesaro, could have told you the very colour of his jester&rsquo;s eyes; which,
+after all, is no strange thing, for&mdash;sad reflection!&mdash;in a world in
+which Wisdom may be overlooked, Folly goes never disregarded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would gain the
+presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in others. And then my
+thoughts wandered into speculation. What might be this momentous letter that I
+carried? What was this secret traffic &rsquo;twixt Cesare Borgia and his
+sister? Since Cesare had said that it meant the ruin of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;a
+ruin so utter, so complete and humiliating that it must provoke the scornful
+mirth of all Italy&mdash;the knowledge of it must soon be mine. Meanwhile I was
+an agent of that ruin. Dear God! how that reflection warmed me! What joy I took
+in the thought that, though he knew it not, nor could come to know it, I
+Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he had abused and whose spirit he had
+broken&mdash;was become a tool to expedite the work of abasement and
+destruction that was ripening for him. And realizing all this, that letter I
+vowed to Heaven I would carry, suffering no obstacle to daunt me, suffering
+nothing to turn me from my path.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out impatiently:
+&ldquo;Yes, yes; but how?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured myself
+a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive rat that had
+thrust its head above the boards. Then I quenched the light, and flung myself
+once more upon my bed, in the hope that darkness would prove a stimulant to
+thought and bring me to the solution I was seeking. It brought me sleep
+instead. Unconsciously I sank to it, my riddle all unsolved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing the
+pattern of my lattice on the ceiling. The stormy night had been succeeded by a
+calm and sunlit day. And by its light the place wore a more loathsome look than
+it had done last night, so that at the very sight of it I leapt from my couch
+and grew eager to be gone. I set a ducat on the table, and going to the door I
+called my hostess. The stairs creaked presently &rsquo;neath her portentous
+weight, and, panting slightly, she stood before me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed in the
+cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then in
+rage&mdash;deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the garb of
+folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some scurvy tumbling
+or some witless jests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ossa di Cristo!&rdquo; was her cry. &ldquo;Have I housed a Fool?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has
+been a singularly choice resort. Woman&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Would you &lsquo;woman&rsquo; me?&rdquo; she stormed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, no,&rdquo; said I politely. &ldquo;I was at fault. I&rsquo;ll keep
+the title for your husband&mdash;God help him!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She smiled grimly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And are these,&rdquo; she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, &ldquo;the
+jests with which you pay the score?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jests?&rdquo; quoth I. &ldquo;Score? Pish! More eyes, less tongue would
+more befit a hostess who has never housed a fool.&rdquo; And with a splendid
+gesture I pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table. At sight of the gold her
+eyes grew big with greed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My master&mdash;&rdquo; she began, and coming forward took the piece in
+her hand, to assure herself that she was not the dupe of magic. &ldquo;A fool
+with gold!&rdquo; she marvelled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is a shame to his calling,&rdquo; I acknowledged. Then&mdash;&ldquo;Get
+me a needle and a length of thread,&rdquo; said I. She scuttled off to do my
+bidding, like nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty.
+She was back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a rent
+about me she might make bold to stitch. What a key to courtesy is gold, my
+masters! I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which it stood
+in need. Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my way below,
+calling for my horse as I descended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed. That last night&rsquo;s
+draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was theirs to
+tender. I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and stood waiting in the
+squalid common-room, my mind divided &rsquo;twixt impatience to resume the road
+to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the means I was to adopt to enter it and
+yet save my neck&mdash;for this was now become an obsessing problem.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an approaching
+cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs upon the thick snow
+carpet. The company halted at the door, and a loud, gruff voice was raised to
+cry:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Locandiere! Afoot, sluggard!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four mounted
+men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn so that nothing
+might be seen of him or her that rode within. Grooms were those four, as all
+the world might see at the first glance, and the livery they wore was that of
+the noble House of Santafior&mdash;the holy white flower of the quince being
+embroidered on the breast of their gabardines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was soon
+guessed they had spent the night in the saddle. Their horses were in a foam of
+sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from foot to cap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared, leading my
+horse by the bridle. Now at an inn the traveller that arrives is ever of more
+importance than he that departs. At sight of those horsemen, the taverner
+forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow in welcome to the one that seemed
+the leader.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Most Magnificent,&rdquo; said he to that liveried hind, &ldquo;command
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We need a guide,&rdquo; the fellow answered with an ill grace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A guide, Illustrious?&rdquo; quoth the host. &ldquo;A guide?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I said a guide, fool,&rdquo; answered him the groom. &ldquo;Heard you
+never of such animals? We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the
+shortest road to Cagli.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The taverner shook his grey head stupidly. He bowed again until I fancied I
+could hear the creak of his old joints.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here be no guides, Magnificent,&rdquo; he deplored. &ldquo;Perhaps at
+Gualdo&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Animal,&rdquo; was the retort&mdash;for true courtesy commend me to a
+lacquey!&mdash;&ldquo;it is not our wish to pursue the road as far as Gualdo,
+else had we not stopped at this kennel of yours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I scarce know what it can have been that moved me to act as I then did, for, in
+the truth, the manner of that rascal of a groom was little prepossessing, and
+his master, I doubted, could be little better that he left the fellow to hector
+it thus over that wretched tavern oaf. But I stepped forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you say that you were journeying to Cagli?&rdquo; questioned I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He eyed me sourly, suspicion writ athwart his round, ill-favoured face, But my
+motley was hidden from his sight. My cloak, my hat and boots allowed naught of
+my true condition to appear, and might as well have covered a lordling as a
+jester. Yet his inveterate surliness the rascal could not wholly conquer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What may be the purpose of your question?&rdquo; he growled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To serve your master, whoever he may be,&rdquo; I answered him serenely,
+&ldquo;although it is a service I do not press upon him. I, too, am journeying
+to Cagli, and like yourselves, I am in haste and go the shorter way across the
+hills, with which I am well acquainted. If it so please you to follow me your
+need of a guide may thus be satisfied.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the tone to take if I would be respected. Had I proposed that we should
+journey in company I should not have earned me the half of the deference which
+was accorded to my haughtily granted leave that they might follow me if they so
+chose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With marked submission did he give me thanks in his master&rsquo;s name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I mounted and set out, and at my heels came now the litter and its escort. Thus
+did we quit the plain and breast the slopes, where the snow grew deeper and
+firmer underfoot as we advanced. And as I went, still plaguing my mind to
+devise a means by which I might penetrate to the Court of Pesaro, little did I
+dream that the matter was being solved for me&mdash;the solution having begun
+with my offer to guide that company across the hills.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"></a>
+CHAPTER III.<br />
+MADONNA PAOLA</h2>
+
+<p>
+We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted and paused
+awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was to lead us down to
+Cagli. The air was sharp and cold, for all that overhead was spread a
+cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured down its light upon the wide
+expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness so dazzling as to be hurtful to the
+sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that following company as
+if I had been unconscious of its existence. But now that we paused, their fat,
+white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo, approached me and sought to draw me
+into conversation. I yielded readily enough, for I scented a mystery about that
+closely-curtained litter, and mysteries are ever provoking to such a mind as
+mine. For all that it might profit me naught to learn who rode there, and why
+with all this haste, yet these were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity
+was aroused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you journeying beyond Cagli?&rdquo; I asked him presently, in an
+idle tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes confirming
+the existence of the mystery I scented.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answered, after a pause. &ldquo;We hope to reach Urbino
+before night. And you? Are you journeying far?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That far, at least,&rdquo; I answered him, emulating the caution he had
+shown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the litter
+were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and so far was the
+vision different from that which&mdash;for no reason that I can give&mdash;I
+had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. A lady&mdash;a very
+child, indeed&mdash;had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any of those grooms
+could offer her assistance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and to one
+who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine beauty it might
+seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that writer&rsquo;s
+catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shape and stature, despite
+her tender years; her face was oval, delicately featured and of an ivory
+pallor. Her eyes&mdash;blue as the heavens overhead&mdash;were not of the
+colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was her hair of the golden brown which
+that arbiter commends. Had Firenzuola seen her, it may well be that he had
+altered or modified his views. She was sumptuously arrayed in a loose-sleeved
+camorra of grey velvet that was heavy with costly furs; above the lenza of fine
+linen on her head gleamed the gold thread of a jewelled net, and at her waist a
+girdle of surpassing richness, all set with gems, glowed like a thing of fire
+in the bright sunshine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked about her,
+and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached us across the
+gleaming snow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is this,&rdquo; she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a
+perfect match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, &ldquo;the traveller
+who so kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am in your debt, sir,&rdquo; she protested, with an odd earnestness.
+&ldquo;You do not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any
+time Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, you
+shall find me very willing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of her identity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I hated the
+very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, you overrate my service. It so chanced that I was travelling
+this way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reason of my
+churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not see the motley
+worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her. No doubt she accounted me a
+clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and so she turned away, telling
+Giacopo that as soon as the horses were breathed they might push on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna,&rdquo; answered he, &ldquo;if
+they are to carry us as far as Cagli. Heaven send that we may obtain fresh
+cattle there, else is all lost.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there any for
+those others.&rdquo; And she waved her hand towards the valley below and the
+road by which we had come. From this and from what was said I gathered that
+they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at their heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They have a warrant which we have not,&rdquo; was Giacopo&rsquo;s
+answer, gloomily delivered, &ldquo;and they will seize cattle where they can
+find it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the peril that
+aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir
+stranger,&rdquo; said Giacopo to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Better the horse should die of cold than I,&rdquo; I answered gruffly,
+and turning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood that was
+chilling in my veins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me that
+compelled my glance. To some it might compare but ill with the luxuriant
+splendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a wondrously
+impressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse of snow,
+expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by virtue of that very
+lack of expression. From Fabriano, at our feet, was spread to the east, the
+broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the Masone, as far as Mount Comero,
+which, in the distance, lifted its round shoulder from the haze of sea. To the
+west the country lay under the same winding-sheet of snow as far as eye might
+range, to the towers of distant Perugia, to the Lake Trasimeno&mdash;a silver
+sheen that broke the white monotony&mdash;to Etruscan Cortona, perched like an
+eyrie on its mountain top, and to the line of Tuscan hills, like heavy,
+low-lying clouds upon the blue horizon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded by a volley
+of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to my companions. They stood
+grouped together, and their eyes were on the road by which we had scaled those
+heights. Their first expression of loud astonishment had been succeeded by an
+utter silence. I stepped forward to command a better view of what they
+contemplated, and in the plain below, midway between Narni and the slopes, a
+mile or so behind us, I caught a glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the
+sunshine. A company of some dozen men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the
+tracks we had left behind us in the snow. Could these be the pursuers?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady&rsquo;s silvery voice,
+behind me, put it into words. She had drawn aside the curtains of her litter
+and she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points of brilliance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm,
+&ldquo;they are Borgia soldiers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your fear is father to that opinion,&rdquo; she answered scornfully.
+&ldquo;How can you descry it at this distance?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, either God had given that knave an eagle&rsquo;s sight, or else, as she
+suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what he
+thought he saw.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The leader&rsquo;s bannerol bears the device of a red bull,&rdquo; he
+answered promptly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In God&rsquo;s name, let us get forward, then!&rdquo; cried Giacopo.
+&ldquo;Orsu! To horse, knaves!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were in the
+saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule of the
+litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no more ceremony
+than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no ado. A chase is an
+interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if a greater safety lies
+with the hunter, there is a keener excitement with the hunted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at a pace
+in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace us from any
+party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to the unreasoning minds of those
+poltroons, and so from the danger behind us we fled, and courted a more deadly
+and certain peril in the fleeing. At first I sought to remonstrate with
+Giacopo; but he was deaf to the wisdom that I spoke. He turned upon me a face
+which terror had rendered whiter than its natural habit, white as the egg of a
+duck, with a hint of blue or green behind it. I had, besides, an ugly
+impression of teeth and eyeballs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Death is behind us, sir,&rdquo; he snarled. &ldquo;Let us get on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Death is more assuredly before you,&rdquo; I answered grimly. &ldquo;If
+you will court it, go your way. As for me, I am over-young to break my neck and
+be left on the mountain-side to fatten crows. I shall follow at my
+leisure.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gesu!&rdquo; he cried, through chattering teeth. &ldquo;Are you a
+coward, then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it was; but
+coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no more than
+provoke my mirth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on, then, valiant runagate,&rdquo; I laughed at him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yard of
+moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than these rational
+animals that bestrode them. Twice did it chance that a man was flung from his
+saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have been uttering in her
+litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching the plain with never so much
+as a broken bone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go. The
+horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the descent at a
+good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than an amble out of them,
+saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo. His head was ever turned to
+look behind&mdash;unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyes were ever on
+the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to behold the flash of the
+pursuers&rsquo; steel. The end soon followed. He drew rein and called a halt,
+sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived of wit&mdash;which is to pay him
+the compliment of supposing that he ever had wit to be deprived of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola&rsquo;s head appeared,
+her voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, our horses are done. It is useless to go farther.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Useless?&rdquo; she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could
+ring the voice that I had heard so gentle. &ldquo;Of what do you talk, you
+knave? Ride on at once.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is vain to ride on,&rdquo; he answered obdurately, insolence rising
+in his voice. &ldquo;Another half-league&mdash;another league at most, and we
+are taken.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cagli is less than a league distant,&rdquo; she reminded him.
+&ldquo;Once there, we can obtain fresh horses. You will not fail me now,
+Giacopo!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli,&rdquo; he reminded her,
+&ldquo;and, meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri.&rdquo; And
+he pointed to the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will stand by me, my friends,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Giacopo,
+here, is a coward; but you are better men.&rdquo; They stirred, and one of them
+was momentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We will go with you, Madonna,&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;Let Giacopo
+remain behind, if so he will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nor
+tolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!&rdquo; he
+exclaimed, &ldquo;as caught you will be, and within the hour. If you would save
+your necks, stay here and make surrender.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonna leapt
+from the litter, the better to confront them. The corners of her sensitive
+little mouth were quivering now with the emotion that possessed her, and on her
+eyes there was a film of tears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You cowards!&rdquo; she blazed at them, &ldquo;you hinds, that lack the
+spirit even to run! Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you
+could not show yourselves more palsied. I was a fool,&rdquo; she sobbed,
+stamping her foot so that the snow squelched under it. &ldquo;I was a fool to
+entrust myself to you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; answered one of them, &ldquo;if flight could still avail
+us, you should not find us stubborn. But it were useless. I tell you again,
+Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were but a
+half-league behind. Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and we shall be
+seen.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fool!&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;a half-league behind, you say; and you
+forget that we were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it. If you but
+press on we shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.
+Besides, Giacopo,&rdquo; she added, turning again to the leader, &ldquo;you may
+be at fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting them
+our pursuers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Arnaldo, there, made no mistake. He told us what he saw.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!&rdquo;
+she exclaimed, between grief and anger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved. I have
+said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tender child to do
+with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compass of that hatred? I
+had inferred that her pursuers were of the House of Borgia, and in a flash it
+came to me that were I so inclined I might prove, by virtue of the ring I
+carried, the one man in Italy to serve her in this extremity. And to be of
+service to her, her winsome beauty had already inflamed me. For there was I
+know not what about this child that seemed to take me in its toils, and so
+wrought upon me that there and then I would have risked my life in her good
+service. Oh, you may laugh who read. Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed
+myself, I think, at the heroics to which I was yielding&mdash;I, the Fool, most
+base of lacqueys&mdash;over a damsel of the noble House of Santafior. It was
+shame of my motley, maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about
+me as I urged forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lady,&rdquo; said I bluntly and without preamble, &ldquo;can I assist
+you? I have inferred your case from what I have overheard.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise&mdash;hers no less than her
+grooms&rsquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What can you do alone, sir?&rdquo; she asked, her gentle glance upraised
+to mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I
+may do something.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are,&rdquo; she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,
+investing her tones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a stranger
+into her confidence. Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in which she found
+herself. Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies hot upon her heels, she
+was in no case to trifle with assistance, or to despise an offer of services,
+however frail it might seem. With both hands she clutched at the slender hope I
+brought her in the hour of her despair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;if indeed it lies in your power to help
+me, you could not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but
+know the details of my sorry circumstance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That power, Madonna, it may be that I have,&rdquo; said I, and at those
+words of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest. They
+leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a sudden hopeful.
+&ldquo;And,&rdquo; I continued, &ldquo;if you will have utter faith in me, I
+see a way to render doubly certain your escape.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured her that
+I promised no more than I could accomplish. For the rest she had to choose
+between trusting me and suffering capture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I do not know you, nor why you should
+interest yourself in the concerns of a desolated woman. But, Heaven knows, I am
+in no case to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I doubt the
+good faith that moves you. Let me hear, sir, how you would propose to serve
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whence are you?&rdquo; I inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From Rome,&rdquo; she informed me without hesitation, &ldquo;to seek at
+my cousin&rsquo;s Court of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the
+Borgia family is submitting me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At her cousin&rsquo;s Court of Pesaro! An odd coincidence, this&mdash;and while
+I was pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I might assist
+myself. Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serve her, I had it
+now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; said I, surprise investing my voice, &ldquo;at Pesaro there
+is Madonna Lucrezia of that same House of Borgia.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna Lucrezia is my friend,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;as sweet and
+gentle a friend as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her
+own family.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned to what was
+of more immediate interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you fled,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;with these?&rdquo; And I indicated
+her attendants. &ldquo;Not content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you
+in the snow, you have had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of
+Santafior. So that by asking a few questions any that were so inclined might
+follow you with ease.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She opened wide her eyes at that. Oftentimes have I observed that it needs a
+fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of this world. I leapt
+from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, the bridle on my arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen now, Madonna. If you would make good your escape it first imports
+that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort. Separate from it for a
+little while. Take you my horse&mdash;it is a very gentle beast, and it wilt
+carry you with safety&mdash;and ride on, alone, to Cagli.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alone?&rdquo; quoth she, in some surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, yes,&rdquo; I answered gruffly. &ldquo;What of that? At the Inn of
+&lsquo;The Full Moon&rsquo; ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to
+await an escort there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her
+protection. She is a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will
+befriend you readily. But see to it that you tell her nothing of your
+affairs.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And then?&rdquo; she inquired eagerly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning,
+for these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your
+journey.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But we&mdash;&rdquo; began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him
+short.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You four,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;shall escort me&mdash;for I shall
+replace Madonna in the litter&mdash;you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus
+shall we draw the pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of
+escape.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they would
+lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments to persuade
+them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us all from harm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with you?
+Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sake of a lady
+with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have had with
+the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This escutcheon,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;is the shield that shall stand
+between us and danger from any of the house that bears these arms.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey
+me&mdash;the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to
+their present situation. In danger they already stood from those that followed
+as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying one who was armed
+with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape that danger. But even as I
+was convincing them, by the same arguments was I sowing doubts in the
+lady&rsquo;s subtler mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are attached to that house?&rdquo; quoth she, in accents of
+mistrust. She wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering
+was there treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to
+justify suspicion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;if you would save yourself I implore that
+you will trust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights,
+and then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you but this:
+Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done better than to
+have left you with your grooms?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her face lighted. A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should have thought of that,&rdquo; said she. And what more she would
+have added I put off by urging her to mount.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sitting the man&rsquo;s saddle as best she might&mdash;well enough, indeed, to
+fill us all with surprise and admiration&mdash;she took her leave of me with
+pretty words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have but to follow the road,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;and it will bring
+you straight to Cagli. The distance is a short league, and you should come
+there safely. Farewell, Madonna!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May I not know,&rdquo; she asked at parting, &ldquo;the name of him that
+has so generously befriended me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I hesitated a second. Then&mdash;&ldquo;They call me Boccadoro,&rdquo; answered
+I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are you
+well-named,&rdquo; said she. Then, gathering her mantle about her, and waving
+me farewell, she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardly hinds who
+had failed her in the hour of her need.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine; then
+stepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, rogues,&rdquo; said I to the escort, &ldquo;strike me that road to
+Fabriano.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know you not, sir,&rdquo; protested Giacopo. &ldquo;But this I
+know&mdash;that if you intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your
+gullet for your pains.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fool!&rdquo; I scorned him, &ldquo;since when has it been worth the
+while of any man to betray such creatures as are you? Plague me no more! Be
+moving, else I leave you to your coward&rsquo;s fate.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality. It
+quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of those knaves had
+caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter moved forward, whilst
+Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a pace as their weary horses
+would yield. In this guise we took the road south, in the direction opposite to
+that travelled by the lady. As we rode, I summoned Giacopo to my side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take your daggers,&rdquo; I bade him, &ldquo;and rip me that blazon from
+your coats. See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the House
+of Santafior, or all is lost. It is a precaution you would have taken earlier
+if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of my
+comment on his wit. For the rest, they did my bidding there and then.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, I drew the
+curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up to pondering the
+manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when they overtook me. From
+that I passed on to the contemplation of the position in which I found myself,
+and the thing that I had done. And the proportions of the jest that I was
+perpetrating afforded me no little amusement. It was a burla not unworthy the
+peerless gifts of Boccadoro, and a fitting one on which to close his wild
+career of folly. For had I not vowed that Boccadoro I would be no more once the
+errand on which I travelled was accomplished? By Cesare Borgia&rsquo;s grace I
+looked to&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and the realisation
+that in the last few moments we had increased our pace. I put out my head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Giacopo!&rdquo; I shouted. He was at my side in an instant. &ldquo;Why
+are we galloping?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are behind,&rdquo; he answered, and fear was again overspreading
+his fat face. &ldquo;We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last
+hill.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You caught a glimpse of whom?&rdquo; quoth I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, of the Borgia soldiers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Animal,&rdquo; I answered him, &ldquo;what have we to do with them? They
+may have mistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit. But since we
+are not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonable speed. We
+do not wish to have the air of fugitives.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He understood me, and I was obeyed. For a half-hour we rode at a more gentle
+pace. That was about the time they took to come up with us, still a league or
+so from Fabriano. We heard their cantering hoofs crushing the snow, and then a
+loud imperious voice shouting to us a command to stay. Instantly we brought up
+in unconcerned obedience, and they thundered alongside with cries of triumph at
+having run their prey to earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtains with a
+jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt. Whom my appearance
+astounded the more&mdash;whether the lacqueys of Santafior, or the Borgia
+men-at-arms that now encircled us&mdash;I cannot guess. But in the crowd of
+faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look of deep amazement.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"></a>
+CHAPTER IV.<br />
+THE COZENING OF RAMIRO</h2>
+
+<p>
+The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twenty men-at-arms,
+whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca&mdash;that same
+mountain of a man who had attended my departure from the Vatican three nights
+ago. From the circumstance that so important a personage should have been
+charged with the pursuit of the Lady of Santafior, I inferred that great issues
+were at stake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered the bannerol
+bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality to Madonna&rsquo;s
+servants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for a little
+season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sainted Host!&rdquo; he roared at last. &ldquo;What trickery may this
+be?&rdquo; And sidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my
+litter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold me reclining
+there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots, and my motley garb
+of red and black and yellow all revealed. I believe their astonishment by far
+surpassed the Captain&rsquo;s own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro,&rdquo; I greeted him. Then, seeing
+that he only stared, and made no shift to speak: &ldquo;Maybe,&rdquo; quoth I,
+&ldquo;you&rsquo;ll explain why you detain me. I am in haste.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Explain?&rdquo; he thundered. &ldquo;Sangue di Cristo! The burden of
+explaining lies with you. What make you here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, &ldquo;I am about
+the business of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Davvero?&rdquo; he jeered. He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by
+the collar of my doublet. &ldquo;Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there
+will be a fool the less in the world.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, the world might spare more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He scowled at my pleasantry. To him, apparently, the situation afforded no
+scope for philosophical reflections.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is the girl?&rdquo; he asked abruptly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Girl?&rdquo; quoth I. &ldquo;What girl? Am I a mother-abbess, that you
+should set me such a question?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two dark lines showed between his brows. His voice quivered with passion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I ask you again&mdash;where is the girl?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment provided for
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here be no girls, Messer del&rsquo; Orca,&rdquo; I answered him in the
+same tone. &ldquo;Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained the expression
+of it, whispered a doubt into his mind. He released me, and turned upon his
+men, a baffled look in his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Was not this the party?&rdquo; he inquired ferociously. &ldquo;Have you
+misled me, beasts?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seemed the party, Illustrious,&rdquo; answered one of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you dare tell me that &lsquo;it seemed&rsquo;?&rdquo; he roared,
+seeking to father upon them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had
+made. &ldquo;But&mdash;What is the livery of these knaves?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They wear none,&rdquo; someone answered him, and at that answer he
+seemed to turn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he bridled afresh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet the party, I&rsquo;ll swear, is this!&rdquo; he insisted; and
+turning once more to me: &ldquo;Explain, animal!&rdquo; he bade me in
+terrifying tones. &ldquo;Explain, or, by the Host! be you ignorant or not,
+I&rsquo;ll have you hanged.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I accounted it high time to take another tone with him. Hanging was a
+discomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Draw nearer, fool,&rdquo; said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, so
+greatly did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir
+captain,&rdquo; I pursued. &ldquo;But this I know&mdash;that if you persist in
+hindering me, or commit the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will
+answer for it, hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am going upon a secret mission&rdquo;&mdash;and here I sank my voice
+to a whisper for his ears alone&mdash;&ldquo;in the service of the house that
+hires you, as for yourself you might easily have inferred. Behold.&rdquo; And I
+revealed my ring. &ldquo;Detain me longer at your peril.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in Cesare
+Borgia&rsquo;s service, and this coupled with the sight of that talisman
+effected in his manner a swift and wholesome change. Had I, arrayed in the
+panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory could not have been more
+complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenly to the
+four winds of Heaven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But this litter,&rdquo; he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me,
+&ldquo;and these four knaves&mdash;?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell me,&rdquo; I questioned, with sudden earnestness, &ldquo;are you in
+quest of just such a party?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye that I am,&rdquo; he answered sharply, intelligence returning to his
+glance, inquiry burning in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House of
+Santafior?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time. Such a party
+passed us at the gallop about an hour ago. It would be an hour, would it not,
+Giacopo?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should say an hour,&rdquo; answered the lacquey dully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In what direction?&rdquo; came Ramiro&rsquo;s frenzied question. He
+doubted me no longer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the direction of Fabriano I should say,&rdquo; I answered.
+&ldquo;Although it may well be that they were making for Sinigaglia. The road
+branches farther on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the priceless information I
+had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse command to his
+followers. A moment later and they were cantering past us, the snow flying
+beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last of them had vanished round an
+angle of the road, and the only indication of the halt they had made was the
+broad path of dirty brown where their horses had crushed the snow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozening of Ser
+Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so much relief and
+relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on the cushions of my litter, and
+gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughter which was interrupted ere
+it was half done by Giacopo, who had dismounted and approached me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have fooled us finely,&rdquo; said he, with venom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he, and were
+his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the man who had
+saved them?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have fooled us finely,&rdquo; he insisted in a louder voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That, knave, is my trade,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;But it rather seems to
+me that it was Messer Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca whom I fooled.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; he answered querulously. &ldquo;But what when he discerns
+how you have played upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you
+have thrown him off the scent? What when he returns?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Spare me,&rdquo; I begged, &ldquo;I am but indifferently skilful at
+conjecture.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, but you shall answer me,&rdquo; he cried, livid with a passion that
+my bantering tone had quickened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
+returns?&rdquo; I questioned meekly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am,&rdquo; he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that
+actuates you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That will not I,&rdquo; he vowed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nor I, nor I, nor I!&rdquo; chorused his followers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it of
+ours how Messer del&rsquo; Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.
+Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for Cagli. Seek her at the
+sign of &lsquo;The Full Moon,&rsquo; and then away for Pesaro. If you are brisk
+you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza&rsquo;s fortress long
+before Messer del&rsquo; Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, he ever
+does so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornful mirth of
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By my faith, I&rsquo;m done with the business,&rdquo; he cried, and the
+other three expressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How done with it?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps to
+Rome. I&rsquo;ll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself,&rdquo; said I, with
+unmeasured scorn, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll risk it for the greatest fool and the
+cowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man. And your mistress? Is she
+to wait at Cagli until doomsday? If anywhere within the bulk of that
+elephant&rsquo;s body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you&rsquo;ll get you
+to horse and ride to the help of that poor lady.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly. Messer Giacopo went
+the length of raising his hand to me. But I am a man of amazing
+strength&mdash;amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do not have the air
+of it. Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught that miserable vassal by the
+breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice, then tossed him headlong into a
+drift of snow by the roadside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me. But I flung myself
+on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the stout Pistoja dagger
+that I carried, I presented with it a bold and truculent front, no whit
+intimidated by their numbers. Four to one though they were, they thought better
+of it. A moment they stood off, consulting among themselves; then Giacopo
+mounted, and with some mocking counsel as to how I should dispose of the litter
+and the mules, they made off, no doubt, to find their way back to Rome.
+Giacopo, as I was afterwards to discover, was Madonna Paola&rsquo;s
+purse-bearer, so that they would not lack for means.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens that they
+were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli, and who would
+await them in vain. There, on the mule, I sat in the noontide sunlight, and
+pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as to have grown forgetful of my own.
+At last I resolved to ride on to Cagli alone, and inform her that her men were
+fled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramiro
+del&rsquo; Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, and
+return hot-foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means as I had
+no stomach for enduring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving no sign
+that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I had tricked him.
+Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely. Slowly, then, did I
+consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way back to Rome, and if I could but
+rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser Ramiro would find himself mightily hard
+put to it to again pick up the trail. I remembered a ravine a little way
+behind, and I rode my mule back to that as fast as it would travel with the
+litter and the other mule attached to it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the
+beasts on the very edge of that shallow precipice. Then exerting all my
+strength, I contrived to roll the litter over. Down that steep incline it went,
+over and over, gathering more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinking
+at last into the drift at the bottom. There were signs enough to show its
+presence, but those signs would hardly be read by any but the sharpest eyes, or
+by such as might be looking for it in precisely such a position. I must trust
+to luck that it escaped the notice of Messer Ramiro. But even if he did
+discover it, I did not think that it would tell him overmuch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That done I resumed my hat and cloak&mdash;which I had retained&mdash;mounted
+once more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as might
+be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That distance covered,
+again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I stripped one of the mules of
+all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind a hedge, then I drove the
+beast loose into a field. The peasant-owner of that land might conclude upon
+the morrow that it had rained asses in the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I had
+passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of the four
+grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing. Whether they saw
+me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at their cowardice I put them
+from my mind, and cantered briskly on towards Cagli. It was a short league
+farther, and in little more than half an hour, my mule half-dead, I halted at
+the door of &ldquo;The Full Moon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my cloak,
+and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed all Cagli had seemed
+when I rode up. She came forward&mdash;a woman with a brown, full face, and
+large kindly eyes&mdash;and I asked her whether a lady had arrived there in
+safety that morning. At first she seemed mistrustful, but when I had assured
+her that I was in that lady&rsquo;s service, she frankly owned that Madonna was
+safe in her own room. Thither I allowed her to lead me, at once eager and
+reluctant. Eager with my own eyes to assure myself of her perfect safety;
+reluctant that, since a man may not penetrate to a lady&rsquo;s chamber hat on
+head, by uncovering I must disclose my shameful trade. Yet there was nothing
+for it but a bold face, and as I mounted the stairs in the woman&rsquo;s wake,
+I told myself that I was doubly a fool to be tormented by qualms of such a
+nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna&rsquo;s room. The lady rose
+from the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyes wearing an
+anxious look. At sight of my head crowned with the crested, horned hood of
+folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together, and she looked more
+closely to see whether I was indeed the man who had befriended her that morning
+in her extremity. In the eyes of the hostess I caught a gleam of recognition.
+She knew me for the merry loon who had entertained her guests one night a
+fortnight since, when on my way from Pesaro to Rome. But before she could give
+expression to this discovery of hers, the lady spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Leave us awhile, my woman,&rdquo; she commanded. But I stayed the
+hostess as she was withdrawing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This lady,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;will need an escort of three or four
+stout knaves upon a journey that she is going. She will be setting out as soon
+as may be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what of my grooms?&rdquo; cried the lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; I informed her, &ldquo;they have deserted you. That is
+the reason of my presence here. You shall hear the story of it presently.
+Meanwhile, we must arrange to replace them.&rdquo; And I turned again to the
+hostess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face. But as I looked
+at her she shook her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli,&rdquo; she made
+answer. &ldquo;The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on
+the pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for the Feast
+of the Epiphany.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surely be found.
+She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there because they would not be
+elsewhere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lady&rsquo;s face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence she
+shrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is your ostler,&rdquo; quoth I at last. &ldquo;He will do for
+one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He is the only man I have. My husband and my sons are gone to
+Pesaro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she was well-advised,
+for she contended that there was work to be done such as was beyond her years
+and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off, as well might she close her
+inn&mdash;a thing that was impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned. It was impossible to
+send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of some ten leagues, and the most
+of it by night&mdash;for if she would make sure of escaping, she must journey
+now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, ready to my
+hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despite my banishment,
+and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia. For, surely, considering the
+mission on which ostensibly I should be returning&mdash;as the saviour and
+protector of his kinswoman&mdash;Giovanni Sforza could not enforce that ban
+against me. Next I bethought me of the other aspect that the business wore. In
+fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgia ends; in rescuing Madonna Paola I had
+perhaps set at naught the Cardinal of Valencia&rsquo;s aims. If so, what then?
+It would seem that because the lady&rsquo;s eyes were mild and sweet, and
+because her beauty had so deeply wrought upon me, I had indeed fooled away my
+chance of salvation from the life and trade that were grown hateful to me. For
+back to Rome and Cesare Borgia I should dare go no more. Clearly I had burned
+my boats, and I had done it almost unthinkingly, acting upon the good impulse
+to befriend this lady, and never reckoning the cost down to its total. For all
+that the thing I had done, and what I might yet do, should offer me the means I
+needed to enter Pesaro without danger to my neck, I did not see that I was to
+derive great profit in the end&mdash;unless my profit lay in knowing that I had
+advanced the ruin of Giovanni Sforza by delivering my letter to Lucrezia. That
+at any rate was enough incentive clearly to define for me the line that I
+should take through this tangle into which the ever-jesting Fates had thrust
+me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexing situation, the
+hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenly Madonna Paola spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said she, in faltering accents, &ldquo;I&mdash;I have not
+the right to ask you, and I stand already so deeply in your debt. Not a doubt
+of it, but it will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to inform
+me of the flight of my grooms. Yet if you could&mdash;&rdquo; She paused, timid
+of proceeding, and her glance fell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which this very
+evidently noble lady addressed a Fool. I opened the door for her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You may leave us now,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;I will come to you
+presently.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolved upon. My
+hate had conquered my last doubt. What first imported was that I should get to
+Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You were about to ask me,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that I should accompany
+you to Pesaro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hesitated, sir,&rdquo; she murmured. I bowed respectfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There was not the need, Madonna,&rdquo; I assured her. &ldquo;I am at
+your service.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;the claim that every distressed lady has
+upon a man of heart. Let us say no more. It were best not to delay in setting
+out, although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger from
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is he?&rdquo; she inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I told her, whereupon&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did they come up with you?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;What passed between
+you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on a
+fool&rsquo;s errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, and of
+how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule. She heard me, her eyes
+sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee that was almost
+childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was brave. I allayed what little
+fears remained her by pointing out how effectively we had effaced our tracks,
+and how vainly now Messer del&rsquo; Orca might beat the country in quest of a
+lady in a litter, escorted by four grooms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonder at my
+generous readiness to befriend her&mdash;a wonder all devoid of suspicion
+touching the single-mindedness of my purpose. But I reminded her that we had
+little leisure to stand talking, and left her to make her preparations for the
+journey, whilst I went below to see that my mule and her horse were saddled. I
+made bold to pay the reckoning, and when presently she spoke of it, with
+flaming cheeks, and would have pledged me a jewel, I bade her look upon it as a
+loan which anon she might repay me when I had brought her safely to her
+kinsman&rsquo;s Court at Pesaro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side by side and
+talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of her flight and of
+her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest to her heart, found
+readiest expression. I went wrapped in my cloak once more, my head-dress hidden
+&rsquo;neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that the few wayfarers we chanced on need
+not marvel to see a lady in such friendly intercourse with a Fool. And so dull
+was I that day as not to marvel, myself, at such a state of things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on our left,
+casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere encompassed us, as we
+cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping that Messer
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca might not chance upon the discovery of how egregiously I
+had fooled him. He was dull-witted and slow at inference, and upon that I built
+the hope that he might fail to associate me with Madonna Paola&rsquo;s elusion
+of his pursuit. Thus the chance might yet be mine of returning to Rome and the
+honourable employment Cesare Borgia had promised me. If only that were so to
+fall out, I might yet contrive to mend the wreckage of my life. I was returned,
+it seems, to the ways of early youth, when we build our hopes of future
+greatness upon untenable foundations!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that January evening,
+fired by the gentle child that rode beside me. Fate had sent me to her aid that
+day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of that circumstance, a certain
+right in her. Had Fate no other favours for me in her lap! I bethought me of
+the very House of Sforza, to which I had been so shamefully attached, and of
+its humble source in that peasant, Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for
+his abnormal strength of body, who rose to great and princely heights.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance but given
+me&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went no further. Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wild musings.
+Cesare Borgia would come to know&mdash;he must, whether Ramiro told him, or
+whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro must give him of our
+meeting&mdash;how I had thwarted him in one thing, whilst I had served him in
+another. Fate was against me. I had fallen too low to ever rise again, and no
+dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and inspired, perhaps, by a child who was
+beautiful as one of the saints of God, would ever come to be realised by poor
+Boccadoro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets of Fossombrone.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"></a>
+CHAPTER V.<br />
+MADONNA&rsquo;S INGRATITUDE</h2>
+
+<p>
+We stayed in Fossombrone little more than a half-hour, and having made a hasty
+supper we resumed our way, giving out that we wished to reach Fano ere we
+slept. And so by the first hour of night Fossombrone was a league or so behind
+us, and we were advancing briskly towards the sea. Overhead a moon rode at the
+full in a clear sky, and its light was reflected by the snow, so that we were
+not discomforted by any darkness. We fell, presently, into a gentler pace, for,
+after all, there could be no advantage in reaching Pesaro before morning, and
+as we rode we talked, and I made bold to ask her the cause of her flight from
+Rome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She told me then that she was Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, and that Pope
+Alexander, in his nepotism and his desire to make rich and powerful alliances
+for his family, had settled upon her as the wife for his nephew, Ignacio
+Borgia. He had been emboldened to this step by the fact that her only protector
+was her brother, Filippo di Santafior, whom they had sought to coerce. It was
+her brother, who, seeing himself in a dangerous and unenviable position, had
+secretly suggested flight to her, urging her to repair to her kinsman Giovanni
+Sforza at Pesaro. Her flight, however, must have been speedily discovered and
+the Borgias, who saw in that act a defiance of their supreme authority, had
+ordered her pursuit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her capture, and
+once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they would have driven
+her into the alliance by means of which they sought to bring her fortune into
+their own house. This drew her into fresh protestations of the undying
+gratitude she entertained towards me, protestations which I would have stemmed,
+but that she persisted in them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is a good and noble thing that you have done,&rdquo; said she,
+&ldquo;and I think that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is
+scarce likely that in all Italy I should have found another man who would have
+done so much.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done?&rdquo; I cried.
+&ldquo;It is no less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would
+have done seeing you so beset.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, that is more than I can ever think,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Who
+for the sake of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have you?
+Who would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the defection of
+my grooms? Who, when other escort failed, would have gone the length of
+journeying all this way to render a service that is beyond repayment? And,
+above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid would have submitted to this
+travesty of yours?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Travesty?&rdquo; quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last.
+&ldquo;What travesty, Madonna?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my pursuers
+and that you still wear in my poor service.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly saw her
+eyes meet mine. So! that was the reason of her kindness and of the easy
+familiarity of her speech with me! She deemed me some knight-errant who
+caracoled through Italy in quest of imperilled maidens needing aid. Of a
+certainty she had gathered her knowledge of the world from the works of Messer
+Bojardo, or perhaps from the &ldquo;Amadis of Gaul&rdquo; of Messer Bernardo
+Tasso. And, no doubt, she thought that suits of motley grew on bushes by the
+roadside, whence those who had a fancy for disguise might cull them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, well, it were better she should know the truth at once, and choose such a
+demeanour as she considered fitting towards a Fool. I had no stomach for the
+courtesies that were meant for such a man as I was not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, you are in error,&rdquo; I informed her, speaking slowly.
+&ldquo;This garb is no travesty. It is my usual raiment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a pause and I saw the slackening of her reins. No doubt, had we been
+afoot she would have halted, the better to confront me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How?&rdquo; she asked, and a new note, imperious and chill, was sounding
+already in her voice. &ldquo;You would not have me understand that you are by
+trade a Fool?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Allowing that I am not a fool by birth, under what other circumstances,
+think you, I should be likely to wear the garments of a Fool?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But this morning,&rdquo; she protested, after a brief pause, &ldquo;when
+first I met you, you were not so arrayed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was arrayed even as I am now, in a cloak and hat and boots that hid my
+motley from such undiscerning eyes as were yours and your
+grooms&rsquo;&mdash;all taken up with your own fears as you then were.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was in the tail of that a sting, as I meant there should be, for the
+sudden haughtiness of her tone was cutting into me. Was I less worthy of thanks
+because I was a Fool? Had I on that account done less to serve and save her? Or
+was it that the action which, in a spurred and armoured knight, had been
+accounted noble was deemed unworthy of thanks in a crested, motleyed jester? It
+seemed, indeed, that some such reasoning she followed, for after that we spoke
+no more until we were approaching Fano.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A many times before had I felt the shame of my ignoble trade, but never so
+acutely as at that moment. It had seared my soul when Giovanni Sforza had told
+my story to his Court, ere he had driven me from Pesaro with threats of
+hanging, and it had burned even deeper when later, Madonna Lucrezia, upon
+entrusting me with her letter to her brother, had upbraided me with the
+supineness that so long had held me in that vile bondage. But deepest of all
+went now the burning iron of that disgrace. For my companion&rsquo;s silence
+seemed to argue that had she known my quality she would have scorned the aid of
+which she had availed herself to such good purpose. If any doubt of this had
+mercifully remained me, her next words would have served to have resolved it.
+It was when the lights of Fano gleamed ahead; we were coming to a cross-roads,
+and I urged the turning to the left.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But Fano is in front,&rdquo; she remonstrated coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This way we can avoid the town and gain the Pesaro road beyond
+it,&rdquo; answered I, my tone as cool as hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet may it not be that at Fano I might find an escort?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could have cried out at her cruelty, for in her words I could but read my
+dismissal from her service. There had been no more talk of an escort other than
+that which I afforded, and with which at first she had been well content.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sat my mule in silence for a moment. She had been very justly served had I
+been the vassal that she deemed me, and had I borne myself in that character
+without consideration of her sex, her station or her years. She had been very
+justly served had I wheeled about and left her there to make her way to Fano,
+and thence to Pesaro, as best she might. She was without money, as I knew, and
+she would have found in Fano such a reception as would have brought the bitter
+tears of late repentance to her pretty eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner that was
+to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and the need to use
+me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might yet do, if she lacked
+the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake of that which I had done
+already.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;It were wiser to choose the by-road and
+forego the escort, since we have dispensed with it so far. There are many
+reasons why a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know of none,&rdquo; she interrupted me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That may well be. Nevertheless they exist.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste,&rdquo;
+she told me sullenly. &ldquo;I am for Fano.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as plainly
+as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as I should choose.
+In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule&rsquo;s head once more towards
+the lights of the town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Since you are resolved, so be it,&rdquo; was all my answer; and we
+proceeded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she curtly
+asked me which was the best inn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;The Golden Fish,&rsquo;&rdquo; said I, as curtly, and to
+&ldquo;The Golden Fish&rdquo; we went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands. She dismounted,
+leaving the reins with a groom, and entering the common-room she proclaimed her
+needs to those that occupied it by loudly calling upon the landlord to find her
+an escort of three or four knaves to accompany her at once to Pesaro, where
+they should be well rewarded by the Lord Giovanni, her cousin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had followed her in, and I ground my teeth at such an egregious piece of
+folly. Her hood was thrown back, displaying the lenza of fine linen on her
+sable hair, and over this a net of purest gold all set with jewels. Her
+camorra, too, was open, and in her girdle there were gems for all to see. There
+were but a half-dozen men in the room. Two of these had a venerable
+air&mdash;they may have been traders journeying to Milan&mdash;whilst a third,
+who sat apart, was a slender, effeminate-looking youth. The remaining three
+were fellows of rough aspect, and when one of them&mdash;a black-browed
+ruffian&mdash;raised his eyes and fastened them upon the riches that Madonna
+Paola with such indifference displayed, I knew what was to follow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rose upon the instant, and stepping forward, he made her a low bow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Illustrious lady,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if these two friends of mine
+and I find favour with you, here is an escort ready found. We are stout
+fellows, and very faithful.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Faithful to their cut-throat trade, I made no doubt he meant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His fellows now rose also, and she looked them over, giving herself the airs of
+having spent her virgin life in judging men by their appearance. It was in vain
+I tugged her cloak, in vain I murmured the word &ldquo;wait&rdquo; under cover
+of my hand. She there and then engaged them, and bade them make ready to set
+out at once. One more attempt I made to induce her to alter her resolve.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;it is an unwise thing to go a-journeying
+by night with three unknown men, and of such villainous appearance. To me they
+seem no better than bandits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were standing apart from the others, and she was sipping a cup of spiced
+wine that the host had mulled for her. She looked at me with a tolerant smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are poor men,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Would you have them robed in
+velvet?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My quarrel is with their looks, Madonna, not their garments,&rdquo; I
+answered patiently. She laughed lightly, carelessly; even, I thought, a trifle
+scornfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are very fanciful,&rdquo; said she, then added&mdash;&ldquo;but if
+so be that you are afraid to trust yourself in their company, why then, sir, I
+need bring you no farther out of the road that you were following when first we
+met.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Did the child think that some jealousy actuated me, and prompted me to inspire
+her with mistrust of my supplanters? She angered me. Yet now, more than ever
+was I resolved to journey with her. Leave her at the mercy of those ruffians,
+whom in her ignorance she was mad enough to trust, I could not&mdash;not even
+had she whipped me. She was so young, so frail and slight, that none but a
+craven could have found it in his heart to have deserted her just then.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If it please you Madonna,&rdquo; I answered smoothly, &ldquo;I will make
+bold to travel on with you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may be that my even accents stung her; perhaps she read in them some measure
+of reproof of the ingratitude that lay in her altered bearing towards me. Her
+eyes met mine across the table, and seemed to harden as she looked. Her answer
+came in a vastly altered tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, if you are bent that way, I shall be glad to have you avail
+yourself of my escort, Boccadoro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had suffered the scorn now of her speech, now of her silence, for some hours,
+but never was I so near to turning on her as at that moment; never so near to
+consigning her to the fate to which her headstrong folly was compelling her.
+That she should take that tone with me!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The violence of the sudden choler I suppressed turned me pale under her steady
+glance. So that, seeing it, her own cheeks flamed crimson, and her eyes fell,
+as if in token that she realised the meanness of her bearing. To some natures
+there can be nothing more odious than such a realisation, and of those, I
+think, was she; for she stamped her foot in a sudden pet, and curtly asked the
+host why there was such delay with the horses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are at the door, Madonna,&rdquo; he protested, bowing as he spoke.
+&ldquo;And your escort is already waiting in the saddle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned and strode abruptly towards the threshold. Over her shoulder she
+called to me:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you come with us, Boccadoro, you had best be brisk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I follow, Madonna,&rdquo; said I, with a grim relish, &ldquo;so soon as
+I have paid the reckoning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She halted and half turned, and I thought I saw a slight droop at the corners
+of her mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are keeping count of what I owe you?&rdquo; she muttered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered, more grimly still, &ldquo;I am keeping
+count.&rdquo; And I thought that my wits were vastly at fault if that account
+were not to be greatly swelled ere Pesaro was reached. Haply, indeed, my own
+life might go to swell it. I almost took a relish in that thought. Perhaps
+then, when I was stiff and cold&mdash;done to death in her service&mdash;this
+handsome, ungrateful child would come to see how much discomfort I had suffered
+for her sake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My thoughts still ran in that channel as we rode out of Pesaro, for I misliked
+the way in which those knaves disposed themselves about us. In front went
+Madonna Paola; and immediately behind her, so that their horses&rsquo; heads
+were on a level with her saddle-bow, one on each side, went two of those
+ruffians. The third, whom I had heard them call Stefano, and who was the one
+who had made her the offer of their services, ambled at my side, a few paces in
+the rear, and sought to draw me into conversation, haply by way of throwing me
+off my guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mistrust is a fine thing at times. &ldquo;Forewarned is forearmed,&rdquo; says
+the proverb, and of all forewarnings there is none we are more likely to heed
+than our own mistrust; for whereas we may leave unheeded the warnings of a
+friend, we seldom leave unheeded the warnings of our spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so, while my amiable and garrulous Ser Stefano engaged me in pleasant
+conversation&mdash;addressing me ever as Messer the Fool, since he knew me not
+by name&mdash;I wrapped my cloak about me, and under cover of it kept my
+fingers on the hilt of my stout Pistoja dagger, ready to draw and use it at the
+first sign of mischief. For that sign I was all eyes, and had I been Argus
+himself I could have kept no better watch. Meanwhile I plied my tongue and
+maintained as merry a conversation with Ser Stefano as you could wish to hear,
+for he seemed a ready-witted knave of a most humorous turn of fancy&mdash;God
+rest his rascally soul! And so it came to pass that I did by him the very thing
+he sought to do by me; I lulled him into a careless confidence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the sign I had been waiting for was given. I saw it as plainly as if it
+had been meant for me; I believe I saw it before the man for whom it was
+intended, and but for my fears concerning Madonna Paola, I could have laughed
+outright at their clumsy assurance. The man who rode on Madonna&rsquo;s right
+turned in his saddle and put up his hand as if to beckon Stefano. I was
+regaling him with one of the choicest of Messer Sacchetti&rsquo;s paradoxes,
+gurgling, myself, at the humour of the thing I told. I paid no heed to the
+sign. I continued to expound my quip, as though we had the night before us in
+which to make its elusive humour clear. But out of the tail of my eye I watched
+my good friend Stefano, and I saw his right hand steal round to the region of
+his back where I knew his dagger to be slung. Yet was I patient. There should
+be no blundering through an excessive precipitancy. I talked on until I saw
+that my suspicions were amply realised. I caught the cold gleam of steel in the
+hand that he brought back as stealthily as he had carried it to his poniard.
+Sant&rsquo; Iddio! What a coward he was for all his bulk, to go so slyly about
+the business of stabbing a poor, helpless, defenceless Fool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But Sacchetti makes his point clear,&rdquo; I babbled on, most blandly;
+&ldquo;almost as clear, as comprehensive and as penetrating as should be to you
+the point of this.&rdquo; And with a swift movement I swung half-round in my
+saddle, and sank my dagger to the hilt in his side even as he was in the act of
+raising his.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He made no sound beyond the faintest gurgle&mdash;the first vowel of a suddenly
+choked word of wonder and surprise. He rocked a second in his saddle, then
+crashed over, and lay with arms flung wide, like a huge black crucifix, upon
+the white ground. At the same moment a piercing scream broke from Madonna
+Paola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I tremble still to think what might have been her fate had not those ruffians
+who had laid hands on her fallen into the sorry error of holding their single
+adversary too lightly. They heard the thud of the gallant Stefano&rsquo;s fall,
+and they never doubted that mine was the body that had gone down. They heard
+the rapid hoof-beats of my approach, yet, they never turned their heads to
+ascertain whether they might not be mistaken in their firm conviction that it
+was Messer Stefano who was joining them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I kissed my blade for luck, and drove it straight and full into the back of the
+fellow on Madonna Paola&rsquo;s right. He cried out, essayed to turn in his
+saddle that he might deal with this unlooked-for assailant, then, overcome, he
+lurched forward on to the withers of his horse and thence rolled over, and was
+dragged away at the gallop, his foot caught in a stirrup, by the suddenly
+startled brute he rode.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So far things had gone with an amazing and delightful ease. If only the last of
+them had had the amiability to be intimidated by my prowess and to have taken
+to his heels, I might have issued from that contest with the unscathed glory of
+a very Mars. But from his throat there came, in answer to his comrade&rsquo;s
+cry, a roar of rage. He fell back from Madonna, and wheeled his horse to come
+at me, drawing his sword as he advanced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ride on, Madonna,&rdquo; I shouted. &ldquo;I will rejoin you
+presently.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fellow laughed, a mighty ugly and discomposing laugh, which may or may not
+have shaken her faith in my promise to rejoin her. It certainly went near to
+shaking mine. However, she displayed a presence of mind full worthy of the
+haughtiness and ingratitude of which she had showed herself capable. She urged
+her mule forward, and, so, left him a clear road to attack me. I made a mistake
+then that went mighty near to costing me my life. I paused to twist my cloak
+about my left arm intending to use it as a buckler. Had I but risked the arm
+itself, all unprotected, in that task, it may well be that it had served me
+better. As it was, my preparations were far from complete when already he was
+upon me, with the result that the waving slack of my cloak was in my way to
+hamper and retard the movements of my arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His sword leapt at me, a murderous blue-white flash of moonlit steel. I put up
+my half-swaddled arm to divert the thrust, holding my dagger ready in my right,
+and gripping my mule with all the strength of my two knees. I caught the blade,
+it is true, and turned aside the stroke intended for my heart. But the slack of
+the cloak clung to the neck of my mule, so that I could not carry my arm far
+enough to send his point clear of my body. It took me in the shoulder, stinging
+me, first icy cold then burning hot, as it went tearing its way through. For
+just a second was I daunted, more at knowing myself touched than by the actual
+pain. Then I flung my whole body forward to reach him at the close quarters to
+which he had come, and I buried my dagger in his breast, high up at the base of
+his dirty throat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The force of the blow carried me forward, even as it bore him backward; and so,
+with his sword-blade in my shoulder, and my dagger where I had planted it, we
+hurtled over together and lay a second amidst what seemed a forest of equine
+legs. Then something smote me across the head, and I was knocked senseless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Conceive me, if you can, a sorrier, or more useless thing. A senseless Fool!
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"></a>
+CHAPTER VI.<br />
+FOOL&rsquo;S LUCK</h2>
+
+<p>
+My return to consciousness seemed to afford me such sensations as a diver may
+experience as he rises up and up through the depth of water he has
+plumbed&mdash;or as a disembodied soul may know in its gentle ascent towards
+Heaven. Indeed the latter parallel may be more apt. For through the mist that
+suffused my senses there penetrated from overhead a voice that seemed to invoke
+every saint in the calendar on the behalf of some poor mortal. A very litany of
+intercession was it, not quite, it would appear, devoid of self-seeking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sainted Virgin, restore him! Good St. Paul, who wert done to death with
+a sword, let him not perish, else am I lost indeed!&rdquo; came the voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes, whereat the voice cried out gladly
+that its intercessions had been heard, and I knew that it was on my behalf that
+the saints of Heaven had been disturbed in their beatific peace. My head was
+pillowed in a woman&rsquo;s lap, and it took me a moment or two to realise that
+that lap was Madonna Paula&rsquo;s, as was hers the voice that had reached my
+awakening senses, the voice that now welcomed me back to life in terms that
+were very different from the last that I could remember her having used towards
+me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!&rdquo; she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her face was black with shadow, but in her voice I caught a hint of tears, and
+I wondered whether they were shed on my behalf or on her own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do!&rdquo; I answered fervently. &ldquo;Have you any notion of what
+hour it is?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;None,&rdquo; she sighed. &ldquo;You have been so long unconscious that I
+was losing hope of ever hearing your voice again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I became aware of a dull ache on the right side of my head. I put up my hand,
+and withdrew it moist. She saw the action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One of the horses must have struck you with its hoof after you
+fell,&rdquo; she explained. &ldquo;But I was more concerned for your other
+wound. I withdrew the sword with my own hands.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That other wound she spoke of was now making itself felt as well. It was a
+gnawing, stinging pain in the region of my left shoulder, which seemed to turn
+me numb to the waist on that side of my body, and render powerless my arm. I
+questioned her touching my three adversaries, and she silently pointed to three
+black masses that lay some little distance from us in the snow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not all dead?&rdquo; I cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; she answered, with a sob. &ldquo;I have not dared
+go near them. They frighten me. Mother of Heaven, what a night of horror it has
+been! Oh, that I had taken your advice, Messer Boccacloro!&rdquo; she exclaimed
+in a passion of self-reproach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I laughed, seeking to soften her distress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To me it seems, that whether you would or not, you have been compelled
+to take it, after all. Those fellows lie there harmless enough, and I am
+still&mdash;as I urged that I should be&mdash;your only escort.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A nobler protector never woman had,&rdquo; she assured me, and I felt a
+hot pearl of moisture fail upon my brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You were wise, at least, to journey with a Fool,&rdquo; I answered her.
+&ldquo;For fools are proverbially lucky folk, and to-night has proven me of all
+fools the luckiest. But, Madonna,&rdquo; I suggested, in a different tone,
+&ldquo;should we not be better advised to attempt to resume, this interesting
+journey of ours? We do not seem to lack horses?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A couple of nags were standing by the road-side, together with our mules, and I
+was afterwards to learn that she, herself, it was had tethered them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It must be yet some three leagues to Pesaro,&rdquo; I added, &ldquo;and
+if we journey slowly, as I fear me that we must, we should arrive there soon
+after daybreak.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you think that you can stand?&rdquo; she asked, a hopeful ring in her
+voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I might essay it,&rdquo; answered I, and I would have done so, there and
+then, but that she detained me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;First let me see to this hurt in your head,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I
+have been bathing it with snow while you were unconscious.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She gathered a fresh handful as she spoke, and, very tenderly she wiped away
+the blood. Then from her own head she took the fine linen lanza that she wore,
+and made a bandage&mdash;a bandage sweet with the faint fragrance of
+marsh-mallow&mdash;and bound it about my battered skull. When that was done she
+turned her attention to my shoulder. This was a more difficult matter, and all
+that we could do was to attempt to stanch the blood, which already had drenched
+my doublet on that side. To this end she passed a long scarf under my arm, and
+wound it several times about my shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last her gentle ministrations ended, I sought to rise. A dizziness assailed
+me scarce was I on my feet, and it is odds I had fallen back, but that she
+caught and steadied me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mother in Heaven! You are too weak to ride,&rdquo; she exclaimed.
+&ldquo;You must not attempt it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, but I will,&rdquo; I answered, with more stoutness of tone than I
+felt of body, and notwithstanding that my knees were loosening under my weight.
+&ldquo;It is a faintness that will pass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If ever man willed himself to conquer weakness, that did I then, and with some
+measure of success&mdash;or else it was that my faintness passed of itself. I
+drew away from her support, and straightening myself, I crossed to where the
+animals were tethered, staggering at first, but presently with a surer foot.
+She followed me, watching my steps with as much apprehension as a mother may
+feel when her first-born makes his earliest attempts at walking, and as ready
+to spring to my aid did I show signs of stumbling. But I kept up, and presently
+my senses seemed to clear, and I stepped out more surely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Awhile we stood discussing which of the animals we should take. It was my
+suggestion that we should ride the horses but she wisely contended that the
+mules would prove the more convenient if the slower. I agreed with her, and
+then, ere we set out, I went to see to my late opponents. One of them&mdash;Ser
+Stefano&mdash;was cold and stiff; the other two still lived, and from the
+nature of their wounds seemed likely to survive, if only they were not frozen
+to death before some good Samaritan came upon them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I knelt a moment to offer up a prayer for the repose of the soul of him that
+was dead, and I bound up the wounds of the living as best I could, to save them
+greater loss of blood. Indeed, had it lain in my power, I would have done more
+for them. But in what case was I to render further aid? After all, they had
+brought their fate upon themselves, and I doubt not they were paying a score
+that they had heaped up heavily in the past.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went back to the mules, and, despite my remonstrances, Madonna Paola insisted
+upon aiding me to mount, urging me to have a care of my wound, and to make no
+violent movement that should set it bleeding again. Then she mounted too,
+nimble as any boy that ever robbed an orchard, and we set out once more. And
+now it was a very contrite and humbled lady that rode with me, and one that was
+at no pains to dissemble her contrition, but, rather, could speak of nothing
+else.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It moved me strangely to have her suing pardon from me, as though I had been
+her equal instead of the sometime jester of the Court of Pesaro, dismissed for
+an excessive pertness towards one with whom his master curried favour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And presently, as was perhaps but natural after all that she had witnessed, she
+fell to questioning me as to how it came to pass that one of such wit, resource
+and courage should follow the mean calling to which I had owned. In answer I
+told her without reservation the full story of my shame. It was a thing that I
+had ever most zealously kept hidden, as already I have shown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To be a Fool was evil enough in all truth; but to let men know that under my
+motley was buried the identity of a man patrician-born was something infinitely
+worse. For, however vile the trade of a Fool may be, it is not half so vile for
+a low-born clod who is too indolent or too sickly to do honest work as for one
+who has accepted it out of a half-cowardice and persevered in it through very
+sloth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet on that night and after all that had chanced, no matter how my cheeks might
+burn in the gloom as I rode beside her, I was glad for once to tell that
+ignominious story, glad that she should know what weight of circumstance had
+driven me to wear my hideous livery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But since my story dealt oddly with that Lord of Pesaro, the kinsman whose
+shelter she was now upon her way to seek, I must first assure myself that the
+candour to which I was disposed would not offend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does it happen, Madonna,&rdquo; I inquired, &ldquo;that you are well
+acquainted with the Lord of Pesaro?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay; I have never seen him,&rdquo; answered she. &ldquo;When he was at
+Rome, a year ago in the service of the Pope, I was at my studies in the
+convent. His father was my father&rsquo;s cousin, so that my kinship is none so
+near. Why do you ask?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because my story deals with him, Madonna, and it is no pretty tale. Not
+such a narrative as I should choose wherewith to entertain you. Still, since
+you have asked for it, you shall hear it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was in the year that Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, celebrated his
+nuptials with the Lady Lucrezia Borgia&mdash;three years ago,
+therefore&mdash;that one morning there rode into the courtyard of his castle of
+Pesazo a tall and lean young man on a tall and lean old horse. He was garbed
+and harnessed after a fashion that proclaimed him half-knight, half-peasant,
+and caused the castle lacqueys to eye him with amusement and greet him with
+derision. Lacqueys are great arbiters of fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In a loud, imperious voice this cockerel called for Giovanni, Lord of
+Pesaro, whereupon, resenting the insolence of his manner, the men-at-arms would
+have driven him out without more ado. But it chanced that from one of the
+windows of his stronghold the tyrant espied his odd visitor. He was in a mood
+that craved amusement, and marvelling what madman might be this, he made his
+way below and bade them stand back and let me speak&mdash;for I, Madonna, was
+that lean young man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Are you,&rsquo; quoth I, &lsquo;the Lord of Pesaro?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He answered me courteously that he was, whereupon I did my errand to
+him. I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Your father,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;Costanzo of Pesaro, was a foul
+brigand, who robbed my father of his castle and lands of Biancomonte, leaving
+him to a needy and poverty-stricken old age. I am here to avenge upon your
+father&rsquo;s son my father&rsquo;s wrongs; I am here to redeem my castle and
+my lands. If so be that you are a true knight, you will take up the challenge
+that I fling you, and you will do battle with me, on horse or foot, and with
+whatsoever arms you shall decree, God defending him that has justice on his
+side.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Knowing the world as I know it now, Madonna,&rdquo; I interpolated,
+&ldquo;I realise the folly of that act of mine. But in those days my views
+belonged to a long departed age of chivalry, of which I had learnt from such
+books as came my way at Biancomonte, and which I believed was the life of
+to-day in the world of men. It was a thing which some tyrants would have had me
+broken on the wheel. But Giovanni Sforza never so much as manifested anger.
+There was a complacent smile on his white face and his fingers toyed carelessly
+with his beard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I waited patiently, very haughty of mien and very fierce at heart, and
+when the amusement began to fade from his eyes, I begged that he would deliver
+me his answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;My answer,&rsquo; quoth he, &lsquo;is that you get you back to
+the place from whence you came, and render thanks to God on your knees every
+morning of the life I am sparing you that Giovanni Sforza is more entertained
+than affronted by your frenzy.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Do you disdain me?&rsquo; I questioned, choking with rage. He
+turned, with a shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier
+his glove, and conduct him from the castle. Several that had stood at hand made
+shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning fury that
+incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me. They were many, I was but
+one; and they were not long in overpowering me and dragging me from my horse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then
+get me hanged without delay. Had he done that, the world being as it is,
+perhaps none could blame him. But he elected to spare my life, yet on such
+terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the consideration of
+my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of Biancomonte whilst I
+went forth to seek my fortune&mdash;such was the tale I had told her. I was her
+sole support, her only hope in life; and my death must have been her own, if
+not from grief, why, then from very want. The thought of that poor old woman
+crushed my spirit as I sat in durance waiting for my end, and when the priest
+came, whom they had sent to shrive me, he found me weeping, which he took to
+argue a contrite heart. He bore the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of
+Pesaro came to visit me in consequence, and found me sorely changed from my
+furious mood of some hours earlier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother&rsquo;s sake. If I
+feared death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my
+eyes and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had been my
+erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him. I told him the truth&mdash;that
+for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother in the hills who
+was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus cut off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.
+Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious depth I
+was far indeed from suspecting. He asked me would I take solemn oath that if he
+spared my life I would never again raise my hand against him. That oath I took
+with a greediness born of my fear of the death that was impending.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;You have been wise,&rsquo; said he,&rsquo; and you shall have
+your life on one condition&mdash;that you devote it to my service.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Even that will I do,&rsquo; I answered readily. He turned to an
+attendant, and ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley. No word passed between
+us until that man returned with those garish garments. Then Giovanni smiled on
+me in his mocking, infernal way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Not that,&rsquo; I cried, guessing his purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Aye, that,&rsquo; he answered me; &lsquo;that or the
+hangman&rsquo;s noose. A man who could devise so monstrous a jest as was your
+challenge to the Tyrant of Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would. I need
+such a one. There are two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers,
+deformed vermin that excite as much disgust as mirth. I need a sprightlier man,
+a man of some learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would
+seem to be.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I recoiled in horror and disgust. Was this his clemency&mdash;this
+sparing of my life that he might submit it to an eternal shame? For a moment my
+mother was forgotten. I thought only of myself, and I grew resolved to hang.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;When you spoke of service,&rsquo; said I &lsquo;I thought of
+service of an honourable sort.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;The service that I offer you is honourable,&rsquo; he said, with
+cold amusement. &lsquo;Indeed, remembering that your life was forfeit, you
+should account yourself most fortunate. You shall be well housed and well fed,
+you shall wear silk and lie in fine linen, on condition that you are merry. If
+you prove dull our castellan shall have you whipped&mdash;for such a one as you
+could not be dull save out of sullenness, of which we shall seek to cure you if
+you show signs of it.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;I will not do it,&rsquo; I cried, &lsquo;it were too base.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;My friend,&rsquo; he answered me, &lsquo;the choice is yours. You
+shall have an hour in which to resolve what you will do. When they open this
+door for you at sunset, come forth clad as you are, and you shall hang. If you
+prefer to live, then don me that robe and cap of motley, and, on condition that
+you are merry, life is yours.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I paused a moment. Our horses were moving slowly, for the tale engrossed us
+both, me in the telling, her in the hearing. Presently&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I need not harass you with the reflections that were mine during that
+hour, Madonna. Rather let me ask you: how should a man so placed make choice to
+be full worthy of the office proffered him?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a moment&rsquo;s silence while she pondered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; she answered me, at last, &ldquo;a fool I take it would have
+chosen death: the wise man life, since it must hold the hope of better
+days.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And since it asked a man of wit to play the fool to such a tune as the
+Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly. But was that
+choice indeed so wise? The story ends not there. That young men whose early
+life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed, well-housed and fed as
+the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he fell into a slothful spirit, and
+was content to play the Fool for bed and board.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
+tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of all, from
+prince to scullion. But in the three years that I had dwelt at Pesaro my
+identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been aware of it. Moreover,
+a court is a place of changes, and in three years there had been such comings
+and goings at the Court of Giovanni Sforza, that not more than one or two
+remained of those that had inhabited it when first I entered on my existence
+there. Thus had my position grown steadily more bearable. I was just a jester
+and no more, and so, in a measure&mdash;though I blush to say it&mdash;I grew
+content. I gathered consolation from the fact that there were not any who now
+remembered the story of my coming to Pesaro, or who knew of the cowardliness I
+had been guilty of when I consented to mask myself in the motley and assume the
+name of Boccadoro. I counted on the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s generosity to let
+things continue thus, and, meanwhile, I provided for my mother out of the vails
+that were earned me by my shame. But there came a day when Giovanni in evil
+wantonness of spirit chose to make merry at the Fool&rsquo;s expense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such as I,
+and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the derision of his
+Court, haply I had been his jester still. But such sport as that would have
+satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of his soul. The man whom his cruel
+mockery crucified for their entertainment was Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he
+revealed to them, relating in his own fashion the tale I have told you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
+all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live. Passion surged up in
+him, and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the bone&mdash;in short, to
+slay me with a whip.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
+Lucrezia. But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it happens
+that I am a wanderer now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that I left it. I had no mind to tell her what motives had impelled Lucrezia
+Borgia to rescue me, nor on what errand I had gone to Rome and was from Rome
+returning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had heard me in silence, and now that I had done, she heaved a sigh, for
+which gentle expression of pity out of my heart I thanked her. We were silent,
+thereafter, for a little while. At length she turned her head to regard me in
+the light of the now declining moon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messer Biancomonte,&rdquo; said she, and the sound of the old name,
+falling from her lips, thrilled me with a joy unspeakable, and seemed already
+to reinvest me in my old estate, &ldquo;Messer Biancomonte, you have done me in
+these four-and-twenty hours such service as never did knight of old for any
+lady&mdash;and you did it, too, out of the most disinterested and noble of
+motives, proving thereby how truly knightly is that heart of yours, which, for
+my sake, has all but beat its last to-night. You must journey on to Pesaro with
+me despite this banishment of which you have told me. I will be surety that no
+harm shall come to you. I could not do less, and I shall hope to do far more.
+Such influence as I may prove to have with my cousin of Pesaro shall be exerted
+all on your behalf, my friend; and if in the nature of Giovanni Sforza there be
+a tithe of the gratitude with which you have inspired me, you shall, at least,
+have justice, and Biancomonte shall be yours again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was silent for a spell, so touched was I by the kindness she manifested
+me&mdash;so touched, indeed, and so unused to it that I forgot how amply I had
+earned it, and how rudely she had used me ere that was done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; I sighed. &ldquo;God knows I am no longer fit to sit in the
+house of the Biancomonte. I am come too low, Madonna.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That Lazzaro, after whom you are named,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;had
+come yet lower. But he lived again, and resumed his former station. Take your
+courage from that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He lived not at the mercy of Giovanni of Pesaro,&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a fresh pause at that. Then&mdash;&ldquo;At least,&rdquo; she urged
+me, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll come to Pesaro with me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why yes,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;I could not let you go alone.&rdquo; And
+in my heart I felt a pang of shame, and called myself a cur for making use of
+her as I was doing to reach the Court of Giovanni Sforza.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You need fear no consequences,&rdquo; she promised me. &ldquo;I can be
+surety for that at least.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the east a brighter, yellower light than the moon&rsquo;s began to show. It
+was the dawn, from which I gathered that it must be approaching the thirteenth
+hour. Pesaro could not be more than a couple of leagues farther, and,
+presently, when we had gained the summit of the slight hill we were ascending,
+we beheld in the distance a blurred mass looming on the edge of the glittering
+sea. A silver ribbon that uncoiled itself from the western hills disappeared
+behind it. That silvery streak was the River Foglia; that heap of buildings
+against the landscape&rsquo;s virgin white, the town of Pesaro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna pointed to it with a sudden cry of gladness. &ldquo;See Messer
+Biancomonte, how near we are. Courage, my friend; a little farther, and yonder
+we have rest and comfort for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had need, in truth, to cry me &ldquo;Courage!&rdquo; for I was weakening
+fast once more. It may have been the much that I had talked, or the infernal
+jolting of my mule, but I was losing blood again, and as we were on the point
+of riding forward my senses swam, so that I cried out; and but for her prompt
+assistance I might have rolled headlong from my saddle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it was, she caught me about the waist as any mother might have done her son.
+&ldquo;What ails you?&rdquo; she inquired, her newly-aroused anxiety
+contrasting sharply with her joyous cry of a moment earlier. &ldquo;Are you
+faint, my friend?&rdquo; It needed no confession on my part. My condition was
+all too plain as I leaned against her frail body for support.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is my wound,&rdquo; I gasped. Then I set my teeth in anguish. So near
+the haven, and to fail now! It could not be; it must not be. I summoned all my
+resolution, all my fortitude; but in vain. Nature demanded payment for the
+abuses she had suffered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If we proceed thus,&rdquo; she ventured fearfully, &ldquo;you leaning
+against me, and going at a slow pace&mdash;no faster than a walk&mdash;think
+you, you can bear it? Try, good Messer &lsquo;Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will try, Madonna,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;Perhaps thus, and if I am
+silent, we may yet reach Pesaro together. If not&mdash;if my strength gives
+out&mdash;the town is yonder and the day is coming. You will find your way
+without me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will not leave you, sir,&rdquo; she vowed; and it was good to hear
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, I hope you may not know the need,&rdquo; I answered wearily. And
+thus we started on once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sant&rsquo; Iddio! What agonies I suffered ere the sun rose up out of the sea
+to flood us with his winter glory! What agonies were mine during those two
+hours or so of that last stage of our eventful journey! &ldquo;I must bear up
+until we are at the gates of Pesaro,&rdquo; I kept murmuring to myself, and, as
+if my spirit were inclined to become the servant of my will and hold my
+battered flesh alive until we got that far, Pesaro&rsquo;s gates I had the joy
+of entering ere I was constrained to give way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dimly I remember&mdash;for very dim were my perceptions growing&mdash;that as
+we crossed the bridge and passed beneath the archway of the Porta Romana, the
+officer turned out to see who came. At sight of me be gaped a moment in
+astonishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Boccadoro?&rdquo; he exclaimed, at last. &ldquo;So soon returned?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Like Perseus from the rescue of Andromeda,&rdquo; answered I, in a
+feeble voice, &ldquo;saving that Perseus was less bloody than am I. Behold the
+Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, the noble cousin of our High and Mighty
+Lord.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then as if my task being done, I were free to set my weary brain to rest,
+my senses grew confused, the officer&rsquo;s voice became a hum that gradually
+waxed fainter as I sank into what seemed the most luxurious and delicious sleep
+that ever mortal knew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two days later, when I was conscious once more, I learned what excitement those
+words of mine had sown, with what honours Madonna Paola was escorted to the
+Castle, and how the citizens of Pesaro turned out upon hearing the news which
+ran like fire before us. And Madonna, it seems, had loudly proclaimed how
+gallantly I had served her, for as they bore me along in a cloak carried by
+four men-at-arms, the cry that was heard in the streets of Pesaro that morning
+was &ldquo;Boccadoro!&rdquo; They had loved me, had those good citizens of
+Pesaro, and the news of my departure had cast a gloom upon the town. To have
+their hero return in a manner so truly heroic provoked that brave display of
+their affection, and I deeply doubt if ever in the days of greatest loyalty the
+name of Sforza was as loudly cried in Pesaro as, they tell me, was the name of
+Sforza&rsquo;s Fool that day.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"></a>
+CHAPTER VII.<br />
+THE SUMMONS FROM ROME</h2>
+
+<p>
+If Madonna Paola did not achieve quite all that she had promised me so readily,
+yet she achieved more than from my acquaintance with the nature of Giovanni
+Sforza&mdash;and my knowledge of the deep malice he entertained for me&mdash;I
+should have dared to hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Tyrant of Pesaro, as I was soon to learn, was greatly taken with this fair
+cousin of his, whom that morning he had beheld for the first time. And being
+taken with her, it may be that Giovanni listened the more readily to her
+intercessions on my poor behalf. Since it was she who begged this thing, he
+could not wholly refuse. But since he was Giovanni Sforza, he could not wholly
+grant. He promised her that my life, at least, should be secure, and that not
+only would he pardon me, but that he would have his own physician see to it
+that I was made sound again. For the time, that was enough, he thought. First
+let them bring me back to life. When that was achieved, it would be early
+enough to consider what course this life should take thereafter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And she, knowing him not and finding him so kind and gracious, trusted that he
+would perform that which he tricked her into believing that he promised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For some ten days I lay abed, feverish at first and later very weak from the
+great loss of blood I had sustained. But after the second day, when my fever
+had abated, I had some visitors, among whom was Madonna Paola, who bore me the
+news that her intercessions for me with the Lord of Pesaro were likely to bear
+fruit, and that I might look for my reinstatement. Yet, if I permitted myself
+to hope as she bade me; I did so none too fully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My situation, bearing in mind how at once I had served and thwarted the ends of
+Cesare Borgia, was perplexing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another visitor I had was Messer Magistri&mdash;the pompous seneschal of
+Pesaro&mdash;who, after his own fashion, seemed to have a liking for me, and a
+certain pity. Here was my chance of discharging the true errand on which I was
+returned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I owe thanks,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;to many circumstances for the
+sparing of my life; but above all people and all things do I owe thanks to our
+gracious Lady Lucrezia. Do you think, Messer Magistri, that she would consent
+to see me and permit me again to express the gratitude that fills my
+heart?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mosser Magistri thought that he could promise this, and consented to bear my
+message to her. Within the hour she was at my bedside and divining that, haply,
+I had news to give her of the letter I had born her brother, she dismissed
+Magistri who was in attendance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once we were alone her first words were of kindly concern for my condition,
+delivered in that sweet, musical voice that was by no means the least charm of
+a princess to whom Nature had been prodigal of gifts. For without going to that
+length of exaggerated praise which some have bestowed&mdash;for her own ear,
+and with an eye to profit&mdash;upon Madonna Lucrezia, yet were I less than
+truthful if I sought to belittle her ample claims to beauty. Some six years
+later than the time of which I write she was met on the occasion of her entry
+into Ferrara by a certain clown dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd
+Paris, who proffered her the apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that
+since beholding her he had been forced to alter his old-time judgment in favour
+of Venus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for which he
+should have been soundly whipped. Her nose was a shade too long, her chin a
+shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such comparisons. Still, that she
+had a certain gracious beauty, as I have said, it is not mine to deny. There
+was an almost childish freshness in her face, an almost childish innocence in
+her fine gray eyes, and, above all, a golden and resplendent hair as brought to
+mind the tresses of God&rsquo;s angels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That fair child&mdash;for no more than a child was she&mdash;drew a chair to my
+bedside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my behalf, and
+answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad again in a day or
+two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Brave lad,&rdquo; she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the
+coverlet, as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool,
+&ldquo;count me ever your friend hereafter, for what you have done for Madonna
+Paola. For although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you did so to serve
+one who is more to me than any family, more than any sister could be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What I did, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I did with the better
+heart since it opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my
+Lord, your Illustrious brother, set me&mdash;one that otherwise might well have
+overtaxed my wits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah?&rdquo; Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a
+glance that revealed to the full their matchless beauty. Care seemed of a
+sudden to have aged her face. The question of her eyes needed no translation
+into words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
+answer to your own,&rdquo; I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I drew
+the package, which during Magistri&rsquo;s absence I had abstracted from my
+boot that I might have it in readiness when she came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of her
+mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I had hoped he would have found better employment for you,&rdquo; she
+said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the future
+did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch. But by aiding Madonna
+Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim the redemption of that
+promise; though had it not been for Madonna Paola and what I did, I scarce know
+how I should have penetrated here to you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood reading
+the letter, her back toward me. Presently I heard a stifled sob. The letter was
+crushed in her hand. Then moments passed ere she confronted me once more. But
+her manner as all changed; she was agitated and preoccupied, and for all that
+she forced herself to talk of me and my affairs, her mind was clearly
+elsewhere. At last she left me, nor did I see her again during the time I was
+confined to my bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like, I was
+permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on the terrace that
+overlooks the sea. I found no garments but some suits of motley, and so, in
+despite of my repugnance now to reassume that garb, I had no choice but to
+array myself in one of these. I selected the least garish one&mdash;a suit of
+black and yellow stripes, with hose that was half black, half yellow, too; and
+so, leaning upon the crutch they had left me, I crept forth into the sunlight,
+the very ghost of the man that I had been a fortnight ago.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards Ancona,
+and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air of the Adriatic.
+The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some twenty paces
+off&mdash;there was a stretch of soft, green turf.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I was yet
+abed. It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with the proverbs of one
+Domenico Lopez&mdash;all very proper nourishment for a jester&rsquo;s mind. The
+odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and among the proverbs there were
+many that were new to me in framing and in substance. Moreover, I was glad of
+this means of improving my acquaintance with the tongue of Spain, and I was
+soon absorbed. So absorbed, indeed, as never to hear the footsteps of the Lord
+Giovanni, when presently he approached me unattended, nor to guess at his
+presence until his shadow fell athwart my page. I raised my eyes, and seeing
+who it was I made shift to get on my feet; but he commanded me to remain
+seated, commenting sympathetically upon my weak condition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile fluttered across
+his white face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You choose your reading with rare judgment,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Read
+on, and prime your mind with fresh humour, prepare yourself with new conceits
+for our amusement against the time when health shall be more fully restored
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in such words as these that he intimated to me that I was pardoned, and
+reinstated&mdash;as the Fool of the Court of Pesaro. That was to be the sum of
+his clemency. We were precisely where we had been. Once before had he granted
+me my life on condition that I should amuse him; he did no more than repeat
+that mercy now. I stared at him in wonder, open-mouthed, whereit he laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro?&rdquo; said he, his fingers
+straying to his beard as was his custom. &ldquo;My clemency is no more than you
+deserve in return for the service you have rendered to the House of
+Sforza.&rdquo; And he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs that
+had borne itself bravely in the chase.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered nothing. I sat there as if I had been a part of the stone from which
+my seat was hewn, for I lacked the strength to rise and strangle him as he
+deserved&mdash;moreover, I was bound by an oath, which it would have damned my
+soul to break, never to raise my hand against him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, before he could say more, two ladies issued from the doorway on my
+right. They were Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Paola. Upon espying me they
+hastened forward with expressions of pleased surprise at seeing me risen and
+out, and when I would have got to my feet they stayed me as Giovanni had done.
+Madonna Paola&rsquo;s words seemed addressed to heaven rather than to me, for
+they were words of thanksgiving for this recovery of my strength.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have no thanks,&rdquo; she ended warmly, &ldquo;that can match the
+deeds by which you earned them, Messer Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My eyes drifting to Giovanni&rsquo;s face surprised its sudden darkening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna Paola,&rdquo; said he, in an icy voice, &ldquo;you have uttered
+a name that must not be heard within my walls of Pesaro, if you would prove
+yourself the friend of Boccadoro. To remind me of his true identity is to
+remind me of that which counts not in his favour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned to regard him, a mild surprise in her blue eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, my lord, you promised&mdash;&rdquo; she began.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I promised,&rdquo; he interposed, with an easy smile and manner never so
+deprecatory, &ldquo;that I would pardon him, grant him his life and restore him
+to my favour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But did you not say that if he survived and was restored to strength you
+would then determine the course his life should take?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still smiling, he produced his comfit-box, and raised the lid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is a thing he seems to have determined for himself,&rdquo; he
+answered smoothly&mdash;he could be smooth as a cat upon occasion, could this
+bastard of Costanzo Sforza. &ldquo;I came upon him here, arrayed as you behold
+him, and reading a book of Spanish quips. Is it not clear that he has
+chosen?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Between thumb and forefinger he balanced a sugar-crusted comfit of coriander
+seed steeped in marjoram vinegar, and having put his question he bore the
+sweet-meat to his mouth. The ladies looked at him, and from him to me. Then
+Madonna Paola spoke, and there seemed a reproachful wonder in her voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is this indeed your choice?&rdquo; she asked me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is the choice that was forced on me,&rdquo; said I, in heat.
+&ldquo;They left me no garment save these of folly. That I was reading this
+book it pleases my lord to interpret into a further sign of my
+intentions.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of Madonna
+Lucrezia. He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of rare loftiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am more clement than you think,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;in having done
+so much. For the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving
+political issues you little dream of. What is this?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had turned abruptly. A servant was approaching, leading a mud-splashed
+courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whence are you?&rdquo; Giovanni questioned him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From the Holy See,&rdquo; answered the courier, bowing, &ldquo;with
+letters for the High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his
+noble spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown
+overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant. Then bidding the servant
+see to the courier&rsquo;s refreshment, he dismissed them both.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he would
+infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro were, there
+and then, forgotten by us all. For the thought that rose uppermost in our
+minds&mdash;saving always that of Madonna Lucrezia&mdash;was that these
+communications concerned the sheltering of Madonna Paola, and were a command
+for her immediate return to Rome. At last Giovanni handed his wife the letter
+intended for her, and, in silence, broke the seal of his own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He unfolded it with a grim smile, but scarce had he begun to read when his
+expression softened into one of terror, and his face grew ashen. Next it flared
+crimson, the veins on his brow stood out like ropes, and his eyes flashed
+furiously upon Madonna Lucrezia. She was reading, her bosom rising and falling
+in token of the excitement that possessed her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; he cried in an awful voice, &ldquo;I have here a command
+from the Holy See to repair at once to Rome, to answer certain charges that are
+preferred against me relating to my marriage. Madonna, know you aught of
+this?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know, sir,&rdquo; she answered steadily, &ldquo;that I, too, have here
+a letter calling me to Rome. But there is no reason given for the
+summons.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Intuitively it flashed across my mind that whatever the matter might be,
+Madonna Lucrezia had full knowledge of it through the letter I had brought her
+from her brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can you conjecture, Madonna, what are these charges to which my letter
+vaguely alludes?&rdquo; Giovanni was inquiring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your pardon, but the subject is scarcely of a nature to permit
+discussion in the castle courtyard. Its character is intimate.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at her very searchingly, but for all that he was a man of almost
+twice her years, her wits were more than a match for his, and his scrutiny can
+have told him nothing. She preserved a calm, unruffled front.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In five minutes, Madonna,&rdquo; said he, very sternly, &ldquo;I shall
+be honoured if you will receive me in your closet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She inclined her head, murmuring an unhesitating assent. Satisfied, he bowed to
+her and to Madonna Paola&mdash;who had been looking on with eyes that wonder
+had set wide open&mdash;and turning on his heel he strode briskly away. As he
+passed into the castle, Madonna Lucrezia heaved a sigh and rose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My poor Boccadoro,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;I fear me your affairs must
+wait a while. But think of me always as your friend, and believe that if I can
+prevail upon my brother to overlook the ill-turn you did him when you entered
+the service of this child&rdquo;&mdash;and she pointed to Madonna
+Paola&mdash;&ldquo;I shall send for you from Rome, for in Pesaro I fear you
+have little to hope for. But let this be a secret between us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From those words of hers I inferred, as perhaps she meant I should, that once
+she left Pesaro to obey her father&rsquo;s summons, our little northern state
+was to know her no more. Once again, only, did I see her, on the occasion of
+her departure, some four days later, and then but for a moment. Back to Pesaro
+she came no more, as you shall learn anon; but behind her she left a sweet and
+fragrant memory, which still endures though many years are sped and much
+calumny has been heaped upon her name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I might pause here to make some attempt at refuting the base falsehoods that
+had been bruited by that time-serving vassal Guicciardini, and others of his
+kidney, whom the upstart Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere&mdash;sometime
+pedlar&mdash;in his jealous fury at seeing the coveted pontificate pass into
+the family of Borgia, bought and hired to do his loathsome work of calumny and
+besmirch the fame of as sweet a lady as Italy has known. But this poor
+chronicle of mine is rather concerned with the history of Madonna Paola di
+Santafior, and it were a divergence well-nigh unpardonable to set my pen at
+present to that other task. Moreover, there is scarce the need. If any there be
+who doubt me, or if future generations should fall into the error of lending
+credence to the lies of that villain Guicciardini, of that arch-villain
+Giuliano della Rovere, or of other smaller fry who have lent their
+helot&rsquo;s pens to weave mendacious records of her life, dubbing her
+murderess, adulteress, and Heaven knows what besides&mdash;I will but refer
+them to the archives of Ferrara, whose Duchess she became at the age of
+one-and-twenty, and where she reigned for eighteen years. There shall it be
+found recorded that she was an exemplary, God-fearing woman; a faithful and
+honoured wife; a wise, devoted mother; and a princess, beloved and esteemed by
+her people for her piety, her charity and her wisdom. If such records as are
+there to be read by earnest seekers after truth be not sufficient to convince,
+and to reveal those others whom I have named in the light of their true
+baseness, then were it idle for me to set up in these pages a passing
+refutation of the falsehoods which it has grieved me so often to hear repeated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was two days later that the Lord Giovanni set out for Rome, obedient to the
+command he had received. But before his departure&mdash;on the eve of it, to be
+precise&mdash;there arrived at Pesaro a very wonderful and handsome gentleman.
+This was the brother of Madonna Paola, the High and Mighty Lord Filippo di
+Santafior. He had had a hint in Rome that his connivance at his sister&rsquo;s
+defiant escape was suspected at the Vatican, and he had wisely determined that
+his health would thrive better in a northern climate for a while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A very splendid creature was this Lord Filippo, all shimmering velvet, gleaming
+jewels, costly furs and glittering gold. His face was effeminate, though finely
+featured, and resembled, in much, his sister&rsquo;s. He rode a cream-coloured
+horse, which seemed to have been steeped in musk, so strongly was it scented.
+But of all his affectations the one with which I as taken most was to see one
+of his grooms approach him when he dismounted, to dust his wondrous clothes
+down to his shoes, which he wore in the splayed fashion set by the late King of
+France who was blessed with twelve toes on each of his deformed feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Lord Giovanni, himself not lacking in effeminacy, was greatly taken by the
+wondrous raiment, the studied lisp and the hundred affectations of this
+peerless gallant. Had he not been overburdened at the time by the Papal
+business that impended, he might there and then have cemented the intimacy
+which was later to spring up between them. As it was, he made him very welcome,
+and placed at his and his sister&rsquo;s disposal the beautiful palace that his
+father had begun, and he, himself, had completed, which was known as the
+Palazza Sforza. On the morrow Giovanni left Pesaro with but a small retinue, in
+which I was thankful not to be included.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two days later Madonna Lucrezia followed her husband, the fact that they
+journeyed not together, seeming to wear an ominous significance. Her eyes had a
+swollen look, such as attends much weeping, which afterwards I took as proof
+that she knew for what purpose she was going, and was moved to bitter grief at
+the act to which her ambitious family was constraining her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After their departure things moved sluggishly at Pesaro. The nobles of the Lord
+Giovanni&rsquo;s Court repaired to their several houses in the neighboring
+country, and save for the officers of the household the place became deserted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna Paola remained at the Sforza Palace, and I saw her only once during the
+two mouths that followed, and then it was about the streets, and she had little
+more than a greeting for me as she passed. At her side rode her brother, a
+splendid blaze of finery, falcon on wrist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My days were spent in reading and reflection, for there was naught else to do.
+I might have gone my ways, had I so wished it, but something kept me there at
+Pesaro, curious to see the events with which the time was growing big.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We grew sadly stagnant during Lent, and what with the uneventful course of
+things, and the lean fare proscribed by Mother Church, it was a very dispirited
+Boccadoro that wandered aimlessly whither his dulling fancy took him. But in
+Holy Week, at last, we received an abrupt stir which set a whirlpool of
+excitement in the Dead Sea of our lives. It was the sudden reappearance of the
+Lord Giovanni.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He came alone, dust-stained and haggard, on a horse that dropped dead from
+exhaustion the moment Pesaro was reached, and in his pallid cheek and hollow
+eye we read the tale of some great fear and some disaster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night we heard the story of how he had performed the feat of riding all
+the way from Rome in four-and-twenty hours, fleeing for his life from the peril
+of assassination, of which Madonna Lucrezia had warned him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He went off to his Castle of Gradara, where he shut himself up with the trouble
+we could but guess at, and so in Pesaro, that brief excitement spent, we
+stagnated once again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I seemed an anomaly in so gloomy a place, and more than once did I think of
+departing and seeking out my poor old mother in her mountain home, contenting
+myself hereafter with labouring like any honest villano born to the soil. But
+there ever seemed to be a voice that bade me stay and wait, and the voice bore
+a suggestion of Madonna Paola. But why dissemble here? Why cast out hints of
+voices heard, supernatural in their flavour? The voice, I doubt not, was just
+my own inclination, which bade me hope that once again it might be mine to
+serve that lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An eventful year in the history of the families of Sforza and Borgia was that
+year of grace 1497.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Spring came, and ere it had quite grown to summer we had news of the
+assassination of the Duke of Gandia, and the tale that he was done to death by
+his elder brother, Cesare Borgia; a tale which seemed to lack for reasonable
+substantiation, and which, despite the many voices that make bold to noise it
+broadcast, may or may not be true.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that same month of June messages passed between Rome and Pesaro, and
+gradually the burden of the messages leaked out in rumours that Pope Alexander
+and his family were pressing the Lord Giovanni to consent to a divorce. At last
+he left Pesaro again; this time to journey to Milan and seek counsel with his
+powerful cousin, Lodovico, whom they called &ldquo;The Moor.&rdquo; When he
+returned he was more sulky and downcast than ever, and at Gradara he lived in
+an isolation that had been worthy of a hermit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And thus that miserable year wore itself out, and, at last, in December, we
+heard that the divorce was announced, and that Lucrezia Borgia was the Tyrant
+of Pesaro&rsquo;s wife no more. The news of it and the reasons that were put
+forward as having led to it were roared across Italy in a great, derisive burst
+of laughter, of which the Lord Giovanni was the unfortunate and contemptible
+butt.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"></a>
+CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+&ldquo;MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN&rdquo;</h2>
+
+<p>
+And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine, it may
+be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of the next three
+years of the history of Pesaro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he seemed
+again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been before shame
+overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding. Madonna Paola and her
+brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in Pesaro, where they now appeared to
+have taken up their permanent abode. Madonna Paola&mdash;following her
+inclinations&mdash;withdrew to the Convent of Santa Caterina, there to pursue
+in peace the studies for which she had a taste, whilst her splendid, profligate
+brother became the ornament&mdash;the arbiter elegantiarum&mdash;of our court.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics a stew
+was simmering that demanded all that family&rsquo;s attention, and of whose
+import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had flung aside
+his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer rein to the boundless
+ambition that consumed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never been.
+Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce left discernible
+any semblance of reality, for I was once again Boccadoro, the golden-mouthed
+Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every jester throughout Italy. My shame that
+for a brief season had risen up in arms seemed to be laid to rest once more,
+and I was content with the burden that was mine. Money I had in plenty, for
+when I pleased him the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s vails were often handsome, and
+much of my earnings went to my poor mother, who would sooner have died starving
+than have bought herself bread with those ducats could she have guessed at what
+manner of trade Lazzaro Biancomonte had earned them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa Caterina,
+whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to pay his duty to his
+fair cousin. In the summer of 1500, she being then come to the age of eighteen,
+and as divinely beautiful a lady as you could find in Italy, she allowed
+herself to be persuaded by her brother&mdash;who, I make no doubt had been, in
+his turn, persuaded by the Lord of Pesaro&mdash;to leave her convent and her
+studies, and to take up her life at the Sforza Palace, where Filippo held by
+now a sort of petty court of his own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now it fell out that the Lord Giovanni was oftener at the Palace than at
+the Castle, and during that summer Pesaro was given over to such merrymaking as
+it had never known before. There was endless lute-thrumming and recitation of
+verses by a score of parasite poets whom the Lord Giovanni encouraged, posing
+now as a patron of letters; there were balls and masques and comedies beyond
+number, and we were as gay as though Italy held no Cesare Borgia, Duke of
+Valentinois, who was sweeping northward with his all-conquering flood of
+mercenaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But one there was who, though the very centre of all these merry doings, the
+very one in whose honour and for whose delectation they were set afoot, seemed
+listless and dispirited in that boisterous crowd. This was Madonna Paola, to
+whom, rumour had it, that her kinsman, the Lord Giovanni, was paying a most
+ardent suit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I saw her daily now, and often would she choose me for her sole companion;
+often, sitting apart with me, would she unburden her heart and tell me much
+that I am assured she would have told no other. A strange thing may it have
+seemed, this confidence between the Fool and the noble Lady of
+Santafior&mdash;my Holy Flower of the Quince, as in my thoughts I grew to name
+her. Perhaps it may have been because she found me ever ready to be sober at
+her bidding, when she needed sober company as those other fools&mdash;the
+greater fools since they accounted themselves wise&mdash;could not afford her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That winter adventure betwixt Cagli and Pesaro was a link that bound us
+together, and caused her to see under my motley and my masking smile the true
+Lazzaro Biancomonte whom for a little season she had known. And when we were
+alone it had become her wont to call me Lazzaro, leaving that other name that
+they had given me for use when others were at hand. Yet never did she refer to
+my condition, or wound me by seeking to spur me to the ambition to become
+myself again. Haply she was content that I should be as I sas, since had I
+sought to become different it must have entailed my quitting Pesaro, and this
+poor lady was so bereft of friends that she could not afford to lose even the
+sympathy of the despised jester.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in those days that I first came to love her with as pure a flame as ever
+burned within the heart of man, for the very hopelessness of it preserved its
+holy whiteness. What could I do, if I would love her, but love her as the dog
+may love his mistress? More was surely not for me&mdash;and to seek more were
+surely a madness that must earn me less. And so, I was content to let things
+be, and keep my heart in check, thanking God for the mercy of her company at
+times, and for the precious confidences she made me, and praying
+Heaven&mdash;for of my love was I grown devout&mdash;that her life might run a
+smooth and happy course, and ready, in the furtherance of such an object, to
+lay down my own should the need arise. Indeed there were times when it seemed
+to me that it was a good thing to be a Fool to know a love of so rare a purity
+as that&mdash;such a love as I might never have known had I been of her
+station, and in such case as to have hoped to win her some day for my own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One evening of late August, when the vines were heavy with ripe fruit, and the
+scent of roses was permeating the tepid air, she drew me from the throng of
+courtiers that made merry in the Palace, and led me out into the noble gardens
+to seek counsel with me, she said, upon a matter of gravest moment. There,
+under the sky of deepest blue, crimsoning to saffron where the sun had set, we
+paced awhile in silence, my own senses held in thrall by the beauty of the
+eventide, the ambient perfumes of the air and the strains of music that faintly
+reached us from the Palace. Madonna&rsquo;s head was bent, and her eyes were
+set upon the ground and burdened, so my furtive glance assured me, with a
+gentle sorrow. At length she spoke, and at the words she uttered my heart
+seemed for a moment to stand still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;they would have me marry.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a little spell there was a silence, my wits seeming to have grown too
+numbed to attempt to seek an answer. I might be content, indeed, to love her
+from a distance, as the cloistered monk may love and worship some particular
+saint in Heaven; yet it seems that I was not proof against jealousy for all the
+abstract quality of my worship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she repeated presently, &ldquo;did you hear me? They
+would have me marry.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard some such talk,&rdquo; I answered, rousing myself at last;
+&ldquo;and they say that it is the Lord Giovanni who would prove worthy of your
+hand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They say rightly, then,&rdquo; she acknowledged. &ldquo;The Lord
+Giovanni it is.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again there was a silence, and again it was she who broke it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Have you naught to say?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What would you have me say, Madonna? If this wedding accords with your
+own wishes, then am I glad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro, Lazzaro! you know that it does not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How should I know it, Madonna?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because your wits are shrewd, and because you know me. Think you this
+petty tyrant is such a man as I should find it in my heart to conceive
+affection for? Grateful to him am I for the shelter he has afforded us here;
+but my love&mdash;that is a thing I keep, or fain would keep, for some very
+different man. When I love, I think it will be a valorous knight, a gentleman
+of lofty mind, of noble virtues and ready address.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;An excellent principle on which to go in quest of a husband, Madonna
+mia. But where in this degenerate world do you look to find him?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are there, then, no such men?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the pages of Bojardo and those other poets whom you have read too
+earnestly there may be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, there speaks your cynicism,&rdquo; she chided me. &ldquo;But even
+if my ideals be too lofty, would you have me descend from the height of such a
+pinnacle to the level of the Lord Giovanni&mdash;a weak-spirited craven, as
+witnesses the manner in which he permitted the Borgias to mishandle him; a
+cruel and unjust tyrant, as witnesses his dealing with you, to seek no further
+instances; a weak, ignorant, pleasure-loving fool, devoid of wit and barren of
+ambition? Such is the man they would have me wed. Do not tell me, Lazzaro, that
+it were difficult to find a better one than this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not mean to tell you that. After all, though it be my trade to
+jest, it is not my way to deal in falsehood. I think, Madonna, that if we were
+to have you write for us such an appreciation of the High and Mighty Giovanni
+Sforza, you would leave a very faithful portrait for the enlightenment of
+posterity.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro, do not jest!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It is your help I need.
+That is the reason why I am come to you with the tale of what they seek to
+force me into doing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To force you?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;Would they dare so much?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, if I resist them further.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, then,&rdquo; I answered, with a ready laugh, &ldquo;do not resist
+them further.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro!&rdquo; she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by
+what she accounted a flippancy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mistake me not,&rdquo; I hastened to elucidate. &ldquo;It is lest they
+should employ force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I
+counsel you to offer no resistance. Beg for a little time, vaguely suggesting
+that you are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s suit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That were deceit,&rdquo; she protested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny,&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well? And then?&rdquo; she questioned. &ldquo;Such a state of things
+cannot endure for ever. It must end some day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full of
+confidence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s impatience
+transcends all bounds.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression
+knitting her fine brows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not take your meaning, my friend,&rdquo; she complained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then mark the enucleation. I will expound this meaning of mine through
+the medium of a parable. In Babylon of old, there dwelt a king whose name was
+Belshazzar, who, having fallen into habits of voluptuousness and luxury, was so
+enslaved by them as to feast and make merry whilst a certain Darius, King of
+the Medes, was marching in arms against his capital. At a feast one night the
+fingers of a man&rsquo;s hand were seen to write upon the wall, and the words
+they wrote were a belated warning: &lsquo;Mene, mene, tekel,
+upharsin.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me, her eyes round with inquiry, and a faint smile of uncertainty
+on her lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let me confess that your elucidation helps me but little.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ponder it, Madonna,&rdquo; I urged her. &ldquo;Substitute Giovanni
+Sforza for Belshazzar, Cesare Borgia for King Darius, and you have the key to
+my parable.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But is it indeed so? Does danger threaten Pesaro from that
+quarter?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, does it,&rdquo; I answered, almost impatiently. &ldquo;The tide of
+war is surging up, and presently will whelm us utterly. Yet here sits the Lord
+Giovanni making merry with balls and masques and burle and banquets, wholly
+unprepared, wholly unconscious of his peril. There may be no hand to write a
+warning on his walls&mdash;or else, as in the case of Babylon, the hand will
+write when it is too late to avert the evil&mdash;yet there are not wanting
+other signs for those that have the wit to read them; nor is a wondrous
+penetration needed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you think then&mdash;&rdquo; she began.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that if you are obdurate with him, he and your brother may hurry
+you by force into this union. But if you temporise with half-promises, with
+suggestions that before Christmas you may grow reconciled to his wishes, he
+will be patient.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what if Christmas comes and finds us still in this position?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It will need a miracle for that; or, at least, the death of Cesare
+Borgia&mdash;an unlikely event, for they say he uses great precautions. Saving
+the miracle, and providing Cesare lives, I will give the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s
+reign in Pesaro at most two months.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had halted now, and were confronting each other in the descending gloom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro, dear friend,&rdquo; she cried, almost with gaiety, &ldquo;I was
+wise to take counsel with you. You have planted in my heart a very vigorous
+growth of hope.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We turned soon after, and started to retrace our steps, for she might be
+ill-advised to remain absent overlong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I left her on the terrace in a very different spirit from that in which she had
+come to me, bearing with me her promise that she would act as I had advised
+her. No doubt I had taken a load from her gentle soul, and oddly enough I had
+taken, too, a load from mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Things fell out as I said they would in far as Giovanni Sforza and Filippo were
+concerned. Madonna&rsquo;s seeming amenability to their wishes stayed their
+insistence, and they could but respect her wishes to let the betrothal be
+delayed yet a little while. And during the weeks that followed, it was I scarce
+know whether more pitiable or more amusing to see the efforts that Giovanni
+made to win her ardently desired affection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Love has sharp eyes at times, and a dullard under the influence of the baby god
+will turn shrewd and exert rare wiles in the conduct of his wooing. Giovanni,
+by some intuition usually foreign to his dull nature, seemed to divine what
+manner of man would be Madonna Paola&rsquo;s ideal, and strove to pass himself
+off as possessed of the attributes of that ideal, with an ardour that was
+pitiably comical. He became an actor by the side of whom those comedians that
+played impromptus for his delectation were the merest bunglers with the art. He
+gathered that Madonna Paola loved the poets and their stately diction, and so,
+to please her better, he became a poet for the season.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Poeta nascitur&rdquo; the proverb runs, and that proverb&rsquo;s truth
+was doubtless forced home upon the Lord Giovanni at an early stage of his
+excursions into the flowery meads of prosody. Fortunately he lacked the supreme
+vanity that is the attribute of most poetasters, and he was able to see that
+such things as after hours of midnight-labour he contrived to pen, would evoke
+nothing but her amusement&mdash;unless, indeed, it were her scorn&mdash;and
+render him the laughing-stock of all his Court.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, in the wisdom of despair, he came to me, and with a gentleness that in the
+past he had rarely manifested for me, he asked me was I skilled in writing
+verse. There were not wanting others to whom he might have gone, for there was
+no lack of rhymsters about his Court; but perhaps he thought he could be more
+certain of my silence than of theirs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered him that were the subject to my taste, I might succeed in throwing
+off some passable lines upon it. He pressed gold upon me, and bade me there and
+then set about fashioning an ode to Madonna Paola, and to forget, when they
+were done, under pain of a whipping to the bone, that I had written them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed him with a right good-will. For what subject of all subjects possible
+was there that made so powerful an appeal to my inclinations? Within an hour he
+had the ode&mdash;not perhaps such a poem as might stand comparison with the
+verses of Messer Petrarca, yet a very passable effusion, chaste of conceit and
+palpitating with sincerity and adoration. It was in that that I addressed her
+as the &ldquo;Holy Flower of the Quince,&rdquo; which was the symbol of the
+House of Santafior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So great an impression made that ode that on the morrow the Lord Giovanni came
+to me with a second bribe and a second threat of torture. I gave him a sonnet
+of Petrarchian manner which went near to outshining the merits of the ode. And
+now, these requests of the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s assumed an almost daily
+regularity, until it came to seem that did affairs continue in this manner for
+yet a little while, I should have earned me enough to have repurchased
+Biancomonte, and, so, ended my troubles. And good was the value that I gave him
+for his gold. How good, he never knew; for how was he, the clod, to guess that
+this despised jester of his Court was pouring out his very soul into the lines
+he wrote to the tyrant&rsquo;s orders?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is scant wonder that, at last, Madonna Paola who had begun by smiling, was
+touched and moved by the ardent worship that sighed from those perfervid
+verses. So touched, indeed, was she as to believe the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s
+love to be the pure and holy thing those lines presented it, and to conclude
+that his love had wrought in him a wondrous and ennobling transformation. That
+so she thought I have the best of all reasons to affirm, for I had it from her
+very lips one day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she sighed, &ldquo;it is occurring to me that I have
+done the Lord Giovanni an injustice. I have misgauged his character. I held him
+to be a shallow, unlettered clown, devoid of any finer feelings. Yet his verses
+have a merit that is far above the common note of these writings, and they
+breathe such fine and lofty sentiments as could never spring from any but a
+fine and lofty soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How I came to keep my tongue from wagging out the truth I scarcely know. It may
+be that I was frightened of the punishment that might overtake me did I betray
+my master; but I rather think that it was the fear of betraying myself, and so
+being flung into the outer darkness where there was no such radiant presence as
+Madonna Paola&rsquo;s. For had I told her it was I had penned those poems that
+were the marvel of the Court, she must of necessity have guessed my secret, for
+to such quick wits as hers it must have been plain at once that they were no
+vapourings of artistry, but the hot expressions of a burning truth. It was in
+that&mdash;in their supreme sincerity&mdash;that their chief virtue lay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus weeks wore on. The vintage season came and went; the roses faded in the
+gardens of the Palazzo Sforza, and the trees put on their autumn garb of gold.
+October was upon us, and with it came, at last, the fear that long ago should
+have spurred us into activity. And now that it came it did not come to
+stimulate, but to palsy. Terror-stricken at the conquering advance of
+Valentino&mdash;which was the name they now gave Cesare Borgia; a name derived
+from his Duchy of Valentinois&mdash;Giovanni Sforza abruptly ceased his
+revelling, and made a hurried appeal for help to Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of
+Mantua&mdash;his brother-in-law, through the Lord of Pesaro&rsquo;s first
+marriage. The Mantuan Marquis sent him a hundred mercenaries under the command
+of an Albanian named Giacomo. As well might he have sent him a hundred figs
+wherewith to pelt the army of Valentino!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Disaster swooped down swiftly upon the Lord of Pesaro. His very people, seeing
+in what case they were, and how unprepared was their tyrant to defend them,
+wisely resolved that they would run no risks of fire and pillage by aiding to
+oppose the irresistible force that was being hurled against us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on the second Sunday in October that the storm burst over the Lord
+Giovanni&rsquo;s head. He was on the point of leaving the Castle to attend Mass
+at San Domenico, and in his company were Filippo Sforza of Santafior and
+Madonna Paola, besides courtiers and attendants, amounting in all to perhaps a
+score of gallant cavaliers and ladies. The cavalcade was drawn up in the
+quadrangle, and Giovanni was on the point of mounting, when, of a sudden, a
+rumbling noise, as of distant thunder, but too continuous for that, arrested
+him, his foot already in the stirrup.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; he asked, an ashen pallor overspreading his
+effeminate face, as, doubtless, the thought of the enemy came uppermost in his
+mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Men looked at one another with fear in their eyes and some of the ladies raised
+their voices in querulous beseeching for reassurance. They had their answer
+even as they asked. The Albanian Giacomo, who was now virtually the provost of
+the Castle, appeared suddenly at the gates with half a score of men. He raised
+a warning hand, which compelled the Lord Giovanni to pause; then he rasped out
+a brisk command to his followers. The winches creaked, and the drawbridge swung
+up even as with a clank and rattle of chains the portcullis fell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That done, he came forward to impart the ominous news which one of his riders
+had brought him at the gallop from the Porta Romana.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A party of some fifty men, commanded by one of Cesare&rsquo;s captains, had
+ridden on in advance of the main army to call upon Pesaro to yield to the
+forces of the Church. And the people, without hesitation, had butchered the
+guard and thrown wide the gates, inviting the enemy to enter the town and seize
+the Castle. And to the end that this might be the better achieved, a hundred or
+so had traitorously taken up arms, and were pressing forward to support the
+little company that came, with such contemptuous daring, to storm our fortress
+and prepare the way for Valentino.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a pretty situation this for the Lord Giovanni, and here were fine
+opportunities for some brave acting under the eyes of his adored Madonna Paola.
+How would he bear himself now? I wondered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He promised mighty well once the first shock of the news was overcome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By God and His saints!&rdquo; he roared, &ldquo;though it may be all
+that it is given me to do, I&rsquo;ll strike a blow to punish these dastards
+who have betrayed me, and to crush the presumption of this captain who attacks
+us with fifty men. It is a contempt which he shall bitterly repent him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he thundered to Giacomo to marshal his men, and he called upon those of
+his courtiers who were knights to put on their armour that they might support
+him. Lastly he bade a page go help him to arm, that he might lead his little
+force in person.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I saw Madonna Paola&rsquo;s eyes gleam with a sudden light of admiration, and I
+guessed that in the matter of Giovanni&rsquo;s valour her opinions were
+undergoing the same change as the verses had caused them to undergo in the
+matter of his intellect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Myself, I was amazed. For here was a Lord Giovanni I seemed never to have
+known, and I was eager to behold the sequel to so fine a prologue.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"></a>
+CHAPTER IX.<br />
+THE FOOL-AT-ARMS</h2>
+
+<p>
+That valorous bearing that the Lord Giovanni showed whilst, with Madonna
+Paola&rsquo;s glance upon him, his fear of seeming afraid was greater than his
+actual fear of our assailants, he cast aside like a mantle once he was within
+the walls of his Castle, and under the eyes of none save the page and myself,
+for I followed idly at a respectful distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stood irresolute and livid of countenance, his eagerness to arm and to lead
+his mercenaries and his knights all departed out of him. It was that curiosity
+of mine to see the sequel to his stout words that had led me to follow him, and
+what I saw was, after all, no more than I might have looked for&mdash;the proof
+that his big talk of sallying forth to battle was but so much acting. Yet it
+must have been acting of such a quality as to have deceived even his very self.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, however, by the main steps, he halted in the cool gloom of the gallery,
+and I saw that fear had caught his heart in an icy grip and was squeezing it
+empty. In his irresolution he turned about, and his gloomy eye fell upon me
+loitering in the porch. At that he turned to the page who followed in obedience
+to his command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Begone!&rdquo; he growled at the lad, &ldquo;I will have Boccadoro,
+there, to help me arm.&rdquo; And with a poor attempt at mirth&mdash;&ldquo;The
+act is a madness,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;and so it is fitting that folly
+should put on my armour for it. Come with me, you,&rdquo; he bade me, and I,
+obediently, gladly, went forward and up the wide stone staircase after him,
+leaving the page to speculate as he listed on the matter of his abrupt
+dismissal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I read the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s motives, as clearly as if they had been
+written for me by his own hand. The opinion in which I might hold him was to
+him a matter of so small account that he little cared that I should be the
+witness of the weakness which he feared was about to overcome him&mdash;nay,
+which had overcome him already. Was I not the one man in Pesaro who already
+knew his true nature, as revealed by that matter of the verses which I had
+written, and of which he had assumed the authorship? He had no shame before me,
+for I already knew the very worst of him, and he was confident that I would not
+talk lest he should destroy me at my first word. And yet, there was more than
+that in his motive for choosing me to go with him in that hour, as I was to
+learn once we were closeted in his chamber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Boccadoro,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;can you not find me some way out of
+this?&rdquo; Under his beard I saw the quiver of his lips as he put the
+question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Out of this?&rdquo; I echoed, scarce understanding him at first.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, man&mdash;out of this Castle, out of Pesaro. Bestir those wits of
+yours. Is there no way in which it might be done, no disguise under which I
+might escape?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Escape?&rdquo; quoth I, looking at him, and endeavouring to keep from my
+eyes the contempt that was in my heart. Dear God! Had revenge been all I sought
+of him, how I might have gloated over his miserable downfall!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do not stand there staring with those hollow eyes,&rdquo; he cried,
+anger and fear blending horridly in his voice and rendering shrill its pitch.
+&ldquo;Find me a way. Come, knave, find me a way, or I&rsquo;ll have you broken
+on the wheel. Set your wits to save that long, lean body from destruction.
+Think, I bid you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was moving restlessly as he spoke, swayed by the agitation of terror that
+possessed him like a devil. I looked at him now without dissembling my scorn.
+Even in such an hour as this the habit of hectoring cruelty remained him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What shall it avail me to think?&rdquo; I asked him in a voice that was
+as cold and steady as his was hot and quavering. &ldquo;Were you a bird I might
+suggest flight across the sea to you. But you are a man, a very human, a very
+mortal man, although your father made you Lord of Pesaro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even as I was speaking, the thunder of the besiegers reached our
+ears&mdash;such a dull roar it was as that of a stormy sea in winter time.
+Maddened by his terror he stood over me now, his eyes flashing wildly in his
+white face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Another word in such a tone,&rdquo; he rasped, his fingers on his
+dagger, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll make an end of you. I need your help,
+animal!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head, my glance meeting his without fear. I was of twice his
+strength, we were alone, and the hour was one that levelled ranks. Had he made
+the least attempt to carry out his threat, had he but drawn an inch of the
+steel he fingered, I think I should have slain him with my hands without fear
+or thought of consequences.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have no help for you such as you need,&rdquo; I answered him. &ldquo;I
+am but the Fool of Pesaro. Whoever looked to a Fool for miracles?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But here is death,&rdquo; he almost moaned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lord of Pesaro,&rdquo; I reminded him, &ldquo;your mercenaries are under
+arms by your command, and your knights are joining them. They wait for the
+fulfilment of your promise to lead them out against the enemy. Shall you fail
+them in such an hour as this?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He sank, limp as an empty scabbard, to a chair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I dare not go. It is death,&rdquo; he answered miserably.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what but death is it to remain here?&rdquo; I asked, torturing him
+with more zest than ever he had experienced over the agonies of some poor
+victim on the rack. &ldquo;In bearing yourself gallantly there lies a slender
+chance for you. Your people seeing you in arms and ready to defend them may yet
+be moved to a return of loyalty.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A fig for their loyalty,&rdquo; was his peevish, craven answer.
+&ldquo;What shall it avail me when I&rsquo;m slain!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+God! was there ever such a coward as this, such a weak-souled, water-hearted
+dastard?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you may not be slain,&rdquo; I urged him. And then I sounded a fresh
+note. &ldquo;Bethink you of Madonna Paola and of the brave things you promised
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He flushed a little, then paled again, then sat very still. Shame had touched
+him at last, yet its grip was not enough to make a man of him. A moment he
+remained irresolute, whilst that shame fought a hard battle with his fears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But those fears proved stronger in the end, and his shame was overthrown by
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I dare not,&rdquo; he gasped, his slender, delicate hands clutching at
+the arms of his chair. &ldquo;Heaven knows I am not skilled in the use of
+arms.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It asks no skill,&rdquo; I assured him. &ldquo;Put on your armour, take
+a sword and lay about you. The most ignorant scullion in your kitchens could
+perform it given that he had the spirit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He moistened his lips with his tongue, and his eyes looked dead as a
+snake&rsquo;s. Suddenly he rose and took a step towards the armour that was
+piled about a great leathern chair. Then he paused and turned to me once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Help me to put it on,&rdquo; he said in a voice that he strove to render
+steady. Yet scarcely had I reached the pile and taken up the breast-plate, when
+he recoiled again from the task. He broke into a torrent of blasphemy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will not sacrifice myself,&rdquo; he almost screamed. &ldquo;Jesus!
+not I. I will find a way out of this. I will live to return with an army and
+regain my throne.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A most wise purpose. But, meanwhile, your men are waiting for you;
+Madonna Paola di Santafior is waiting for you, and&mdash;hark!&mdash;the
+bellowing crowd is waiting for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They wait in vain,&rdquo; he snarled. &ldquo;Who cares for them? The
+Lord of Pesaro am I.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Care you, then, nothing for them? Will you have your name written in
+history as that of a coward who would not lift his sword to strike one blow for
+honour&rsquo;s sake ere he was driven out like a beast by the mere sound of
+voices?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That touched him. His vanity rose in arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take up that corselet,&rdquo; he commanded hoarsely. I did his bidding,
+and, without a word, he raised his arms that I might fit it to his breast. Yet
+in the instant that I turned me to pick up the back-piece, a crash resounded
+through the chamber. He had hurled the breastplate to the ground in a fresh
+access of terror-rage. He strode towards me, his eyes glittering like a
+madman&rsquo;s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go you!&rdquo; he cried, and with outstretched arms he pointed wildly
+across the courtyard. &ldquo;You are very ready with your counsels. Let me
+behold your deeds, Do you put on the armour and go out to fight those
+animals.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He raved, he ranted, he scarce knew what he said or did, and yet the words he
+uttered sank deep into my heart, and a sudden, wild ambition swelled my bosom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lord of Pesaro,&rdquo; I cried, in a voice so compelling that it sobered
+him, &ldquo;if I do this thing what shall be my reward?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stared at me stupidly for a moment. Then he laughed in a silly, crackling
+fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eh?&rdquo; he queried. &ldquo;Gesu!&rdquo; And he passed a hand over his
+damp brow, and threw back the hair that cumbered it. &ldquo;What is the thing
+that you would do, Fool?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, the thing you bade me,&rdquo; I answered firmly. &ldquo;Put on your
+armour, and shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord
+Giovanni, Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides. If I do this thing, and put to rout the
+rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my
+reward?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint colour
+kindling in his face. He saw how easy the thing might be. Perhaps he recalled
+that he had heard that I was skilled in arms&mdash;having spent my youth in the
+exercise of them, against the time when I might fling the challenge that had
+brought me to my Fool&rsquo;s estate. Maybe he recalled how I had borne myself
+against long odds on that adventure with Madonna Paola, years ago. Just such a
+vanity as had spurred him to have me write him verses that he might pretend
+were of his own making, moved him now to grasp at my proposal. They would all
+think that Giovanni&rsquo;s armour contained Giovanni himself. None would ever
+suspect Boccadoro the Fool within that shell of steel. His honour would be
+vindicated, and he would not lose the esteem of Madonna Paola. Indeed, if I
+returned covered with glory, that glory would be his; and if he elected to fly
+thereafter, he might do so without hurt to his fair name, for he would have
+amply proved his mettle and his courage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In some such fashion I doubt not that the High and Mighty Giovanni Sforza
+reasoned during the seconds that we stood, face to face and eye to eye, in that
+room, the cries of the impatient ones below almost drowned in the roar of the
+multitude beyond.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last he put out his hands to seize mine, and drawing me to the light he
+scanned my face, Heaven alone knowing what it was he sought there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you do this,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;Biancomonte shall be yours again,
+if it remains in my power to bestow it upon you now or at any future time. I
+swear it by my honour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Swear it by your fear of Hell or by your hope of Heaven and the compact
+is made,&rdquo; I answered, and so palsied was he and so fallen in spirit that
+he showed no resentment at the scorn of his honour my words implied, but there
+and then took the oath I that demanded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And now,&rdquo; I urged, &ldquo;help me to put on this armour of
+yours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hurriedly I cast off my jester&rsquo;s doublet and my head-dress with its
+jangling bells, and with a wild exultation, a joy so fierce as almost to bring
+tears to my eyes, I held my arms aloft whilst that poor craven strapped about
+my body the back and breast plates of his corselet. I, the Fool, stood there as
+arrogant as any knight, whilst with his noble hands the Lord of Pesaro,
+kneeling, made secure the greaves upon my legs, the sollerets with golden
+spurs, the cuissarts and the genouilleres. Then he rose up, and with hands that
+trembled in his eagerness, he put on my brassarts and shoulder-plates, whilst
+I, myself, drew on my gauntlets. Next he adjusted the gorget, and handed me,
+last of all, the helm, a splendid head-piece of black and gold, surmounted by
+the Sforza lion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took it from him and passed it over my head. Then ere I snapped down the
+visor and hid the face of Boccadoro, I bade him, unless he would render futile
+all this masquerade, to lock the door of his closet, and lie there concealed
+till my return. At that a sudden doubt assailed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what,&rdquo; quoth he, &ldquo;if you do not return?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the fever that had possessed me this was a thing that had not entered into
+my calculations, nor should it now. I laughed, and from the hollow of my helmet
+not a doubt but the sound must have seemed charged with mockery. I pointed to
+the cap and doublet I had shed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, then, Illustrious, it will but remain for you to complete the
+change.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dog!&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;beast, do you deride me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My answer was to point out towards the yard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are clamouring,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;They wax impatient. I had
+better go before they come for you.&rdquo; As I spoke I selected a heavy mace
+for only weapon, and swinging it to my shoulder I stepped to the door. On the
+threshold he would have stayed me, purged by his fear of what might befall him
+did I not return. But I heeded him not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fare you well, my Lord of Pesaro,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;See that none
+penetrates to your closet. Make fast the door.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stay!&rdquo; he called after me. &ldquo;Do you hear me? Stay!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Others will hear you if you commit this folly,&rdquo; I called back to
+him. &ldquo;Get you to cover.&rdquo; And so I left him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Below, in the courtyard, my coming was hailed by a great, enthusiastic clamour.
+They had all but abandoned hope of seeing the Lord Giovanni, so long had he
+been about his arming. As they brought forward my charger, I sought with my
+eyes Madonna Paola. I beheld her by her brother&mdash;who, it seemed, was not
+going with us&mdash;in the front rank of the spectators. Her cheeks were tinged
+with a slight flush of excitement, and her eyes glowed at the brave sight of
+armed men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I mounted, and as I rode past her to take my place at the head of that company,
+I lowered my mace and bowed. She detained me a moment, setting her hand upon
+the glossy neck of my black charger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My Lord,&rdquo; she said, in a low voice, intended for my ear alone,
+&ldquo;this is a brave and gallant thing you do, and however slight may be your
+hope of prevailing, yet your honour will be safe-guarded by this act, and men
+will remember you with respect should it come to pass that a usurper shall
+possess anon your throne. Bear you that in mind to lend you a glad courage. I
+shall pray for you, my Lord, till you return.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I bowed, answering never a word lest my voice should betray me; and musing on
+the matter of the strange roads that lead to a woman&rsquo;s heart, I passed
+on, to gain the van.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two months ago, knowing Giovanni as he was, he had been detestable to her, and
+she contemplated with loathing the danger in which she stood of being allied to
+him by marriage. Since then he had made good use of a poor jester&rsquo;s
+mental gifts to incline her by the fervour of some verses to a kindlier frame
+of mind, and now, making good use of that same jester&rsquo;s courage, he
+completed her subjection by the display of it. She was prepared to wed the Lord
+Giovanni with a glad heart and a proud willingness whensoever he should desire
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Giacomo was beside me now, and in the quadrangle a silence reigned, all
+waiting for my command. From without there came such a din as seemed to argue
+that all hell was at the Castle gates. There were shouts of defiance and
+screams of abuse, whilst a constant rain of stones beat against the raised
+drawbridge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They thought, no doubt, that Giovanni and his followers were at their prayers,
+cowering with terror. No notion had they of the armed force, some six score
+strong, that waited to pour down upon them. I briskly issued my command, and
+four men detached themselves and let down the bridge. It fell with a crash, and
+ere those without had well grasped the situation we had hurled ourselves across
+and into them with the force of a wedge, flinging them to right and to left as
+we crashed through with hideous slaughter. The bridge swung up again when the
+last of Giacomo&rsquo;s mercenaries was across, and we were shut out, in the
+midst of that fierce human maelstrom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For some five minutes there raged such a brief, hot fight as will be remembered
+as long as Pesaro stands. No longer than that did it take for the crowd of
+citizens to realise that war was not their trade, and that they had better
+leave the fighting to Cesare Borgia&rsquo;s men; and so they fell away and left
+us a clear road to come at the men-at-arms. But already some forty of our
+saddles were empty, and the fight, though brief, had proved exhausting to many
+of us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before us, like an array of mirrors in the October sun, shone the serried ranks
+of the steel-cased Borgia soldiers, their lances in rest, waiting to receive
+us. Their leader, a gigantic man whose head was armed by no more than a pot of
+burnished steel, from which escaped the long red ringlets of his hair, was that
+same Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca who had commanded the party pursuing Madonna Paola
+three years ago. He was, since, become the most redoubtable of Cesare&rsquo;s
+captains, and his name was, perhaps, the best hated in Italy for the grim
+stories that were connected with it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we rode on he backed to join the foremost rank of his soldiers, and his
+voice&mdash;a voice that Stentor might have envied&mdash;trumpeted a laugh at
+sight of us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gesu!&rdquo; he roared, so that I heard him above the thunder of our
+hoofs. &ldquo;What has come to Giovanni Sforza. Has he, perchance, become a man
+since Madonna Lucrezia divorced him? I will bear her the news of it, my good
+Giovanni&mdash;my living thunderbolt of Jove!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His men echoed his boisterous mood, infected by it, and this, I argued, boded
+ill for the courage of those that followed me. Another moment and we had swept
+into them, and many there were who laughed no more, or went to laugh with those
+in Hell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For myself I singled out the blustering Ramiro, and I let him know it by a
+swinging blow of my mace upon his morion. It was a most finely-tempered piece
+of steel, for my stroke made no impression on it, though Ramiro winced and
+raised his stout sword to return the compliment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he croaked, &ldquo;you become a very god of war,
+Giovanni. To me, then, my lusty Mars! We&rsquo;ll make a fight of it that poets
+shall sing of over winter fires. Look to yourself!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His sword caught me a cunning, well-aimed blow on the side of my helm, and
+thence, glanced to my shoulder. But for the quality of Giovanni&rsquo;s
+head-piece of a truth there had been an end to the warring of a Fool. I smote
+him back, a mighty blow upon his epauliere that shore the steel plate from his
+shoulder, and left him a vulnerable spot. At that he swore ferociously, and his
+bloodshot eyes grew wicked as the fiend&rsquo;s. A second time he essayed that
+side-long blow upon my helm, and with such force and ready address that he
+burst the fastening of my visor on the left, so that it swung down and left my
+beaver open.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a cry of triumph he closed with me, and shortened his sword to stab me in
+the face. And then a second cry escaped him, for the countenance he beheld was
+not the countenance he had looked to see. Instead of the fair skin, the
+handsome features and the bearded mouth of the Lord Giovanni, he beheld a
+shaven face, a hooked nose and a complexion swarthy as the devil&rsquo;s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know you, rogue,&rdquo; he roared. &ldquo;By the Host! your valour
+seemed too fierce for Giovanni Sforza. You are Bocca&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Exerting all the strength that I had been gradually collecting, I hurled him
+back with a force that almost drove him from the saddle, and rising in my
+stirrups I rained blow after blow upon his morion ere he could recover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dog!&rdquo; I muttered softly, &ldquo;your knowledge shall be the death
+of you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He drew away from me at last, and during the moments that I spent in
+readjusting my visor he sallied, and charged me again. His blustering was gone
+and his face grown pale, for such blows as mine could not have been without
+effect. Not a doubt of it but he was taken with amazement to find such fighting
+qualities in a Fool&mdash;an amazement that must have eclipsed even that of
+finding Boccadoro in the armour of Giovanni Sforza.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again he swung his sword in that favourite stroke of his; but this time I
+caught the edge upon my mace, and ere he could recover I aimed a blow straight
+at his face. He lowered his head, like a bull on the point of charging, and so
+my blow descended again upon his morion, but with a force that rolled him,
+senseless, from the saddle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before I could take a breathing space I was beset by, at least, a dozen of his
+followers who had stood at hand during the encounter, never doubting that
+victory must be ultimately with their invincible captain. They drove me back
+foot by foot, fighting lustily, and performing&mdash;it was said afterwards by
+the anxious ones that watched us from the Castle, among whom was Madonna
+Paola&mdash;such deeds of strength and prowess as never romancer sang of in his
+wildest flight of fancy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My men had suffered sorely, but the brave Giacomo still held them together,
+fired by the example that I set him, until in the end the day was ours.
+Discouraged by the disabling of their captain, so soon as they had gathered him
+up our opponents thought of nothing but retreat; and retreat they did, hotly
+pursued by us, and never allowed to pause or slacken rein until we had hurled
+them out of the town of Pesaro, to get them back to Cesare Borgia with the tale
+of their ignominious discomfiture.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"></a>
+CHAPTER X.<br />
+THE FALL OF PESARO</h2>
+
+<p>
+As we rode back through the town of Pesaro, some fifty men of the six score
+that had sallied from the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the streets
+well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citizens having fled back to the shelter of
+their homes, like rats to their burrows in time of peril.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we advanced through the shambles that we had left about the Castle gates, it
+occurred to me that within the courtyard a crowd would be waiting to receive
+and welcome me, and it became necessary to devise some means of avoiding this
+reception. I beckoned Giacomo to my side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let it be given out that I will speak to no man until I have rendered
+thanks to Heaven for this signal victory,&rdquo; I muttered to the unsuspecting
+Albanian. &ldquo;Do you clear a way for me so soon a we are within.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He obeyed me so well that when the bridge had been let down, he preceded me
+with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those that would
+have approached&mdash;among the first of whom were Madonna Paola and her
+brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Way!&rdquo; he shouted. &ldquo;Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of
+Pesaro!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed still to
+conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the eastern wing and
+dismounted. Two or three attendants sprang forward, ready to go with me that
+they might assist me to disarm. But I waved them imperiously back, and mounted
+the stairs alone. Alone I crossed the ante-chamber, and tapped at the door of
+the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s closet. Instantly it opened, for he had watched my
+return and been awaiting me. Hastily he drew me in and closed the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf. Yet at the sight that
+I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to stare at my
+armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning stains, which loudly
+proclaimed the fray through which I had been.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had rendered
+him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me, all in terms of
+a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more than ever his cruelties had
+done. I took off my helmet whilst he spoke, and let it fall with a crash. The
+face I revealed to him was livid with fatigue, and blackened with the dust that
+had caked upon my sweat. He came forward again and helped hastily to strip off
+my harness, and when that was done he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer
+of embossed gold from which he poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash.
+Macerated sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better that I
+might cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by my ablutions, he
+poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that seemed to infuse fresh
+life into my veins. And all the time he spoke of the prowess I had shown, and
+lamented that all these years he should have had me at his Court and never
+guessed my worth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length I turned to resume my clothes. And since it must excite comment and
+perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my jester&rsquo;s garish
+livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap and bells.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Wear it yet for a little while,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and thus complete
+the service you have done me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and
+resume your true estate. Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours again.
+The Lord of Pesaro does not betray his word.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I smiled grimly at the pride of his utterance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is an easy thing,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;freely to give that which is
+no longer ours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He coloured with the anger that was ever ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What shall that mean?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, that in a few days you will have Cesare Borgia here, and you will
+be Lord of Pesaro no more. I have saved your honour for you. More than that it
+were idle to attempt.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think not that I shall submit,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I shall find in
+Italy the help I need to return and drive the usurper out. You must have faith
+in that, yourself, else had you never bargained with me as you have done for
+the return of your Estates.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To that I answered nothing, but urged him to go below and show himself; and the
+better that he might bear himself among his courtiers, I detailed to him the
+most salient features of that fight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He went, not without a certain uneasiness which, however, was soon dispelled by
+the thunder of acclamation with which he was received; not only by his
+courtiers, but by the soldiers who had fought in that hot skirmish, and who
+believed that it was he had led them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile I sat above, in the closet he had vacated, and thence I watched him,
+with such mingling feelings in my heart as baffle now my halting pen. Scorn
+there was in my mood and a hot contempt of him that he could stand there and
+accept their acclamation with an air of humility that I am persuaded was
+assumed: a certain envious anger was there, too, to think that such a
+weak-kneed, lily-livered craven should receive the plaudits of the deeds that
+I, his buffoon, had performed for him. Those acclamations were not for him,
+although those who acclaimed him thought so. They were for the man who had
+routed Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca and his followers, and that man assuredly was I.
+Yet there I crouched above, behind the velvet curtains where none might see me,
+whilst he stood smiling and toying with his brown beard and listening to the
+fine words of praise that, I could imagine, were falling from the lips of
+Madonna Paola, who had drawn near and was speaking to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is in my nature a certain love of effectiveness, a certain taste for
+theatrical parade and the contriving of odd situations. This bent of mine was
+whispering to me then to throw wide the window, and, stemming their noisy
+plaudits, announce to them the truth of what had passed. Yet what if I had done
+so? They would have accounted it but a new jest of Boccadoro, the Fool, and one
+so ill-conceived that they might urge the Lord Giovanni to have him whipped for
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aye, it would have been a folly, a futile act that would have earned me
+unbelief, contempt and anger. And yet there was a moment when jealousy urged me
+almost headlong to that rashness. For in Madonna Paola&rsquo;s eyes there was a
+new expression as they rested on the face of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;an
+expression that told me she had come to love this man whom a little while ago
+she had despised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+God! was there ever such an irony? Was there ever such a paradox? She loved
+him, and yet it was not him she loved. The man she loved was the man who had
+shown the qualities of his mind in the verses with which the Court was ringing;
+the man who had that morning given proof of his high mettle and knightly
+prowess by the deeds of arms he had performed. I was that man&mdash;not he at
+whom so adoringly she looked. And so&mdash;I argued, in my warped way and with
+the philosophy worthy of a Fool&mdash;it was I whom she loved, and Giovanni was
+but the symbol that stood for me. He represented the songs and the deeds that
+were mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if I did not throw wide that window and proclaim the fact to ears that
+would have been deaf to the truth of them, what think you that I did? I took a
+subtler vengeance. I repaired to my own chamber, procured me pen and ink, and,
+there, with a heart that was brimming over with gall, I penned an epic modelled
+upon the stately lines of Virgil, wherein I sang the prowess of the Lord
+Giovanni Sforza, describing that morning&rsquo;s mighty feat of arms, and
+detailing each particular of the combat &rsquo;twixt Giovanni and Ramiro
+del&rsquo; Orca.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a brave thing when it was done; a finer and worthier poetical
+achievement than any that I had yet encompassed, and that night, after they had
+supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been heard of, and whilst
+they were still sitting at their wine, I got me a lute and stole down to the
+banqueting hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I announced myself by leaping on a table and loudly twanging the strings of my
+instrument. There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of acclamation. They were in
+a high good-humour, and the Fool with a new song was the very thing they
+craved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When silence was restored I began, and whilst my fingers moved sluggishly
+across the strings, striking here and there a chord, I recited the epic I had
+penned. My voice swelled with a feverish enthusiasm whose colossal irony none
+there save one could guess. He, at first surprised, grew angry presently, as I
+could see by the cloud that had settled on his brow. Yet he restrained himself,
+and the rest of the company were too enthralled by the breathless quality of my
+poem to bestow their glances on any countenance save mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro&rsquo;s right, and her blue eyes were
+round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded. And when presently I
+came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca,
+when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s visor, was on the
+point of driving his sword into his adversary&rsquo;s face, I saw her shrink in
+a repetition of the morning&rsquo;s alarm, and her bosom heaved more swiftly,
+as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines and she were made
+anxious again for the life of the man whom she had learnt to love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling softly,
+after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety that had
+succeeded the Lord of Pesaro&rsquo;s brave exploits, and how upon his return
+from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his closet, his battered
+and bloody harness on his back, that he might kneel ere he disarmed and render
+thanks to God for the victory vouchsafed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On that &ldquo;Te Deum&rdquo; I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
+vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my reward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the table on
+which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one noble woman
+kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth was indeed a mouth
+of gold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining with
+excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance, and I knew
+that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by causing her to
+realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure that I sang. The sight
+of it almost turned me faint, and I would have eluded them and got away as I
+had come but that they lifted me up and bore me so to the table at which the
+Lord Giovanni sat. He smiled, but his face was very pale. Could it be that I
+had touched him? Could it be that I had driven the iron into his soul, and that
+he could not bear to confront me, knowing what a dastard I must deem him?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The splendid Filippo of Santafior had risen to his feet, and was waving a
+white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence. When at last it came
+he spoke, his voice silvery and his accents mincing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lord of Pesaro; I demand a boon. He who for years has suffered the
+ignominy of the motley is at last revealed to us as a poet of such magnitude of
+soul and richness of expression that he would not suffer by comparison with the
+great Bojardo or tim greater Virgil. Let him be stripped for ever of that
+hideous garb he wears, and let him be treated, hereafter, with the dignity his
+high gifts deserve. Thus shall the day come when Pesaro will take honour in
+calling him her son.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Loud and long was the applause that succeeded his words, and when at last it
+had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved equal to the occasion, like the
+consummate actor that he was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I would,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that these high gifts, of which to-night
+he has afforded proof, could have been employed upon a worthier subject. I fear
+me that since you have heard his epic you will be prone to overestimate the
+deed of which it tells the story. I would, too, my friends,&rdquo; he
+continued, with a sigh, &ldquo;that it were still mine to offer him such
+encouragement as he deserves. But I am sorely afraid that my days in Pesaro are
+numbered, that my sands are all but run&mdash;at least, for a little while. The
+conqueror is at our gates, and it would be vain to set against the overwhelming
+force of his numbers the handful of valiant knights and brave soldiers that
+to-day opposed and scattered his forerunners. It is my intention to withdraw,
+now that my honour is safe by what has passed, and that none will dare to say
+that it was through fear that I fled. Yet my absence, I trust, may be but
+brief. I go to collect the necessary resources, for I have powerful friends in
+this Italy whose interests touching the Duca Valentino go hand in hand with
+mine, and who will, thus, be the readier to lend me assistance. Once I have
+this, I shall return and then&mdash;woe to the vanquished!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tide of enthusiasm that had been rising as he spoke, now overflowed. Swords
+leapt from their scabbards&mdash;mere toy weapons were they, meant more for
+ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest of the stouter arms those
+gentlemen were ready to wield when the time came. He quieted their clamours
+with a dignified wave of the hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When that day comes I shall see to it that Boccadoro has his deserts.
+Meanwhile let the suggestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon, and let
+this gifted poet be arrayed in a manner that shall sort better with the
+nobility of his mind that to-night he has revealed to us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus was it that I came, at last, to shed the motley and move among men garbed
+as themselves. And with my outward trappings I cast off, too, the name of
+Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro Biancomonte.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon which I
+was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that followed that first
+Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s Court
+passed out of being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It came about with his flight to Bologna, accompanied by the Albanian captain
+and his men, as well as by several of the knights who had joined in
+Sunday&rsquo;s fray. Ardently, as I came afterwards to learn, did he urge
+Madonna Paola and her brother to go with them, and I believe that the lady
+would have done his will in this had not the Lord Filippo opposed the step. He
+was no warrior himself, he swore&mdash;for it was a thing he made open boast
+of, affecting to despise all who followed the coarse trade of arms&mdash;and,
+as for his sister, it was not fitting that she should go with a fugitive party
+made up of a handful of knights and some fifty rough mercenaries, and be
+exposed to the hardships and perils that must be theirs. Not even when he was
+reminded that the advancing conqueror was Cesare Borgia did it affect him, for
+despite his shallow, mincing ways, and his paraded scorn of war and warriors,
+the Lord Filippo was stout enough at heart. He did not fear the Borgia, he
+answered serenely, and if he came, he would offer him such hospitality as lay
+within his power.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He came at last, did the mighty Cesare, although between his coming and
+Giovanni&rsquo;s flight a full fortnight sped. As for myself, I spent the time
+at the Sforza Palace, whither the Lord Filippo had carried me as his guest, he
+being greatly taken with me and determined to become my patron. We had news of
+Giovanni, first from Bologna and later from Ravenna, whither he was fled. At
+first he talked of returning to Pesaro with three hundred men he hoped to have
+from the Marquis of Mantua. But probably this was no more than another piece of
+that big talk of his, meant to impress the sorrowing and repining Madonna
+Paola, who suffered more for him, maybe, than he suffered himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his mental
+gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and for all that my
+gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this injustice to myself, I held
+my peace. Indeed, indeed, it was better so. For all that I was no longer
+Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro Biancomonte, the poet, I was not so much
+better that I could indulge any mad aspirations of my own such as might have
+led me to betray the dastard who had arrayed his craven self in the peacock
+feathers of my achievements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me I made
+bold, on the eve of Cesare&rsquo;s arrival, to suggest to him that he should
+remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of Santa Caterina
+whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of her should remind Cesare
+of the old-time marriage plans which his family had centred round this lady,
+and lead to their revival. Filippo heard me kindly, and thanked me freely for
+the solicitude which my counsel argued. For the rest, however, it was a counsel
+that he frankly admitted he saw no need to follow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained such
+plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the fortunes of the
+House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable match for one of
+its members is now scarcely worthy of their attention. I do not think,&rdquo;
+he concluded, &ldquo;that we have the least reason to fear a renewal of that
+suit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble motives in
+men&rsquo;s actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord Filippo would not
+be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to reopen negotiations for
+the bestowing of Madonna Paola&rsquo;s hand upon the Pope&rsquo;s nephew
+Ignacio. That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in the three years had
+taken place and which, he contended, would render them more ambitious than to
+seek alliance with the House of Santafior, rendered them, nevertheless, in his
+eyes a more desirable family to be allied with than in the days when he had
+counselled his sister&rsquo;s flight from Rome. And so, I thought, despite what
+stood between her and the Lord Giovanni, Filippo would know no scruple now in
+urging her into an alliance with the House of Borgia, should they manifest a
+willingness to have that old affair reopened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 29th of that same month of October, Cesare arrived in Pesaro. His entry
+was a triumphant procession, and the orderliness that prevailed among the two
+thousand men-at-arms that he brought with him was a thing that spoke eloquently
+for the wondrous discipline enforced by this great condottiero.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Lord Filippo was among those that met him, and like the time-server that he
+was, he placed the Sforza Palace at his disposal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duca Valentino came with his retinue and the gentlemen of his household,
+among whom was ever conspicuous by his great size and red ugliness the Captain
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, who now seemed to act in many ways as Cesare&rsquo;s
+factotum. This captain, for reasons which it is unnecessary to detail, I most
+sedulously avoided.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the evening of his arrival Cesare supped in private with Filippo and the
+members of Filippo&rsquo;s household&mdash;that is to say, with Madonna Paola
+and two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of the Lord
+Filippo. Cesare&rsquo;s only attendants were two cavaliers of his retinue,
+Bartolomeo da Capranica, his Field-Marshal, and Dorio Savelli, a nobleman of
+Rome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cesare Borgia, this man whose name had so terrible a sound in the ears of
+Italy&rsquo;s little princelings, this man whose power and whose great gifts of
+mind had made him the subject of such bitter envy and fear, until he was the
+best-hated gentleman in Italy&mdash;and, therefore, the most
+calumniated&mdash;was little changed from that Cardinal of Valencia, in whose
+service I had been for a brief season. The pallor of his face was accentuated
+by the ill-health in which he found himself just then, and the air of feverish
+restlessness that had always pervaded him was grown more marked in the years
+that were sped, as was, after all, but natural, considering the nature of the
+work that had claimed him since he had deposed his priestly vestments. He was
+splendidly arrayed, and he bore himself with an imperial dignity, a dignity,
+nevertheless, tempered with graciousness and charm, and as I regarded him then,
+it was borne in upon me that no fitter name could his godfathers have bestowed
+on him than that of Cesare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Lord Filippo exerted all his powers worthily to entertain his noble and
+illustrious guest, and by his extreme, almost servile affability it not only
+would seem that he had forgotten the favour and shelter he had received at the
+hands of the Lord Giovanni, but it confirmed my suspicions of his willingness
+to advance his own fortunes by breaking with the fallen tyrant in so far as his
+sister was concerned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Short of actually making the proposal itself, it would seem that Filippo did
+all in his power to urge his sister upon the attention of Cesare. But Duke
+Valentino&rsquo;s mind at that time was too full of the concerns of conquest
+and administration to find room for a matter to him so trifling as the
+enriching of his cousin Ignacio by a wealthy alliance. To this alone, I
+thought, was it due that Madonna Paola escaped the persecution that might then
+have been hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the morrow Cesare moved on to Rimini, leaving his administrators behind him
+to set right the affairs of Pesaro, and ensure its proper governing, in his
+name, hereafter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now that, for the present, my hopes of ever seeing my own wrongs redressed
+and my estates returned to me were too slender to justify my remaining longer
+in Pesaro, I craved of the Lord Filippo permission to withdraw, telling him
+frankly that my tardily aroused duty called me to my widowed mother, whom for
+some six years I had not seen. He threw no difficulty in the way of my going;
+and I was free to depart. And now came the hidden pain of my leave-taking of
+Madonna Paola. She seemed to grieve at my departure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she cried, when I had told her of my intention,
+&ldquo;do you, too, desert me? And I have ever held you my best of
+friends.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told her of the mother and of the duty that I owed her, whereupon she
+remonstrated no more, nor sought to do other than urge me to go to her. And
+then I spoke of Madonna&rsquo;s kindness to me, and of the friendship with
+which she had honoured one so lowly, and in the end I swore, with my hand on my
+heart and my soul on my lips, that if ever she had work for me, she would not
+need to call me twice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This ring, Madonna,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;was given me by the Lord
+Cesare Borgia, and was to have proved a talisman to open wide for me the door
+to fortune. It did better service than that, Madonna. It was the talisman that
+saved you from your pursuers that day at Cagli, three years ago.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You remind me, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;of how much you have
+sacrificed in my service. Yours must be a very noble nature that will do so
+much to serve a helpless lady without any hope of guerdon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, nay,&rdquo; I answered lightly, &ldquo;you must not make so much of
+it. It would never have sorted with my inclinations to have turned man-at-arms.
+This ring, Madonna, that once has served you, I beg that you will keep, for it
+may serve you again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I could not, Lazzaro! I could not!&rdquo; she exclaimed, recoiling, yet
+without any show of deeming presumptuous my words or of being offended by them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you would make me the reward that you say I have earned, you will do
+this for me. It will make me happier, Madonna. Take it&rdquo;&mdash;I thrust it
+into her unwilling hand&mdash;&ldquo;and if ever you should need me send it
+back to me. That ring and the name of the place where you abide by the lips of
+the messenger you choose, and with a glad heart, as fast as horse can bear me,
+shall I ride to serve you once again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In such a spirit, yes,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I take it willingly, to
+treasure it as a buckler against danger, since by means of it I can bring you
+to my aid in time of peril.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, do not overestimate my powers,&rdquo; I besought her. &ldquo;I
+would have you see in me no more than I am. But it sometimes happens that the
+mouse may aid the lion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And when I need the lion to aid the mouse, my good Lazzaro, I will send
+for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were tears in her voice, and her eyes were very bright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Addio, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she murmured brokenly. &ldquo;May God and His
+saints protect you. I will pray for you, and I shall hope to see you again some
+day, my friend.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Addio, Madonna!&rdquo; was all that I could trust myself to say ere I
+fled from her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the
+sobs that were threatening to betray the anguish that was ravaging my soul.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2"></a>
+PART II.<br />
+THE OGRE OF CESENA</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"></a>
+CHAPTER XI.<br />
+MADONNA&rsquo;S SUMMONS</h2>
+
+<p>
+However great the part that my mother&mdash;sainted woman that she
+was&mdash;may have played in my life, she nowise enters into the affairs of
+this chronicle, so that it would be an irrelevance and an impertinence to
+introduce her into these pages. Of the joy with which she welcomed me to the
+little home near Biancomonte, in which the earnings of Boccadoro the Fool had
+placed her, it could interest you but little to read in detail, nor could it
+interest you to know of the gentle patience with which she cheered and humoured
+me during the period that I sojourned there, tilling the little plot she owned,
+reaping and garnering like any born villano. With a woman&rsquo;s quick
+intuition she guessed perhaps the canker that was eating at my heart, and with
+a mother&rsquo;s blessed charity she sought to soothe and mitigate my pain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was during this period of my existence that the poetic gifts I had
+discovered myself possessed of whilst at Pesaro, burst into full bloom; and not
+a little relief did I find in the penning of those love-songs&mdash;the true
+expression of what was in my heart&mdash;which have since been given to the
+world under the title of Le Rime di Boccadoro. And what time I tended my
+mother&rsquo;s land by day, and wrote by night of the feverish, despairing love
+that was consuming me, I waited for the call that, sooner or later, I knew must
+come. What prophetic instinct it was had rooted that certainty in my heart I do
+not pretend to say. Perhaps my hope was of such a strength that it assumed the
+form of certainty to solace the period of my hermitage. But that some day
+Madonna Paola&rsquo;s messenger would arrive bringing me the Borgia ring, I was
+as confident as that some day I must die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two years went by, and we were in the Autumn of 1502, yet my faith knew no
+abating, my confidence was strong as ever. And, at last, that confidence was
+justified. One night of early October, as I sat at supper with my mother after
+the labours of the day, a sound of hoofs disturbed the peace of the silent
+night. It drew rapidly nearer, and long before the knock fell upon our door, I
+knew that it was the messenger from my lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My mother looked at me across the board, an expression of alarm overspreading
+her old face. &ldquo;Who,&rdquo; her eyes seemed to ask me, &ldquo;was this
+horseman that rode so late?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My hound rose from the hearth with a growl, and stood bristling, his eyes upon
+the door. White-haired old Silvio, the last remaining retainer of the House of
+Biancomonte, came forth from the kitchen, with inquiry and fear blending on his
+wrinkled, weather-beaten countenance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And I, seeing all these signs of alarm, yet knowing what awaited me on the
+threshold, rose with a laugh, and in a bound had crossed the intervening space.
+I flung wide the door, and from the gloom without a man&rsquo;s voice greeted
+me with a question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is this the house of Messer Lazzaro Biancomonte?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am that Lazzaro Biancomonte,&rdquo; answered I. &ldquo;What may your
+pleasure be?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger advanced until he came within the light. He was plainly dressed,
+and wore a jerkin of leather and long boots. From his air I judged him a
+servant or a courier. He doffed his hat respectfully, and held out his right
+hand in which something was gleaming yellow. It was the Borgia ring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Pesaro,&rdquo; was all he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh himself ere he
+returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am not returning,&rdquo; the man informed me. &ldquo;I am a courier
+riding to Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in
+passing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set before
+him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him to tell me what
+he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news there was of the Lord
+Giovanni. He had little enough to tell. Pesaro was flourishing and prospering
+under the Borgia dominion. Of the Lord Giovanni there was little news, saving
+that he was living under the protection of the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so
+long as he was content to abide there the Borgias seemed disposed to give him
+peace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and Madonna Paola.
+On this subject he was better informed. Madonna Paola was well and still lived
+with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro. The Lord Filippo was high in favour
+with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had been frequently his guest at Pesaro,
+whilst once, for a few days, the Lord Ignacio de Borgia had accompanied his
+illustrious cousin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her summons no
+longer asked conjecture. It was an easy thing for me, knowing what I knew, to
+fill in the details which the courier omitted in ignorance from the story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister upon the
+notice of the Borgia family&mdash;perhaps even approached Cesare&mdash;in such
+a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to Ignacio, who
+had, meanwhile, remained unmarried. I could read that opportunist&rsquo;s
+motives as easily as if he had written them down for my instruction. Giovanni
+Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I could imagine how he had
+plied his wits to aid his sister to forget him, or else to remember him no
+longer with affection. Whether he had succeeded or not I could not say until I
+had seen her; but meanwhile, deeming ripe the soil of her heart for the new
+attachment that should redound so much to his own credit&mdash;now that the
+House of Borgia had risen to such splendid heights&mdash;he was driving her
+into this alliance with Ignacio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out that same
+night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising to return as soon
+as might be. All night I rode, my soul now tortured with anxiety, now exalted
+at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which was so soon to be mine. I was at
+the gates of Pesaro before matins, and within the Palazzo Sforza ere its
+inmates had broken their fast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Lord Filippo welcomed me with a certain effusion, chiding me for my long
+absence and the ingratitude it had seemed to indicate, and never dreaming by
+what summons I was brought back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are well-returned,&rdquo; he told me in conclusion. &ldquo;We shall
+need you soon, to write an epithalamium.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are to be wed, Magnificent?&rdquo; quoth I at last, at which he
+laughed consumedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, we shall need the song for my sister&rsquo;s nuptials. She is to
+wed the Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A lofty theme,&rdquo; I answered with humility, &ldquo;and one that may
+well demand resources nobler than those of my poor pen.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then get you to work at once upon it. I will have your chamber
+prepared.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He sent for his seneschal, a person&mdash;like most Of the servants at the
+Palace&mdash;strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be sumptuously
+lodged. He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity that seemed to
+surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had undergone such changes and
+been so enriched during the past two years as to go near defying recognition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for me, I made
+bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She is in the garden, Illustrious,&rdquo; answered the seneschal,
+deeming me, no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had
+indicated should be shown me. &ldquo;Madonna has the wisdom to seek the little
+sunshine the year still holds. Winter will be soon upon us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I agreed with the old man, and dismissed him. So soon as he was gone, I quitted
+my chamber, and all dust staineded as I was I made my way down to the garden. A
+turn in one of the boxwood-bordered alleys brought me suddenly face to face
+with Madonna Paola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment we stood looking at each other, my heart swelling within me until I
+thought that it must burst. Then I advanced a step and sank on one knee before
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You sent for me, Madonna. I am here.&rdquo; There was a pause, and when
+presently I looked up into her blessed face I saw a smile of infinite sorrow on
+her lips, blending oddly with the gladness that shone from her sweet eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You faithful one,&rdquo; she murmured at last. &ldquo;Dear Lazzaro, I
+did not look for you so soon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Within an hour of your messenger&rsquo;s arrival I was in the saddle,
+nor did I pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro. I am here to serve you
+to the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails me is that
+my power may be all too small for the service that you need.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is its nature known to you?&rdquo; she asked in wonder. Then, ere I had
+answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have guessed it,&rdquo; answered I, &ldquo;guided by such scraps of
+information as from your messenger I gleaned. It concerns, unless I err, the
+Lord Ignacio Borgia.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness,&rdquo; she said, with a
+sad smile, &ldquo;and I doubt me you know all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me&mdash;that
+you are to be wed before Christmas. He has ordered me to write your
+epithalamium.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by side, and,
+as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to make a carpet for
+our fret, she told me in her own way more or less what I have set down, even to
+her brother&rsquo;s self-seeking share in the transaction that she dubbed
+hideous and abhorrent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped. She was in
+her twenty-first year, but in reality she seemed to me no older than she had
+been on that day when first I saw her arguing with her grooms upon the road to
+Cagli. And from this I reassured myself that she had not been fretted overmuch
+by the absence of the Lord Giovanni.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently she spoke of him and of her plighted word which her brother and those
+supple gentlemen of the House of Borgia were inducing her to dishonour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Once before, in a case almost identical, when all seemed lost, you
+came&mdash;as if Heaven directed&mdash;to my rescue. This it is that gives me
+confidence in such aid as you might lend me now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alas! Madonna,&rdquo; I sighed, &ldquo;but the times are sorely changed
+and the situations with them. What is there now that I can do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What you did then. Take me beyond their reach.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! But whither?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whither but to the Lord Giovanni? Is it not to him that my troth is
+plighted?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head in sorrow, a thrust of jealousy cutting me the while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That may not be,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;It were not seemly, unless the
+Lord Giovanni were here himself to take you hence.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I will write to the Lord Giovanni,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I will
+write, and you shall bear my letter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What think you will the Lord Giovanni do?&rdquo; I burst out, with a
+scorn that must have puzzled her. &ldquo;Think you his safety does not give him
+care enough in the hiding-place to which he has crept, that he should draw upon
+himself the vengeance of the Borgias?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stared at me in ineffable surprise. &ldquo;But the Lord Giovanni is brave
+and valiant,&rdquo; she cried, and down in my heart I laughed in bitter
+mockery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you love the Lord Giovanni, Madonna?&rdquo; I asked bluntly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My question seemed to awaken fresh astonishment. It may well be that it
+awakened, too, reflection. She was silent for a little space. Then&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I honour and respect him for a noble, chivalrous and gifted
+gentleman,&rdquo; she answered me, and her answer made me singularly content,
+spreading a balm upon the wounds my soul had taken. But to her fresh
+intercessions that I should carry a letter to him, I shook my head again. My
+mood was stubborn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Believe me, Madonna, it were not only unwise, but futile.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She protested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I swear it would be,&rdquo; I insisted, with a convincing force that
+left her staring at me and wondering whence I derived so much assurance.
+&ldquo;We must wait. From now till Christmas we have more than two months. In
+two months much may befall. As a last resource we may consider communication
+with the Lord Giovanni. But it is a forlorn hope, Madonna, and so we will leave
+it until all else has failed us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She brightened at my promise that at least if other measures proved unavailing,
+we should adopt that course, and her brightening flattered me, for it bore
+witness to the supreme confidence she had in me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I know you will not fail me. I trust
+you more than any living mam; more, I think, than even the Lord Giovanni, whom,
+if God pleases, I shall some day wed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thanks, Madonna mia,&rdquo; I answered, gratefully indeed. &ldquo;It is
+a trust that I shall ever strive to justify. Meanwhile have faith and hope, and
+wait.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once before, when, to escape the schemes of her brother who would have wed her
+to the Lord Giovanni, she had appealed to me, the counsel I had given her had
+been much the same as that which I gave her now. At the irony of it I could
+have laughed had any other been in question but Madonna Paola&mdash;this tender
+White Flower of the Quince that was like to be rudely wilted by the ruthless
+hands of scheming men.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"></a>
+CHAPTER XII.<br />
+THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA</h2>
+
+<p>
+That night I would have supped in my own quarters but that Filippo sent for me
+and bade me join him and swell the little court he kept. At times I believe he
+almost thought that he was the true Lord of Pesaro&mdash;an opinion that may
+have been shared by not a few of the citizens themselves. Certainly he kept a
+greater state and was better housed than the duke of Valentinois&rsquo;
+governor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a jovial company of perhaps a dozen nobles and ladies that met about his
+board, and Filippo bade his servants lay for me beside him. As we ate he
+questioned me touching the occupation that I had found during my absence from
+Pesaro. I used the greatest frankness with him, and answered that my life had
+been partly a peasants, partly a poet&rsquo;s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell me what you wrote,&rdquo; he bade me his eyes resting on my face
+with a new look of interest, for his love of letters was one of the few things
+about him that was not affected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A few novelle, dealing with court-life; but chiefly verses,&rdquo;
+answered I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And with these verses&mdash;what have you done?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have them by me, Illustrious,&rdquo; I answered. He smiled, seemingly
+well pleased.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must read them to us,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;If they rival that
+epic of yours, which I have never forgotten, they should be worth
+hearing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And presently, supper being done, I went at his bidding to my chamber for my
+precious manuscripts, and, returning, I entertained the company with the
+reading of a portion of what I had written. They heard me with an attention
+that might have rendered me vain had my ambition really lain in being accounted
+a great writer; and when I paused, now and again, there was a murmur of
+applause, and many a pat on the shoulder from Filippo whenever a line, a phrase
+or a stanza took his fancy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was perhaps too absorbed to pay any great attention to the impression my
+verses were producing, but presently, in one of my pauses, the Lord Filippo
+startled me with words that awoke me to a sense of my imprudence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you know, Lazzaro, of what your lines remind me in an extraordinary
+measure?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of what, Excellency?&rdquo; I asked politely, raising my eyes from my
+manuscript. They chanced to meet the glance of Madonna Paola. It was riveted
+upon me, and its expression was one I could not understand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of the love-songs of the Lord Giovanni Sforza,&rdquo; answered he.
+&ldquo;They resemble those poems infinitely more than they resemble the epic
+you wrote two years ago.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stammered something about the similarity being merely one of subject. But he
+shook his head at that, and took good note of my confusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;the resemblance goes deeper. There is the
+same facile beauty of the rhymes the same freshness of the
+rhythm&mdash;remotely resembling that of Petrarca, yet very different. Conceits
+similar to those that were the beauty spots of the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s verses
+are ubiquitous in yours, and above all there is the same fervent earnestness,
+the same burning tone of sincerity that rendered his strambotti so worthy of
+admiration.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may be,&rdquo; I answered him, my confusion growing under the steady
+gaze of Madonna Paola, &ldquo;it may be that having heard the verses of the
+Lord Giovanni, I may, unconsciously, have modelled my own lines upon those that
+made so deep an impression on me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at me gravely for a moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That might be an explanation,&rdquo; he answered deliberately,
+&ldquo;but frankly, if I were asked, I should give a very different one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And that would be?&rdquo; came, sharp and compelling, the voice of
+Madonna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned to her, shrugged his shoulders and laughed. &ldquo;Why, since you ask
+me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I should hazard the opinion that Lazzaro, here, was
+of considerable assistance to the Lord Giovanni in the penning of those verses
+with which he delighted us all&mdash;and you, Madonna, I believe,
+particularly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna Paola crimsoned, and her eyes fell. The others looked at us with
+inquiring glances&mdash;at her, at Filippo and at me. With a fresh laugh
+Filippo turned to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Confess now, am I not right?&rdquo; he asked good-humouredly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Magnificent,&rdquo; I murmured in tones of protest, &ldquo;ask yourself
+the question. Was it a likely thing that the Lord Giovanni would enlist the
+services of his jester in such a task?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Give me a straightforward answer,&rdquo; he insisted. &ldquo;Am I right
+or wrong?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am giving you more than a straightforward answer, my lord,&rdquo; I
+still evaded him, and more boldly now. &ldquo;I am setting you on the high-road
+to solve the matter for yourself by an appeal to your own good sense and
+reason. Was it in the least likely, I repeat, that the Lord Giovanni would seek
+the services of his Fool to aid him write the verses in honour of the lady of
+his heart?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a burst of mocking laughter, Filippo smote the table a blow of his
+clenched hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your prevarications answer me,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;You will not say
+that I am wrong.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I do say that you are wrong!&rdquo; I exclaimed, suddenly inspired.
+&ldquo;I did not assist the Lord Giovanni with his verses. I swear it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His laughter faded; and his eyes surveyed me with a sudden solemnity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then why did you evade my question?&rdquo; he demanded shrewdly. And
+then his countenance changed as swiftly again. It was illumined by the light of
+sudden understanding. &ldquo;I have it,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;The answer is
+plain. You did not assist the Lord Giovanni to write them. Why? Because you
+wrote them yourself, and you gave them to him that he might pass them off as
+his own.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a merciful thing for me that the whole company fell into a burst of
+laughter and applauded Filippo&rsquo;s quick discernment, which they never
+doubted. All talked at once, and a hundred proofs were advanced in support of
+Filippo&rsquo;s opinion. The Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s celebrated dullness of mind,
+amounting almost to stupidity, was cited, and they reminded one another of the
+profound astonishment with which they had listened to the compositions that had
+suddenly burst from him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Filippo turned to his sister, on whose pale face I saw it written that she was
+as convinced as any there, and my feelings were those of a dastard who has
+broken faith with the man who trusted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you appreciate now, Madonna,&rdquo; he murmured, &ldquo;the deceits
+and wiles by which that craven crept like a snake into your esteem?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I guessed at once that by that thrust he sought to incline her more to the
+union he had in view for her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At least he was no craven,&rdquo; answered she. &ldquo;His burning
+desire to please me may have betrayed him into this foolish duplicity. But he
+still must live in my memory as a brave and gallant gentleman; or have you
+forgotten, Filippo, that noble combat with the forces of Ramiro del&rsquo;
+Orca?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To such a question Filippo had no answer, and presently his mood sobered a
+little. For myself, I was glad when the time came to withdraw from that company
+that twitted and pestered me and played upon my sense of shame at the
+imprudence I had committed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now that I look back, I can scarce conceive why it should have so wrought upon
+me; for, in truth, the little love I bore the Lord Giovanni might rather have
+led me to rejoice that his imposture should be laid bare to the eyes of all the
+world. I think that really there was an element of fear in my
+feelings&mdash;fear that, upon reflection, Madonna Paola might ask herself how
+came that burning sincerity into the love-songs written in her honour which it
+was now disclosed that I had penned. The answer she might find to such a
+question was one that might arouse her pride and so outrage it as to lead her
+to cast me out of her friendship and never again suffer me to approach her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a conclusion, however, she fortunately did not arrive at. Haply she
+accounted the fervour of those lines assumed, for when on the morrow she met
+me, she did no more than gently chide me for the deceit that I had had a hand
+in practising upon her. She accepted my explanation that my share in that
+affair had been wrung from me with threats of torture, and putting it from her
+mind she returned to the matter of the approaching alliance she sought to
+elude, renewing her prayers that I should aid her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have,&rdquo; she told me then, &ldquo;one other friend who might
+assist us, and who has the power perhaps if he but has the will. He is the
+Governor of Cesena, and for all that he holds service under Cesare Borgia, yet
+he seems much devoted to me, and I do not doubt that to further my interests he
+would even consent to pit his wits against those of the family he
+serves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In which case, Madonna,&rdquo; answered I, spurred to it, perhaps, by an
+insensate pang of jealousy at the thought that there should be another beside
+myself to have her confidence, &ldquo;he would be a traitor. And it is ever an
+ill thing to trust a traitor. Who once betrays may betray again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That she manifested no resentment, but, on the contrary, readily agreed with
+me, showed me how idle had been that jealousy of mine, and made me ashamed of
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why yes,&rdquo; she mused, &ldquo;it is the very thought that had
+occurred to me, and caused me to spurn the aid he proffered when last he was
+here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;What aid was that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must know, Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;that he comes often to
+Pesaro from Cesena, being a man in whom the Duke places great trust, and on
+whom he has bestowed considerable powers. He never fails to lie at the Palace
+when he comes, and he seems to&mdash;to have conceived a regard for me. He is a
+man of twice my years,&rdquo; she added hurriedly, &ldquo;and haply looks upon
+me as he might upon a daughter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sniffed the air. I had heard of such men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A week ago, when last he came, I was cast down and grieved by the affair
+of this marriage, which Filippo had that day disclosed to me. The Governor of
+Cesena, observing my sadness, sought my confidence with a kindliness of which
+you would scarce believe him capable; for he is a fierce and blustering man of
+war. In the fulness of my heart there was nothing that seemed so desirable as a
+friendly ear into which I might pour the tale of my affliction. He heard me
+gravely, and when I had done he placed himself at my disposal, assuring me that
+if I would but trust myself to him, he would defeat the ends of the House of
+Borgia. Not until then did I seem to bethink me that he was the servant of that
+house, and his readiness to betray the hand that paid him sowed mistrust and a
+certain loathing of him in my mind. I let him see it, perhaps, which was
+unwise, and, may be, even ungrateful. He seemed deeply wounded, and the subject
+was abandoned. But I have since thought that perhaps I acted with a rashness
+that was&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;With a rashness that was eminently justifiable,&rdquo; I interrupted
+her. &ldquo;You could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such
+a man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in store
+for me. At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion in the
+courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its cause, I was
+informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had arrived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he served, where
+Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to probe, I descended to the
+banqueting-hall at supper time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in the
+centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and crimson,
+brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of my own quarters
+but that his wolf&rsquo;s eye had already fastened on me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he swore, and that was all. But his eyes were on me
+in a marvellous stare, as were now&mdash;impelled by that oath of his&mdash;the
+eyes of all the company. We looked at each other for a moment, then a great
+laugh burst from him, shaking his vast bulk and wrinkling his hideous face. He
+thrust the intervening men aside as if they had been a growth of sedges he
+would penetrate, and he advanced towards me; the Lord Filippo and his sister
+looking on with all the rest in interested surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In front of me he halted, and setting his hands on his hips he regarded me with
+a brutal mirth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What may your trade be now?&rdquo; he asked at last contemptuously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had taken rapid stock of him in the seconds that were sped, and from the
+surpassing richness of his apparel, his gold-broidered doublet and crimson,
+fur-edged surcoat, I knew that Messer Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca was grown to the
+high estate of Governor of Cesena.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A new trade even as yours,&rdquo; I answered him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, that is no answer,&rdquo; he cried, overlooking my offensiveness.
+&ldquo;Do you still follow the trade of arms?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think,&rdquo; Filippo interposed, &ldquo;that our Excellency is in
+some error. This gentleman is Lazzaro Biancomonte, a poet of whom Italy will
+one day be proud, despite the fact that for a time he acted as the Lord
+Giovanni Sforza&rsquo;s Fool.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro looked at his interlocutor, as the mastiff may look at the lap dog. He
+grunted, and blew out his cheeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is yet another part he played,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;as I have
+good cause to remember&mdash;for he is the only man that can boast of having
+unhorsed Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca. He was for a brief season the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza himself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How?&rdquo; asked the profoundly amazed Filippo, whilst all present
+pressed closer to miss nothing of the disclosure that seemed to impend. Myself,
+I groaned. There was naught that I could say to stem the tide of revelation
+that was coming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you then keep this paladin here arrayed like a clerk?&rdquo; quoth
+Ramiro in his sardonic way. &ldquo;And can it be that the secret of his feat of
+arms has been guarded so well that you are still in ignorance of it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Filippo&rsquo;s wits worked swiftly, and swiftly they pieced together the hints
+that Ramiro had let fall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will tell us,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that the fight in the streets
+of Pesaro, in which your Excellency&rsquo;s party suffered defeat, was led by
+Biancomonte in the armour of Giovanni Sforza?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro looked at him with that displeasure with which the jester visits the man
+who by anticipation robs his story of its points.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was known to you?&rdquo; growled he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so. I have but learnt it from you. But it nowise astonishes
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he looked at his sister, whose eyes devoured me, as if they would read in
+my soul whether this thing were indeed true. Under her eyes I dropped my glance
+like a man ashamed at hearing a disgraceful act of his paraded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Had it indeed been the Lord Giovanni, he had been dead that day,&rdquo;
+laughed Ramiro grimly. &ldquo;Indeed it was nothing but my astonishment at
+sight of the face I was about to stab, after having broken the fastenings of
+his visor that stayed my hand for long enough to give him the advantage. But I
+bear you no grudge for that,&rdquo; he ended, turning on me with a ferocious
+smile, &ldquo;nor yet for that other trick by which&mdash;as Boccadoro the
+Fool&mdash;you bested me. I am not a sweet man when thwarted, yet I can admire
+wit and respect courage. But see to it,&rdquo; he ended, with a sudden and most
+unreasonable ferocity, his visage empurpling if possible still more, &ldquo;see
+to it that you pit neither that courage nor that wit against me again. I have
+heard the story of how you came to be Fool of the Court of Pesaro. Cesena is a
+dull place, and we might enliven it by the presence of a jester of such nimble
+wits as yours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned without awaiting my reply, and strode away to take his place at
+table, whilst I walked slowly to my accustomed seat, and took little part in
+the conversation that ensued, which, as you may imagine, had me and that
+exploit of mine for scope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Anon an elephantine trumpeting of laughter seemed to set the air a-quivering.
+Ramiro was lying back in his chair a prey to such a passion of mirth that it
+swelled the veins of his throat and brow until I thought that they must
+burst&mdash;and, from my soul, I hoped they would. Adown his rugged cheeks two
+tears were slowly trickling. The Lord Filippo, as presently transpired, had
+been telling him of the epic I had written in praise of the Lord
+Giovanni&rsquo;s prowess. Naught would now satisfy that ogre but he must have
+the epic read, and Filippo, who had retained a copy of it, went in quest of it,
+and himself read it aloud for the delight of all assembled and the torture of
+myself who saw in Madonna Paola&rsquo;s eyes that she accounted the deception I
+had practised on her a thing beyond pardon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Filippo had a taste for letters, as I think I have made clear, and he read
+those lines with the same fire and fervour that I, myself, had breathed into
+them two years ago. But instead of the rapt and breathless attention with which
+my reading had been attended, the present company listened with a smile, whilst
+ever and anon a short laugh or a quiet chuckle would mark how well they
+understood to-night the subtle ironies which had originally escaped them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I crept away, sick at heart, while they were still making sport over my work,
+cursing the Lord Giovanni, who had forced me to these things, and my own mad
+mood that had permitted me in an evil hour to be so forced. Yet my grief and
+bitterness were little things that night compared with what Madonna was to make
+them on the morrow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She sent for me betimes, and I went in fear and trembling of her wrath and
+scorn. How shall I speak of that interview? How shall I describe the
+immeasurable contempt with which she visited me, and which I felt was perhaps
+no more than I deserved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messer Biancomonte,&rdquo; said she coldly, &ldquo;I have ever accounted
+you my friend, and disinterested the motives that inspired a heart seemingly
+noble to do service to a forlorn and helpless lady. It seems that I was wrong.
+That the indulging of a warped and malignant spirit was the inspiration you had
+to appear to befriend me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, you are over-cruel,&rdquo; I cried out, wounded to the very
+soul of me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Am I so?&rdquo; she asked, with a cold smile upon her ivory face.
+&ldquo;Is it not rather you who were cruel? Was it a fine thing to do to trick
+a lady into giving her affection to a man for gifts which he did not possess?
+You know in what manner of regard I held the Lord Giovanni Sforza so long as I
+saw him with the eyes of reason and in the light of truth. And you, who were my
+one professed friend, the one man who spoke so loudly of dying in my service,
+you falsified my vision, you masked him&mdash;either at his own and at my
+brother&rsquo;s bidding, or else out of the malignancy of your nature&mdash;in
+a garb that should render him agreeable in my eyes. Do you realise what you
+have done? Does not your conscience tell you? You have contrived that I have
+plighted my troth to a man such as I believed the Lord Giovanni to be. Mother
+of Mercy!&rdquo; she ended, with a scorn ineffable; &ldquo;when I dwell upon it
+now, it almost seems that it was to you I gave my heart, for yours were the
+deeds that earned my regard&mdash;not his.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the very argument that I had hugged to my starving soul, at the time
+the things she spoke of had befallen, and it had consoled me as naught in life
+could have consoled me. Yet now that she employed it with such a scornful
+emphasis as to make me realise how far beneath her I really was, how
+immeasurably beyond my reach was she, it was as much consolation to me as
+confession without absolution may be to the perishing sinner. I answered
+nothing. I could not trust myself to speak. Besides, what was there that I
+could say?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I summoned you back to Pesaro,&rdquo; she continued pitilessly,
+&ldquo;trusting in your fine words and deeming honest the offer of services you
+made me. Now that I know you, you are free to depart from Pesaro when you
+will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Despite my shame, I dared, at last, to raise my eyes. But her face was averted,
+and she saw nothing of the entreaty, nothing of the grief that might have told
+her how false were her conclusions. One thing alone there was might have
+explained my actions, might have revealed them in a new light; but that one
+thing I could not speak of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned in silence, and in silence I quitted the room; for that, I thought,
+was, after all, the wisest answer I could make.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"></a>
+CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+POISON</h2>
+
+<p>
+Despite Madonna Paola&rsquo;s dismissal, I remained in Pesaro. Indeed, had I
+attempted to leave, it is probable that the Lord Filippo would have deterred
+me, for I was much grown in his esteem since the disclosures that had earned me
+the disfavour of Madonna. But I had no thought of going. I hoped against hope
+that anon she might melt to a kinder mood, or else that by yet aiding her,
+despite herself, to elude the Borgia alliance, I might earn her forgiveness for
+those matters in which she held that I had so gravely sinned against her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The epithalamium, meanwhile, was forgotten utterly and I spent my days in
+conceiving wild plans to save her from the Lord Ignacio, only to abandon them
+when in more sober moments their impracticable quality was borne in upon me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this fashion some six weeks went by, and during the time she never once
+addressed me. We saw much during those days of the Governor of Cesena. Indeed
+his time seemed mainly spent in coming and going &rsquo;twixt Cesena and
+Pesaro, and it needed no keen penetration to discern the attraction that
+brought him. He was ever all attention to Madonna, and there were times when I
+feared that perhaps she had been drawn into accepting the aid that once before
+he had proffered. But these fears were short-lived, for, as time sped,
+Madonna&rsquo;s aversion to the man grew plain for all to see. Yet he persisted
+until the very eve, almost, of her betrothal to Ignacio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One evening in early December I chanced, through the purest accident, to
+overhear her sharp repulsion of the suit that he had evidently been pressing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; I heard him answer, with a snarl, &ldquo;I may yet prove
+to you that you have been unwise so to use Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you so much as venture to address me again upon the subject,&rdquo;
+she returned in the very chilliest accents, &ldquo;I will lay this matter of
+your odious suit before your master Cesare Borgia.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They must have caught the sound of my footsteps in the gallery in which they
+stood, and Ramiro moved away, his purple face pale for once, and his eyes
+malevolent as Satan&rsquo;s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I reflected with pleasure that perhaps we had now seen the last of him, and
+that before that threat of Madonna&rsquo;s he would see fit to ride home to
+Cesena and remain there. But I was wrong. With incredible effrontery and daring
+he lingered. The morrow was a Sunday, and, on the Tuesday or Wednesday
+following, Cesare Borgia and his cousin Ignacio were expected. Filippo was in
+the best of moods, and paid more heed to the Governor of Cesena&rsquo;s
+presence at Pesaro than he did to mine. It may be that he imagined Ramiro
+del&rsquo; Orca to be acting under Cesare&rsquo;s instructions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That Sunday night we supped together, and we were all tolerably gay, the topic
+of our talk being the coming of the bridegroom. Madonna&rsquo;s was the only
+downcast face at the board. She was pale and worn, and there were dark circles
+round her eyes that did much to mar the beauty of her angel face, and inspired
+me with a deep and sorrowing pity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro announced his intention of leaving Pesaro on the morrow, and ere he went
+he begged leave to pledge the beautiful Lady of Santafior, who was so soon to
+become the bride of the valiant and mighty Ignacio Borgia. It was a toast that
+was eagerly received, so eager and uproariously that even that poor lady
+herself was forced to smile, for all that I saw it in her eyes that her heart
+was on the point of breaking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I remember how, when we had drunk, she raised her goblet&mdash;a beautiful
+chaste cup of solid gold&mdash;and drank, herself, in acknowledgment; and I
+remember, too, how, chancing to move my head, I caught a most singular,
+ill-omened smile upon the coarse lips of Messer Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the time I thought of it no more, but in the morning when the horrible news
+that spread through the Palace gained my ears, that smile of Ramiro del&rsquo;
+Orca recurred to me at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was from the seneschal of the Palace that I first heard that tragic news. I
+had but risen, and I was descending from my quarters, when I came upon him, his
+old face white as death, a palsy in his limbs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you heard the news, Ser Lazzaro?&rdquo; he cried in a quavering
+voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The news of what?&rdquo; I asked, struck by the horror in his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna Paola is dead,&rdquo; he told me, with a sob.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stared at him in speechless consternation, and for a moment I seemed forlorn
+of sense and understanding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dead?&rdquo; I remember whispering. &ldquo;What is it you say?&rdquo;
+And I leaned forward towards him, peering into his face. &ldquo;What is it you
+say?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well may you doubt your ears,&rdquo; he groaned. &ldquo;But, Vergine
+Santissima! it is the truth. Madonna Paola, that sweet angel of God, lies cold
+and stiff. They found her so this morning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;God of Heaven!&rdquo; I cried out, and leaving him abruptly I dashed
+down the steps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarce knowing what I did, acting upon an impulsive instinct that was as
+irresistible as it was unreasoning, I made for the apartments of Madonna Paola.
+In the antechamber I found a crowd assembled, and on every face was pallid
+consternation written. Of my own countenance I had a glimpse in a mirror as I
+passed; it was ashen, and my hollow eyes were wild as a madman&rsquo;s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Someone caught me by the arm. I turned. It was the Lord Filippo, pale as the
+rest, his affectations all fallen from him, and the man himself revealed by the
+hand of an overwhelming sorrow. With him was a grave, white-bearded gentleman,
+whose sober robe proclaimed the physician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is a black and monstrous affair, my friend,&rdquo; he murmured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it true, is it really true, my lord?&rdquo; I cried in such a voice
+that all eyes were turned upon me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your grief is a welcome homage to my own,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Alas,
+Dio Santo! it is most hideously true. She lies there cold and white as marble,
+I have just seen her. Come hither, Lazzaro.&rdquo; He drew me aside, away from
+the crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been
+Madonna&rsquo;s oratory. With us came the physician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned,
+Lazzaro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Poisoned?&rdquo; I echoed. &ldquo;Body of God! but by whom? We all loved
+her. There was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid down
+his life in her service. Who was there, then, to poison that dear saint?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was then that the memory of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, and the look that in his
+eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is the Governor of Cesena?&rdquo; I cried suddenly. Filippo looked
+at me with quick surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He departed betimes this morning for his castle. Why do you ask?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro&rsquo;s attentions to
+Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he had seemed
+to threaten. Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done he shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, all being as you say, should he work so wanton a
+destruction?&rdquo; he asked stupidly, as if jealousy were not cause enough to
+drive an evil man to destroy that which he may not possess. &ldquo;Nay, nay,
+your wits are disordered. You remember that he looked at Madonna whilst she
+drank, and you construe that into a proof that he had poisoned the cup she
+drank from. But then it is probable that we all looked at her in that same
+moment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But not with such eyes as his,&rdquo; I insisted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Could he have administered the poison with his own hands?&rdquo; asked
+the doctor gravely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that were a difficult matter. But he might
+have bribed a servant to drop a powder in her wine.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why then,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it should be an easy thing to find the
+servant. Do you chance to remember who served the wine?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; answered Filippo readily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let the man be questioned; let him be racked if necessary. Thus shall
+you probably arrive at a true knowledge; thus discover under whose directions
+he was working.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the only thing to do, and Filippo sent me about it there and then,
+telling me the servant in question was a Venetian of the name of Zabatello. If
+confirmation had been needed that this fellow had been the tool of the
+poisoner&mdash;there was no reason to suppose that he would have done the thing
+to have served any ends of his own&mdash;that confirmation I had upon
+discovering that Zabatello was fled from Pesaro, leaving no trace behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Men were sent out by the Lord Filippo in every direction to endeavour to find
+the rogue and bring him back. Whether they caught him or not seemed, after all
+a little thing to me. She was dead; that was the one all-absorbing,
+all-effacing fact that took possession of my mind, blotting out all minor
+matters that might be concerned with it. Even the now assured fact that she had
+been poisoned was a thing that found little room in my consideration on that
+day of my burning grief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was dead, dead, dead! The hideous phrase boomed again and again through my
+distracted mind. Compared with that overwhelming catastrophe, what signified to
+me the how or why or when she had died. She was dead, and the world was empty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For hours I sat on the rocks, alone by the sea, on that stormy day of December,
+and I indulged my grief where no prying eyes could witness it, amid the
+solitude of wild and angry Nature. And the moan and thud with which the great
+waves hurled themselves against the base of the black rock on which I was
+perched afforded but a feeble echo of the storm that raged and beat within my
+desolated soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was dead, dead, dead! The waves seemed to shout it as they leapt up and
+spattered me with brine; the wind now moaned it piteously, now shrieked it
+fiercely as it scudded by, wrapping its invisible coils about me, and seeming
+intent on tearing me from my resting-place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Towards evening, at last, I rose, and skirting the Castle, I entered the town,
+dishevelled and bedraggled, yet caring nothing what spectacle I might afford.
+And presently a grim procession overtook me, and at sight of the black, cowled
+and visored figures that advanced in the lurid light of their wax torches, I
+fell on my knees there in the street, and so remained, my knees deep in the
+mud, my head bowed, until her sainted body had been borne past. None heeded me.
+They bore her to San Domenico, and thither I followed presently, and in the
+shadow of one of the pillars of the aisle I crouched whilst the monks chanted
+their funereal psalms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The singing ended, the friars departed, and presently those of the Court and
+the sight-seers from the streets began to leave the church. In an hour I was
+alone&mdash;alone with the beloved dead, and there, on my knees, I stayed, and
+whether I prayed or blasphemed during that horrid hour, my memory will not let
+me say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may have been towards the third hour of night when at last I staggered
+up&mdash;stiff and cramped from my long kneeling on the cold stone. Slowly, in
+a half-dazed condition, I move down the aisle and gained the door of the
+church. I essayed to open it. It resisted my efforts, and then I realised that
+it was locked for the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The appreciation of my position afforded me not the slightest dismay. On the
+contrary, I think my feelings were rather of relief. I had not known whither I
+should repair&mdash;so distraught was my mood&mdash;and now chance had settled
+the matter for me by decreeing that I should remain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned and slowly I paced back until I stood beside the great black
+catafalque, at each corner of which a tall wax taper was burning. My footsteps
+rang with a hollow sound through the vast, gloomy spaces of that cold, empty
+church; my very breathing seemed to find an echo in it. But these were not
+things to occupy my mind in such a season, no more than was the icy cold by
+which I was half-numbed&mdash;yet of which I seemed to remain unconscious in
+the absorbing anguish that possessed me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Near the foot of the bier there was a bench, and there I sat me down, and
+resting my elbows on my knees I took my dishevelled head between my frozen
+hands. My thoughts were all of her whose poor murdered clay was there encased
+above me. I reviewed, I think, each scene of my life where it had touched on
+hers; I evoked every word she had addressed to me since first I had met her on
+the road to Cagli.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And anon my mood changed, and, from cold and frozen that it had been by grief,
+it grew ablaze with the fire of anger and the lust to wreak vengeance upon him
+that had brought her to this condition. Let Filippo fear to move without
+proofs, let him doubt such proofs as I had set before him and deem them
+overslender to warrant action. Such scruples should not serve to restrain me. I
+was no lukewarm brother. Here in Pesaro I would remain until her poor body was
+delivered to the earth, and then I would set out upon a last emprise. Messer
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca should account to me for this vile deed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There in the House of Peace I sat gnawing my hands and maturing my bloody plans
+whilst the night wore on. Later a still more frenzied mood obsessed me&mdash;a
+burning desire to look again upon the sweet face of her I had loved, the
+sainted visage of Madonna Paola. What was there to deter me? Who was there to
+gainsay me?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stood up and uttered that challenge aloud in my madness. My voice echoed
+mournfully up the aisles, and the sound of the echo chilled me, yet my purpose
+gathered strength.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I advanced, and after a moment&rsquo;s pause, with the silver-broidered hem of
+the pall in my hands, I suddenly swept off that mantle of black cloth, setting
+up such a gust of wind as all but quenched the tapers. I caught up the bench on
+which I had been sitting, and, dragging it forward, I mounted it and stood now
+with my breast on a level with the coffin-lid. I laid hands on it and found it
+unfastened. Without thought or care of how I went about the thing, I raised it
+and let it crash over to the ground. It fell on the stone flags with a noise
+like that of thunder, which boomed and reverberated along the gloomy vault
+above.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A figure, all in purest white, lay there under my eyes, the face covered by a
+veil. With deepest reverence, and a prayer to her sainted soul to forgive the
+desecration of my loving hands, I tremblingly drew that veil aside. How
+beautiful she was in the calm peace of death! She lay there like one gently
+sleeping, the faintest smile upon her lips, and as I looked it seemed hard to
+believe that she was truly dead. Why, her lips had lost nothing of their
+colour; they were as rosy red&mdash;or nearly so&mdash;as ever I had seen them
+in life. How could this be? The lips of the dead are wont to put on a livid
+hue. I stared a moment, my reverence and grief almost effaced by the intensity
+of my wonder. This face, so ivory pale, wore not the ashen aspect of one that
+would never wake again. There was a warmth about that pallor. And then I caught
+my nether lip in my teeth until it bled, and it is a miracle that I did not
+scream, seeing how overwrought was my condition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For it had seemed to me that the draperies on her bosom had slightly moved, a
+gentle, almost imperceptible heave as if she breathed. I looked, and there it
+came again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+God! into what madness was I come that my eyes could so deceive me? It was the
+draught that stirred the air about the church and blew great shrouds of wax
+adown the taper&rsquo;s yellow sides. I manned myself to a more sober mood, and
+looked again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now my doubts were all dispelled. I knew that I had mastered any errant
+fancy, and that my eyes were grown wise and discriminating, and I knew, too,
+that she lived. Her bosom slowly rose and fell; the colour of her lips, the hue
+of her cheeks confirmed the assurance that she breathed. The poison had failed
+in its work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I paused a second yet to ponder. That morning her appearance had been such that
+the physician had been deceived by it, and had pronounced her cold. Yet now
+there were these signs of life. What could it portend but that the effects of
+the poison were passing off and that she was recovering?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the wild madness of joy that sent the blood drumming and beating through my
+brain, my first impulse was to run for help. Then I bethought me of the closed
+doors, and I realised that no matter how I shouted none would hear me. I must
+succour her myself as best I could, and meanwhile she must be protected from
+the chill air of that December night in that church that was colder than the
+tomb. I had my cloak, a heavy, serviceable garment; and if more were needed,
+there was the pall which I had removed, and which lay in a heap about the legs
+of my bench.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I leaned forward, and passing my hand under her head, I gently raised it. Then
+slipping it downwards, I thrust my arm after it until I had her round the waist
+in a firm grip. Thus I raised her from the coffin, and the warmth of her body
+on my arm, the ready, supple bending of her limbs, were so many added proofs
+that she was not dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gently and reverently I lifted her in my arms, an intoxication of holy joy
+pervading me, and the prayers falling faster from my lips than ever they had
+done since as a lad I had recited them at my mother&rsquo;s knee. A moment I
+laid her on the bench, whilst I divested myself of my cloak. Then suddenly I
+paused, and stood listening, holding my breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Steps were advancing towards the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My first impulse was to rush forward and call to those who came, shouting my
+news and imploring their help. Then a sudden, an almost instinctive suspicion
+caught and chilled me. Who was it came at such an hour? What could any man seek
+in the Church of San Domenico at dead of night? Was the church indeed their
+goal, or were they but passers-by?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That last question went not long unanswered. The steps came nearer, whilst I
+stood appalled, my skin roughening like a dog&rsquo;s. They halted at the door.
+Something heavy hurtled against it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A voice, the voice of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca&mdash;I knew it upon the
+instant&mdash;reached my ears which concentration had rendered superacute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is locked, Baldassare. Get out those tools of yours and force
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My wits were working now at fever-pace. It may be that I am swift of thought
+beyond the ordinary man, or it may be that what then came to me was either a
+flash of inspiration or the conclusion to which I leapt by instinct. But in
+that moment the whole plot of Madonna&rsquo;s poisoning was revealed to me.
+Poisoned she had been&mdash;aye, but by some drug that did but produce for a
+little while the outward appearance of death so truly simulated as to deceive
+the most experienced of doctors. I had heard of such poisons, and here, in very
+truth, was one of them at work. His vengeance on her for her indifference to
+his suit was not so clumsy and primitive as that of simply slaying her. He had,
+by his infernal artifice, intended, secretly, to bear her off. To-morrow when
+men found a broken church-door and a violated bier, they would set the
+sacrilege down to some wizard who had need of the body for his dark practices
+of magic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I cursed myself in that hour that I had not earlier been moved to peer into her
+coffin whilst yet there might have been time to have saved her. Now? The sweat
+stood out in beads upon my brow. At that door there were, to judge by the sound
+of footsteps and of voices, some three or four men besides Messer Ramiro. For
+only weapon I had my dagger. What could I do with that to defend her?
+Ramiro&rsquo;s plan would suffer no frustration through my discovery; when
+to-morrow the sacrilege was discovered the cold body of Lazzaro Biancomonte
+lying beside the desecrated bier would be but an item in the work of
+profanation they would find&mdash;an item that nowise would modify the
+conclusion to which I anticipated they would come.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"></a>
+CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+REQUIESCAT!</h2>
+
+<p>
+A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human mind. Some
+it renders incapable of thought or action, paralysing their limbs and
+stagnating the blood in their veins; such creatures die in anticipating death.
+Others under the stress of that grim passion have their wits preternaturally
+sharpened. The instinct of self-preservation assumes command of all their
+senses, and urges them to swift and feverish action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thank God with a full heart that to this latter class do I belong. After one
+gelid moment, spent with eyes and mouth agape, my hands fallen limp beside me
+and my hair bristling with affright, I became myself again and never calmer
+than in that dread moment. I went to work with superhuman swiftness. My cheeks
+may have been livid, my very lips bloodless; but my hands were steady and my
+wits under full control.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Concealment&mdash;concealment for myself and her&mdash;was the thing that now
+imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were devised.
+Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case to be exacting, and
+since they were the best the place afforded I must trust to them without
+demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might lack the wit to search. And
+with that fresh hope it came to me that I must find a way so to dispose as to
+make him believe that to search would be a futile waste of energy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal. Yet a little time
+there was. The door was stout, and Messer Ramiro might take no violent means of
+bursting it, lest the noise should arouse the street&mdash;and I well could
+guess how little he would relish having lights to shine upon this deed of night
+of his.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With what tools his sbirro was at work I could not say; but surely they must be
+such as would leave me a few moments. Already the fellow had begun. I could
+make out a soft crunching sound, as of steel biting into wood. To act, then!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With movements swift as a cat&rsquo;s, and as silent, I went to work. Like a
+ghost I glided round the coffin to the other side, where the lid was lying. I
+took it up, and when for a moment I had deposited Madonna Paola on the ground,
+I mounted the bench and gently but quickly set back that lid as it had been.
+Next, I gathered up the cumbrous pall, and mounting the bench once more I
+spread it across the coffin. This way and that I pulled it, straightening it
+into the shape that it had worn when first I had entered, and casting its folds
+into regular lines that would lend it the appearance of having remained
+undisturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And what time I toiled, the half of my mind intent upon my task, the other half
+was as intent upon the progress of the worker at the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last it was done. I set the bench where first it had been, at the foot of
+the catafalque, and gathering up Madonna in my arms, as though her weight had
+been an infant&rsquo;s, I bore her swiftly out of the circle of light of those
+four tapers into the black, impenetrable gloom beyond. On I sped towards the
+high-altar, flying now as men fly in evil dreams, with the sensation of an
+enemy upon them and their progress a mere standing-still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus I gained the chancel, hurtling against the railing as I passed, and
+pausing for an instant, wondering whether those without could have heard the
+noise which in my clumsiness I had made. But the grinding sound continued
+uninterrupted, and I breathed more freely. I mounted the altar-steps, the
+distant light behind me still feebly guiding me; I ran round to the right, and
+heaved a great sigh of relief to find my hopes verified, and that the altar of
+San Domenico was as the altar of other churches I had known. It stood a pace or
+so from the wall, and behind it there was just such narrow hiding-room as I had
+looked to find.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I paused at the mouth of that black opening, and even as I paused, something
+hard that gave out a metallic sound fell at the far end of the church. Instinct
+told me it was the lock which those miscreants had cut from the door. I waited
+for no more, but like a beast scudding to cover I plunged into that black
+space.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna, wrapped in my cloak as she was, I set down upon the ground, and then I
+crept forward on hands and knees and thrust out my head, trusting to the
+darkness to envelop me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I waited thus for some seconds, my heart beating now against my ribs as if it
+would hurl itself out of my bosom, my head and face on fire with the fever of
+reaction that succeeded my late cold pallor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From where I watched it was impossible to see the door hidden in the black
+gloom. Away in the centre of the church, an island of light in that vast sea of
+blackness, stood the catafalque with its four wax torches. Something creaked,
+and almost immediately I saw the flames of those tapers bend towards me, beaten
+over by the gust that smote them from the door. Thus I surmised that Ramiro and
+his men had entered. The soft fall of their feet; for they were treading
+lightly now, succeeded, and at last they came into view, shadowy at first, then
+sharply outlined as they approached the light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment they stood in half-whispered conversation, their voices a mere boom of
+sound in which no word was to be distinguished. Then I saw Ramiro suddenly step
+forward&mdash;I knew him by his great height&mdash;and drag away, even as I had
+done, the pall that hid the coffin. Next he seized the bench and gave a brisk
+order to his men in a less cautious voice, so that I caught his words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Spread a cloak,&rdquo; said he, and, in obedience, the four that were
+with him took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. It was thus
+that he meant to bear her with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind he put
+out his hands to remove the coffin-lid. As well as if his soul had been
+transformed into a book conceived for my amusement did I surmise the exultant
+mood that then possessed him. He had tricked Filippo; he had out-witted us
+all&mdash;Madonna herself, included&mdash;and he was leaving no trace behind
+him that should warrant any so much as to dare to think that this vile deed was
+the work of Messer Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, Governor of Cessna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the gods, delights in mighty
+contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and hollow lures on
+the very eve of working our discomfiture. From the soul that but a moment back
+had been aglow with evil satisfaction there burst a sudden blasphemous cry of
+rage that disregarded utterly the sanctity of that consecrated place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy crash as he
+let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder sound awoke the
+night-echoes of that silent place. In a burst of maniacal frenzy he had caught
+the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty fist, and hurled it from its trestles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds in the
+excitement that possessed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo,&rdquo; he cried.
+&ldquo;They have laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed
+yourselves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling veins in
+his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror spoke in his
+words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though he was, could on
+occasion, too, become a coward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Out of this!&rdquo; he growled at them. &ldquo;See that your swords hang
+ready. Away!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of them murmured something that I could not catch. Mother in Heaven! if it
+should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a suggestion that the
+church should be searched ere they abandoned it? But Ramiro&rsquo;s answer
+speedily relieved my fears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take no risks,&rdquo; he barked. &ldquo;Come! Let us go
+separately. I first, and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you
+can.&rdquo; His voice grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the
+words, &ldquo;Cesena&rdquo; and &ldquo;to-morrow night,&rdquo; from which I
+gathered that he was appointing that as their next meeting-place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere the
+others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that was here
+laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by their still
+greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it had lent me
+so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those ravishers, I turned
+me now to Madonna Paola. Her breathing was grown more heavy and more regular,
+so that in all respects she was as one sleeping healthily. Soon I hoped that
+she might awaken, for to seek to bear her thence and to the Palace in my arms
+would have been a madness. And now it occurred to me that I should have
+restoratives at hand against the time of her regaining consciousness.
+Inspiration suggested to me the wine that should be stored in the sacristy for
+altar purposes. It was unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in using
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle-branch
+protruded, standing no higher than my head. It held some three or four tapers,
+and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at early Mass on dark
+winter mornings. I plucked one of the candles from its socket, and hastening
+down the church, I lighted it from one of the burning tapers of the bier.
+Screening it with my hand, I retraced my steps and regained the chancel. Then
+turning to the left, I made for a door that I knew should give access to the
+sacristy. It yielded to my touch, and I passed down a short stone-flagged
+passage, and entered the spacious chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed
+against one wall, and above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix. Facing
+it against the other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard,
+half-buffet. On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a
+few vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere and
+white-washed chamber. Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one of the
+drawers. It was full of garments of different kinds, among which I noticed
+several monks&rsquo; habits. I rummaged to the bottom only to find some odd
+pairs of sandals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better fortune.
+Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and fragrant with
+rosemary. I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to the cupboard above.
+It was locked, but the key was there. It opened, and my candle reflected a
+blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated chalices; a dazzling monstra, and
+several richly-carved ciboria of solid gold, set with precious stones. But in a
+corner I espied a dark-brown, gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine, and,
+with a half-suppressed cry of joy, I seized it. In that instant a piercing
+scream rang through the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I
+stood there for some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures
+leaping to my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned? Did the scream mean that
+Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that its
+first utterance had cast over me. Dropping the leather bottle, I sped back,
+down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the chancel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and
+ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays of the
+distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs were hung. She
+was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very natural fear consequent
+upon awakening in such a place that had provoked the cry I had heard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; I called, advancing swiftly towards her. &ldquo;Madonna
+Paola!&rdquo; There was a gasp, a moment&rsquo;s stillness, then&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro?&rdquo; She cried, questioningly. &ldquo;What has happened? Why
+am I here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Something horrible has happened, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;But
+it is over now, and the evil is averted.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how came I here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That you shall learn.&rdquo; I stooped to gather up the cloak which had
+slipped from her shoulders as she advanced. &ldquo;Do you wrap this about
+you,&rdquo; I urged her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in that
+mantle. &ldquo;Are you faint, Madonna?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I scarce know,&rdquo; she answered in a frightened voice. &ldquo;There
+is a black horror upon me. Tell me,&rdquo; she implored again, &ldquo;what does
+it mean?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once she
+were out of these forbidding surroundings. I led her to the sacristy and
+seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was insistent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna,&rdquo; I told her.
+&ldquo;The wine will warm and revive you. Come Madonna mia, drink.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she drank a
+lusty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour to replace the
+ashen pallor of her cheeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am so cold, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she complained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks&rsquo; habits, and
+pulling one out I held it for her to don. She sat there now, in that garment of
+coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder, the fairest
+postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are good to me, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she murmured plaintively, &ldquo;and
+I have used you very ill.&rdquo; She paused a second, passing her hand across
+her brow. Then&mdash;&ldquo;What is the hour?&rdquo; she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a question that I left unheeded. I bade her brace herself and have
+courage for the tale I was to tell. I assured her that the horror of it was all
+passed and that she had naught to fear. So soon as her natural curiosity should
+be satisfied it should be hers to return to her brother at the Palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how came I thence?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I must have lain in a
+swoon, for I remember nothing.&rdquo; And then her swift mind, leaping to a
+reasonable conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered
+catafalque which she had seen&mdash;&ldquo;Did they account me dead,
+Lazzaro?&rdquo; she asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious
+affright as they were turned upon my own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Madonna,&rdquo; answered I, &ldquo;you were accounted dead.&rdquo;
+And, with that, I told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only
+that I left my own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune
+presence in the church. When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she
+shuddered and closed her eyes in very awe. At length, when I had done, she
+opened them again, and again she turned them full upon me. Their brightness
+seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that she was quietly weeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she murmured brokenly.
+&ldquo;Lazzaro mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of you.
+You are indeed my one true friend&mdash;the one true friend that never fails
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?&rdquo; I asked abruptly, roughly
+almost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I am stronger.&rdquo; She stood up as if to test her strength.
+&ldquo;Indeed little ails me saving the horror of this thing. The thought of it
+seems to turn me sick and dizzy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sit then and rest,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Presently, when you are more
+recovered, we will set out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whither shall we go?&rdquo; she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, to the Palace, to your brother.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, yes,&rdquo; she answered, as though it were the last suggestion
+that she had been expecting, &ldquo;And to-morrow&mdash;it will be to-morrow,
+will it not?&mdash;comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride. He will owe you
+no mean thanks, Lazzaro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a pause. I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my mind,
+but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be from matins, and
+how soon we might be discovered by the monks. Presently she spoke again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she inquired very gently, &ldquo;what was it brought you
+to the church?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service,&rdquo; answered
+I, and fearing such questions as might follow&mdash;questions that I had been
+dreading ever since I had brought her to the sacristy&mdash;&ldquo;If you are
+recovered we had best be going,&rdquo; I told her gruffly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, I am not yet enough recovered,&rdquo; answered she. &ldquo;And
+before we go, there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have
+you make clear to me. Meanwhile, we are very well here. If the good fathers
+come upon us, what shall it signify?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I groaned inwardly, and I grew, I think, more afraid than when Ramiro and his
+men had broken into the church an hour ago.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What kept you here after all were gone?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I remained to pray, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered brusquely. &ldquo;Is
+aught else to be done in a church?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To pray for me, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Assuredly, Madonna.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Faithful heart,&rdquo; she murmured. &ldquo;And I had used you so
+cruelly for the deception you practised. But you merited my cruelty, did you
+not, Lazzaro? Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps I deserved it, Madonna. But perhaps not so much as you bestowed,
+had you but understood my motives,&rdquo; I said unguardedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I had understood your motives?&rdquo; she mused. &ldquo;Aye, there is
+much I do not understand. Even in this night&rsquo;s transactions there are not
+wanting things that remain mysterious despite the explanations you have
+supplied me. Tell me, Lazzaro, what was it led you to suppose that I still
+lived?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did not suppose it,&rdquo; I blundered like a fool, never seeing
+whither her question led.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You did not?&rdquo; she cried, in deep surprise; and now, when it was
+too late, I understood. &ldquo;What was it, then, induced you to lift the
+coffin-lid?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You ask me more than I can tell you,&rdquo; I answered, almost roughly.
+&ldquo;Do you thank God, Madonna, that it was so, and never plague your mind to
+learn the &lsquo;why&rsquo; of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me with eyes that were singularly luminous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I must know,&rdquo; she insisted. &ldquo;Have I not the right? Tell
+me now: Was it that you wished to see my face again before they gave me over to
+the grave?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps it was that, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered in confusion, avoiding
+her glance. Then&mdash;&ldquo;Shall we be going?&rdquo; I suggested fiercely.
+But she never heeded that suggestion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She spoke as if she had not heard, and the words she uttered seemed to turn me
+into stone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you love me then so much, dear Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I swung round to face her now, and I know that my face was white&mdash;whiter
+than hers had been when I had beheld her in her coffin. My eyes seemed to burn
+in their sockets as they met hers. A madness overtook me and whelmed my better
+judgment. I had undergone so much that day through grief, and that night
+through a hundred emotions, that I was no longer fully master of myself. Her
+words robbed me, I think, of my last lingering shred of reason.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Love you, Madonna?&rdquo; I echoed, in a voice that was as unlike my own
+as was the mood that then possessed me. &ldquo;You are the air I breathe, the
+sun that lights my miserable world. You are dearer to me than honour, sweeter
+than life. You are the guardian angel of my existence, the saint to whom I have
+turned morning and evening in my prayers for grace. Do I love you,
+Madonna&mdash;?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And there I paused. The thought of what I did and what the consequences must be
+rushed suddenly upon me. I shivered as a man shivers in awaking. I dropped on
+my knees before her, bowing my head and flinging wide my arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Forgive, Madonna,&rdquo; I cried entreatingly. &ldquo;Forgive and
+forget. Never again will I offend.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Neither forgive nor forget will I,&rdquo; came her voice, charged with
+an ineffable sweetness, and her hands descended on my bowed bead, as if she
+would bless and soothe me. &ldquo;I am conscious of no offence that craves
+forgiveness, and what you have said I would not forget if I could. Whence
+springs this fear of yours, dear Lazzaro? Am I more than woman, or you less
+than man that you should tremble for the confession that in a wild moment I
+have dragged from you? For that wild moment I shall be thankful to my
+life&rsquo;s end; for your words have been the sweetest ever my poor ears
+listened to. Once I thought that I loved the Lord Giovanni Sforza. But it was
+you I loved; for the deeds that earned him my affection were deeds of yours and
+not of his. Once I told you so in scorn. Yet since then I have come soberly to
+ponder it. I account you, Lazzaro, the noblest friend, the bravest gentleman
+and the truest lover that the world has known. Need it surprise you, then, that
+I love you and that mine would be a happy life if I might spend it in growing
+worthy of this noble love of yours?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes&mdash;a matter at which I
+take no shame. Air seemed to fail me for a moment, and I almost thought that I
+should swoon, so overcome was I. Transport the blackest soul from among the
+damned of Hell, wash it white of its sins and seat it on one of the glorious
+thrones of Heaven, then ponder its emotions, and you may learn something of
+what I felt. At last, when I had mastered the exquisite torture of my
+joy&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna mia,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;bethink you of what you say. You are
+the noble lady of Santafior, and I&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No more of this,&rdquo; she interrupted me. &ldquo;You are Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, of patrician birth, no matter to what odd shifts a cruel fortune
+may have driven you. Will you take me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had my face between her palms, and she forced my glance to meet her own
+saintly eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you take me, Lazaro?&rdquo; she repeated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Holy Flower of the Quince!&rdquo; was all that I could murmur, whereat
+she gently smiled. &ldquo;Santo Fior di Cotogno!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then a great sadness overwhelmed me. A tide that neaped the frail bark of
+happiness high and dry upon the shores of black despair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To-morrow Madonna, comes the Lord Ignacio Borgia,&rdquo; I groaned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know, I know,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;But I have thought of that.
+Paula Sforza di Santafior is dead. Requiescat! We must dispose that they will
+let her rest in peace.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"></a>
+CHAPTER XV.<br />
+AN ILL ENCOUNTER</h2>
+
+<p>
+Speechless I stared at her a moment, so taken was I with the immensity of the
+thing that she suggested. Fear, amazement, and joy jostled one another for the
+possession of my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you look so, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she exclaimed at last. &ldquo;What
+is it daunts you?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How is the thing possible?&rdquo; quoth I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What difficulty does it present?&rdquo; she questioned back. &ldquo;The
+Governor of Cesena has rendered very possible what I propose. We may look on
+him to-morrow as our best friend.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But Ramiro knows,&rdquo; I reminded her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;True, but do you think that he will dare to tell the world what he
+knows? He might be asked to say how he comes by his knowledge, and that should
+prove a difficult question to answer. Tell me, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she continued,
+&ldquo;if he had succeeded in carrying me away, what think you would have been
+said in Pesaro to-morrow when the coffin was found empty?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They would assume that your body had been stolen by some wizard or some
+daring student of anatomy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! And if we were quietly to quit the church and be clear of Pesaro
+before morning, would not the same be said?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Probably,&rdquo; answered I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then why hesitate? Is it that you do not love me enough, Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I smiled, and my eyes must have told her more than any protestation could. Then
+I sighed. &ldquo;I hesitate, Madonna, because I would not have you do now what
+you might come, hereafter, bitterly to repent. I would not let you be misled by
+the impulse of a moment into an act whose consequences must endure as long as
+life itself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is that the reasoning of a lover?&rdquo; she asked me, very quietly.
+&ldquo;Is this cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the
+stormy passion you professed so lately?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is,&rdquo; I answered stoutly. &ldquo;It is because I love you more
+than I love myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life
+upon such a broken raft as mine. You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and
+I&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Enough of that,&rdquo; she interrupted me, rising. She swept towards me,
+and before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and her
+blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in
+her low tones, &ldquo;moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me,
+and bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time. Will you wait until
+escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered, before you will decide
+to save me, and to grasp with both hands this happiness of ours that is not
+twice offered in a lifetime?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her heart. Some
+subtle perfume reaching me and combining with the dominion that her eyes seemed
+to have established over me completed my subjugation. I was as warm wax in her
+hands. Forgotten were all considerations of rank and station. We were just a
+man and a woman whose fates were linked irrevocably by love. I stooped
+suddenly, under the sway of an impulse, I could not resist, and kissed her
+upturned face, turning almost dizzy in the act. Then I broke from her clasp,
+and bracing myself for the task to which we stood committed by that kiss&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Paola,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;we must devise the means to get away. I
+will bear you to my mother&rsquo;s home near Biancomonte, that you may dwell
+there at least until we are wed. But the thing that exercises my mind is how to
+make our unobserved escape from Pesaro.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have thought of it already,&rdquo; she informed me quietly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have thought of it?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;And of what have you
+thought?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For answer she stepped back a pace, and drew the cowl of the monk&rsquo;s habit
+over her head until her features were lost in the shadows of it. She stood
+before me now, a diminutive Dominican brother. Her meaning was clear to me at
+once. With a cry of gladness I turned to the drawer whence I had taken the
+habit in which she was arrayed, and selecting another one I hastily donned it
+above the garments that I wore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No sooner was it done than I caught her by the arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come, Madonna,&rdquo; I bade her in an urgent voice. At the first step
+she stumbled. The habit was so long that it cumbered her feet. But that was a
+difficulty soon conquered. With my dagger I cut a piece from the skirt of it,
+enough to leave her freedom of movement; and, that accomplished, we set out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We crossed the church swiftly and silently, and a moment I left her in the
+porch whilst I surveyed the street. All was quiet. Pesaro still slept, and it
+must have wanted some two hours or more to the dawn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A fine rain was falling as we sallied out, and there was a sting in the
+December wind which made us draw our cowls the tighter about our face.
+Abandoning the main street, I led her down some narrow alleys, deserted like
+all the rest of the city, and not so much as a stray cat abroad in that foul
+weather. It was very dark, and a hundred times we stumbled, whilst in some
+places I almost carried her bodily to avoid the filth of the quarter we were
+traversing. At length we gained the space in front of the gates that open on to
+the northern road, known as Porta Venezia, and I would have blundered on and
+roused the guard to let us out, using the Borgia ring once more&mdash;that
+talisman whose power had grown during these years, so that it would now open me
+almost any door in Italy. But Paola stayed me. Wisely she counselled that we
+should do nothing that might draw too much attention upon ourselves, and she
+urged me to wait until the dawn, when the guard would be astir and the gates
+opened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we fled to the shelter of a porch, and there we waited, huddling ourselves
+out of the reach of the icy rain. We talked little during the time we spent
+there. For my own part I had overmuch food for thought, and a very natural
+anxiety racked me. Soon the monks would be descending to the church, and they
+would discover the havoc there, and spread the alarm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Who could say but that they might even discover the abstraction of the two
+habits from the sacristy, and the hue and cry for two men in the sackcloth of
+Dominicans would be afoot&mdash;for they would infer that two men so disguised
+had made off with the body of Madonna Paola. The thought stirred me like a
+goad. I stood up. The night was growing thinner, and, suddenly, even as I rose,
+a light gleamed from one of the Windows of the guard-house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;God be thanked for that fellow&rsquo;s early rising,&rdquo; I cried out.
+&ldquo;Come, Madonna, let us be moving.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And I added my newly-conceived reasons for quitting the place without further
+delay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cursing us for being so early abroad&mdash;a curse to which I responded with a
+sonorous &ldquo;Pax Domini sit tecum&rdquo; the still somnolent sentinel opened
+the post and let us pass. I was glad in the end that we had waited and thus
+avoided the necessity of showing my ring, for should inquiries be made
+concerning two monks, that ring of mine might have betrayed the identity of one
+of them. I gave thanks to Heaven that I knew the country well. A quarter of a
+league or so from Pesaro we quitted the high-road and took to the by-paths with
+which I was well acquainted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Day came, grey and forbidding at first, but presently the rain ceased and the
+sun flashed out a thousand diamonds from the drenched hedge-rows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We plodded on; and at length, towards noon, when we had gained the
+neighbourhood of the village of Cattolica, we halted at the hut of a peasant on
+a small campagna. I had divested myself of my monk&rsquo;s habit, and cut away
+the cowl from Madonna&rsquo;s. She had thereafter fashioned it by means that
+were mysterious to my dull man&rsquo;s mind into a more feminine-looking garb.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus we now presented ourselves to the old man who was the sole tenant of that
+lonely and squalid house. A ducat opened his door as wide as it would go, and
+gave us free access to every cranny of his dwelling. Food he procured
+us&mdash;rough black bread, some pieces of roasted goat, and some goat&rsquo;s
+milk&mdash;and on this we regaled ourselves as though it had been a ducal
+banquet, for hunger had set us in the mood to account anything delicious. And
+when we had eaten we fell to talking, the old man having left us to go about
+such peasant duties as claimed his attention, and our talk concerned ourselves,
+our future first, and later on our past. I remember that Madonna returned to
+the matter of the deception that I had practised, seeking to learn what reasons
+had impelled me, and I answered her in all truth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love. When Giovanni
+Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook the task
+with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out the tale of the
+passion that was consuming my poor heart. It occurred to me that if those
+verses were worthy, you might come to love their author for their beauty, and
+so I strove to render them beautiful. It was the same spirit urged me to don
+the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s armour and fight in that splendid if futile skirmish.
+Even as you had come to love the author for his verses, so might you come to
+love the warrior for his valour. That you should account the one and the other
+the work of Giovanni Sforza was to me a little thing, since I was well content
+to think that you but loved him because you accounted his the things that I had
+performed. Therefore was I the one you truly loved, although you did not know
+it. Could you but conceive what consolation that reflection was to me, you
+would deal lightly with me for my deceit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can conceive it,&rdquo; she answered, very gently, her eyes downcast;
+&ldquo;and now that I know the motives that impelled you, I almost love you for
+that deceit itself, for it seems to me that it holds some quality well worthy
+of devotion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was our talk, all of a nature to help us to a better understanding of each
+other, and all seeming to endear us more and more by showing us how close the
+past had already drawn us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Later I rose and announced my intention of adventuring into Cattolica, there to
+procure her garments more seemly than those she wore, in which she might
+journey on and come into the presence of my mother. Also, there was in
+Cattolica a man I knew, of whom I hoped for the loan of enough money to enable
+me to purchase mules, to the end that we might journey in more dignity and
+comfort. It was then about the twentieth hour, and I hoped to return by
+nightfall. I took my leave of Madonna, enjoining her to rest and to seek sleep
+whilst I was absent; and with that I set out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cattolica was no more than a half-league distant, and I looked to reach it in a
+half-hour or so. I fell into thought as I trudged along, and I was building
+plans for the sunlit future that was to be ours. I was a man transformed that
+day, and I could have sung in spite of the chill December wind that buffeted
+me, so full of joy and gladness was my heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Biancomonte I was likely to spend my days as little better than a peasant,
+but surely a peasant&rsquo;s estate with such a companion as was to be mine was
+preferable to an emperor&rsquo;s throne without her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bleak landscape seemed to me invested with a beauty that at no other time I
+should have noticed. God was good. I swore a thousand times, the world was a
+good world&mdash;so good that Heaven could scarce be better.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had come, perhaps, the better half of the distance I had to travel, and I was
+giving full rein to my joyous fancy, when suddenly I espied ahead a company of
+horsemen. They were approaching me at a brisk pace, but I took no thought of
+them, accounting myself secure from any molestation. If it so happened that it
+was a search party from Pesaro, seeking two men disguised as monks who had
+ravished the coffin of Madonna Paola di Santafior, what should they want of
+Lazzaro Biancomonte? And so, in my confidence, I advanced even as they trotted
+quickly towards me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not until they were within a matter of a hundred paces did I raise my eyes to
+take their measure; and then I halted on my step, smitten of a sudden by an
+unreasoning and unreasonable fear, to see at their head the bulky form of the
+Governor of Cesena. He saw me, too, and, what was worse, he recognised me on
+the instant, for he clapped spurs to his horse and came at me as if he would
+ride me down. Within three paces of me he drew up his steed. Whether the memory
+of the other two occasions on which I had thwarted him arose now in his mind
+and made him wonder had not some fatality brought me across his path again to
+send awry his pretty schemes concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for
+certain; yet some suspicion of it occurred to me and filled me with
+apprehension.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Body of Bacchus!&rdquo; he roared. &ldquo;Is it truly you,
+Boccadoro?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent,&rdquo; I answered him. But my
+tone was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A fig for what they call you,&rdquo; he snapped contemptuously.
+&ldquo;Whence are you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From Pesaro,&rdquo; I answered truthfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From Pesaro? But you are travelling towards it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;True. I was making for Cattolica, but I missed my way in seeking to
+shorten it. I am now returning by the high-road.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The explanation satisfied him on that point, and being satisfied, he asked me
+when I had left Pesaro. A moment I hesitated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Late last night,&rdquo; said I at last. He looked, at me, my foolish
+hesitation having perhaps unslipped a suspicion that was straining at its
+leash.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you can scarcely have heard the
+strange story that is being told there?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked at him, as if puzzled, for a second. &ldquo;If you mean the story of
+Madonna Paoia&rsquo;s end, I heard it yesterday.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, what story was that?&rdquo; quoth he in some surprise, his beetling
+brows coming together in one broad line of fur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shrugged my shoulders. &ldquo;Men said that she had been poisoned.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, that,&rdquo; he cried indifferently. &ldquo;But men say to-day that
+her body was stolen from the Church of San Domenico where it lay. An odd
+happening, is it not?&rdquo; And his eyes covered me in a fierce scrutiny that
+again suggested to me those suspicions of his that I might be the man who had
+anticipated him. I was soon to learn that he had more grounds than at first I
+thought for those same suspicions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Odd, indeed,&rdquo; I answered calmly, for all that I felt my pulses
+quickening with apprehension. &ldquo;But is it true?&rdquo; I added.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He shrugged his shoulders. &ldquo;Rumour&rsquo;s habit is to lie,&rdquo; he
+answered. &ldquo;Yet for such a lie as that, so monstrous an imagination would
+be needed that, rather, am I inclined to account it truth. There are no more
+poets in Pesaro since you left. But at what hour was it that you quitted the
+city?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To hesitate again were to betray myself; it were to suggest that I was seeking
+an answer that should sort well with the rest of my story. Besides, what could
+the hour signify?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would be about the first hour of night,&rdquo; I said. He looked at
+me with increasing strangeness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must indeed have wandered from your road to have got no farther than
+this in all that time. Perhaps you were hampered by some heavy burden?&rdquo;
+He leered evilly, and I turned cold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was burdened with nothing heavier than this body of mine and a rather
+uneasy conscience.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where, then, have you tarried?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this I thought it time to rebel. Were I too meekly to submit to this
+examination, my very meekness might afford him fresh grounds for doubts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Once have I told you,&rdquo; I answered wearily, &ldquo;that I lost my
+way. And, however much it may flatter me to have your Excellency evincing such
+an interest in my concerns, I am at a loss to find a reason for it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He leered prodigiously once more, and his eyebrows shot up to the level of his
+cap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will tell you, brute beast,&rdquo; he answered me. &ldquo;I question
+you because I suspect that you are hiding something from me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What should I hide from your Excellency?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He dared not enlighten me on that point, for should his suspicions prove
+unfounded he would have uselessly betrayed himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you are honest, why do you lie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I?&rdquo; I ejaculated. &ldquo;In what have I lied?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In that you have told me that you left Pesaro at the first hour of
+night. At the third hour you were still in the Church of San Domenico, whither
+you followed Madonna Paola&rsquo;s bier.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was my turn to knit my brows. &ldquo;Was I indeed?&rdquo; quoth I.
+&ldquo;Why, yes, it may well be. But what of that? Is the hour in which I
+quitted Pesaro a matter of such moment as to be worth lying over? If I said
+that I left about the first hour, it is because I was under the impression that
+it was so. But I was so distraught by grief at Madonna&rsquo;s death that I may
+have been careless in my account of time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;More lies,&rdquo; he blazed with sudden passion. &ldquo;It may have been
+the third hour, you say. Fool, the gates of Pesaro close at the second hour of
+night. Where are your wits?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outwardly calm, but inwardly in a panic&mdash;more for Madonna&rsquo;s sake
+than for my own&mdash;I promptly held out the hand on which I wore the Borgia
+ring. In a flash of inspiration did that counter suggest itself to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is a key that will open any gate in Romagna at any hour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at the ring, and of what passed in his mind I can but offer a
+surmise. He may have remembered that once before I had fooled him with the help
+of that gold circlet; or he may have thought that I was secretly in the service
+of the Borgias, and that, acting in their interests, I had carried off Madonna
+Paola. Be that as it may, the sight of the ring threw him into a fury. He
+turned on his horse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lucagnolo!&rdquo; he called, and a man of officer&rsquo;s rank detached
+himself from the score of men-at-arms and rode forward. &ldquo;Let six men
+escort me home to Cesena. Take you the remainder and beat up the country for
+three leagues about this spot. Do not leave a house outside Cattolica
+unsearched. You know what we are seeking?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man inclined his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it,&rdquo;
+he answered confidently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Set about it,&rdquo; was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to
+me. &ldquo;You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro,&rdquo; he
+sneered. &ldquo;We shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe
+betide you, should it be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So be it then,&rdquo; I answered as calmly as I might. &ldquo;Meanwhile,
+perhaps you will now suffer me to go my ways.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The readier since your way must lie with ours.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so, animal,&rdquo; he mimicked me with elephantine grace, &ldquo;you
+are for Cesena, and you had best go with a good will. Our manner of
+constraining men is reputed rude.&rdquo; He turned again. &ldquo;Ercole, take
+you this man behind you. Assist him, Stefano.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to the
+steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride. Thus at every stride the
+anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they must find her rose
+ever higher.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"></a>
+CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA</h2>
+
+<p>
+I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were mine as
+we sped northward towards Cesena. If you are a person of some imagination and
+not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to surmise them; if you are
+not&mdash;why then, my tale is not for you, and it is more than probable that
+you will have wearied of it and flung it aside long before you reach this page.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had fallen we
+were within the walls of the citadel. It was when we had dismounted and I stood
+in the courtyard between Ercole and another of the soldiers that Ramiro again
+addressed me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Animal,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;they tell me that I bear a name for harsh
+measures and rough ways. You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am
+maligned. For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your lying
+tongue with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until my men return
+with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me. But if I then discover that
+you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter from Ramiro del&rsquo;
+Orca&rsquo;s flagstaff.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He pointed up to the tower of the Castle, from which a beam protruded, laden at
+that moment with a ghastly burden just discernible in the thickening gloom. He
+named it well when he called it his &ldquo;flagstaff,&rdquo; and the miserable
+banner of carrion that hung from it was a fitting pennon for the ruthless
+Governor of Cesena. Worthy was he to have worn the silver hauberk of Werner von
+Urslingen with its motto, &ldquo;The enemy of God, of pity and of mercy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Forbidding, black-browed men caught me with rough hands and dragged me off to a
+dank, unlighted prison, as empty of furniture as it was full of noisome smells.
+And there they left me to my ugly thoughts and my deeply despondent mood what
+time the Governor of Cesena supped with his officers in the hall of the Castle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro drank deep that night as was his habit, and being overladen with wine it
+entered his mind that in one of his dungeons lay Lazzaro Biancomonte, who, at
+one time, had been known as Boccadoro, the merriest Fool in Italy. In his
+drunkenness he grew merry, and when Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca grew merry men
+crossed themselves and betook them to their prayers. He would fain be amused,
+and to serve that end he summoned one of his sbirri and bade the fellow drag
+Boccadoro from his dungeon and fetch him into his presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they came for me I turned cold with fear that Madonna was already taken,
+and, by contrast with such a fear as that, the reflection that he might carry
+out his threat to hang me from that black beam of his, faded into insignificant
+proportions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They ushered me into a great hall, not ill-furnished, the floor strewed
+plentifully with rushes, and warmed by an enormous fire of blazing oak. By the
+door stood two pikemen in armour, like a pair of statues; in the centre of the
+floor was a heavy oaken board, laden now with flagons and beakers, at which sat
+Ramiro with a pair of gossips so villainous to look at, that the sight of them
+reminded me of the adage &ldquo;God makes a man and then accompanies
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Governor made a hideous noise at sight of me, which I was constrained to
+accept as an expression of horrid glee.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Boccadoro,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;do you recall that when last I had the
+honour of being entertained by your pert tongue, I promised you that did you
+ever cross my path again I would raise you to the dignity of Fool of my Court
+of Cesena?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Into what magniloquence does vanity betray us! His Court of Cesena! As well
+might you describe a pig-sty as a bower of roses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But his words, despite the unsavoury thing of which they seemed to hold a
+promise, fell sweetly on my ear, inasmuch as for the time they relieved my
+fears touching Madonna. It was not to advise me of her capture that he had had
+me haled into his odious presence. I gathered courage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you not fools enough already at Cesena?&rdquo; I asked him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment he looked as if he were inclining to anger. Then he burst into a
+coarse laugh, and turned to one of his gossips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did I not tell you, Lampugnani, that his wit was quick and penetrating?
+Hear him, rogue. Already has he discerned your quality.&rdquo; He laughed
+consumedly at his own jest, and turning to me he pointed to a crimson bundle on
+a chair beside me. &ldquo;Take those garments,&rdquo; he roughly bade me.
+&ldquo;Go dress yourself in them, then come you back and entertain us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without answering him, and already anticipating the nature of the clothes he
+bade me don, I lifted one of the garments from the heap. It was a foliated
+jester&rsquo;s cap, with a bell hanging from every point, which gave out a
+tinkling sound as I picked it up. I let it fall again as though it had scorched
+me, the memory of what stood between Madonna Paola and me rising like a warning
+spectre in my mind. I would not again defile myself by the garb of folly; not
+again would I incur the shame of playing the Fool for the amusement of others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May it please your Excellency to excuse me,&rdquo; I answered in a firm
+tone. &ldquo;I have made a vow never again to put on motley.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He eyed me sardonically for a moment, as if enjoying in anticipation the
+pleasure of compelling me against my will. He sat back in his chair and threw
+one heavily-booted leg across the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In the Citadel of Cesena,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;we fear neither God nor
+Devil, and vows are as water to us&mdash;things we cannot stomach. It does not
+please me to excuse you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he accompanied
+his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is not,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;a question of what a vow may be to you
+and yours, but of what a vow is to me. It is a thing I cannot break.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sangue di Cristo!&rdquo; he snarled, &ldquo;we will break it for you,
+then&mdash;that or your bones. Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the
+rack&mdash;or yet, if you prefer it, there is the cord yonder.&rdquo; And he
+pointed to the far end of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a
+pulley, the implements of the ghastly torture of the cord. Of such a nature was
+this monster that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let the rogue make acquaintance with it,&rdquo; laughed Lampugnani,
+showing a mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his
+quips. Swing him up, Illustrious.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You shall have five minutes in which to decide,&rdquo; he informed me
+presently. &ldquo;They say that I am cruel. Behold how patient is my clemency.
+Five minutes shall you have where many another would hang you out of hand for
+bearding him as you have done me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You may begin at once,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;neither five minutes nor
+five years will alter my determination.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His brow grew black with anger. &ldquo;We shall see,&rdquo; was all he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a silence now in which we waited, a storm of thoughts battling in my
+mind. Presently Ramiro caught up one of the flagons and applied it to his cup.
+It proved empty, and in a gust of passion he hurled it against the wall where
+it burst into a thousand pieces. Clearly he was very angry, and it taxed my
+wits to account for the little measure of patience he was showing me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Beppo!&rdquo; he called. A page lounging by the buffet sprang to
+attention. He was a slender, rather delicate lad, fair of hair and blue of
+eyes, not more than twelve years of age. An elderly man who stood beside
+him&mdash;one Mariani, the seneschal of Cesena&mdash;stepped forward also,
+solicitude in his glance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bring me wine,&rdquo; bawled the ogre. &ldquo;Must I tell you what I
+need? If you do not put those eyes of yours to better service, I&rsquo;ll have
+them plucked from your empty head. Bestir, animal.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old man caught up a beaker from the buffet and handed it to the boy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here, my son,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Hasten to his Excellency.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lad took the beaker from his father&rsquo;s hands, and trembling in his
+fear of Ramiro&rsquo;s anger, he sprang forward to serve him. In his haste the
+poor youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes. In seeking to
+recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the halberdiers that guarded
+me, and measured his length upon the floor at Ramiro&rsquo;s feet, flooding the
+Governor&rsquo;s legs with the wine he carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes glowing
+like a madman&rsquo;s. Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one hand to the
+boy&rsquo;s belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin. Feeling himself
+lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him, poor Beppo
+uttered a single scream of terror. Then Ramiro swung him round with an ease
+that displayed the man&rsquo;s prodigious strength. For just a second he seemed
+to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle that he held. Then, as if
+suddenly taking his resolve, that devil hurled the lad across the little
+intervening space, straight into the heart of the blazing fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Beppo hurtled against the logs with a sickening crash, and a thousand sparks
+leapt up and vanished in the cavern of the chimney. Ramiro wheeled sharply
+about, and snatching the pike from the hands of one of my guards, he pinned
+down the poor body of the boy to make sure of his victim&rsquo;s entire
+destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Away by the buffet old Mariani looked on with a face as grey as ashes, his eyes
+protruding in horror at the thing they witnessed. One glimpse I had of him, and
+I scarce know which was the sight that sickened me more, the fathers anguish or
+the twitching limbs of the burning child. Two legs and two arms protruded from
+the blaze and writhed and wriggled horribly what time the flames peeled the
+garments from them and licked the flesh from the bones. At length they fell
+still and sank down into the white heat of the logs, a hideous, pungent odour
+spreading through the chamber. From the old man by the buffet, who had stood
+spellbound during this ghastly scene, there broke at last an anguished cry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mercy, my lord, mercy!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Governor of Cesena straightened himself from his task, pulled the pike from
+the flames, and restored it to the man-at-arms. Then turning to Mariani:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fetch me wine,&rdquo; he bade him curtly, as he seated himself once more
+upon the chair from which he had risen to perform that deed of ghastly
+ruthlessness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A torch spluttered suddenly in its sconce, and the fierce hissing of the
+fire&mdash;like some monster licking its chops over a bloody meal&mdash;were
+the only sounds that disturbed the stillness that ensued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every man there, including Ramiro&rsquo;s table companions, was white to the
+lips; for accustomed though they might be to horrors in that brigand&rsquo;s
+nest, this was a horror that surpassed anything they had ever witnessed. The
+silence irked Messer Ramiro. He looked round from under his shaggy brows, and
+he spluttered out an oath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you bring me this wine, pig?&rdquo; he growled at the almost
+senseless Mariani, and in his air and voice there was a promise of such
+terrific things that the old man put aside his horror to make room for his
+fears, and mechanically seizing another flagon he hurried forward to minister
+to the wants of his fearful lord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro eyed him with cynical amusement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your hand shakes, Mariani,&rdquo; he derided him. &ldquo;Are you cold?
+Go warm yourself,&rdquo; he added, with a brutal laugh and a jerk of his thumb
+towards the fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My eyes have looked upon some gruesome sights, and I have heard such tales of
+ruthless cruelty as you would deem almost passing possibility. I have read of
+the awful doings of the Lord Bernabo Visconti at Milan in the olden time, but I
+believe that compared with this monster of Cesena that same Bernabo was no
+worse than a sucking dove. How it befell that men permitted him to live, how it
+was that none bethought him to put poison in his wine or a knife in his back,
+is something that I shall never wholly understand. Could it be that these
+robbers of whom he made a hedge for his protection were no better than himself,
+or was it that the man&rsquo;s terrific brutality was on such a scale that it
+filled them with an almost supernatural awe of him? To men better versed than
+am I in the mysterious ways of human nature do I leave the answering of these
+questions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ogre turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, as with his hand he caressed his
+tawny beard. He seemed to have cooled a little now, and to have regained some
+mastery of his drunken self. Old Mariani tottered back to his buffet, and stood
+leaning against it, his eyes wandering, with the look of a man demented, to the
+fire that had devoured his child. There, indeed, if he escaped the madness with
+which the poignancy of his grief was threatening him, was a tool that might
+turn its edge against this inhuman monster, this devil, this bloody carnifex of
+a Governor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Chance,&rdquo; said Ramiro, &ldquo;has designed that you should see
+something of how we deal with clumsy knaves at Cesena, Boccadoro. To
+disobedient ones I can assure you that we are not half so merciful. There is no
+such short shrift for them. You have had more than the time I promised you for
+reflection. The garments await you yonder. Let us know&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door opened suddenly, and a servant entered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A courier from the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli, Tyrant of Città di
+Castello,&rdquo; he announced, unwittingly breaking in upon Ramiro&rsquo;s
+words, &ldquo;with urgent messages for the high and Mighty Governor of
+Cesena.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the instant Ramiro rose, the expression of his face changing from cynical
+amusement to sober concern, the task upon which he was engaged forgotten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Admit him instantly,&rdquo; he commanded. And whilst he waited he paced
+the chamber in long strides, his chin thrust slightly forward, suggestive of
+deep thought. And during that pause, I, too, was thinking. Not indeed of him,
+nor vainly speculating upon such matters as might be involved in the message,
+the announcement of which seemed so deeply to engage his mind, but chiefly of
+my own and Madonna Paola&rsquo;s concerns.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not fear of what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new channel
+and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca&rsquo;s
+behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his
+diversion. It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what the
+consequences of my death might be to Paola di Santafior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However desperate a position may seem, unlooked-for loopholes often present
+themselves, and so long as we live and have sound limbs to aid us to seize such
+opportunities as may offer, it is a weak thing utterly to abandon hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Was it, then, not better to submit to the shame of the motley once again for a
+little time, when by so doing I might perhaps live to work my own salvation,
+and Madonna&rsquo;s should she suffer capture, rather than stubbornly to invite
+him to put me to death out of a feeling of false pride?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The very resolve seemed to lend me strength and to revive the hope that lay
+moribund in my breast. And then, scarce was it taken, when the door again
+opened, and a man, who was splashed from head to foot with mud, in earnest of
+how hard he had ridden, was ushered in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He advanced to Meser Ramiro, bowed and presented a package. Ramiro broke the
+seal, and standing with his back to the fire, immediately in the light shed by
+one of the wax torches, he read the letter. Then his eyes wandered to the man
+who had brought it, and to me it seemed that they dwelt particularly upon the
+hat the courier was holding in his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take this good fellow to the kitchen,&rdquo; he bade the servant that
+had introduced him, &ldquo;let him be fed and rested.&rdquo; Then, turning to
+the man, himself, &ldquo;I shall require you to set out at daybreak with my
+answer,&rdquo; he said; and so, with a wave of the hand, he dismissed him. As
+the messenger departed Ramiro returned to the table, filled himself a cup of
+wine and drank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What says the Lord Vitelli?&rdquo; Lampugnani ventured to ask him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If he knew you,&rdquo; answered Ramiro, with a scowl, &ldquo;he would
+counsel me to strangle some of the over-inquisitive rascals that surround
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Over-inquisitive?&rdquo; echoed Lampugnani boldly. &ldquo;Body of God!
+It were enough to wake the curiosity of an ecstatic hermit to have a
+mud-splashed courier from Citta di Castello at Cesena three times within one
+little week.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro looked at him, and by his glance it was plain to see that the words had
+jarred his temper. Whatever it was that Vitelli wrote to Ramiro, this gentleman
+was not minded to divulge it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you have supped, Lampugnani,&rdquo; said the Governor slowly, his
+eyes upon his offending officer, &ldquo;perhaps you will find some duty to
+perform ere you seek your bed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lampugnani turned crimson, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. Then he rose.
+He was a man of choleric aspect, and that he served under Ramiro del&rsquo;
+Orca was as much a danger to the Governor as to himself. He had not the air of
+one whom it was wise to threaten in however veiled a manner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shall I fetch you this fellow&rsquo;s hat ere I sleep?&rdquo; he
+inquired, with contemptuous insolence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not a word did Ramiro answer him, but his glance fastened upon Lampugnani with
+an expression before which that impudent ruffian lowered his own bold eyes.
+Thus for a moment; then with an awkward laugh to cover the intimidation that he
+felt, Lampugnani walked heavily from the room and banged the door after him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was about it all a strangeness that set my wits to work in a mighty busy
+fashion. That work suffered interruption by the harsh voice of Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you resolved, Boccadoro?&rdquo; he growled at me. &ldquo;Have you
+decided for the motley or the cord?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly I fell into the part I was to play.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did I choose the latter,&rdquo; said I, with an assumption of sudden
+airiness and such a grimace as was part and parcel of my old-time trade,
+&ldquo;then were I truly worthy of the former, for I should have proved myself,
+indeed, a fool. Yet if I choose the former, I pray that you&rsquo;ll not follow
+the same course of reasoning, and hold me worthy of the latter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he had understood its subtleties; for his wits were of a quality that
+would have disgraced a calf, he roared at the conceit, and seemingly thrown
+into a better humour by the promise of more such entertainment, he bade my
+guards release me, and urged me to assume the motley without more delay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What time I was obeying him my mind was returning to that matter of
+Lampugnani&rsquo;s words, and it is not difficult to understand how I should
+arrive at the only possible conclusion they suggested. The hats of the other
+messengers from Vitelli, that the officer had mentioned, had been brought to
+Ramiro. The reason for this that at once arose in my mind was that within the
+messenger&rsquo;s hat there was a second and more secret communication for the
+Governor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This secrecy and Ramiro&rsquo;s display of anger at seeing a hint of it
+betrayed by Lampugnani struck me, not unnaturally, as suspicious. What were
+these hidden communications that passed between Vitellozzo Vitelli and the
+Governor of Cesena? It was a matter of which I could not pretend to offer a
+solution, but, nevertheless, it was one, I thought, that promised to repay
+investigation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro grew impatient, and my reflections suffered interruption by his rough
+command that I should hasten. One of the men-at-arms helped me to truss my
+points, and when that was done I stepped forward&mdash;Boccadoro the Fool once
+more.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"></a>
+CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+THE SENESCHAL</h2>
+
+<p>
+For an hour or so that night I played the Fool for Messer Ramiro&rsquo;s
+entertainment in a manner which did high justice to the fame that at Pesaro I
+had earned for the name of Boccadoro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Beginning with quip and jest and paradox, aimed now at him, now at the officer
+who had remained to keep him company in his cups, now at the servants who
+ministered to him, now at the guards standing at attention, I passed on later
+to play the part of narrator, and I delighted his foul and prurient mind with
+the story of Andreuccio da Perugia and another of the more licentious tales of
+Messer Giovanni Boccacci. I crimson now with shame at the manner in which I set
+myself to pander to his mood that with my wit I might defend my life and limbs,
+and preserve them for the service of my Holy Flower of the Quince in the hour
+of her need.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One man alone of all those present did I spare my banter. This was the old
+seneschal, Miriani. He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever and anon he
+would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro&rsquo;s cup in obedience to the
+monsters imperious orders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so calm? His
+face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and rigid, its colour
+ashen. But his step was tolerably firm, and his hand seemed to have lost the
+trembling that had assailed it under the first shock of the horror he had
+witnessed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I watched him furtively I thought that were I Ramiro I should beware of him.
+That frozen calm argued to me some terrible labour of the mind beneath that
+livid mask. But the Governor of Cesena appeared insensible, or else he was
+contemptuous of danger from that quarter. It may even have delighted his
+outrageous nature to behold a man whose son he had done to death with such
+brutality continue obedient and submissive to his will, for it may have
+flattered his vanity by the concession that bearing seemed to make to his grim
+power.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An hour went by, my second tale was done, and I was now entrancing Messer
+Ramiro with some impromptu verses upon the divorce of Giovanni Sforza, a theme
+set me by himself, when I was interrupted by the arrival of a soldier, who
+entered unannounced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I paled and turned cold at the cry with which Ramiro rose to greet him, and the
+words he dropped, which told me that here was one of the riders of the party
+that, under Lucagnolo, had been ordered to search the country about Cattolica.
+Had they found Madonna?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messer Lucagnolo,&rdquo; the fellow announced, &ldquo;has sent me to
+report to you the failure of his search to the west and north of Cattolica. He
+has beaten the country thoroughly for three leagues of the town on those two
+sides, as you desired him, but unfortunately without result. He is now
+spreading his search to the south, and not a house is being left unvisited. By
+morning he hopes to report again to your Excellency.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A wild wave of joy swept through my soul. They had ransacked the country west
+and north of Cattolica without result. Why then, assuredly, they had missed the
+peasant&rsquo;s hut that sheltered her, and where she waited yet for my return.
+Their search to the south I knew would prove equally futile. I could have
+fallen on my knees in a prayer of thanksgiving had my surroundings been other
+than they were.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro&rsquo;s eye wandered round to me and settled on me in a lowering glance.
+By his face it was plain that the message disappointed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wonder,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;whether we could make you talk?&rdquo;
+And from me his eyes roamed on to the instrument of torture at the end of that
+long chamber. I grew sick with fear, for if he were to do this thing, and maim
+me by it, how should I avail myself or her hereafter?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Excellency,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;since you met me you have hinted at
+something that I am hiding from you, at something touching which I could give
+you information did I choose. What it may be passes all thought of mine. But
+this I do assure you: no torture could make me tell you what I do not know, nor
+is any torture needed to extract from me such information as I may be possessed
+of. I do but beg that you wilt frankly question me upon this matter, whatever
+it may be, and your Excellency shall be answered to the best of my
+knowledge.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the seemingly
+transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that he believed me. A
+moment he hesitated yet; then&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior,&rdquo; he
+said presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table. &ldquo;As I told you,
+the body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from San
+Domenico. Know you aught of this?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to fight
+this brigand? Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and a lie become
+a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely justify such an
+exception.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know nothing,&rdquo; I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with
+a ring of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, &ldquo;nor can I
+even believe this rumour. It is a wild story. That the body has been stolen may
+be true enough. Such things occur; though he was a bold man who laid hands upon
+the body of a person of such importance. But that she lives&mdash;Gesu! that is
+an old wife&rsquo;s tale. I had, myself, the word of the Lord Filippo&rsquo;s
+physician that she was dead.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nevertheless, this old wife&rsquo;s tale, as you dub it, is one of which
+I have had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall not regret
+it. Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have abstracted the body
+from the church. In seeking this information I am acting in the interests of
+the noble House of Borgia which I serve and to which she was to have been
+allied, as you well know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
+convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover the
+true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied to me of his
+service to the House of Borgia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will gladly lend you these wits,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;to disprove to
+you the rumour of which you say that you have confirmation. Let us accept the
+statement that the body has been stolen. That much, no doubt, is true, for even
+rumours require some slight foundation. But who in all this world could say
+that when the body was taken it was not dead? Clearly but one man&mdash;he that
+administered the poison. And, I ask your Excellency, would he be likely to tell
+the world what he had done?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He might have answered me: &ldquo;I am that man.&rdquo; But he did not.
+Instead, he hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had
+uttered&mdash;words meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter;
+and this they achieved, at least in part. He flashed me a look of sudden
+suspicion, it is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his
+brooding eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of what
+you say,&rdquo; he grumbled. &ldquo;But I incline to believe you, and you are a
+merry rogue. You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as you amuse
+me. But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive me. You shall
+have the cord first and other things after, and your death shall be the thing
+you&rsquo;ll pray for long before it takes you from my vengeance. If you know
+aught, speak now and you shall find me merciful. Your life and liberty shall be
+the recompense of your honesty towards me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I repeat, Excellency,&rdquo; I answered, without changing colour,
+&ldquo;that all that I know have I already told you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was convinced, I think, for the time being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Get you gone, then,&rdquo; he bade me. &ldquo;I have other business to
+deal with ere I sleep. Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently motioned me
+to go with him. I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance, and withdrew in the
+wake of the seneschal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a gallery
+that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted presently, and,
+opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his hollow
+eyes rested on me for a second. I thought that he was on the point of saying
+something, and I waited returning his glance with one that quailed before the
+anguish of his own. I feared to speak, to offer an expression of the sympathy
+that filled my heart; for in that strange place I could not tell how far a man
+was to be trusted&mdash;even a man so wronged as this one. On his own part it
+may be that a like doubt beset him concerning me, for in the end he departed as
+he had come, no word having passed his ashen lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had left in
+the iron sconce on the wall. The single window overlooked the courtyard, so
+that even had I been disposed and able to cut through the iron that barred it,
+I should but succeed in falling into the hands of the guards who abounded in
+that nest of infamy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So that, for the night at least, the notion of flight must be abandoned. What
+the morrow would bring forth we must wait and see. Perhaps some way of escape
+would offer itself. Then my thoughts returned to Paola, and I was tortured by
+surmises as to her fate, and chiefly as to how she could have eluded the search
+that must have been made for her in the hut where I had left her. Had the
+peasant befriended her, I wondered; and what did she think of my protracted
+absence? I sat on the edge of the bed and gave rein to my conjectures. The
+noises in the castle had all ceased, and still I sat on, unconscious of time,
+my taper burning low.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may have been midnight when I was startled by the sound of a stealthy step
+in the corridor near my door. A heavy footfall I should have left unheeded, but
+this soft tread aroused me on the instant, and I sat listening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It halted at my door, and was succeeded by a soft, scratching sound.
+Noiselessly I rose, and with ready hands I waited, prepared, in the instinct of
+self-preservation, to fall upon the intruder, however futile the act might be.
+But the door did not open as I expected. Instead, the scratching sound
+continued, growing slightly louder. Then it occurred to me, at last, that
+whoever came might be a friend craving admittance, and proceeding stealthily
+that others in the castle might not overhear him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Swiftly I crossed to the door, and opened. On the threshold a dark figure
+straightened itself from a stooping posture, and the light of the taper behind
+me fell on a face of a pallor that seemed to glisten in its intensity. It was
+the face of Mariani, the seneschal of the Castle of Cessna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One glance we exchanged, and intuitively I seemed to apprehend the motive of
+this midnight visit. He came either to bring me aid or to seek mine, with
+vengeance for his guerdon. I stood aside, and silently he entered my room and
+closed the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quench your taper,&rdquo; he bade me in a husky whisper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without hesitation I obeyed him, a strange excitement thrilling me. For a
+second we stood in the dark, then another light gleamed as he plucked away the
+cloak that masked a lanthorn which he had brought with him. He set the lanthorn
+on the floor, and held the cloak in his hand, ready at a moment&rsquo;s notice
+to conceal the light in its folds. Then pulling me down beside him on the bed,
+where he had perched himself:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it may be that I bring you
+assistance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Speak, then,&rdquo; I bade him. &ldquo;You shall not find me slow to act
+if there is the need or the way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I had surmised,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Are you not that same
+Boccadoro, Fool of the Court of Pesaro, who donned the Lord Giovanni&rsquo;s
+armour and rode out to do battle in his stead?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered him that I was that man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have heard the tale,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Indeed, all Italy has
+heard it, and knows you for a man of steel, as strong and audacious as you are
+cunning and resourceful. I know against what desperate odds you fought that
+day, and how you overcame this terrible Ramiro. This it is that leads me to
+hope that in the service of your own ends you may become the instrument of my
+vengeance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Unfold your project, man,&rdquo; I muttered, fiercely almost, in my
+burning eagerness. &ldquo;Let me hear what you would have me do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not answer me until a sob had shaken his old frame.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That boy,&rdquo; he muttered brokenly, &ldquo;that golden-haired angel
+sent me for the consolation of my decaying years, that lad whom Ramiro
+destroyed so foully and wantonly, was my son. Futile though the attempt had
+proved, I had certainly set my hands at the tyrants neck, but that I founded
+hopes on you of a surer and more terrible revenge. That thought has manned me
+and upheld me when anguish was near to slaying me outright. To see the boy burn
+so under my very eyes! God of mercy and pity! That I should have lived so
+long!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your child burned but a moment, suffered but an instant; for the deed,
+Ramiro will burn in Hell through countless generations, through interminable
+ages.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a paltry consolation, perhaps, but it was the best that then occurred to
+me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Meanwhile,&rdquo; I begged him, &ldquo;do you tell me what you would
+have me do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I urged him to it that he might, thereby, suffer his mind to rest a moment from
+pondering that ghastly thing that he had witnessed, that scene that would live
+before his eyes until they closed in their last sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You heard Lampugnani quip Ramiro with the fact that three messengers
+have ridden desperately within the week from Citta di Castello to Cesena, and
+you heard, perhaps, his obscure reference to the hat?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I heard both, and both I weighed,&rdquo; said I. The old man looked at
+me as if surprised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;was the conclusion you arrived
+at?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, simply this: that whilst the messenger bore some letter from
+Vitelli to Ramiro that should serve to lull the suspicions of any who,
+wondering at so much traffic between these two, should be moved to take a peep
+into those missives, the true letter with which the courier rides is concealed
+within the lining of his hat&mdash;probably unknown even to himself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stared at me as though I had been a wizard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messer Boccadoro&mdash;&rdquo; he began.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My name,&rdquo; I corrected him, &ldquo;is Biancomonte&mdash;Lazzaro
+Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whatever be your name,&rdquo; he returned, &ldquo;of the quality of your
+wits there can be no question. You have guessed for yourself the half of what I
+was come to tell you. Has your shrewdness borne you any further? Have you
+concluded aught concerning the nature of those letters?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have concluded that it might repay some trouble to discover what is
+contained in letters that are sent with so much secrecy. I can conceive nothing
+that might lie between the Lord of Citta di Castello and this ruffian of
+Cesena, and yet&mdash;treason lurks often where least it is expected, and
+treason makes stranger bed-fellows than misfortune.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lampugnani was no fool, and yet a great fool,&rdquo; the old man
+murmured. He surmised what you have surmised. With each of the messengers
+Ramiro has dealt in the same manner. He has sent each to be fed and refreshed
+whilst waiting to return with the answer he was penning. For their refreshment
+he has ordered a very full, stout wine&mdash;not drugged, for that they might
+discover upon awaking; but a wine that of itself would do the work of setting
+them to sleep very soundly. Then, when all slept, and only he remained at
+table, like the drunkard that he is, it has been his habit to descend himself
+to the kitchen and possess himself of the messenger&rsquo;s hat. With this he
+has returned to the hall, opened the lining and withdrawn a letter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, as I suppose, he has penned his answer, thrust it into the lining,
+where the other one had been, and secured it, as it was before, with his own
+hands. He has returned the hat to the place from whence he took it, and when
+the courier awakens in the morning there is another letter put into his hand,
+and he is bidden to bear it to Vitelli.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paused a moment; then continued: &ldquo;Lampugnani must have suspected
+something and watched Ramiro to make sure that his suspicions were well
+founded. In that he was wise, but he was a fool to allow Ramiro to see what lie
+he had discovered. Already he has paid the penalty. He is lying with a dagger
+in his throat, for an hour ago Ramiro stabbed him while he slept.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shuddered. What a place of blood was this! Could it be that Cesare Borgia had
+no knowledge of what things were being performed by his Governor of Cesena?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Poor Lampugnani!&rdquo; I sighed. &ldquo;God rest his soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I doubt but he is in Hell,&rdquo; answered Mariani, without emotion.
+&ldquo;He was as great a villain as his master, and he has gone to answer for
+his villainy even as this ugly monster of a Ramiro shall. But let Lampugnani
+be. I am not come to talk of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Returning from his bloody act, Ramiro ordered me to bed. I went, and as
+I passed Lampugnani&rsquo;s room I saw the door standing wide. It was thus that
+I learnt what had befallen. I remembered his words concerning the hat and I
+remembered old suspicions of my own aroused by the thought of the potent wine
+which Ramiro had ordered me to see given to the couriers. I sped back to the
+gallery that overlooks the hall. Ramiro was absent, and I surmised at once that
+he was gone to the kitchen. Then was it that I thought of you and of what
+service you might render if things were indeed as I now more than suspected.
+Like an inspiration it came to me how I might prepare your way. I ran down to
+the hall, sweating in my terror that he should return ere I had performed the
+task I went on. From the buffet I drew a flagon of that same stout wine that
+Ramiro used upon his messengers. I ripped away the seal and crimson cord by
+which it is distinguished, and placing it on the table I removed the flagon I
+had set for him before I had first departed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I fled back to the gallery, and from the shadows I watched for his
+return. Soon he came, bearing a hat in his hand; and from that hat he took a
+letter, all as you have surmised. He read it, and I saw his face lighten with a
+fierce excitement. Then he helped himself freely to wine, and drank thirstily,
+for all that he was overladen with it. One of the qualities of this wine is
+that in quenching thirst it produces yet a greater. Ramiro drank again, then
+sat with the letter before him in the light of the single taper I had left
+burning. Presently he grew sleepy. He shook himself and drank again. Then again
+he sat conning his epistle, and thus I left him and came hither in quest of
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There followed a pause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well?&rdquo; I asked at length. &ldquo;What is it you would have me do?
+Stab him as he sleeps?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He shook his head. &ldquo;That were too sweet and sudden a death for him. If it
+had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent me strength
+enough. But think you it would repay me for having seen my boy pinned by that
+monster&rsquo;s pike to the burning logs?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it, then, you ask of me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if
+its treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia&mdash;it could scarce be aimed at
+another&mdash;would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone&mdash;what then? You
+know this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would ransack
+the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive were
+forthcoming.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That,&rdquo; he groaned, &ldquo;is what deterred me. If I had the means
+of getting the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from
+Cesena, I should not have hesitated. Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza, and I
+could ride there in a day. But it would be impossible for me to leave the place
+before morning. I have duties to perform in the town, and I might get away
+whilst I am about them, but before then the letter will have been missed, and
+no one will be allowed to leave the citadel.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why then,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;the only hope lies in abstracting that
+letter in such a manner that he shall not suspect the loss; and that seems a
+very desperate hope.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We sat in silence for some moments, during which I thought intently to little
+purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does he sleep yet, think you?&rdquo; I asked presently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Assuredly he must.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And if I were to go to the gallery, is there any fear that I should be
+discovered by others?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;None. All at Cesena are asleep by now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said I, rising, &ldquo;let us take a look at him. Who knows
+what may suggest itself? Come.&rdquo; I moved towards the door, and he took up
+his lanthorn and followed me, enjoining me to tread lightly.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"></a>
+CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+THE LETTER</h2>
+
+<p>
+On tiptoe I crept down that corridor to the gallery above the banqueting-hall,
+secure from sight in the enveloping darkness, and intent upon allowing no sound
+to betray my presence, lest Ramiro should have awakened. Behind me, treading as
+lightly, came Messer Mariani.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus we gained the gallery. I leaned against the stout oaken balustrade, and
+looked down into the black pit of the hall, broken in the centre by the circle
+of light from the two tapers that burnt upon the table. The other torches had
+all been quenched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the table sat Messer Ramiro, his head fallen forward and sideways upon his
+right arm which was outstretched and limp along the board. Before him lay a
+paper which I inferred to be the letter whose possession might mean so much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could hear the old man breathing heavily beside me as I leaned there in the
+dark, and sought to devise a means by which that paper might be obtained. No
+doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to snatch it away without
+disturbing him. But there was always to be considered that when he waked and
+missed the letter we should have to reckon with his measures to regain
+possession of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It became necessary, therefore, to go about it in a manner that should leave
+him unsuspicious of the theft. A little while I pondered this, deeming the
+thing desperate at first. Then an idea came to me on a sudden, and turning to
+Mariani I asked him could he find me a sheet of paper of about the size of that
+letter held by Ramiro. He answered me that he could, and bade me wait there
+until he should return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I waited, watching the sleeper below, my excitement waxing with every second of
+the delay. Ramiro was snoring now&mdash;a loud, sonorous snore that rang like a
+trumpet-blast through that vast empty hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last Mariani returned, bringing the sheet of paper I had asked for, and he
+was full of questions of what I intended. But neither the place nor the time
+was one in which to stand unfolding plans. Every moment wasted increased the
+uncertainty of the success of my design. Someone might come, or Ramiro might
+awaken despite the potency of the wine he had been given&mdash;for on so
+well-seasoned a toper the most potent of wines could have but a transient
+effect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I left Mariani, and moved swiftly and silently to the head of the staircase.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had gone down two steps, when, in the dark, I missed the third, the bells in
+my cap jangling at the shock. I brought my teeth together and stood breathless
+in apprehension, fearing that the noise might awaken him, and cursing myself
+for a careless fool to have forgotten those infernal bells. Above me I heard a
+warning hiss from old Mariani, which, if anything, increased my dread. But
+Ramiro snored on, and I was reassured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment I stood debating whether I should go on, or first return to divest
+myself of that cap of mine. In the end I decided to pursue the latter course.
+The need for swift and sudden movement might come ere I was done with this
+adventure, and those bells might easily be the undoing of me. So back I went to
+the surprise and infinite dismay of Mariani until I had whispered in his ear
+the reason. We retreated together to the corridor, and there, with his help, I
+removed my jangling headgear, which I left him to restore to my chamber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this time I
+gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the hall.
+Ramiro&rsquo;s back was towards me. On my right stood the tall buffet from
+which the boy had fetched him wine that evening; this I marked out as the cover
+to which I must fly in case of need.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A second I stood hesitating, still considering my course; then I went softly
+forward, my feet making no sound in the rushes of the floor. I had covered half
+the distance, and, growing bolder, I was advancing more swiftly and with less
+caution, when suddenly my knee came in contact with a three-legged stool that
+had been carelessly left where none would have suspected it. The blow may have
+hurt afterwards, indeed, I was conscious of a soreness at the knee; but at the
+moment I had no thought or care for physical pain. The bench went over with a
+crash, and for all that the rushes may have deadened in part the sound of its
+fall, to my nervous ear it boomed like the report of a cannon through the
+stillness of the place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned cold as ice, and the sweat of fear sprang out to moisten me from head
+to foot. Instantly I dropped on all fours, lest Ramiro, awaking suddenly,
+should turn; and I waited for the least sign that should render advisable my
+seeking the cover of the buffet. In the gallery above I could picture old
+Mariani clenching his teeth at the noise, his knees knocking together, and his
+face white with horror; for Ramiro&rsquo;s snoring had abruptly ceased. It came
+to an end with a choking catch of the breath, and I looked to see him raise his
+head and start up to ascertain what it was that had aroused him. But he never
+stirred, and for all that he no longer snored, his breathing continued heavy
+and regular, so that I was cheered by the assurance that I had but disturbed
+his slumber, not dispelled it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet, since I had disturbed and lightened it, a greater precaution was now
+necessary, and I waited there for some ten minutes maybe, a period that must
+have proved a very eternity to the old man upstairs. At last I had the reward
+of hearing the snoring recommence; lightly at first, but soon with all its
+former fullness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I rose and proceeded now with a caution that must guard me from any more
+unlooked-for obstacles. Moreover, as I approached, the darkness was dispelled
+more and more at every stride in the direction of the light. At last I reached
+the table, and stood silent as a spectre at Ramiro&rsquo;s side, looking down
+upon the features of the sleeping man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His face was flushed, and his tawny hair tumbled about his damp brow; his lips
+quivered as he breathed. For a moment, as I stood gazing on him, there was
+murder in my mind. His dagger hung temptingly in his girdle. To have drawn it
+and rid the world of this monster might have been a worthy deed, acceptable in
+the eyes of Heaven. But how should it profit me? Rather must it prove my
+destruction at the hands of his followers, and to be destroyed just then, with
+Paola depending upon me, and life full of promise once I regained my liberty,
+was something I had no mind to risk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My eyes wandered to the letter lying on the table. If this were of the nature
+we suspected, it should prove a safer tool for his destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To read it as it lay was an easy matter, and it came to me then that ere I
+decided upon my course it might be well that I should do so. If by chance it
+were innocent of treason, why, then, I might resort to the risk of that other
+and more desperate weapon&mdash;his own dagger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the foot of the short flight of steps that led from the hall to the
+courtyard I could hear the slow pacing of the sentry placed there by Ramiro.
+But unless he were summoned, it was extremely unlikely that the fellow would
+leave his post, so that, I concluded, I had little to fear from that quarter. I
+drew back and taking up a position behind Ramiro&rsquo;s chair&mdash;a position
+more favourable to escape in the untoward event of his awaking&mdash;I craned
+forward to read the letter over his shoulder. I thanked God in that hour for
+two things: that my sight was keen, and that Vitellozzo Vitelli wrote a large,
+bold hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely breathing, and distracted the while by the mad racing of my pulses, I
+read; and this, as nearly as I can remember, is what the letter contained:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;ILLUSTRIOUS RAMIRO&mdash;Your answer to my last letter reached me
+safely, and it rejoiced me to learn that you had found a man for our
+undertaking. See that you have him in readiness, for the hour of action is at
+hand. Cesare goes south on the second or third day of the New Year, and he has
+announced to me his intention of passing through Cesena on his way, there to
+investigate certain charges of maladministration which have been preferred
+against you. These concern, in particular, certain misappropriation of grain
+and stores, and an excessive severity of rule, of which complaints have reached
+him. From this you will gather that out of a spirit of self-defence, if not to
+earn the reward which we have bound ourselves to pay you, it is expedient that
+you should not fail us. The occasion of the Duke&rsquo;s visit to Cesena will
+be, of all, the most propitious for our purpose. Have your arbalister posed,
+and may God strengthen his arm and render true his aim to the end that Italy
+may be rid of a tyrant. I commend myself to your Excellency, and I shall
+anxiously await your news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;VITELLOZZO VITELLI.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here indeed were my hopes realised. A plot there was, and it aimed at nothing
+less than the Duca Valentino&rsquo;s life. Let that letter be borne to Cesare
+Borgia at Faenza, and I would warrant that within a dozen hours of his receipt
+of it he would so dispose that all who had suffered by the cruel tyranny of
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca would be avenged, and those who were still suffering
+would be relieved. In this letter lay my own freedom and the salvation of
+Madonna Paula, and this letter it behoved me at once to become possessed. It
+was a safer far alternative than that dagger of his.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment I stood pondering the matter for the last time, then stepping sideways
+and forward, so that I was again beside him, I put out my hand and swiftly
+whipped the letter from the table. Then standing very still, to prevent the
+slightest rustle, I remained a second or two observing him. He snored on,
+undisturbed by my light-fingered action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I drew away a pace or two, as lightly as I might, and folding the letter I
+thrust it into my girdle. Then from my open doublet I drew the sheet that
+Mariani had supplied me, and, advancing again, I placed it on the table in a
+position almost identical with that which the original had occupied, saving
+that it was removed a half-finger&rsquo;s breadth from his hand, for I feared
+to allow it actually to touch him lest it should arouse him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Holding my breath, for now was I come to the most desperate part of my
+undertaking, I caught up one of the tapers and set fire to a corner of the
+sheet. That done, I left the candle lying on its side against the paper, so as
+to convey the impression to him, when presently he awakened, that it had fallen
+from it sconce. Then, without waiting for more, I backed swiftly away, watching
+the progress of the flames as they devoured the paper and presently reached his
+hand and scorched it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that I dropped again on all fours, and having gained the corner of the
+buffet, I crouched there, even as with a sudden scream of pain he woke and
+sprang upright, shaking his blistered hand. As a matter of instinct he looked
+about to see what it was had hurt him. Then his eyes fell upon the charred
+paper on the table, and the fallen candle, which was still burning across one
+end of it, and even to the dull wits of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca the only
+possible conclusion was suggested. He stared at it a moment, then swept that
+flimsy sheet of ashes from the table with an oath, and sank back once more into
+his great leathern chair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he swore aloud, &ldquo;it is well that I had read it
+a dozen times. Better that it should have been burnt than that someone should
+have read it whilst I slept.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The idea of such a possibility seemed to rouse him to fresh action, for seizing
+the fallen candle and replacing it in its socket, he rose once more, and
+holding it high above his head he looked about the hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The light it shed may have been feeble, and the shadows about my buffet thick;
+but, as I have said, my doublet was open, and some ray of that weak candlelight
+must have found out the white shirt that was showing at my breast, for with a
+sudden cry he pushed back his chair and took a step towards me, no doubt intent
+upon investigating that white something that he saw gleaming there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I waited for no more. I had no fancy to be caught in that corner, utterly at
+his mercy. I stood up suddenly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Magnificent, it is I,&rdquo; I announced, with a calm and boundless
+effrontery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boldness of it may have staggered him a little, for he paused, although his
+eyes were glowing horribly with the frenzy that possessed him, the half of
+which was drunkenness, the other fear and wrath lest I should have seen his
+treacherous communication from Vitelli.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What make you here?&rdquo; he questioned threateningly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thirsted, Excellency,&rdquo; I answered glibly. &ldquo;I thirsted, and
+I bethought me of this buffet where you keep your wine.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He continued to eye me, some six paces off, his half-drunken wits no doubt
+weighing the plausibility of my answer. At last&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If that be all, what cause had you to hide?&rdquo; he asked me shrewdly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One of your candles fell over and awakened you,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;I
+feared you might resent my presence, and so I hid.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You came not near the table?&rdquo; he inquired. &ldquo;You saw nothing
+of the paper that I held? Nay, by the Host! I&rsquo;ll take no risks. You were
+born &rsquo;neath an unlucky star, fool; for be your reason for your presence
+here no more than you assert, you have come in a season that must be fatal to
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He set the candle on the table, then carrying his hand to his girdle he
+withdrew it sharply, and I caught the gleam of a dagger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that instant I thought of Mariani waiting above, and like a flash it came to
+me that if I could outpace this drunken brigand, and, gaining the gallery well
+ahead of him, transfer that letter to the old man&rsquo;s hands, I should not
+die in vain. Cesare Borgia would avenge me, and Madonna Paola, at least, would
+be safe from this villain. If Mariani could reach Valentino at Faenza, I would
+answer for it that within four-and-twenty hours Messer Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca
+would be the banner on that ghastly beam that he facetiously dubbed his
+flagstaff; and he would be the blackest, dirtiest banner that ever yet had
+fluttered there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The thought conceived in the twinkling of an eye, I acted upon without a
+second&rsquo;s hesitation. Ere Ramiro had taken his first step towards me, I
+had sprung to the stairs and I was leaping up them with the frantic speed of
+one upon whose heels death is treading closely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A singular, fierce joy was blent with my measure of fear; a joy at the thought
+that even now, in this extremity, I was outwitting him, for never a doubt had
+he that the burnt paper he had found on the table was all that was left of
+Vitelli&rsquo;s letter. His fears were that I might have read it, but never a
+suspicion crossed his mind of such a trick as I had played upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I sped on, the gigantic Ramiro blundering after me, panting and blaspheming,
+for although powerful, his bulk and the wine he had taken left him no
+nimbleness. The distance between us widened, and if only Mariani would have the
+presence of mind to wait for me at the mouth of the passage, all would be as I
+could wish it before his dagger found my heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was assuring myself of this when in the dark I stumbled, and striking my legs
+against a stair I hurtled forward. I recovered almost immediately, but, in my
+frenzy of haste to make up for the instant lost, I stumbled a second time ere I
+was well upon my feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a roar Ramiro must have hurled himself forward, for I felt my ankle caught
+in a grip from which there was no escaping, and I was roughly and brutally
+dragged back and down those stairs; now my head, now my breast beating against
+the steps as I descended them one by one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But even in that hour the letter was my first thought, and I found a way to
+thrust it farther under my girdle so that it should not be seen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last I reached the hall, half-stunned, and with all the misery of defeat and
+the certainty of the futility of my death to further torture my last moments.
+Over me stood Ramiro, his dagger upheld, ready to strike.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dog!&rdquo; he taunted me, &ldquo;your sands are run.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mercy, Magnificent,&rdquo; I gasped. &ldquo;I have done nothing to
+deserve your poniard.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He laughed brutally, delaying his stroke that he might prolong my agony for his
+drunken entertainment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Address your prayers to Heaven,&rdquo; he mocked me, &ldquo;and let them
+concern your soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, like a flash of inspiration came the words that should delay his
+hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Spare me,&rdquo; I cried &ldquo;for I am in mortal sin.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Impious, abandoned villain, though he was, he said too much when he boasted
+that he feared neither God nor Devil. He was prone to forget his God, and the
+lessons that as a babe he had learnt at his mother&rsquo;s knee&mdash;for I
+take it that even Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca had once been a babe&mdash;but deep
+down in his soul there had remained the fear of Hell and an almost instinctive
+obedience to the laws of Mother Church. He could perform such ruthless
+cruelties as that of hurling a page into the fire to punish his clumsiness; he
+could rack and stab and hang men with the least shadow of compunction or twinge
+of conscience, but to slay a man who professed himself to be in mortal sin was
+a deed too appalling even for this ruthless butcher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He hesitated a second, then he lowered his hand, his face telling me clearly
+how deeply he grudged me the respite which, yet, he dared not do other than
+accord me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where shall I find me a priest?&rdquo; he grumbled. &ldquo;Think you the
+Citadel of Cesena is a monastery? I will wait while you make an act of
+contrition for your sins. It is all the shrift I can afford you. And get it
+done, for it is time I was abed. You shall have five minutes in which to clear
+your soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this it seemed to me&mdash;as it may well seem to you&mdash;that matters
+were but little mended, and instead of employing the respite he accorded me in
+the pious collecting of thoughts which he enjoined, I sat up&mdash;very sore
+from my descent of the stairs&mdash;and employed those precious moments in
+putting forward arguments to turn him from, his murderous purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have lived too ungodly a life,&rdquo; I protested, &ldquo;to be able
+to squeeze into Paradise through so narrow a tate. As you would hope for your
+own ultimate salvation, Excellency, I do beseech you not to imperil
+mine.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This disposed him, at least, to listen to me, and proceeded to assure him of
+the harmless nature of my visit to the hall in quest of wine to quench my
+thirst. I was running the grave risk of dying with lies on my lips, but I was
+too desperate to give the matter thought just then. His mood seemed to relent;
+the delay, perhaps, had calmed his first access of passion, and he was grown
+more reasonable. But when Ramiro cooled he was, perhaps, more malignant than
+ever, for it meant a return to natural condition, and Ramiro&rsquo;s natural
+condition was one of cruelty unsurpassed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may be as you say,&rdquo; he answered me at last, sheathing his
+dagger, &ldquo;and at least you have my word that I will not slay you without
+first assuring myself that you have lied. For to-night you shall remain in
+durance. To-morrow we will apply the question to you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The hope that had been reviving in my breast fell dead once more, and I turned
+cold at that threat. And yet, between now and to-morrow, much might betide, and
+I had cause for thankfulness, perhaps, for this respite. Thus I sought to cheer
+myself. But I fear I failed. To-morrow he would torture me, not so much to
+ascertain whether I had spoken truly, but because to his diseased mind it
+afforded diversion to witness a man&rsquo;s anguish. No doubt it was that had
+urged him now to spare my life and accord me this merciless piece of mercy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a loud voice he called the sentry who was pacing below; and in a moment the
+man appeared in answer to that summons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will take this knave to the chamber set apart for him up there, and
+you will leave him secure under lock and bar, bringing me the key of his
+door.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fellow informed himself which was the chamber, then turning to me he curtly
+bade me go with him. Thus was I haled back to my room, with the promise of
+horrors on the morrow, but with the night before me in which to scheme and pray
+for some miracle that might yet save me. But the days of miracles were long
+past. I lay on my bed and deplored with many a sigh that bitter fact. And if
+aught had been wanting to increase the weight of fear and anguish on my already
+over-burdened mind, and to aid in what almost seemed an infernal plot to
+utterly distract me, I had it in fresh, wild conjectures touching Madonna
+Paola. Where indeed could she be that Ramiro&rsquo;s men had failed to find her
+for all that they had scoured that part of the country in which I had left her
+to wait for my return? What if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture
+with which Ramiro&rsquo;s lieutenant was charged?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter inability
+to take a step in her service, I lay. There for an hour or so in such agony of
+mind as is begotten only of suspense. In my girdle still reposed the
+treasonable letter from Vitelli to Ramiro, a mighty weapon with which to
+accomplish the butcher&rsquo;s overthrow. But how was I to wield it imprisoned
+here?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I wondered why Mariani had not returned, only to remember that the soldier who
+had locked me in had carried the key of my prison-chamber to Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly the stillness was disturbed by a faint tap at my door. My instincts
+and my reason told me it must be Mariani at last. In an instant I had leapt
+from the bed and whispered through the keyhole:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is there?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is I&mdash;Mariani&mdash;the seneschal,&rdquo; came the old
+man&rsquo;s voice, very softly, but nevertheless distinctly. &ldquo;They have
+taken the key.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I groaned, then in a gust of passion I fell to cursing Ramiro for that
+precaution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have the letter?&rdquo; came Mariani&rsquo;s voice again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, I have it still,&rdquo; I answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you seen what it contains?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A plot to assassinate the Duke&mdash;no less. Enough to get this bloody
+Ramiro broken on the wheel.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was answered by a sound that was as a gasp of malicious joy. Then the old
+man&rsquo;s voice added:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can you pass it under the door? There is a sufficient gap.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I felt, and found that he was right; I could pass the half of my hand
+underneath. I took the letter and thrust it through. His hands fastened on it
+instantly, almost snatching it from my fingers before they were ready to
+release it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have courage,&rdquo; he bade me. &ldquo;Listen. I shall endeavour to
+leave Cesena in the morning, and I shall ride straight for Faenza. If I find
+the Duke there when I arrive, he should be here within some twelve or fourteen
+hours of my departure. Fence with Ramiro, temporise if you can till then, and
+all will be well with you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will do what I can,&rdquo; I answered him. &ldquo;But if he slays me
+in the meantime, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that he will
+not be long in following me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May God shield you,&rdquo; he said fervently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May God speed you,&rdquo; I answered him, with a still greater fervour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night, as you may well conceive, I slept but little, and that little ill.
+The morning, instead of relieving the fears that in the darkness had been with
+me, seemed to increase them. For now was the time for Mariani to act, and I was
+fearful as to how he might succeed. I was full of doubts lest some obstacle
+should have arisen to prevent his departure from Cesena, and I spent my morning
+in wearisome speculation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took an almost childish satisfaction in the thought that since, being a
+prisoner, I could no longer count myself the Fool of the Court of Cesena, I was
+free to strip the motley and assume the more sober garments in which I had been
+taken, and which&mdash;as you may recall&mdash;had been placed in my chamber on
+the previous evening. It was the very plainest raiment. For doublet I wore a
+buff brigandine, quilted and dagger-proof, and caught at the waist by a girdle
+of hammered steel; my wine-coloured hose was stout and serviceable, as were my
+long boots of untanned leather. Yet prouder was I of this sober apparel than
+ever king of his ermine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may have been an hour or so past noon when, at last, my solitude was invaded
+by a soldier who came to order me into the presence of the Governor. I had been
+sitting at the window, leaning against the bars and looking out at the desolate
+white landscape, for there had been a heavy fall of snow in the night, which
+reminded me&mdash;as snow ever did&mdash;of my first meeting with Madonna
+Paola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I rose upon the instant, and my fears rose with me. But I kept a bold front as
+I went down into the hall, where Ramiro and the blackguards of his Court were
+sitting, with three or four men-at-arms at attention by the door. Close to the
+pulleys appertaining to the torture of the cord stood two leather-clad
+ruffians&mdash;Ramiro&rsquo;s executioners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the head of the board, which was still strewn with fragments of food-for
+they had but dined&mdash;sat Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca. With him were half a dozen
+of his officers, whose villainous appearance pronounced them worthy of their
+brutal leader. The air was heavy with the pungent odour of viands. I looked
+round for Mariani, and I took some comfort from the fact that he was absent.
+Might heaven please that he was even then on his way to Faenza.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro watched my advance with a smile in which mockery was blent with
+satisfaction, for all that of the resumption of my proper raiment he seemed to
+take no heed. No doubt he had dined well, and he was now disposing himself to
+be amused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messer Bocadaro,&rdquo; said he, when I had come to a standstill,
+&ldquo;there was last night a matter that was not cleared up between us and
+concerning which I expressed an intention of questioning you to-day. I should
+proceed to do so at once, were it not that there is yet another matter on which
+I am, if possible, still more desirous you should tell us all you know. Once
+already have you evaded my questions with answers which at the time I half
+believed. Even now I do not say that I utterly disbelieve them, but I wish to
+assure myself that you told the truth; for if you lied, why then we may still
+be assisted by such information the cord shall squeeze from you. I am referring
+to the mysterious disappearance of Madonna Paola di Santafior&mdash;a
+disappearance of which you have assured me that you knew nothing, being even in
+ignorance of the fact that the lady was not really dead. I had confidently
+expected that the party searching for Madonna Paola would have succeeded ere
+this in finding her. But this morning my hopes suffered disappointment. My men
+have returned empty-handed once more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For which mercy may Heaven be praised!&rdquo; I burst out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He scowled at me; then he laughed evilly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My men have returned&mdash;all save three. Captain Lucagnolo with two of
+his followers, has undertaken to go beyond the area I appointed for the search,
+and to proceed to the village of Cattolica. While he is pursuing his inquiries
+there, I have resolved to pursue my own here. I now call upon you, Boccadoro,
+to tell us what you know of Madonna Paola&rsquo;s whereabouts.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know nothing,&rdquo; I answered stoutly. &ldquo;I am prepared to take
+oath that I know nothing of her whereabouts.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell me, then, at least,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;where you bestowed
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you think that I would tell you if I had the knowledge?&rdquo; was
+the scornful question with which I answered him. &ldquo;You may pursue your
+inquiries as you will and where you will, but I pray God they may all prove as
+futile as must those that you would pursue here and upon my own person.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was how I fenced with him, this was the manner in which I followed
+Mariani&rsquo;s sound advice that I should temporise! Oh! I know that my words
+were the words of a fool, yet no fear that Ramiro would inspire me could have
+restrained them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a murmur at the table, and his fellows turned their eyes on Ramiro to
+see how he would receive this bearding. He smiled quietly, and raising his hand
+he made a sign to the executioners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rude hands seized me from behind, and the doublet was torn from my back by
+fingers that never paused to untruss my points.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They turned me about, and hurried me along until I stood under the pulleys of
+the torture, and one of the men held me securely whilst the other passed the
+cords about my wrists. Then both the executioners stepped back, to be ready to
+hoist me at the Governor&rsquo;s signal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He delayed it, much as an epicure delays the consumption of a delectable
+morsel, heightening by suspense the keen desire of his palate. He watched me
+closely, and had my lips quivered or my eyelids fluttered, he would have hailed
+with joy such signs of weakness. But I take pride in truthfully writing that I
+stood bold and impassively before him, and if I was pale I thank Heaven that
+pallor was the habit of my countenance, so that from that he could gather no
+satisfaction. And standing there, I gave him back look for look, and waited.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For the last time, Boccadoro,&rdquo; he said slowly, attempting by words
+to shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of the cord,
+&ldquo;I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this
+stubbornness. If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the third,
+the torture will compel you to disclose what you may know. Would you not be
+better advised to speak at once, while your limbs are soundly planted in their
+sockets, rather than let yourself be maimed, perhaps for life, ere you will do
+so?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a stir of hoofs without. They thundered on the planks of the
+drawbridge and clattered on the stones of the courtyard. The thought of Cesare
+Borgia rose to my mind. But never did drowning man clutch at a more illusory
+straw. Cold reason quenched my hope at once. If the greatest imaginable success
+attended Mariani&rsquo;s journey, the Duke could not reach Cesena before
+midnight, and to that it wanted some ten hours at least. Moreover, the company
+that came was small to judge by the sound&mdash;a half-dozen horses at the
+most.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Ramiro&rsquo;s attention had been diverted from me by the noise.
+Half-turning in his chair, he called to one of the men-at-arms to ascertain who
+came. Before the fellow could do his bidding, the door was thrust open and
+Lucagnolo appeared on the threshold, jaded and worn with hard riding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A certain excitement arose in me at sight of him, despite my confidence that he
+must be returning empty-handed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro rose, pushed back his chair and advanced towards the new-comer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well?&rdquo; he demanded. &ldquo;What news?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Excellency, the girl is here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That answer seemed to turn me into stone, so great was the shock of this sudden
+shattering of the confidence that had sustained me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My search in the country failing,&rdquo; pursued the captain, as he came
+forward, &ldquo;I made bold to exceed your orders by pushing my inquiries as
+far as the village of Cattolica. There I found her after some little
+labour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Surely I dreamt. Surely, I told myself, this was not possible. There was some
+mistake. Lucagnolo had drought some wench whom he believed to be Madonna Paola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But even as I was assuring myself of this, the door opened again, and between
+two men-at-arms, white as death, her garments stained with mud and all but
+reduced to rags, and her eyes wild with a great fear, came my beloved Paola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a sound that was as a grunt of satisfaction, Ramiro strode forward to meet
+her. But her eyes travelled past him and rested upon me, standing there between
+the leather-clad executioners with the cords of the torture pinioning my
+wrists, and I saw the anguish deepen in their blue depths.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"></a>
+CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+DOOMED</h2>
+
+<p>
+Across the length of that hall our eyes met&mdash;hers and mine&mdash;and held
+each other&rsquo;s glances. To me the room and all within it formed an
+indistinct and misty picture, from out of which there clearly gleamed my
+Paola&rsquo;s sweet, white face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All at the table had risen with Ramiro, and now, copying their leader, they
+bared their heads in outward token of such respect as certainly would have been
+felt by any men less abandoned than were they before so much saintly beauty and
+distress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucagnolo had stepped aside, and Ramiro was now bowing low and ceremoniously
+before Madonna. His face I could not see, since his back was towards me, but
+his tones, as they floated across the hall to where I stood, came laden with
+subservience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, I give praise and thanks to Heaven for this,&rdquo; said he.
+&ldquo;I was afflicted by the gravest misgivings for your safety, and I am more
+than thankful to behold you safe and sound.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a hypocritical flavour of courtliness about his words, and a mincing
+of his tones that suggested the efforts of a bull-calf to imitate the warbling
+of a throstle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna paid him no heed; indeed, she appeared not to have heard him, for her
+eyes continued to look past him and at me. At last her lips parted, and
+although she scarcely seemed to raise her voice above a whisper, the word
+uttered reached my ears across the stillness of the great room, and the word
+was &ldquo;Lazzaro!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At mention of my name, and at the tone in which it was uttered&mdash;a tone
+that betrayed same measure of what was in her heart&mdash;Ramiro wheeled
+sharply in my direction, his brows wrinkling. A certain craftiness he had, for
+all that I ever accounted him the dullest-witted clod that ever rose to his
+degree of honour. He must have realised how expedient it was that in all he did
+he should present himself to Madonna in a favourite light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Release him,&rdquo; he bade the executioners that held me, and in an
+instant I was set free. The order given, he turned again to Madonna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have been torturing him,&rdquo; she cried, and her words were hard
+and fierce, her eyes blazing. &ldquo;You shall repent it, Ser Ramiro. The Lord
+Cesare Borgia shall hear of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have been to
+her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my destruction.
+Ramiro laughed easily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, you are at fault. We have not been torturing him, though I
+confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question. But your
+timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were asking him
+concerned your whereabouts!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some
+premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind. But realising the
+futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited agonisedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You had tortured him in vain then,&rdquo; she answered scornfully.
+&ldquo;For Lazzaro Biancomonte would never have betrayed me. Nor could he have
+betrayed me if he would, for after your men had searched the hut in which I was
+hidden, I walked to Cattolica thinking foolishly that I should be safer
+there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lackaday! She had told him the very thing he had sought to know. Yet to make
+doubly sure he pursued the scent a little farther.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed it seems to me that had I tortured him I had given him no more
+than he deserved for having abandoned you in that hut. Madonna, I tremble to
+think of the harm that might have come to you through that knave&rsquo;s
+desertion.&rdquo; And he scowled across at me, much as the Pharisee might have
+scowled upon the publican.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He is no knave,&rdquo; she answered, and I could have groaned to hear
+her working my undoing, though not by so much as a sign might I inspire her
+with caution, for that sign must have been seen by others. &ldquo;Nor did he
+abandon me. He left me only to go in quest of the necessaries for our journey.
+If harm has come to me the blame of it must not rest on him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of what harm do you speak, Madonna?&rdquo; he cried, in a voice laden
+with concern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of what harm,&rdquo; she echoed, eyeing him with a scorn that would have
+slain him had he any manhood left. &ldquo;Of what harm? Mother of Mercy, defend
+me! Do you ask the question? What greater harm could have come to me than to
+have fallen into the hands of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca and his brigands?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stood looking at her, and I doubt not that his face was a very picture of
+simulated consternation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Surely, Madonna, you do not understand that we are your friends, that
+you can so abuse us. But you will be faint, Madonna,&rdquo; he cried, with a
+fresh and deep solicitude. &ldquo;A cup of wine.&rdquo; And he waved his hand
+towards the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would poison me, I think,&rdquo; she answered coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are cruel, and&mdash;alas!&mdash;mistrustful,&rdquo; said he.
+&ldquo;Can you guess nothing of the anxiety that has been mine these two days,
+of the fears that have haunted me as I thought of you and your
+wanderings?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her lip curled, and her face took on some slight vestige of colour. Her spirit
+was a thing for which I might then have come to love her had it not been that
+already I loved her to distraction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I can guess something of your dismay when
+you found your schemes frustrated; when you found that you had come too late to
+San Domenico.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you not forgive me that shift to which my adoration drove
+me?&rdquo; he implored, in a honeyed voice&mdash;and a more fearful thing than
+Ramiro the butcher was Ramiro the lover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that scarcely covert avowal of his passion she recoiled a step as she might
+before a thing unclean. The little colour faded from her cheek, the scorn
+departed from her lip, and a sickly, deadly fear overspread her lovely face.
+God! that I should stand there and witness this insult to the woman I adored
+and worshipped with a fervour that the Church seeks to instil into us for those
+about the throne of Heaven. It might not be. A blind access of fury took me. Of
+the consequences I thought nothing. Reason left me utterly, and the slight hope
+that might lie in temporising was disregarded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before those about me could guess my purpose, or those others, too engrossed in
+the scene at the far end of the hall, could intervene, I had sprung from
+between the executioners and dashed across the space that separated me from the
+Governor of Cesena. One well-aimed blow, and there should be an end to Messer
+Ramiro. That was the only thought that found room in my disordered mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One or two there were who cried out as I sped past them, swift as the hound
+when it speeds after the fleeing hare. But I was upon Ramiro ere any could have
+sufficiently mastered his surprise to interfere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the nape of his great neck I caught him from behind, and setting my knee at
+his spine I wrenched him backward, and so flung him over on the floor. Down I
+went with him, my hand reaching for the dagger at his jewelled girdle, and I
+had found and drawn it in that swift action of mine ere he had bethought him of
+his hands. Up it flashed and down. I sank it through the crimson velvet of his
+rich doublets straight at the spot where his heart should be&mdash;if he were
+so human as to have a heart. The next instant I turned cold and sick. My
+desperate effort had been all for nothing. In my hand I was left with the
+bronze hilt of his great poniard; the blade had broken off against the mesh of
+steel the coward wore beneath his finery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a rush of feet about us, a piercing scream from Madonna Paola, and it
+was to her that I owed my life in that grim moment. A dozen blades were naked
+and would have transfixed me as I lay, but that she covered my body with her
+own and bade them strike at me through her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment later and the powerful hands of the Governor of Cesena were at my
+throat. I was lifted and tossed aside, as though I had been a hound and he the
+bull I had beset. And as he swung me over and crushed me to the ground, he
+knelt above me and grinned horribly into my purpling face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A second we stayed so, and I thought indeed that my hour was come, when
+suddenly I felt the blood in my head released once more. He had taken his hands
+from my throat. He seized me now by the collar and dragged me rudely to my
+feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take this knave and lock him in his chamber,&rdquo; he bade a couple of
+his bravi. &ldquo;I may have need of him ere he dies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messer Ramiro,&rdquo; came the interceding voice of Madonna Paola,
+&ldquo;what he did, he did for me. You will not let him die for it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a pause during which he looked at her, whilst the men were roughly
+dragging me across the hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who knows, Madonna?&rdquo; he said, with a bow and an infernal smile.
+&ldquo;If you were to beg his life, it might even come to pass that I might
+spare it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not wait for her answer, but stepping after me he called to the men that
+led me. In obedience they halted, and he came forward. We were now at the foot
+of the staircase.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Boccadoro,&rdquo; said he, planting himself before me, and eyeing me
+with eyes that were very full of malice, &ldquo;you will recall the punishment
+I promised you if I came to discover it was you had thwarted me in Pesaro. It
+is the second time you have fooled Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca. There does not live
+the man who can boast that he did it thrice, nor will I risk it that you be
+that man. Make your peace with Heaven, for at sunset&mdash;in an hour&rsquo;s
+time&mdash;you hang. There is one little thing that might save you even yet,
+and if you find life sweet, you would do well to pray that that little thing
+may come to pass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I answered him nothing, but I bowed my head in token that I had heard and he
+signed to the men to proceed with me, whilst turning on his heel he stepped
+down the hall again to where Madonna Paola, overcome with weakness, had sunk
+upon a stool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I was leaving the gallery I had a last glimpse of her, sitting there with
+drawn face and haggard eyes that followed me as I passed from her sight, whilst
+Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca stood beside her murmuring words that did not reach me.
+His so-called courtiers and his men-at-arms were trooping out of the room, no
+doubt in obedience to his dismissal.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"></a>
+CHAPTER XX.<br />
+THE SUNSET</h2>
+
+<p>
+I have heard tell of the calm that comes upon brave men when hope is dead and
+their doom has been pronounced. Uncertainty may have tortured and made cowards
+of them; but once that uncertainty is dissolved and suspense is at an end,
+resignation enters their soul, and, possessing it, gives to their bearing a
+noble and dignified peace. By the mercy of Heaven they are made, maybe, to see
+how poor and evanescent a thing is life; and they come to realise that since to
+die is a necessity there is no avoiding, as well might it betide to-day as ten
+years hence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a mood, however, came not to soothe that last hour of mine, and yet I
+account myself no coward. It was an hour of such torture and anguish as never
+before I had experienced&mdash;much though I had undergone&mdash;and the source
+of all my suffering lay in the fact that Madonna Paola was in the hands of the
+ogre of Cesena. Had it not been for that most untoward circumstance I almost
+believe that while I waited for the sun to set on that December afternoon, my
+mood had not only been calm but even in some measure joyous, for it must have
+comforted my last moments to reflect that for all that Messer Ramiro was about
+to hang me, yet had I sown the seeds of his own destruction ere he had brought
+me to this pass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did, indeed, reflect upon it, and it may even be that, in spite of all, I
+culled some grain of comfort from the reflection. But let that be. My narrative
+would drag wearily were I to digress that I might tell you at length the ugly
+course of my thoughts whilst the sands of my last hour were running swiftly
+out. For, after all, my concern and yours is with the story of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, sometime known as Boccadoro the Fool, and not with his
+philosophies&mdash;philosophies so unprofitable that it can benefit no man that
+I should set them down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My windows faced west, and so I was able to watch the fall of the sun, and
+measure by its shortening distance from the horizon the ebbing of my poor life.
+At last the nether rim of that round, fiery orb was on the point of touching
+the line of distant hills, and it was casting a crimson glow along the white,
+snow-sheeted landscape that was singularly suggestive of a tide of
+blood&mdash;a very fitting tide to flow and ebb about the walls of the Castle
+of Cesena.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One little thing there was might save me, Ramiro had said. But I had shut the
+thought out of my mind to keep me from utter distraction. The only little thing
+in which I held that my salvation could lie would be in the miraculous arrival
+of Cesare Borgia, and of that not the faintest hope existed. If the greatest
+luck attended Mariani&rsquo;s errand and the greatest speed were made by the
+Duke once he received the letter, he could not reach Cesena in less than
+another eight hours. And another eight minutes, to reckon by the swift sinking
+of the sun would see the time appointed for my hanging. I thought of Joshua in
+that grim hour, and in a mood that approached the whimsical I envied him his
+gift. If I could have stayed the setting of the sun, and held it where it was
+till midnight, all might yet be well if Mariani had been diligent and Cesare
+swift.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The key grating in the lock put an end to my vague musings, and reminded me of
+the fact that I had neglected to employ that last hour as would have become a
+good son of Mother Church. For an instant I believe that my heart turned me to
+thoughts of God, and sent up a prayer for mercy for my poor sinful soul. Then
+the door swung wide. Two halberdiers and a carnifex in his odious leathern
+apron stood before me. Clearly Ramiro sought to be exact, and to have me
+hanging the instant the sun should vanish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is time,&rdquo; said one of the soldiers, whilst the executioner,
+stepping into my chamber, pinioned my wrists behind me, and retaining hold of
+the cord bade me march. He followed, holding that slender cord, and so, like a
+beast to the shambles, went I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once more they led me into the hall, where the shadows were lengthening in dark
+contrast to the splashes of sunlight that lingered on the floor, and whose
+blood-red hue was deepened by the gules of the windows through which it was
+filtered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro was waiting for me, and six of his officers were in attendance. But, for
+once, there were no men-at-arms at hand. On a chair, the one usually occupied
+by Ramiro, himself, sat Madonna Paola, still in her torn and bedraggled
+raiment, her face white, her eyes wild as they had been when first she had been
+haled into Ramiro&rsquo;s presence, some two hours ago, and her features so
+rigidly composed that it told the tale of the awful self-control she must be
+exerting&mdash;a self-control that might end with a sudden snap that would
+plunge her into madness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A wild rage possessed me at sight of her. Let Ramiro be ruthless and cruel
+where men were concerned; that was a thing for which forgiveness might be found
+him. But that he should submit a lady, delicately nurtured as was Madonna, to
+such horrors as she had undergone since she had awakened from his
+sleeping-potion in the Church of San Domenico, was something for which no Hell
+could punish him condignly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro met me with a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I could
+espy his wicked, infernal mockery peeping forth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I deplore your end, Lazzaro Biancomonte,&rdquo; said he slowly,
+&ldquo;for you are a brave man, and brave men are rare. You were worthy of
+better things, but you chose to cross swords with Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, and
+you have got your death-blow. May God have mercy on your soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am praying,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;for just so much mercy as you shall
+have justice. If my prayer is heard, I should be well-content.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He changed countenance a little. So, too, I thought, did Madonna Paola. My
+firmness may have yielded her some grain of comfort. Ramiro set his hands on
+his hips, and eyed me squarely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a dauntless rogue,&rdquo; he confessed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I laughed for answer, and in that moment it entered my mind that I might yet
+enjoy some measure of revenge in this life. More than that, I might benefit
+Madonna. For were the seed I was about to sow to take root in the craven heart
+of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca, it would so fully occupy his mind that he would have
+little time to bestow on Paola in the few hours that were left him. But before
+I could bethink me of words, he was speaking again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I held out to you a slender hope,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I told you that
+there was one little thing might save you. That hope has borne no fruit; the
+little thing, I spoke of has not come to pass. It rested with Madonna Paola,
+here. She had it in her hands to effect your salvation, but she has refused.
+Your blood rests on her head.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She shuddered at the words, and a low moan escaped her. She covered her face
+with her hands. A moment I stood looking at her; then I shifted my glance to
+Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will it please you, Illustrious, to allow me a few moments&rsquo;
+conversation with Madonna Paola di Santafior?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I invested my tones with a weight of meaning that did not escape him. His face
+suddenly lightened; whilst one of his officers&mdash;a fellow very fitly named
+Lupone&mdash;laughed outright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your hero seems none so heroic after all,&rdquo; he said derisively to
+the Governor. &ldquo;The imminence of death makes him amenable.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro scowled on him for answer. Then, turning to me&mdash;&ldquo;Do you think
+you could bend her stubbornness?&rdquo; quoth he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I might attempt it,&rdquo; answered I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His eyes flashed with evil hope; his lips parted in a smile. He shot a glance
+at Madonna, who had withdrawn her hands from her face and was regarding me now
+with a strange expression of horror and incredulity&mdash;marvelling, no doubt,
+to find me such a craven as I must have seemed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro looked at the diminishing sunlight on the floor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In some five minutes the sun will have completely set,&rdquo; said he.
+&ldquo;Those five minutes you shall have to seek to enlist Madonna&rsquo;s aid
+on your behalf. If you succeed&mdash;and she may tell you on what terms you are
+to have your life&mdash;you shall depart from Cesena to-night a free
+man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paused a moment, and his eyes, lighted by an odious smile, rested once more
+on Madonna Paula. Then he bade all withdraw, and went with them into an
+adjoining chamber, fondly nurturing the hopes that were begotten of his belief
+that Lazzaro Biancomonte was a villain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we were alone, she and I, I stood a moment where they had left me, my
+hands pinioned behind me, and the cord which the executioner had held trailing
+the ground like a lambent tail. Then I went slowly forward until I stood close
+before her. Her eyes were on my face, still with that same look of unbelief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna mia,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;do not for an instant think that it
+is my purpose to ask of you any sacrifice that might save my worthless life.
+Rather was my purpose in seeking these few moments with you, to strengthen and
+encourage you by such news as it is mine to bring.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked now as if she scarcely understood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I will wed him to-night, he has promised that you shall go
+free,&rdquo; she said in a whisper. &ldquo;He says that he can bring a priest
+from the neighbourhood at a moment&rsquo;s notice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do not heed him,&rdquo; I cried sternly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not heed him,&rdquo; said she, more composedly. &ldquo;If he seeks
+to force me, I shall find a way of setting myself free. Dear Mother of Heaven!
+death were a sweet and restful thing after all that I have suffered in these
+days.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she fell suddenly to weeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think me not an utter coward, Lazzaro. Willingly would I do this thing
+to save so noble a life as yours, did I not think that you must hate me for it.
+I was stout and firm in my refusal, confident that you would have had me so.
+Was I not right, my poor, poor Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madonna, you were right,&rdquo; I answered firmly and calmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you are to die, amor mio,&rdquo; she murmured passionately.
+&ldquo;You are to die when the promise of happiness seemed held out to us. And
+yet, were you to live at the price at which life is offered you, would your
+life be endurable? Tell me the truth, Lazzaro; swear it to me. For if life is
+the dearer thing to you, why then, you shall have your life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Need you ask me, Paola?&rdquo; questioned I. &ldquo;Does not your heart
+tell you how much easier is death than would be such life as I must lead
+hereafter, even if we could trust Ramiro, which we cannot. Be brave, Madonna,
+and help me to be brave and to bear thyself with a becoming fortitude. Now
+listen to what I have to tell you. Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca is a traitor who is
+plotting the death of his overlord. Proofs of it are by now in the hands of
+Cesare Borgia, and in some seven or eight hours the Duke himself should be here
+to put this monster to the question touching these matters. I will say a word
+in his ear ere I depart that will fill his mind with a very wholesome fear, and
+you will find that during the few hours left him he will have little leisure to
+think of you and afflict you with his odious wooing. Be strong, then, for a
+little while, for Cesare is coming to set you free.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me now with eyes that were wide open. Suddenly&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Could we not gain time?&rdquo; she cried, and in her eagerness she rose
+and set her hands upon my shoulders. &ldquo;Could I not pretend to acquiesce to
+his wishes, and so delay your end?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have thought of it,&rdquo; I answered gloomily, &ldquo;but the thought
+has brought me no hope. Ramiro is not to be trusted. He might tell you that he
+sets me free, but he dare not do so; he fears that I may have knowledge of his
+dealings with Vitelli, and assuredly he would break faith with us. Again the
+coming of the Duke might be delayed. Alas!&rdquo; I ended in despair,
+&ldquo;there is nothing to be done but to let things run their course.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was even more in my mind than I expressed. My mistrust of Ramiro went
+further than I had explained, and concerning Madonna more closely than it did
+me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, Lazzaro mine,&rdquo; she still protested, &ldquo;I will attempt it.
+It is, at least, well worth the risk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You forget,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that even when Cesare comes we cannot
+say how he will bear himself towards you. You were to have been betrothed to
+his cousin, Ignacio. It is a matter upon which he may insist.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me for a moment with anguish in her eyes that turned my misery
+into torture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she moaned, &ldquo;was ever woman so beset! I think that
+Heaven must have laid some curse upon me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her face was close to mine. I stooped forward and kissed her on her brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May God have you in His keeping, Madonna mia,&rdquo; I murmured.
+&ldquo;The sun is gone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lazzaro!&rdquo; It was the cry of a breaking heart. Her arms went round
+my neck, and in a passion of grief her kisses burned on my lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the door of the anteroom opened&mdash;and I thanked God for the mercy of
+that interruption. I whispered a word to her, and in obedience she sprang back,
+and sank limp and broken on the chair once again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro entered, his men behind him, his face alit with eagerness. There and
+then I swamped his hopes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The sun is gone, Magnificent,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;You had best get me
+hanged.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His brow darkened, for there was a note of mockery and triumph in my voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have fooled me, animal,&rdquo; he cried. His jaw set, and his eyes
+continued to regard me with an evil glow. Then he laughed terribly, shrugged
+his shoulders, and spoke again. &ldquo;After all, it shall avail you
+little.&rdquo; He turned to the carnifex. &ldquo;Federigo, do your work,&rdquo;
+said he, whereupon the fellow stepped behind me, and the halberdiers ranged
+themselves one on either side of me again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A word ere I go, Messer del&rsquo; Orca,&rdquo; I demanded insolently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at me sharply, wondering, maybe, at the fresh tone I took.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say it and begone,&rdquo; he sullenly permitted me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I paused a moment to choose fitting words for that portentous death-song of
+mine. At length&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You boasted to me a little while ago,&rdquo; said I, smiling grimly,
+&ldquo;that the man did not live who had thrice fooled you. That man does live,
+for that man am I.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bah!&rdquo; he returned contemptuously, thinking, no doubt, that I
+referred to my interview with Madonna Paola. &ldquo;You may take what pride you
+will from such a thought. You are upon the threshold of death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;True, but the thought is one that affords me more comfort and joy than
+pride. As much comfort and joy as you shall take horror when I tell you in what
+manner I have fooled you.&rdquo; I paused to heighten the sensation of my
+words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To such good purpose have I used my wits that ere another sun shall rise
+and set you will have followed me along the black road that I am now
+treading&mdash;the road whose bourne is the gallows. Bethink you of the charred
+paper that last night you brushed from this table when you awoke to find a
+candle fallen on the treacherous letter Vitellozzo Vitelli sent you in the
+lining of a hat.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His jaw fell, his face flamed redder than ever for a second, then it went grey
+as ashes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of what do you prate, fool?&rdquo; he questioned huskily, seeking to
+bluster it before the startled glances of his officers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I speak,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;of that charred paper. It was I who laid
+the candle across it; but it was a virgin sheet I burned. Vitelli&rsquo;s
+letter I had first abstracted.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You lie!&rdquo; he almost screamed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To prove that I do not, I will tell you what it contained. It held proof
+that bribed by the Tyrant of Citta di Castello you had undertaken to pose an
+arbalister to slay the Duke on the occasion of his coming visit to
+Cesena.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He glared at me a moment in furious amazement. Then he turned to his officers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do not heed him,&rdquo; he bade them. &ldquo;The dog lies to sow doubts
+in your minds ere he goes out to hang. It is a puerile revenge.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I laughed with amused confidence. There was one among them had heard
+Lampugnani&rsquo;s words touching the messenger&rsquo;s hat&mdash;words that
+had cost the fellow his life. But my concern was little with the effect my
+words might produce upon his followers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By to-morrow you will know whether I have lied or not. Nay, before then
+shall you know it, for by midnight Cesare Borgia should be at Cesena.
+Vitellozzo Vitelli&rsquo;s letter is in his hands by now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that Ramiro burst into a laugh. So convinced was he of the impossibility of
+my having got the letter to the Duke, even if what I had said of its
+abstraction were true, that he gathered assurance from what seemed to him so
+monstrous an exaggeration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By your own words are you confounded,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Out of your
+own mouth have you proven your lies. Assuming that all you say were true, how
+could you, who since last night have been a prisoner, have got a messenger to
+bear anything from you to Cesare Borgia?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked at him with a contemptuous amusement that daunted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is Mariani?&rdquo; I asked quietly. &ldquo;Where is the father of
+the lad you so brutally and wantonly slew yesternight? Seek him throughout
+Cesena, and when you find him not, perhaps you will realise that one who had
+seen his own son suffer such an outrageous and cruel death at your
+brigand&rsquo;s hands would be a willing and ready instrument in an act that
+should avenge him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vergine santa! What a consternation was his. He must have missed Mariani early
+in the day, for he took no measure, asked no questions that might confirm or
+refute the thing I announced. His face grew livid, and his knees loosened. He
+sank on to a chair and mopped the cold sweat from his brow with his great brown
+hand. No thought had he now for the eyes of his officers or their opinions.
+Fear, icy and horrid, such fear as in his time he had inspired in a thousand
+hearts was now possessed of his. Sweet indeed was the flavour of my vengeance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His officers instinctively drew away from him before the guilt so clearly
+written on his face, and their eyes were full of doubt as to how they should
+proceed and of some fear&mdash;for it must have been passing through their
+minds that they stood, themselves, in danger of being involved with him in the
+Duke&rsquo;s punishment of his disloyalty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was more than had ever entered into my calculations or found room in my
+hopes. By a brisk appeal to them, it almost seemed that I might work my
+salvation in this eleventh hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna watched the scene with eyes that suggested to me that the same hope had
+arisen in her own mind. My halberdiers and the carnifex alone stood stolidly
+indifferent. Ramiro was to them the man that hired them; with his intriguing
+they had no concern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment or two there was a silence, and Ramiro sat staring before him, his
+white face glistening with the sweat of fear. A very coward at heart was this
+overbearing ogre of Cesena, who for years had been the terror and scourge of
+the countryside. At last he mastered his emotion and sprang to his feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have had the laugh of me,&rdquo; he snarled, fury now ringing in his
+voice. &ldquo;But ere you die you may regret it that you mocked me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned to the executioner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Strip him,&rdquo; he commanded fiercely. &ldquo;He shall not hang as I
+intended&mdash;at least not before we have torn every bone of his body from its
+socket. To the cord with him!&rdquo; And he pointed to the torture at the end
+of the hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola leapt to her
+feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is there none here,&rdquo; he cried, appealing to Ramiro&rsquo;s
+officers, &ldquo;that will draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the
+Duca Valentino? There stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his
+loyalty to Cesare Borgia. The Duke is likely to demand a heavy price for the
+life of that faithful one to whose warning he owes his escape of assassination.
+Will none of you side now with the right that anon you may stand well with
+Cesare Borgia when he comes? Or, by idly allowing this traitor to have his way,
+will you participate in the punishment that must be his?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the very spur they needed. And scarce was that final question of hers
+flung at those knaves, when the answer came from one of them. It was that same
+sturdy Lupone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I, for one, am for the Duke,&rdquo; said he, and his sword leapt from
+its scabbard. &ldquo;I draw my iron for Valentino. Let every loyal man do
+likewise and seize this traitor.&rdquo; And with his sword he pointed at
+Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In an instant three others bared their weapons and ranged themselves beside
+him. The remaining two&mdash;of whom was Lucagnolo&mdash;folded their hands,
+manifesting by that impassivity that they were minded to take neither one side
+nor the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The carnifex paused in his labours of undressing me, and the affair promised to
+grow interesting. But Ramiro did not stand his ground. Fury swelling his veins
+and crimsoning his huge face, he sprang to the door and bellowed to his guards.
+Six men trooped in almost at once, and reinforced by the halberdiers that had
+been guarding me, they made short work of the resistance of those four
+officers. In as little time as it takes me to record it, they were disarmed and
+ranged against the wall behind those guards and others that had come to their
+support&mdash;to be dealt with by Ramiro after he had dealt with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His fear of Cesare&rsquo;s coming was put by for the moment in his fierce lust
+to be avenged upon me who had betrayed him and the officers who had turned
+against him. Madonna sank back once more in her despair. The little spark that
+she had so bravely fanned to life had been quenched almost as soon as it had
+shown itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, Federigo,&rdquo; said Ramiro grimly, &ldquo;I am waiting.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The executioner resumed his work, and in an instant I stood stripped of my
+brigandine. As the fellow led me, unresisting, to the torture&mdash;for what
+resistance could have availed me now?&mdash;I tried to pray for strength to
+endure what was to come. I was done with life; for some portion of an hour I
+must go through the cruellest of agonies; and then, when it pleased God in His
+mercy that I should swoon, it would be to wake no more in this world. For they
+would bear out my unconscious body, and hang it by the neck from that black
+beam they called Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca&rsquo;s flagstaff.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I cast a last glance at Madonna. She had fallen on her knees, and with folded
+hands was praying intently, none heeding her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Federigo halted me beneath the pulleys, and his horrid hands grew busy
+adjusting the ropes to my wrists.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, when the last ray of hope had faded, but before the executioner had
+completed his hideous task, a trumpet-blast, winding a challenge to the gates
+of the Castle of Cesena, suddenly rang out upon the evening air, and startled
+us all by its sudden and imperious note.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"></a>
+CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+AVE CAESAR!</h2>
+
+<p>
+For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a miracle
+had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight hours before it was
+possible for Mariani to have fetched him from Faenza. The same doubt may have
+crossed Ramiro&rsquo;s mind, for he changed colour and sprang to the door to
+bawl an order forbidding his men to lower the bridge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But he was too late. Before he was answered by his followers, we heard the
+creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending in a thud
+that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat. Then came the loud
+continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers. Paralysed by fear Ramiro
+stood where he had halted, turning his eyes wildly in this direction and in
+that, but never moving one way or the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be Cesare, I swore to myself. Who else could ride to Cessna with such
+numbers? But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he had seen Mariani,
+for he could not have ridden from Faenza. Madonna had risen too, and with a
+white face and straining eyes she was looking towards the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then our doubts were at last ended. There was a jangle of spurs and the
+fall of feet, and through the open door stepped a straight, martial figure in a
+doublet of deep crimson velvet, trimmed with costly lynx furs and slashed with
+satin in the sleeves and shoulder-puffs; jewels gleamed in the massive chain
+across his breast and at the marroquin girdle that carried his bronze-hilted
+sword; his hose was of red silk, and his great black boots were armed with
+golden spurs. But to crown all this very regal splendour was the beautiful,
+pale, cold face of Cesare Borgia, from out of which two black eyes flashed and
+played like sword-points on the company.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind him surged a press of mercenaries, in steel, their weapons naked in
+their hands, so that no doubt was left of the character of this visit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Collecting himself, and bethinking him that after all, he had best dissemble a
+good countenance; Ramiro advanced respectfully to meet his overlord. But ere he
+had taken three steps the Duke stayed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stand where you are, traitor,&rdquo; was the imperious command.
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll trust you no nearer to my person.&rdquo; And to emphasise his
+words he raised his gloved left hand, which had been resting on his sword-hilt,
+and in which I now observed that he held a paper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether Ramiro recognised it, or whether it was that the mere sight of a paper
+reminded him of the letter which on my testimony should be in Cesare&rsquo;s
+keeping, or whether again the word &ldquo;traitor&rdquo; with which Cesare
+branded him drove the iron deeper into his soul, I cannot say; but to this I
+can testify: that he turned a livid green, and stood there before his
+formidable master in an attitude so stricken as to have aroused pity for any
+man less a villain than was he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now Cesare&rsquo;s eye, travelling round, alighted on Madonna Paola,
+standing back in the shadows to which she had instinctively withdrawn at his
+coming. At sight of her he recoiled a pace, deeming, no doubt, that it was an
+apparition stood before him. Then he looked again, and being a man whose mind
+was above puerile superstitions, he assured himself that by what miracle the
+thing was wrought, the figure before him was the living body of Madonna Paola
+Sforza di Santafior. He swept the velvet cap with its jewelled plume from off
+his auburn locks, and bowed low before her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In God&rsquo;s name, Madonna, how are you come to life again, and how do
+I find you here of all places?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She made no ado about enlightening him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That villain,&rdquo; said she, and her finger pointed straight and
+firmly at Ramiro, &ldquo;put a sleeping-potion in my wine on the last night he
+dined with us at Pesaro, and when all thought me dead he came to the Church of
+San Domenico with his men to carry off my sleeping body. He would have
+succeeded in his fell design but that Lazzaro Biancomonte there, whom you have
+stayed him in the act of torturing to death, was beforehand and saved me from
+his clutches for a time. This morning at Cattolica his searching sbirri
+discovered me and brought me hither, where I have been for the past three
+hours, and where, but for your Excellency&rsquo;s timely arrival, I shudder to
+think of the indignities I might have suffered.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thank you, Madonna, for this clear succinctness,&rdquo; answered
+Cesare coldly, as was his habit. They say he was a passionate man, and such
+indeed I do believe him to have been; but even in the hottest frenzy of rage,
+outwardly he was ever the same&mdash;icily cold and tranquil. And this, no
+doubt, was the thing that made him terrible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Presently, Madonna,&rdquo; he pursued, &ldquo;I shall ask you to tell me
+how it chanced that, having saved you, Messer Biancomonte did not bear you to
+your brother&rsquo;s house. But first I have business with my Governor of
+Cesena&mdash;a score which is rendered, if possible, heavier than it already
+stood by this thing that you have told me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; cried out Ramiro, finding his tongue at last,
+&ldquo;Madonna has misinformed you. I know nothing of who administered the
+sleeping-potion. Certainly it was not I. I heard a rumour that her body had
+been stolen, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Silence!&rdquo; Cesare commanded sternly. &ldquo;Did I question you,
+dog?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His beautiful, terrible eyes fastened upon Ramiro in a glance that defied the
+man to answer him. Cowed, like a hound at sight of the whip, Ramiro whimpered
+into silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cesare waved his hand in his direction, half-turning to the men-at-arms behind
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take and disarm him,&rdquo; was his passionless command. And while they
+were doing his bidding, he turned to me and ordered the executioner beside me
+to unbind my hands and set me at liberty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I owe you a heavy debt, Messer Biancomonte,&rdquo; he said, without any
+warmth, even now that his voice was laden with a message of gratitude.
+&ldquo;It shall be discharged. It is thanks to your daring and resource that
+the seneschal Mariani was able to bring me this letter, this piece of
+culminating proof against Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca. It is fortunate for you that
+Mariani was not put to it to ride to Faenza to find me, or else I am afraid we
+had not reached Cesena in time to save your life. I met him some leagues this
+side of Faenza, as I was on my way to Sinigaglia.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned abruptly to Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In this letter which Vitelli wrote you,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it is
+suggested that there are others in the conspiracy. Tell me now, who are those
+others? See that you answer me with truth, for I shall compel proofs from you
+of such accusations as you may make.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro looked at him with eyes rendered dull by agony. He moistened his lips
+with his tongue, and turning his head towards his men&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Wine,&rdquo; he gasped, from very force of habit. &ldquo;A cup of
+wine!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let it be supplied him,&rdquo; said Cesare coldly, and we all stood
+waiting while a servant filled him a cup. Ramiro gulped the wine avidly, never
+pausing until the goblet was empty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Cesare, who had been watching him, &ldquo;will it
+please you to answer my question?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Ramiro, revived and strengthened in spirit by the
+draught, &ldquo;I must ask your Excellency to be a little plainer with me. To
+what conspiracy is it that you refer? I know of none. What is this letter which
+you say Vitelli wrote me? I take it you refer to the Lord of Citta di Castello.
+But I can recall no letters passing between us. My acquaintance with him is of
+the slightest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cesare looked at him a second.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Approach,&rdquo; he curtly bade him, and Ramiro came forward, one of the
+Borgia halberdiers on either side of him, each holding him by an arm. The Duke
+thrust the letter under his eyes. &ldquo;Have you never seen that
+before?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ramiro looked at it a moment, and his attempt at dissembling bewilderment was a
+ludicrous thing to witness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never,&rdquo; he said brazenly at last.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cesare folded the letter and slipped it into the breast of his doublet. From
+his girdle he took a second paper. He turned from Ramiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don Miguel,&rdquo; he called.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From behind his men-at-arms a tall man, all dressed in black, stood forward. It
+was Cesare&rsquo;s Spanish captain, one whose name was as well known and as
+well-dreaded in Italy as Cesare&rsquo;s own. The Duke held out to him the paper
+that he had produced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You heard the question that I asked Messer del&rsquo; Orca?&rdquo; he
+inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I heard, Illustrious,&rdquo; answered Miguel, with a bow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;See that you obtain me an answer to it, as well as an account of the
+other matters that I have noted on this list&mdash;concerning the
+misappropriation of stores, the retention of taxes illicitly levied, and the
+wanton cruelty towards my good citizens of Cesena. Put him to the question
+without delay, and record me his replies. The implements are yonder.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with the same calm indifference which characterised his every word and
+action Cesare pointed to the torture, and turned to Madonna Paola, as though he
+gave the matter of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca and his misdeeds not another thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mercy, my lord,&rdquo; rang now the voice of Ramiro, laden with horrid
+fear. &ldquo;I will speak.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then do so&mdash;to Don Miguel. He will question you in my name.&rdquo;
+Again he turned to Madonna. &ldquo;Madonna Paola, may I conduct you hence?
+Things may perhaps occur which it is not seemly your gentle eyes should
+witness. Messer Biancomonte, attend us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, in spite of all that Ramiro had made me suffer, I should have been loath
+to have remained and witnessed his examination. That they would torture him was
+now inevitable. His chance of answering freely was gone. Even if he returned
+meek replies to Don Miguel&rsquo;s questions, that gentleman would, no doubt,
+still submit him to the cord by way of assuring himself that such replies were
+true ones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gladly, then, did I turn to follow the Duke and Madonna Paola into the
+adjoining chamber to which Cesare led the way, even as Don Miguel&rsquo;s voice
+was raised to command his men to clear the hall, to the end that he might
+conduct his examination in private.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The three of us stood in the anteroom. A servant had lighted the tapers and
+closed the doors, and the Duke turned to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;First, Messer Biancomonte, to discharge my debt. You are, if I am not
+misinformed, the lord by right of birth of certain lands that bear your name,
+which suffered sequestration during the reign of the late Costanzo, Tyrant of
+Pesaro, whose son Giovanni upheld that confiscation. Am I right?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your Excellency is very well informed. The Lord of Pesaro did make me
+tardy restitution&mdash;so tardy, indeed, that the lands which he restored to
+me had already virtually passed from his possession.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cesare smiled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In recompense for the service you have rendered me this day,&rdquo; said
+he, and my heart thrilled at the words and at the thought of the joy which I
+was about to bear to my old mother, &ldquo;I reinvest you in your lands of
+Biancomonte for so long as you are content to recognise in me your overlord,
+and to be loyal, true and faithful to my rule.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I bowed, murmuring something of the joy I felt and the devotion I should
+entertain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then that is done with. You shall have the deed from my hand by morning.
+And now, Madonna, will you grant me some explanation of your conduct in leaving
+Pesaro in this man&rsquo;s company, instead of repairing to your
+brother&rsquo;s house, when you awakened from the effects of the potion Ramiro
+gave you, or must I seek the explanation from Messer Biancomonte?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her eyes fell before the scrutiny of his, and when they were raised again it
+was to meet my glance, and if Cesare could not, for himself, read the message
+of those eyes, why then, his penetration was by no means what the world
+accounted it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;let me explain. I love Madonna Paola. It
+was love of her that led me to the church and kept me there that night. It was
+love of her and the overmastering passion of my grief at her so sudden death
+that led me, in a madness, to desire once more to look upon her face ere they
+delivered it to earth&rsquo;s keeping. Thus was it that I came to discover that
+she lived; thus was it that I anticipated Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca. He came upon
+us almost before I had raised her from the coffin, yet love lent me strength
+and craft to delude him. We hid awhile in the sacristy, and it was there, after
+Madonna had revived, that the pent-up passion of years burst the bond with
+which reason had bidden me restrain it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By the Host!&rdquo; cried Cesare, his brows drawn down in a frown.
+&ldquo;You are a bold man to tell me this. And you, Madonna,&rdquo; he cried,
+turning suddenly to her, &ldquo;what have you to say?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only, my lord, that I have suffered more I think in these past few days
+than has ever fallen to the life-time&rsquo;s share of another woman. I think,
+my lord, that I have suffered enough to have earned me a little peace and a
+little happiness for the remainder of my days. All my life have men plagued me
+with marriages that were hateful to me, and this has culminated in the brutal
+act of Ramiro del&rsquo; Orca. Do you not think that I have endured
+enough?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stared at her for a moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you love this fellow?&rdquo; he gasped. &ldquo;You, Madonna Paola
+Sforza di Santafior, one of the noblest ladies in all Italy, confess to love
+this lordling of a few barren acres?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I loved him, Illustrious, when he was less, much less, than that. I
+loved him when he was little better than the Fool of the Court of Pesaro, and
+not even the shame of the motley that disgraced him could stay the impulse of
+my affections.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He laughed curiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By my faith,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I have gone through life complaining
+of the want of frankness in the men and women I have met. But you two seem to
+deal in it liberally enough to satisfy the most ardent seeker after truth. I
+would that Pontius Pilate could have known you.&rdquo; Then he grew sterner.
+&ldquo;But what account of this evening&rsquo;s adventure am I to bear to my
+cousin Ignacio?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She hung her head in silence, whilst my own spirit trembled. Then suddenly I
+spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;if you take her back to Pesaro, you may
+keep the deed of Biancomonte. For unless Madonna Paola goes thither with me,
+your gift is a barren one, your reward of no account or value to me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I would not have it so,&rdquo; said he, his head on one side and his
+fingers toying with his auburn beard. &ldquo;You saved my life, and you must be
+rewarded fittingly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then, Illustrious, in payment for my preservation of your life, do you
+render happy mine, and we shall thus be quits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; cried Paola, putting forth her hands in supplication,
+&ldquo;if you have ever loved, befriend us now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A shadow darkened his face for an instant, then it was gone, and his expression
+was as inscrutable as ever. Yet he took her hands in his and looked down into
+her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They say that I am hard, bloodthirsty and unfeeling,&rdquo; he said in
+tones that were almost of complaint. &ldquo;But I am not proof against so much
+appeal. Ignacio must find him a bride in Spain; and if he is wise and would
+taste the sweets of life, he will see to it that he finds him a willing
+one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As for you two, Cesare Borgia shalt stand your friend. He owes you no
+less. I will be godfather to your nuptials. Thus shall the blame and
+consequences rest on me. Paola Sforza di Santafior is dead, men think. We will
+leave them thinking it. Filippo must know the truth. But you can trust me to
+make your brother take a reasonable view of what has come to pass. After all,
+there may be a disparity in your ranks. But it is purely adventitious, for
+noble though you may be, Madonna Paola, you are wedding one who seems no less
+noble at heart, whatever the parts he may have played in life.&rdquo; He smiled
+inscrutably, as he added: &ldquo;I have in mind that you once sought service
+with me Messer Biancomonte, and if a martial life allures you still, I&rsquo;ll
+make you lord of something better far than Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thanked him, and Madonna joined me in that expression of gratitude&mdash;an
+expression that fell very short of all that was in our hearts. But touching
+that offer of his that I should follow his fortunes, I begged him not to
+insist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The possession of Biancomonte has from my cradle been the goal of all my
+hopes. It is patrimony enough for me, and there, with Madonna Paola, I&rsquo;ll
+take a long farewell of ambition, which is but the seed of discontent.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, as you will,&rdquo; he sighed. And then, before more could be said,
+there came from the adjoining room a piercing scream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cesare raised his head, and his lips parted in the faintest vestige of a smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are exacting the truth from the Governor of Cesena,&rdquo; said he.
+&ldquo;I think, Madonna, that we had better move a little farther off.
+Ramiro&rsquo;s voice makes indifferent music for a lady&rsquo;s ear.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was white as death at the horrid noise and all the things of which it may
+have reminded her, and so we passed from the antechamber and sought the more
+distant places of the castle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here let me pause. We were married on the morrow which was Christmas eve, and
+in the grey dawn of the Christmas morning we set out for Biancomonte with the
+escort which Cesare Borgia placed at our disposal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we rode out from the Citadel of Cesena, we saw the last of Ramiro del&rsquo;
+Orca. Beyond the gates, in the centre of the public square, a block stood
+planted in the snow. On the side nearer the castle there was a dark mass over
+which a rich mantle had been thrown; it was of purple colour, and in the
+uncertain light it was not easy to tell where the cloak ended, and the stain
+that embrued the snow began. On the other side of the block a decapitated head
+stood mounted on an upright pike, and the sightless eyes of Ramiro del&rsquo;
+Orca looked from his grinning face upon the town of Cesena, which he had so
+wantonly misruled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Madonna shuddered and turned her head aside as we rode past that dread emblem
+of the Borgia justice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To efface from her mind the memory of such a thing on such a day, I talked to
+her, as we cantered out into the country, of the life to come, of the mother
+that waited to welcome us, and of the glad tidings with which we were to
+rejoice her on that Christmas day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is no moral to my story. I may not end with one of those graceful
+admonitions beloved of Messer Boccacci to whom in my jester&rsquo;s days I owed
+so much. Not mine is it to say with him &ldquo;Wherefore, gentle
+ladies&rdquo;&mdash;or &ldquo;noble sirs&mdash;beware of this, avoid that other
+thing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mine is a plain tale, written in the belief that some account of those old
+happenings that befell me may offer you some measure of entertainment, and
+written, too, in the support of certain truths which my contemporaries have
+been shamefully inclined and simoniacally induced to suppress. Many chroniclers
+set forth how the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli and his associates were barbarously
+strangled by Cesare&rsquo;s orders at Sinigaglia, and wilfully&mdash;for I
+cannot believe that it results from ignorance&mdash;are they silent touching
+the reason, leaving you to imagine that it was done in obedience to a
+ruthlessness of character beyond parallel, so that you may come to consider
+Cesare Borgia as black as they were paid to paint him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To confute them do I set down these facts of which my knowledge cannot be
+called in question, and also that you may know the true story of Paola di
+Santafior&mdash;and more particularly that part of it which lies beyond the
+death she did not die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sun of that Christmas day was setting as we drew near to Biancomonte and
+the humble dwelling of my old mother. We fell into talk of her once more.
+Suddenly Paola turned in her saddle to confront me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell me, Lord of Biancomonte, will she love me a little, think
+you?&rdquo; she asked, to plague me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who would not love you, Lady of Biancomonte?&rdquo; counter-questioned
+I.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***</div>
+<div style='text-align:left'>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Updated editions will replace the previous one&#8212;the old editions will
+be renamed.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG&#8482;
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br />
+<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br />
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+To protect the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
+or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.B. &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&#8220;the
+Foundation&#8221; or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg&#8482; work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work (any work
+on which the phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; appears, or with which the
+phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+</div>
+
+<blockquote>
+  <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+    other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+    whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+    of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+    at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+    are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
+    of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
+  </div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221; associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg&#8482; License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg&#8482;.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; License.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work in a format
+other than &#8220;Plain Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg&#8482; website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original &#8220;Plain
+Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg&#8482; works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+provided that:
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'>
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+        the use of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works calculated using the method
+        you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+        to the owner of the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, but he has
+        agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+        within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+        legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+        payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+        Section 4, &#8220;Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+        Literary Archive Foundation.&#8221;
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+        you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+        does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+        copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+        all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        works.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+        any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+        electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+        receipt of the work.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+        distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works.
+    </div>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain &#8220;Defects,&#8221; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &#8220;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&#8221; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you &#8216;AS-IS&#8217;, WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg&#8482;&#8217;s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg&#8482; collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg&#8482; and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation&#8217;s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state&#8217;s laws.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation&#8217;s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation&#8217;s website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
+visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg&#8482;,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d324f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #3408 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3408)
diff --git a/old/3408-8.txt b/old/3408-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e4c187
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3408-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9202 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shame of Motley, by Raphael Sabatini
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Shame of Motley
+
+Author: Raphael Sabatini
+
+Posting Date: February 25, 2009 [EBook #3408]
+Release Date: September, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Stuart Middleton
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SHAME OF MOTLEY
+
+Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions in the Life of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro.
+
+
+By Rafael Sabatini
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     PART I
+
+     FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+     CHAPTER
+
+         I.  THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+        II.  THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+       III.  MADONNA PAOLA
+
+        IV.  THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+         V.  MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+
+        VI.  FOOL'S LUCK
+
+       VII.  THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+      VIII.  "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
+
+        IX.  THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+         X.  THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+
+     PART II
+
+     THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+
+        XI.  MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+
+       XII.  THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+      XIII.  POISON
+
+       XIV.  REQUIESCAT!
+
+        XV.  AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+       XVI.  IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+      XVII.  THE SENESCHAL
+
+     XVIII.  THE LETTER
+
+       XIX.  DOOMED
+
+        XX.  THE SUNSET
+
+       XXI.  AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+
+
+PART I. FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+
+For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by
+suspense. It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with
+after I had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from
+Pesaro, and I wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious
+Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia might see fit to offer me the
+honourable employment with which Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that
+he would reward the service I had rendered the House of Borgia by my
+journey.
+
+Three days were sped, yet nought had happened to signify that things
+would shape the course by me so ardently desired; that the means would
+be afforded me of mending my miserable ways, and repairing the wreck
+my life had suffered on the shoals of Fate. True, I had been housed and
+fed, and the comforts of indolence had been mine; but, for the rest, I
+was still clothed in the livery of folly which I had worn on my arrival,
+and, wherever I might roam, there followed ever at my heels a crowd of
+underlings, seeking to have their tedium lightened by jests and capers,
+and voting me--when their hopes proved barren--the sorriest Fool that
+had ever worn the motley.
+
+On that third day I speak of, my patience tried to its last strand, I
+had beaten a lacquey with my hands, and fled from the cursed gibes his
+fellows aimed at me, out into the misty gardens and the chill January
+air, whose sting I could, perhaps, the better disregard by virtue of
+the heat of indignation that consumed me. Was it ever to be so with me?
+Could nothing lift the curse of folly from me, that I must ever be a
+Fool, and worse, the sport of other fools?
+
+It was there on one of the terraces crowning the splendid heights above
+immortal Rome that Messer Gianluca found me. He greeted me courteously;
+I answered with a snarl, deeming him come to pursue the plaguing from
+which I had fled.
+
+"His Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia is asking for
+you, Messer Boccadoro," he announced. And so despairing had been my mood
+of ever hearing such a summons that, for a moment, I accounted it some
+fresh jest of theirs. But the gravity of his fat countenance reassured
+me.
+
+"Let us go, then," I answered with alacrity, and so confident was I that
+the interview to which he bade me was the first step along the road to
+better fortune, that I permitted myself a momentary return to the Fool's
+estate from which I thought myself on the point of being for ever freed.
+
+"I shall use the interview to induce his Excellency to submit a tenth
+beatitude to the approval of our Holy Father: Blessed are the bearers of
+good tidings. Come on, Messer the seneschal."
+
+I led the way, in my impatience forgetful of his great paunch and little
+legs, so that he was sorely tried to keep pace with me. Yet who would
+not have been in haste, urged by such a spur as had I? Here, then, was
+the end of my shameful travesty. To-morrow a soldier's harness should
+replace the motley of a jester; the name by which I should be known
+again to men would be that of Lazzaro Biancomonte, and no longer
+Boccadoro--the Fool of the golden mouth.
+
+Thus much had Madonna Lucrezia's promises led me to expect, and it was
+with a soul full of joyous expectation that I entered the great man's
+closet.
+
+He received me in a manner calculated to set me at my ease, and yet
+there was about him a something that overawed me. Cesare Borgia,
+Cardinal of Valencia, was then in his twenty-third year, for all
+that there hung about him the semblance of a greater age, just as his
+cardinalitial robes lent him the appearance of a height far above the
+middle stature that was his own. His face was pale and framed in a silky
+auburn beard; his nose was aquiline and strong; his eyes the keenest
+that I have ever seen; his forehead lofty and intelligent. He seemed
+pervaded by an air of feverish restlessness, something surpassing the
+vivida vis animi, something that marked him to discerning eyes for a man
+of incessant action of body and of mind.
+
+"My sister tells me," he said in greeting, "that you are willing to take
+service under me, Messer Biancomonte."
+
+"Such was the hope that guided me to Rome, Most Excellent," I answered
+him.
+
+Surprise flashed into his eyes, and was gone as quickly as it had come.
+His thin lips parted in a smile, whose meaning was inscrutable.
+
+"As some reward for the safe delivery of the letter you brought me from
+her?" he questioned mildly.
+
+"Precisely, Illustrious," I answered in all frankness.
+
+His open hand smote the table of wood-mosaics at which he sat.
+
+"Praised be Heaven!" he cried. "You seem to promise that I shall have in
+you a follower who deals in truth."
+
+"Could your Excellency, to whom my real name is known, expect ought else
+of one who bears it--however unworthily?"
+
+There was amusement in his glance.
+
+"Can you still swagger it, after having worn that livery for three
+years?" he asked, and his lean forefinger pointed at my hideous motley
+of red and black and yellow.
+
+I flushed and hung my head, and--as if to mock that very expression
+of my shame--the bells on my cap gave forth a silvery tinkle at the
+movement.
+
+"Excellency, spare me," I murmured. "Did you know all my miserable story
+you would be merciful. Did you know with what joy I turned my back on
+the Court of Pesaro--"
+
+"Aye," he broke in mockingly, "when Giovanni Sforza threatened to have
+you hanged for the overboldness of your tongue. Not until then did it
+occur to you to turn from the shameful life in which the best years
+of your manhood were being wasted. There! Just now I commended your
+truthfulness; but the truth that dwells in you is no more, it seems,
+than the truth we may look for in the mouth of Folly. At heart, I fear,
+you are a hypocrite, Messer Biancomonte; the worst form of hypocrite--a
+hypocrite to your own self."
+
+"Did your Excellency know all!" I cried.
+
+"I know enough," he answered, with stern sorrow; "enough to make me
+marvel that the son of Ettore Biancomonte of Biancomonte should play the
+Fool to Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Oh you will tell me that you
+went there for revenge, to seek to right the wrong his father did your
+father."
+
+"It was, it was!" I cried, with heated vehemence. "Be flames everlasting
+the dwelling of my soul if any other motive drove me to this shameful
+trade."
+
+There was a pause. His beautiful eyes flamed with a sudden light as they
+rested on me. Then the lids drooped demurely, and he drew a deep breath.
+But when he spoke there was scorn in his voice.
+
+"And, no doubt, it was that same motive kept you there, at peace for
+three whole years, in slothful ease, the motleyed Fool, jesting and
+capering for his enemy's delectation--you, a man with the knightly
+memory of your foully-wronged parent to cry hourly shame upon you. No
+doubt you lacked the opportunity to bring the tyrant to account. Or was
+it that you were content to let him make a mock of you so long as he
+housed and fed you and clothed you in your garish livery of shame?
+
+"Spare me, Excellency," I cried again. "Of your charity let my past be
+done with. When he drove me forth with threats of hanging, from which
+your gracious sister saved me, I turned my steps to Rome at her bidding
+to--"
+
+"To find honourable employment at my hands," he interrupted quietly.
+Then suddenly rising, and speaking in a voice of thunder--"And what,
+then, of your revenge?" he cried.
+
+"It has been frustrated," I answered lamely. "Sufficient do I account
+the ruin that already I have wrought in my life by the pursuit of that
+phantom. I was trained to arms, my lord. Let me discard for good these
+tawdry rags, and strap a soldier's harness to my back."
+
+"How came you to journey hither thus?" he asked, suddenly turning the
+subject.
+
+"It was Madonna Lucrezia's wish. She held that my errand would be safer
+so, for a Fool may travel unmolested."
+
+He nodded that he understood, and paced the chamber with bowed head. For
+a spell there was silence, broken only by the soft fall of his slippered
+feet and the swish of his silken purple. At last he paused before me and
+looked up into my face--for I was a good head taller than he was. His
+fingers combed his auburn beard, and his beautiful eyes were full on
+mine.
+
+"That was a wise precaution of my sister's," he approved. "I will take
+a lesson from her in the matter. I have employment for you, Messer
+Biancomonte."
+
+I bowed my head in token of my gratitude.
+
+"You shall find me diligent and faithful, my lord," I promised him.
+
+"I know it," he sniffed, "else should I not employ you."
+
+He turned from me, and stepped back to his table. He took up a package,
+fingered it a moment, then dropped it again, and shot me one of his
+quiet glances.
+
+"That is my answer to Madonna Lucrezia's letter," he said slowly, his
+voice as smooth as silk, "and I desire that you shall carry it to Pesaro
+for me, and deliver it safely and secretly into her hands."
+
+I could do no more than stare at him. It seemed as if my mind were
+stricken numb.
+
+"Well?" he asked at last; and in his voice there was now a suggestion of
+steel beneath the silk. "Do you hesitate?"
+
+"And if I do," I answered, suddenly finding my voice, "I do no more than
+might a bolder man. How can I, who am banned by punishment of death,
+contrive to penetrate again into the Court of Pesaro and reach the Lady
+Lucrezia?"
+
+"That is a matter that I shall leave to the shrewd wit which all Italy
+says is the heritage of Boccadoro, the Prince of Fools. Does the task
+daunt you?" His glance and voice were alike harsh.
+
+In very truth it did, and I told him so, but in the terms which the
+shrewd wit he said was mine dictated.
+
+"I hesitate, my lord, indeed; but more because I fear the frustration
+of your own ends--whatever they may be--than because I dread to earn
+a broken neck by again adventuring into Pesaro. Would not some other
+messenger--unknown at the Court of Giovanni Sforza--be in better case to
+acquit himself of such a task?
+
+"Yes, if I had one I could trust," he answered frankly.
+
+"I will be open with you, Biancomonte. There are such grave matters at
+issue, there are such secrets confided to that paper, that I would not
+for a kingdom, not for our Holy Father's triple crown, that they should
+fall into alien hands."
+
+He approached me again, and his slender hand, upon which the sacred
+amethyst was glowing, fell lightly on my shoulder. He lowered his voice
+"You are the man, the one man in Italy, whose interests are bound up
+with mine in this; therefore are you the one man to whom I can entrust
+that package."
+
+"I?" I gasped in amazement--as well I might, for what interests had
+Boccadoro, the Fool, in common with Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia?
+
+"You," he answered vehemently, "you, Lazzaro Biancomonte of Biancomonte,
+whose father Costanzo of Pesaro stripped of his domains. The matters in
+those papers mean the ruin of the Lord of Pesaro. We are all but ripe to
+strike at him from Rome and when we strike he shall be so disfigured
+by the blow that all Italy shall hold its sides to laugh at the sorry
+figure he will cut. I would not say so much to any other living man but
+you and if I tell it you it is because I need your aid."
+
+"The lion and mouse," I murmured.
+
+"Why yes, if you will."
+
+"And this man is the husband of your sister!" I exclaimed, almost
+involuntarily.
+
+"Does that imply a doubt of what I have said?" he flashed, his head
+thrown back, his brows drawn suddenly together.
+
+"No, no," I hastened to assure him. He smiled softly.
+
+"Maddonna Lucrezia knows all--or nearly all. Of what else she may need
+to learn, that letter will inform her. It is the last thread, the last
+knot needed, before we can complete the net in which we are to hold that
+tyrant? Now, will you bear the letter?"
+
+Would I bear it? Dear God! To achieve the end in view I would have
+spent my remaining days in motley, making sport for grooms and
+kitchen wenches. Some such answer did I make him, and he smiled his
+satisfaction.
+
+"You shall journey as you are," he bade me. "I am guided by my sister,
+assured that the coat of a Fool is stouter protection than the best
+hauberk ever tempered. When you have done your errand come you back to
+me, and you shall have employment better suited to one who bears the
+name of Biancomonte."
+
+"You may depend upon me in this, my lord," I promised gravely. "I shall
+not fail you."
+
+"It is well" said he; and those wondrous eyes of his rested again upon
+my face. "How soon can you set out?"
+
+"At once, my lord. Does not the by-word say that a fool makes little
+preparation for a journey?"
+
+He nodded, and moved to a coffer, a beautiful piece of Venetian work in
+ultramarine and gold. From this he took a heavy bag.
+
+"There," said he, "you will find the best of all travelling companions."
+I thanked him, and set the bag on the crook of my left arm, and by its
+weight I knew how true he was to the notorious splendour of his race.
+"And this," said he, "is a talisman that may serve to help you out of
+any evil plight, and open many a door that you may find locked." And he
+handed me a signet ring on which was graven the steer that is the emblem
+of the House of Borgia.
+
+He raised aloft the hand on which was glistening the sacred
+amethyst--two fingers crooked and two erect. Wondering what this should
+mean, I stared inquiry.
+
+"Kneel," he bade me. And realising what he would be about, I sank on
+to my knees whilst he murmured the Apostolic benediction over my bowed
+head. The rushes of the floor were the only witnesses of the smile that
+crept to my lips at this sudden assumption of his churchly office by
+that most worldly prince.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+
+Such preparations as I had to make were soon complete.
+
+Although it was agreed that I was to travel in the motley, yet, in my
+lately-born shame of that apparel, I decided that I would conceal it as
+best might be, revealing it only should the need arise. Moreover, it
+was incumbent that I should afford myself more protection against the
+inclement January night than that of my foliated cape, my crested cap
+and silken hose. So, a black cloak, heavy and ample, a broad-brimmed
+hat, and a pair of riding boots of untanned leather were my further
+equipment. In the lining of one of those boots I concealed the Lord
+Cesare's package; his money--some twenty ducats--I carried in a belt
+about my waist, and his ring I set boldly on my finger.
+
+Few moments did it need me to make ready, yet fewer, it seems, would
+the Borgia impatience have had me employ; for scarce was I booted when
+someone knocked at my door. I opened, and there entered a very mountain
+of a man, whose corselet flashed back the yellow light of my tapers, as
+might have done a mirror, and whose harsh voice barked out to ask if I
+was ready.
+
+I had had some former acquaintance with this fellow, having first met
+him during the previous year, on the occasion of the Court of Pesaro's
+sojourn at Rome. His name was Ramiro del' Orca, and throughout the Papal
+army it stood synonymous for masterfulness and grim brutality. He was,
+as I have said, an enormous man, of prodigious bodily strength, heavy,
+yet of good proportions. Of his face one gathered the impression of a
+blazing furnace. His cheeks and nose were of a vivid red, and still more
+fiery was the hair, now hidden 'neath his morion, and the beard that
+tapered to a dagger's point. His very eyes kept tune with the red
+harmony of his ferocious countenance, for the whites were ever bloodshot
+as a drunkard's--which, with no want of truth, men said he was.
+
+"Come," grunted that fiery, self-sufficient vassal, "be stirring, sir
+Fool. I have orders to see you to the gates. There is a horse ready
+saddled for you. It is the Lord Cardinal's parting gift. Resolve me now,
+which will be the greater ass--the one that rides, or the one that is
+ridden?"
+
+"O monstrous riddle!" I exclaimed, as I took up my cloak and hat. "Who
+am I that I should solve it?"
+
+"It baffles you, sir Fool?" quoth he.
+
+"In very truth it does." I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells set
+up a jangle. "For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse. But," I
+pursued, in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of the
+jester's wit, "were you to make a trio of us, including Messer Ramiro
+del' Orca, Captain in the army of his Holiness, no doubt would then
+afflict me. I should never hesitate which of the three to pronounce the
+ass."
+
+"What shall that mean?" he asked, with darkening brows.
+
+"That its meaning proves obscure to you confirms the verdict I
+was hinting at," I taunted him. "For asses are notoriously of dull
+perceptions." Then stepping forward briskly: "Come, sir," I sharply
+urged him, "whilst we engage upon this pretty play of wit, his
+Excellency's business waits, which is an ill thing. Where is this horse
+you spoke of?"
+
+He showed me his strong, white teeth in a very evil smile.
+
+"Were it not for that same business--" he began.
+
+"You would do fine things, I am assured," I interrupted him.
+
+"Would I not?" he snarled. "By the Host! I should be wringing your pert
+neck, or laying bare your bones with a thong of bullock-hide, you ill
+conditioned Fool!"
+
+I looked at him with pleasant, smiling eyes.
+
+"You confirm the opinion that is popularly held of you," said I.
+
+"What may that be?" quoth he, his eyes very evil. "In Rome, I'm told,
+they call you hangman."
+
+He growled in his throat like an angered cur, and his hands were jerked
+to the level of his breast, the fingers bending talon-wise.
+
+"Body of God!" he muttered fiercely, "I'll teach one fool, at least--"
+
+"Let us cease these pleasantries, I entreat you," I laughed. "Saints
+defend me! If your mood incline to raillery you'll find your match in
+some lad of the stables. As for me, I have not the time, had I the will,
+to engage you further. Let me remind you that I would be gone."
+
+The reminder was well-timed. He bethought him of the journey I must go,
+on which he was charged to see me safely started.
+
+"Come on, then," he growled, in a white heat of passion that was only
+curbed by the consideration of that slender, pale young cardinal, his
+master.
+
+Still, some of his rage he vented in roughly taking me by the collar
+of my doublet, and dragging the almost headlong from the room, and so
+a-down a flight of steps out into the courtyard. Meet treatment for a
+Fool--a treatment to which time might have inured me; for had I not
+for three years already been exposed to rough usage of this kind at the
+hands of every man above the rank of groom? And had I once rebelled in
+act as I did in soul, and used the strength wherewith God endowed me
+to punish my ill-users, a whip would have reminded me into what sorry
+slavery had I sold myself when I put on the motley.
+
+It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the
+courtyard when we descended.
+
+At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of
+hoofs, muffled by the snow. Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare
+upon the all-encompassing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward the
+horse that was destined to bear me. I donned my broad-brimmed hat, and
+wrapped my cloak about me. Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears,
+from those minions with whom I had herded during my three days at the
+Vatican. Then Messer del' Orca thrust me forward.
+
+"Mount, Fool, and be off," he rasped.
+
+I mounted, and turned to him. He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog
+wore human shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain
+Ramiro.
+
+"Brother, farewell," I simpered.
+
+"No brother of yours, Fool," snarled he.
+
+"True--my cousin only. The fool of art is no brother to the fool of
+nature."
+
+"A whip!" he roared to his grooms. "Fetch me a whip."
+
+I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and
+over the narrow drawbridge. Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my
+shoulder. They stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men,
+looking black against the whiteness of the ground. Behind them rose the
+brown walls of the rocca illumined by the flare of torches, from which
+the smell of rosin reached my nostrils as I paused. I waved my hat to
+them in token of farewell, and digging my spurless heels into the flanks
+of my horse, I ambled down through the biting wind and drifting snow,
+into the town.
+
+The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell from
+a window, and there stole through the chink of a door to glow upon the
+snow in earnest of the snug warmth within. Silence reigned, broken only
+by the moan of the wind under the eaves, for although it was no more
+than approaching the second hour of night, yet who but the wight whom
+necessity compelled would be abroad in such weather?
+
+All night I rode despite that weather's foulness--a foulness that might
+have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less attuned to
+his own supreme desires.
+
+Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to
+Magliano, and there I broke my fast and took some rest. My horse had
+suffered by the journey more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh
+one at Magliano, but there was none to be had--so they told me--this
+side of Narni, wherefore I was forced to set out once more upon that
+poor jaded beast that had carried me all night.
+
+It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the
+journey accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster. Here I
+paused to dine, but here, again, they told me that no horses might be
+had. And so, leading by the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride,
+lest I should kill it outright, I entered the territory of Urbino on
+foot, and trudged wearily amain through the snow that was some inches
+deep by now. In this miserable fashion I covered the seven leagues, or
+so, to Spoleto, where I arrived exhausted as night was falling.
+
+There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay. I found a company of
+gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley--when I had
+thrown off my sodden cloak and hat--pressed me, willy-nilly, into
+amusing them. And so I spent the night at my Fool's trade, giving them
+drolleries from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti--the horn-books of
+all jesters.
+
+I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending
+to travel with a better speed. The snow was thick and soft at first, but
+as I approached the hills it grew more crisp. Overhead the sky was of
+an unbroken blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was warmth
+in the sunshine. All day I rode hard, and never rested until towards
+nightfall I found myself on the spurs of the Apennines in the
+neighborhood of Gualdo, the better half of my journey well-accomplished.
+The weather had changed again at sunset. It was snowing anew, and the
+north wind was howling like a choir of the damned.
+
+Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it
+might suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I
+drew rein before that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse.
+Despite the early hour the door was already barred, for the bedding of
+travellers formed no part of the traffic of so lowly a house as this
+nameless, wayside wine-shop. Theirs was a trade that ended with the
+daylight. Nevertheless I was assured they could be made to find me a rag
+of straw to lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
+
+The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the
+light of the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not
+over-clean. Behind him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman
+as you might look to find the mate of such a man: broad and tall of
+frame and most scurvily cross-grained of face. It may well be that had
+he bidden me welcome, she had driven me back into the night; but since
+he made some demur when I asked for lodging, and protested that in his
+house was but accommodation too rude to offer my magnificence, the woman
+thrust him aside, and loudly bade me enter.
+
+I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests
+should suffer were my trade disclosed. I bade the man see to my horse,
+and then escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room
+above, which, in obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my
+convenience.
+
+It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner, and
+in the centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy chair
+beside it. The floor was black with age and filth, and broken everywhere
+by rat-holes. She set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the table, and
+with some apology for the rudeness of the chamber she asked in tones
+almost defiant if my excellency would be content.
+
+"Perforce," said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key to
+the respect of such a creature; "a king might thank Heaven for a kennel
+on such a night as this."
+
+She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered
+had I supped. I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have
+been poisoned by such foulnesses as they might have set before me. So I
+answered her that all I needed was a cup of wine.
+
+When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the
+door. It had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three
+legged stool against it that it might give me warning of intrusion. Next
+I threw off my cloak and hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I flung
+myself upon my miserable couch. But jaded though I might be, it was
+not yet my intent to sleep. Now that the half of my journey was
+accomplished, I found myself beset by doubts which had not before
+assailed me, touching the manner in which this mission of mine was to be
+accomplished. It would prove no easy thing for me to penetrate unnoticed
+into the town of Pesaro, much less into the Sforza Court, where for
+three years I had pursued my Fool's trade. There was scarce a man,
+a woman or a child in the entire domains of Giovanni Sforza to whom
+Boccadoro, the Fool, was not known; and many a villano, who had never
+noticed the features of the Lord of Pesaro, could have told you the
+very colour of his jester's eyes; which, after all, is no strange thing,
+for--sad reflection!--in a world in which Wisdom may be overlooked,
+Folly goes never disregarded.
+
+The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would
+gain the presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in
+others. And then my thoughts wandered into speculation. What might
+be this momentous letter that I carried? What was this secret traffic
+'twixt Cesare Borgia and his sister? Since Cesare had said that it
+meant the ruin of Giovanni Sforza--a ruin so utter, so complete and
+humiliating that it must provoke the scornful mirth of all Italy--the
+knowledge of it must soon be mine. Meanwhile I was an agent of that
+ruin. Dear God! how that reflection warmed me! What joy I took in
+the thought that, though he knew it not, nor could come to know it,
+I Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he had abused and whose spirit he had
+broken--was become a tool to expedite the work of abasement and
+destruction that was ripening for him. And realizing all this, that
+letter I vowed to Heaven I would carry, suffering no obstacle to daunt
+me, suffering nothing to turn me from my path.
+
+And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out
+impatiently: "Yes, yes; but how?"
+
+I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured
+myself a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive
+rat that had thrust its head above the boards. Then I quenched the
+light, and flung myself once more upon my bed, in the hope that darkness
+would prove a stimulant to thought and bring me to the solution I was
+seeking. It brought me sleep instead. Unconsciously I sank to it, my
+riddle all unsolved.
+
+I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing
+the pattern of my lattice on the ceiling. The stormy night had been
+succeeded by a calm and sunlit day. And by its light the place wore a
+more loathsome look than it had done last night, so that at the very
+sight of it I leapt from my couch and grew eager to be gone. I set
+a ducat on the table, and going to the door I called my hostess. The
+stairs creaked presently 'neath her portentous weight, and, panting
+slightly, she stood before me.
+
+At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed
+in the cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then
+in rage--deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the
+garb of folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some
+scurvy tumbling or some witless jests.
+
+"Ossa di Cristo!" was her cry. "Have I housed a Fool?"
+
+"If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has
+been a singularly choice resort. Woman--"
+
+"Would you 'woman' me?" she stormed.
+
+"Why, no," said I politely. "I was at fault. I'll keep the title for
+your husband--God help him!"
+
+She smiled grimly.
+
+"And are these," she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, "the jests with
+which you pay the score?"
+
+"Jests?" quoth I. "Score? Pish! More eyes, less tongue would more befit
+a hostess who has never housed a fool." And with a splendid gesture I
+pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table. At sight of the gold her
+eyes grew big with greed.
+
+"My master--" she began, and coming forward took the piece in her hand,
+to assure herself that she was not the dupe of magic. "A fool with
+gold!" she marvelled.
+
+"Is a shame to his calling," I acknowledged. Then--"Get me a needle and
+a length of thread," said I. She scuttled off to do my bidding, like
+nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty. She
+was back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a
+rent about me she might make bold to stitch. What a key to courtesy is
+gold, my masters! I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went
+at once.
+
+With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which it
+stood in need. Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my way
+below, calling for my horse as I descended.
+
+I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed. That last night's
+draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was
+theirs to tender. I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and
+stood waiting in the squalid common-room, my mind divided 'twixt
+impatience to resume the road to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the
+means I was to adopt to enter it and yet save my neck--for this was now
+become an obsessing problem.
+
+As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an approaching
+cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs upon the thick
+snow carpet. The company halted at the door, and a loud, gruff voice was
+raised to cry:
+
+"Locandiere! Afoot, sluggard!"
+
+I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four
+mounted men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn so
+that nothing might be seen of him or her that rode within. Grooms were
+those four, as all the world might see at the first glance, and the
+livery they wore was that of the noble House of Santafior--the holy
+white flower of the quince being embroidered on the breast of their
+gabardines.
+
+They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was
+soon guessed they had spent the night in the saddle. Their horses were
+in a foam of sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from
+foot to cap.
+
+Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared,
+leading my horse by the bridle. Now at an inn the traveller that arrives
+is ever of more importance than he that departs. At sight of those
+horsemen, the taverner forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow in
+welcome to the one that seemed the leader.
+
+"Most Magnificent," said he to that liveried hind, "command me."
+
+"We need a guide," the fellow answered with an ill grace.
+
+"A guide, Illustrious?" quoth the host. "A guide?"
+
+"I said a guide, fool," answered him the groom. "Heard you never of such
+animals? We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the shortest
+road to Cagli."
+
+The taverner shook his grey head stupidly. He bowed again until I
+fancied I could hear the creak of his old joints.
+
+"Here be no guides, Magnificent," he deplored. "Perhaps at Gualdo--"
+
+"Animal," was the retort--for true courtesy commend me to a
+lacquey!--"it is not our wish to pursue the road as far as Gualdo, else
+had we not stopped at this kennel of yours."
+
+I scarce know what it can have been that moved me to act as I then
+did, for, in the truth, the manner of that rascal of a groom was little
+prepossessing, and his master, I doubted, could be little better that he
+left the fellow to hector it thus over that wretched tavern oaf. But I
+stepped forward.
+
+"Did you say that you were journeying to Cagli?" questioned I.
+
+He eyed me sourly, suspicion writ athwart his round, ill-favoured face,
+But my motley was hidden from his sight. My cloak, my hat and boots
+allowed naught of my true condition to appear, and might as well have
+covered a lordling as a jester. Yet his inveterate surliness the rascal
+could not wholly conquer.
+
+"What may be the purpose of your question?" he growled.
+
+"To serve your master, whoever he may be," I answered him serenely,
+"although it is a service I do not press upon him. I, too, am journeying
+to Cagli, and like yourselves, I am in haste and go the shorter way
+across the hills, with which I am well acquainted. If it so please you
+to follow me your need of a guide may thus be satisfied."
+
+It was the tone to take if I would be respected. Had I proposed that we
+should journey in company I should not have earned me the half of the
+deference which was accorded to my haughtily granted leave that they
+might follow me if they so chose.
+
+With marked submission did he give me thanks in his master's name.
+
+I mounted and set out, and at my heels came now the litter and its
+escort. Thus did we quit the plain and breast the slopes, where the snow
+grew deeper and firmer underfoot as we advanced. And as I went, still
+plaguing my mind to devise a means by which I might penetrate to the
+Court of Pesaro, little did I dream that the matter was being solved for
+me--the solution having begun with my offer to guide that company across
+the hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. MADONNA PAOLA
+
+
+We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted and
+paused awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was to
+lead us down to Cagli. The air was sharp and cold, for all that overhead
+was spread a cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured down
+its light upon the wide expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness so
+dazzling as to be hurtful to the sight.
+
+Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that following
+company as if I had been unconscious of its existence. But now that
+we paused, their fat, white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo,
+approached me and sought to draw me into conversation. I yielded readily
+enough, for I scented a mystery about that closely-curtained litter,
+and mysteries are ever provoking to such a mind as mine. For all that
+it might profit me naught to learn who rode there, and why with all
+this haste, yet these were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity was
+aroused.
+
+"Are you journeying beyond Cagli?" I asked him presently, in an idle
+tone.
+
+He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes
+confirming the existence of the mystery I scented.
+
+"Yes," he answered, after a pause. "We hope to reach Urbino before
+night. And you? Are you journeying far?"
+
+"That far, at least," I answered him, emulating the caution he had
+shown.
+
+And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the
+litter were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and so
+far was the vision different from that which--for no reason that I can
+give--I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. A
+lady--a very child, indeed--had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any of
+those grooms could offer her assistance.
+
+She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and
+to one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine
+beauty it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that
+writer's catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shape
+and stature, despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicately
+featured and of an ivory pallor. Her eyes--blue as the heavens
+overhead--were not of the colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was
+her hair of the golden brown which that arbiter commends. Had Firenzuola
+seen her, it may well be that he had altered or modified his views. She
+was sumptuously arrayed in a loose-sleeved camorra of grey velvet that
+was heavy with costly furs; above the lenza of fine linen on her head
+gleamed the gold thread of a jewelled net, and at her waist a girdle of
+surpassing richness, all set with gems, glowed like a thing of fire in
+the bright sunshine.
+
+She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked
+about her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached us
+across the gleaming snow.
+
+"Is this," she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfect
+match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, "the traveller who so
+kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?"
+
+Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
+
+"I am in your debt, sir," she protested, with an odd earnestness. "You
+do not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any time
+Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, you
+shall find me very willing."
+
+White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of her
+identity.
+
+I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I hated
+the very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
+
+"Madonna, you overrate my service. It so chanced that I was travelling
+this way."
+
+She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reason
+of my churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not see
+the motley worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her. No doubt
+she accounted me a clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and so she
+turned away, telling Giacopo that as soon as the horses were breathed
+they might push on.
+
+"We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna," answered he, "if they are to
+carry us as far as Cagli. Heaven send that we may obtain fresh cattle
+there, else is all lost."
+
+Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
+
+"You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there any
+for those others." And she waved her hand towards the valley below
+and the road by which we had come. From this and from what was said
+I gathered that they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at their
+heels.
+
+"They have a warrant which we have not," was Giacopo's answer, gloomily
+delivered, "and they will seize cattle where they can find it."
+
+With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the peril
+that aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
+
+"Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir stranger,"
+said Giacopo to me.
+
+I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Better the horse should die of cold than I," I answered gruffly, and
+turning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood that
+was chilling in my veins.
+
+There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me that
+compelled my glance. To some it might compare but ill with the luxuriant
+splendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a wondrously
+impressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse of snow,
+expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by virtue of
+that very lack of expression. From Fabriano, at our feet, was spread to
+the east, the broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the Masone, as
+far as Mount Comero, which, in the distance, lifted its round shoulder
+from the haze of sea. To the west the country lay under the same
+winding-sheet of snow as far as eye might range, to the towers of
+distant Perugia, to the Lake Trasimeno--a silver sheen that broke
+the white monotony--to Etruscan Cortona, perched like an eyrie on its
+mountain top, and to the line of Tuscan hills, like heavy, low-lying
+clouds upon the blue horizon.
+
+Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded by
+a volley of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to my
+companions. They stood grouped together, and their eyes were on the road
+by which we had scaled those heights. Their first expression of loud
+astonishment had been succeeded by an utter silence. I stepped forward
+to command a better view of what they contemplated, and in the plain
+below, midway between Narni and the slopes, a mile or so behind us, I
+caught a glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the sunshine. A company of
+some dozen men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the tracks we had
+left behind us in the snow. Could these be the pursuers?
+
+Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady's silvery voice,
+behind me, put it into words. She had drawn aside the curtains of her
+litter and she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points of
+brilliance.
+
+"Madonna," cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, "they are
+Borgia soldiers."
+
+"Your fear is father to that opinion," she answered scornfully. "How can
+you descry it at this distance?"
+
+Now, either God had given that knave an eagle's sight, or else, as she
+suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what
+he thought he saw.
+
+"The leader's bannerol bears the device of a red bull," he answered
+promptly.
+
+I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
+
+"In God's name, let us get forward, then!" cried Giacopo. "Orsu! To
+horse, knaves!"
+
+No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were in
+the saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule of
+the litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no more
+ceremony than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no ado. A
+chase is an interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if a
+greater safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener excitement with
+the hunted.
+
+Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at
+a pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace
+us from any party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to the
+unreasoning minds of those poltroons, and so from the danger behind us
+we fled, and courted a more deadly and certain peril in the fleeing.
+At first I sought to remonstrate with Giacopo; but he was deaf to the
+wisdom that I spoke. He turned upon me a face which terror had rendered
+whiter than its natural habit, white as the egg of a duck, with a hint
+of blue or green behind it. I had, besides, an ugly impression of teeth
+and eyeballs.
+
+"Death is behind us, sir," he snarled. "Let us get on."
+
+"Death is more assuredly before you," I answered grimly. "If you will
+court it, go your way. As for me, I am over-young to break my neck
+and be left on the mountain-side to fatten crows. I shall follow at my
+leisure."
+
+"Gesu!" he cried, through chattering teeth. "Are you a coward, then?"
+
+The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it
+was; but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no
+more than provoke my mirth.
+
+"Come on, then, valiant runagate," I laughed at him.
+
+And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yard
+of moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than these
+rational animals that bestrode them. Twice did it chance that a man was
+flung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have been
+uttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching the
+plain with never so much as a broken bone.
+
+Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.
+The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the
+descent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than an
+amble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
+
+At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo. His head was ever
+turned to look behind--unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyes
+were ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to behold
+the flash of the pursuers' steel. The end soon followed. He drew rein
+and called a halt, sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived of
+wit--which is to pay him the compliment of supposing that he ever had
+wit to be deprived of.
+
+Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola's head appeared,
+her voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
+
+Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
+
+"Madonna, our horses are done. It is useless to go farther."
+
+"Useless?" she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could ring
+the voice that I had heard so gentle. "Of what do you talk, you knave?
+Ride on at once."
+
+"It is vain to ride on," he answered obdurately, insolence rising in his
+voice. "Another half-league--another league at most, and we are taken."
+
+"Cagli is less than a league distant," she reminded him. "Once there, we
+can obtain fresh horses. You will not fail me now, Giacopo!"
+
+"There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli," he reminded her, "and,
+meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri." And he pointed
+to the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
+
+She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
+
+"You will stand by me, my friends," she cried. "Giacopo, here, is a
+coward; but you are better men." They stirred, and one of them was
+momentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
+
+"We will go with you, Madonna," he exclaimed. "Let Giacopo remain
+behind, if so he will."
+
+But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nor
+tolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
+
+"You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!" he exclaimed,
+"as caught you will be, and within the hour. If you would save your
+necks, stay here and make surrender."
+
+His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonna
+leapt from the litter, the better to confront them. The corners of
+her sensitive little mouth were quivering now with the emotion that
+possessed her, and on her eyes there was a film of tears.
+
+"You cowards!" she blazed at them, "you hinds, that lack the spirit even
+to run! Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you could
+not show yourselves more palsied. I was a fool," she sobbed, stamping
+her foot so that the snow squelched under it. "I was a fool to entrust
+myself to you."
+
+"Madonna," answered one of them, "if flight could still avail us, you
+should not find us stubborn. But it were useless. I tell you again,
+Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were but
+a half-league behind. Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and we
+shall be seen."
+
+"Fool!" she cried, "a half-league behind, you say; and you forget that
+we were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it. If you but press
+on we shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.
+Besides, Giacopo," she added, turning again to the leader, "you may be
+at fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting
+them our pursuers."
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
+
+"Arnaldo, there, made no mistake. He told us what he saw."
+
+"Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!" she
+exclaimed, between grief and anger.
+
+I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved. I
+have said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tender
+child to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compass
+of that hatred? I had inferred that her pursuers were of the House of
+Borgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I might
+prove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to serve
+her in this extremity. And to be of service to her, her winsome beauty
+had already inflamed me. For there was I know not what about this child
+that seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me that there
+and then I would have risked my life in her good service. Oh, you may
+laugh who read. Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed myself, I
+think, at the heroics to which I was yielding--I, the Fool, most base of
+lacqueys--over a damsel of the noble House of Santafior. It was shame of
+my motley, maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about me
+as I urged forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
+
+"Lady," said I bluntly and without preamble, "can I assist you? I have
+inferred your case from what I have overheard."
+
+All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise--hers no less than her
+grooms'.
+
+"What can you do alone, sir?" she asked, her gentle glance upraised to
+mine.
+
+"If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I
+may do something."
+
+"They are," she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,
+investing her tones.
+
+It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a
+stranger into her confidence. Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in
+which she found herself. Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies
+hot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, or
+to despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem. With both
+hands she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of her
+despair.
+
+"Sir," she cried, "if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you could
+not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but know
+the details of my sorry circumstance."
+
+"That power, Madonna, it may be that I have," said I, and at those words
+of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest. They
+leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a sudden
+hopeful. "And," I continued, "if you will have utter faith in me, I see
+a way to render doubly certain your escape."
+
+She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured
+her that I promised no more than I could accomplish. For the rest she
+had to choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
+
+"Sir," said she, "I do not know you, nor why you should interest
+yourself in the concerns of a desolated woman. But, Heaven knows, I am
+in no case to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I doubt
+the good faith that moves you. Let me hear, sir, how you would propose
+to serve me."
+
+"Whence are you?" I inquired.
+
+"From Rome," she informed me without hesitation, "to seek at my cousin's
+Court of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the Borgia family is
+submitting me."
+
+At her cousin's Court of Pesaro! An odd coincidence, this--and while I
+was pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I might
+assist myself. Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serve
+her, I had it now.
+
+"Yet," said I, surprise investing my voice, "at Pesaro there is Madonna
+Lucrezia of that same House of Borgia."
+
+She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
+
+"Madonna Lucrezia is my friend," said she; "as sweet and gentle a
+friend as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her own
+family."
+
+Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned to
+what was of more immediate interest.
+
+"And you fled," said I, "with these?" And I indicated her attendants.
+"Not content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you in the snow, you
+have had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of Santafior.
+So that by asking a few questions any that were so inclined might follow
+you with ease."
+
+She opened wide her eyes at that. Oftentimes have I observed that it
+needs a fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of this
+world. I leapt from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, the
+bridle on my arm.
+
+"Listen now, Madonna. If you would make good your escape it first
+imports that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort. Separate
+from it for a little while. Take you my horse--it is a very gentle
+beast, and it wilt carry you with safety--and ride on, alone, to Cagli."
+
+"Alone?" quoth she, in some surprise.
+
+"Why, yes," I answered gruffly. "What of that? At the Inn of 'The Full
+Moon' ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escort
+there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection. She
+is a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend you
+readily. But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs."
+
+"And then?" she inquired eagerly.
+
+"Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning,
+for these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your
+journey."
+
+"But we--" began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him short.
+
+"You four," said I, "shall escort me--for I shall replace Madonna in
+the litter--you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus shall we draw the
+pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape."
+
+They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they
+would lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments to
+persuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us all
+from harm.
+
+"Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with
+you? Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sake
+of a lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?"
+
+It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have
+had with the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.
+
+"This escutcheon," said I, "is the shield that shall stand between us
+and danger from any of the house that bears these arms."
+
+Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey
+me--the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to
+their present situation. In danger they already stood from those that
+followed as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying
+one who was armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape
+that danger. But even as I was convincing them, by the same arguments
+was I sowing doubts in the lady's subtler mind.
+
+"You are attached to that house?" quoth she, in accents of mistrust.
+She wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering was
+there treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to
+justify suspicion.
+
+"Madonna," said I, "if you would save yourself I implore that you will
+trust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights,
+and then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you but
+this: Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done
+better than to have left you with your grooms?"
+
+Her face lighted. A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
+
+"I should have thought of that," said she. And what more she would have
+added I put off by urging her to mount.
+
+Sitting the man's saddle as best she might--well enough, indeed, to
+fill us all with surprise and admiration--she took her leave of me with
+pretty words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
+
+"You have but to follow the road," said I, "and it will bring you
+straight to Cagli. The distance is a short league, and you should come
+there safely. Farewell, Madonna!"
+
+"May I not know," she asked at parting, "the name of him that has so
+generously befriended me?"
+
+I hesitated a second. Then--"They call me Boccadoro," answered I.
+
+"If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are you
+well-named," said she. Then, gathering her mantle about her, and waving
+me farewell, she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardly
+hinds who had failed her in the hour of her need.
+
+A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine; then
+stepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
+
+"Now, rogues," said I to the escort, "strike me that road to Fabriano."
+
+"I know you not, sir," protested Giacopo. "But this I know--that if
+you intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for your
+pains."
+
+"Fool!" I scorned him, "since when has it been worth the while of any
+man to betray such creatures as are you? Plague me no more! Be moving,
+else I leave you to your coward's fate."
+
+It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality.
+It quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of those
+knaves had caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter moved
+forward, whilst Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a pace
+as their weary horses would yield. In this guise we took the road south,
+in the direction opposite to that travelled by the lady. As we rode, I
+summoned Giacopo to my side.
+
+"Take your daggers," I bade him, "and rip me that blazon from your
+coats. See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the House
+of Santafior, or all is lost. It is a precaution you would have taken
+earlier if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper."
+
+He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of my
+comment on his wit. For the rest, they did my bidding there and then.
+
+Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, I
+drew the curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up to
+pondering the manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when they
+overtook me. From that I passed on to the contemplation of the position
+in which I found myself, and the thing that I had done. And the
+proportions of the jest that I was perpetrating afforded me no little
+amusement. It was a burla not unworthy the peerless gifts of Boccadoro,
+and a fitting one on which to close his wild career of folly. For had I
+not vowed that Boccadoro I would be no more once the errand on which I
+travelled was accomplished? By Cesare Borgia's grace I looked to--
+
+A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and the
+realisation that in the last few moments we had increased our pace. I
+put out my head.
+
+"Giacopo!" I shouted. He was at my side in an instant. "Why are we
+galloping?"
+
+"They are behind," he answered, and fear was again overspreading his fat
+face. "We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last hill."
+
+"You caught a glimpse of whom?" quoth I.
+
+"Why, of the Borgia soldiers."
+
+"Animal," I answered him, "what have we to do with them? They may have
+mistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit. But since we
+are not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonable
+speed. We do not wish to have the air of fugitives."
+
+He understood me, and I was obeyed. For a half-hour we rode at a more
+gentle pace. That was about the time they took to come up with us, still
+a league or so from Fabriano. We heard their cantering hoofs crushing
+the snow, and then a loud imperious voice shouting to us a command
+to stay. Instantly we brought up in unconcerned obedience, and they
+thundered alongside with cries of triumph at having run their prey to
+earth.
+
+I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtains
+with a jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt. Whom my
+appearance astounded the more--whether the lacqueys of Santafior, or
+the Borgia men-at-arms that now encircled us--I cannot guess. But in the
+crowd of faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look of
+deep amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+
+The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twenty
+men-at-arms, whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del'
+Orca--that same mountain of a man who had attended my departure from
+the Vatican three nights ago. From the circumstance that so important
+a personage should have been charged with the pursuit of the Lady of
+Santafior, I inferred that great issues were at stake.
+
+He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered the
+bannerol bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality to
+Madonna's servants.
+
+At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for a
+little season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
+
+"Sainted Host!" he roared at last. "What trickery may this be?" And
+sidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my litter.
+
+Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold me
+reclining there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots,
+and my motley garb of red and black and yellow all revealed. I believe
+their astonishment by far surpassed the Captain's own.
+
+"You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro," I greeted him. Then, seeing that
+he only stared, and made no shift to speak: "Maybe," quoth I, "you'll
+explain why you detain me. I am in haste."
+
+"Explain?" he thundered. "Sangue di Cristo! The burden of explaining
+lies with you. What make you here?"
+
+"Why," answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, "I am about the
+business of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master."
+
+"Davvero?" he jeered. He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by the
+collar of my doublet. "Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there will
+be a fool the less in the world."
+
+"Indeed, the world might spare more."
+
+He scowled at my pleasantry. To him, apparently, the situation afforded
+no scope for philosophical reflections.
+
+"Where is the girl?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"Girl?" quoth I. "What girl? Am I a mother-abbess, that you should set
+me such a question?"
+
+Two dark lines showed between his brows. His voice quivered with
+passion.
+
+"I ask you again--where is the girl?"
+
+I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment provided
+for him.
+
+"Here be no girls, Messer del' Orca," I answered him in the same tone.
+"Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends."
+
+My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained the
+expression of it, whispered a doubt into his mind. He released me, and
+turned upon his men, a baffled look in his eyes.
+
+"Was not this the party?" he inquired ferociously. "Have you misled me,
+beasts?
+
+"It seemed the party, Illustrious," answered one of them.
+
+"Do you dare tell me that 'it seemed'?" he roared, seeking to father
+upon them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had made.
+"But--What is the livery of these knaves?
+
+"They wear none," someone answered him, and at that answer he seemed to
+turn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
+
+Then he bridled afresh.
+
+"Yet the party, I'll swear, is this!" he insisted; and turning once more
+to me: "Explain, animal!" he bade me in terrifying tones. "Explain, or,
+by the Host! be you ignorant or not, I'll have you hanged."
+
+I accounted it high time to take another tone with him. Hanging was a
+discomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
+
+"Draw nearer, fool," said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, so
+greatly did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
+
+"I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir captain,"
+I pursued. "But this I know--that if you persist in hindering me, or
+commit the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will answer for
+it, hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
+
+"I am going upon a secret mission"--and here I sank my voice to a
+whisper for his ears alone--"in the service of the house that hires you,
+as for yourself you might easily have inferred. Behold." And I revealed
+my ring. "Detain me longer at your peril."
+
+He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in Cesare
+Borgia's service, and this coupled with the sight of that talisman
+effected in his manner a swift and wholesome change. Had I, arrayed in
+the panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory could not
+have been more complete.
+
+He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenly
+to the four winds of Heaven.
+
+"But this litter," he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me, "and
+these four knaves--?"
+
+"Tell me," I questioned, with sudden earnestness, "are you in quest of
+just such a party?"
+
+"Aye that I am," he answered sharply, intelligence returning to his
+glance, inquiry burning in it.
+
+"And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House of
+Santafior?"
+
+His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
+
+"Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time. Such a
+party passed us at the gallop about an hour ago. It would be an hour,
+would it not, Giacopo?"
+
+"I should say an hour," answered the lacquey dully.
+
+"In what direction?" came Ramiro's frenzied question. He doubted me no
+longer.
+
+"In the direction of Fabriano I should say," I answered. "Although it
+may well be that they were making for Sinigaglia. The road branches
+farther on."
+
+He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the priceless
+information I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse
+command to his followers. A moment later and they were cantering past
+us, the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last of
+them had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only indication
+of the halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown where their
+horses had crushed the snow.
+
+I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozening
+of Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so much
+relief and relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on the cushions
+of my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughter
+which was interrupted ere it was half done by Giacopo, who had
+dismounted and approached me.
+
+"You have fooled us finely," said he, with venom.
+
+I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he, and
+were his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the man
+who had saved them?
+
+"You have fooled us finely," he insisted in a louder voice.
+
+"That, knave, is my trade," said I. "But it rather seems to me that it
+was Messer Ramiro del' Orca whom I fooled."
+
+"Aye," he answered querulously. "But what when he discerns how you have
+played upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you have
+thrown him off the scent? What when he returns?"
+
+"Spare me," I begged, "I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture."
+
+"Nay, but you shall answer me," he cried, livid with a passion that my
+bantering tone had quickened.
+
+"Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
+returns?" I questioned meekly.
+
+"I am," he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
+
+"It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that
+actuates you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn."
+
+"That will not I," he vowed.
+
+"Nor I, nor I, nor I!" chorused his followers.
+
+"Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it of
+ours how Messer del' Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.
+Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for Cagli. Seek her
+at the sign of 'The Full Moon,' and then away for Pesaro. If you are
+brisk you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza's fortress
+long before Messer del' Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, he
+ever does so."
+
+Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornful
+mirth of him.
+
+"By my faith, I'm done with the business," he cried, and the other three
+expressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
+
+"How done with it?" I asked.
+
+"I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps to
+Rome. I'll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool."
+
+"If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself," said I, with
+unmeasured scorn, "you'll risk it for the greatest fool and the
+cowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man. And your mistress?
+Is she to wait at Cagli until doomsday? If anywhere within the bulk of
+that elephant's body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you'll get you
+to horse and ride to the help of that poor lady."
+
+They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly. Messer
+Giacopo went the length of raising his hand to me. But I am a man of
+amazing strength--amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do not
+have the air of it. Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught that
+miserable vassal by the breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice,
+then tossed him headlong into a drift of snow by the roadside.
+
+At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me. But I flung
+myself on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the stout
+Pistoja dagger that I carried, I presented with it a bold and truculent
+front, no whit intimidated by their numbers. Four to one though they
+were, they thought better of it. A moment they stood off, consulting
+among themselves; then Giacopo mounted, and with some mocking counsel as
+to how I should dispose of the litter and the mules, they made off, no
+doubt, to find their way back to Rome. Giacopo, as I was afterwards to
+discover, was Madonna Paola's purse-bearer, so that they would not lack
+for means.
+
+Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens that
+they were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli,
+and who would await them in vain. There, on the mule, I sat in the
+noontide sunlight, and pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as to
+have grown forgetful of my own. At last I resolved to ride on to Cagli
+alone, and inform her that her men were fled.
+
+There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramiro
+del' Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, and
+return hot-foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means as
+I had no stomach for enduring.
+
+First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving
+no sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I
+had tricked him. Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.
+Slowly, then, did I consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way back
+to Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser
+Ramiro would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up the
+trail. I remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my mule
+back to that as fast as it would travel with the litter and the other
+mule attached to it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on the
+very edge of that shallow precipice. Then exerting all my strength, I
+contrived to roll the litter over. Down that steep incline it went, over
+and over, gathering more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinking
+at last into the drift at the bottom. There were signs enough to show
+its presence, but those signs would hardly be read by any but the
+sharpest eyes, or by such as might be looking for it in precisely such
+a position. I must trust to luck that it escaped the notice of Messer
+Ramiro. But even if he did discover it, I did not think that it would
+tell him overmuch.
+
+That done I resumed my hat and cloak--which I had retained--mounted once
+more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as might
+be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That distance
+covered, again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I stripped one
+of the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind a
+hedge, then I drove the beast loose into a field. The peasant-owner of
+that land might conclude upon the morrow that it had rained asses in the
+night.
+
+And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I
+had passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of
+the four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.
+Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at
+their cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on towards
+Cagli. It was a short league farther, and in little more than half an
+hour, my mule half-dead, I halted at the door of "The Full Moon."
+
+Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my
+cloak, and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed all
+Cagli had seemed when I rode up. She came forward--a woman with a brown,
+full face, and large kindly eyes--and I asked her whether a lady had
+arrived there in safety that morning. At first she seemed mistrustful,
+but when I had assured her that I was in that lady's service, she
+frankly owned that Madonna was safe in her own room. Thither I allowed
+her to lead me, at once eager and reluctant. Eager with my own eyes to
+assure myself of her perfect safety; reluctant that, since a man may not
+penetrate to a lady's chamber hat on head, by uncovering I must disclose
+my shameful trade. Yet there was nothing for it but a bold face, and
+as I mounted the stairs in the woman's wake, I told myself that I was
+doubly a fool to be tormented by qualms of such a nature.
+
+Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna's room. The lady rose
+from the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyes
+wearing an anxious look. At sight of my head crowned with the crested,
+horned hood of folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together,
+and she looked more closely to see whether I was indeed the man who had
+befriended her that morning in her extremity. In the eyes of the hostess
+I caught a gleam of recognition. She knew me for the merry loon who had
+entertained her guests one night a fortnight since, when on my way from
+Pesaro to Rome. But before she could give expression to this discovery
+of hers, the lady spoke.
+
+"Leave us awhile, my woman," she commanded. But I stayed the hostess as
+she was withdrawing.
+
+"This lady," said I, "will need an escort of three or four stout knaves
+upon a journey that she is going. She will be setting out as soon as may
+be."
+
+"But what of my grooms?" cried the lady.
+
+"Madonna," I informed her, "they have deserted you. That is the
+reason of my presence here. You shall hear the story of it presently.
+Meanwhile, we must arrange to replace them." And I turned again to the
+hostess.
+
+She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face. But as I
+looked at her she shook her head.
+
+"There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli," she made answer.
+"The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on the
+pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for the
+Feast of the Epiphany."
+
+It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surely
+be found. She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there because
+they would not be elsewhere.
+
+The lady's face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence she
+shrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
+
+"There is your ostler," quoth I at last. "He will do for one."
+
+"He is the only man I have. My husband and my sons are gone to Pesaro."
+
+"Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services."
+
+But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she was
+well-advised, for she contended that there was work to be done such as
+was beyond her years and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off,
+as well might she close her inn--a thing that was impossible.
+
+Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned. It was
+impossible to send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of some
+ten leagues, and the most of it by night--for if she would make sure of
+escaping, she must journey now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
+
+And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, ready
+to my hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despite
+my banishment, and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia. For, surely,
+considering the mission on which ostensibly I should be returning--as
+the saviour and protector of his kinswoman--Giovanni Sforza could not
+enforce that ban against me. Next I bethought me of the other aspect
+that the business wore. In fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgia
+ends; in rescuing Madonna Paola I had perhaps set at naught the Cardinal
+of Valencia's aims. If so, what then? It would seem that because the
+lady's eyes were mild and sweet, and because her beauty had so deeply
+wrought upon me, I had indeed fooled away my chance of salvation from
+the life and trade that were grown hateful to me. For back to Rome and
+Cesare Borgia I should dare go no more. Clearly I had burned my boats,
+and I had done it almost unthinkingly, acting upon the good impulse to
+befriend this lady, and never reckoning the cost down to its total. For
+all that the thing I had done, and what I might yet do, should offer me
+the means I needed to enter Pesaro without danger to my neck, I did not
+see that I was to derive great profit in the end--unless my profit lay
+in knowing that I had advanced the ruin of Giovanni Sforza by delivering
+my letter to Lucrezia. That at any rate was enough incentive clearly to
+define for me the line that I should take through this tangle into which
+the ever-jesting Fates had thrust me.
+
+I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexing
+situation, the hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenly
+Madonna Paola spoke.
+
+"Sir," said she, in faltering accents, "I--I have not the right to ask
+you, and I stand already so deeply in your debt. Not a doubt of it, but
+it will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to inform
+me of the flight of my grooms. Yet if you could--" She paused, timid of
+proceeding, and her glance fell.
+
+The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which this
+very evidently noble lady addressed a Fool. I opened the door for her.
+
+"You may leave us now," said I. "I will come to you presently."
+
+When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolved
+upon. My hate had conquered my last doubt. What first imported was that
+I should get to Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
+
+"You were about to ask me," said I, "that I should accompany you to
+Pesaro."
+
+"I hesitated, sir," she murmured. I bowed respectfully.
+
+"There was not the need, Madonna," I assured her. "I am at your
+service."
+
+"But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you."
+
+"Surely," said I, "the claim that every distressed lady has upon a man
+of heart. Let us say no more. It were best not to delay in setting out,
+although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger from
+Ramiro del' Orca now."
+
+"Who is he?" she inquired.
+
+"I told her, whereupon--"
+
+"Did they come up with you?" she asked. "What passed between you?"
+
+Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on a
+fool's errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, and
+of how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule. She heard me,
+her eyes sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee that
+was almost childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was brave. I
+allayed what little fears remained her by pointing out how effectively
+we had effaced our tracks, and how vainly now Messer del' Orca might
+beat the country in quest of a lady in a litter, escorted by four
+grooms.
+
+And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonder
+at my generous readiness to befriend her--a wonder all devoid of
+suspicion touching the single-mindedness of my purpose. But I reminded
+her that we had little leisure to stand talking, and left her to make
+her preparations for the journey, whilst I went below to see that my
+mule and her horse were saddled. I made bold to pay the reckoning, and
+when presently she spoke of it, with flaming cheeks, and would have
+pledged me a jewel, I bade her look upon it as a loan which anon she
+might repay me when I had brought her safely to her kinsman's Court at
+Pesaro.
+
+Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side by
+side and talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of her
+flight and of her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest to
+her heart, found readiest expression. I went wrapped in my cloak once
+more, my head-dress hidden 'neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that the few
+wayfarers we chanced on need not marvel to see a lady in such friendly
+intercourse with a Fool. And so dull was I that day as not to marvel,
+myself, at such a state of things.
+
+The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on our
+left, casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere encompassed
+us, as we cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
+
+In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping that
+Messer Ramiro del' Orca might not chance upon the discovery of how
+egregiously I had fooled him. He was dull-witted and slow at inference,
+and upon that I built the hope that he might fail to associate me with
+Madonna Paola's elusion of his pursuit. Thus the chance might yet be
+mine of returning to Rome and the honourable employment Cesare Borgia
+had promised me. If only that were so to fall out, I might yet contrive
+to mend the wreckage of my life. I was returned, it seems, to the
+ways of early youth, when we build our hopes of future greatness upon
+untenable foundations!
+
+Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that January
+evening, fired by the gentle child that rode beside me. Fate had sent
+me to her aid that day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of that
+circumstance, a certain right in her. Had Fate no other favours for me
+in her lap! I bethought me of the very House of Sforza, to which I had
+been so shamefully attached, and of its humble source in that peasant,
+Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for his abnormal strength of body,
+who rose to great and princely heights.
+
+Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance but
+given me--
+
+I went no further. Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wild
+musings. Cesare Borgia would come to know--he must, whether Ramiro told
+him, or whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro must
+give him of our meeting--how I had thwarted him in one thing, whilst I
+had served him in another. Fate was against me. I had fallen too low to
+ever rise again, and no dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and inspired,
+perhaps, by a child who was beautiful as one of the saints of God, would
+ever come to be realised by poor Boccadoro.
+
+Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets of
+Fossombrone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+
+
+We stayed in Fossombrone little more than a half-hour, and having made a
+hasty supper we resumed our way, giving out that we wished to reach Fano
+ere we slept. And so by the first hour of night Fossombrone was a league
+or so behind us, and we were advancing briskly towards the sea. Overhead
+a moon rode at the full in a clear sky, and its light was reflected by
+the snow, so that we were not discomforted by any darkness. We fell,
+presently, into a gentler pace, for, after all, there could be no
+advantage in reaching Pesaro before morning, and as we rode we talked,
+and I made bold to ask her the cause of her flight from Rome.
+
+She told me then that she was Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, and
+that Pope Alexander, in his nepotism and his desire to make rich and
+powerful alliances for his family, had settled upon her as the wife for
+his nephew, Ignacio Borgia. He had been emboldened to this step by the
+fact that her only protector was her brother, Filippo di Santafior, whom
+they had sought to coerce. It was her brother, who, seeing himself in a
+dangerous and unenviable position, had secretly suggested flight to
+her, urging her to repair to her kinsman Giovanni Sforza at Pesaro. Her
+flight, however, must have been speedily discovered and the Borgias, who
+saw in that act a defiance of their supreme authority, had ordered her
+pursuit.
+
+But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her
+capture, and once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they
+would have driven her into the alliance by means of which they sought
+to bring her fortune into their own house. This drew her into fresh
+protestations of the undying gratitude she entertained towards me,
+protestations which I would have stemmed, but that she persisted in
+them.
+
+"It is a good and noble thing that you have done," said she, "and I
+think that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is scarce
+likely that in all Italy I should have found another man who would have
+done so much."
+
+"Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done?" I cried. "It is
+no less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would have
+done seeing you so beset."
+
+"Nay, that is more than I can ever think," she answered. "Who for the
+sake of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have
+you? Who would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the
+defection of my grooms? Who, when other escort failed, would have gone
+the length of journeying all this way to render a service that is beyond
+repayment? And, above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid would
+have submitted to this travesty of yours?"
+
+"Travesty?" quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last.
+"What travesty, Madonna?"
+
+"Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my pursuers
+and that you still wear in my poor service."
+
+I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly
+saw her eyes meet mine. So! that was the reason of her kindness and
+of the easy familiarity of her speech with me! She deemed me some
+knight-errant who caracoled through Italy in quest of imperilled maidens
+needing aid. Of a certainty she had gathered her knowledge of the world
+from the works of Messer Bojardo, or perhaps from the "Amadis of Gaul"
+of Messer Bernardo Tasso. And, no doubt, she thought that suits of
+motley grew on bushes by the roadside, whence those who had a fancy for
+disguise might cull them.
+
+Well, well, it were better she should know the truth at once, and choose
+such a demeanour as she considered fitting towards a Fool. I had no
+stomach for the courtesies that were meant for such a man as I was not.
+
+"Madonna, you are in error," I informed her, speaking slowly. "This garb
+is no travesty. It is my usual raiment."
+
+There was a pause and I saw the slackening of her reins. No doubt, had
+we been afoot she would have halted, the better to confront me.
+
+"How?" she asked, and a new note, imperious and chill, was sounding
+already in her voice. "You would not have me understand that you are by
+trade a Fool?
+
+"Allowing that I am not a fool by birth, under what other circumstances,
+think you, I should be likely to wear the garments of a Fool?"
+
+"But this morning," she protested, after a brief pause, "when first I
+met you, you were not so arrayed."
+
+"I was arrayed even as I am now, in a cloak and hat and boots that
+hid my motley from such undiscerning eyes as were yours and your
+grooms'--all taken up with your own fears as you then were."
+
+There was in the tail of that a sting, as I meant there should be,
+for the sudden haughtiness of her tone was cutting into me. Was I less
+worthy of thanks because I was a Fool? Had I on that account done less
+to serve and save her? Or was it that the action which, in a spurred and
+armoured knight, had been accounted noble was deemed unworthy of
+thanks in a crested, motleyed jester? It seemed, indeed, that some such
+reasoning she followed, for after that we spoke no more until we were
+approaching Fano.
+
+A many times before had I felt the shame of my ignoble trade, but never
+so acutely as at that moment. It had seared my soul when Giovanni Sforza
+had told my story to his Court, ere he had driven me from Pesaro with
+threats of hanging, and it had burned even deeper when later, Madonna
+Lucrezia, upon entrusting me with her letter to her brother, had
+upbraided me with the supineness that so long had held me in that vile
+bondage. But deepest of all went now the burning iron of that disgrace.
+For my companion's silence seemed to argue that had she known my quality
+she would have scorned the aid of which she had availed herself to such
+good purpose. If any doubt of this had mercifully remained me, her next
+words would have served to have resolved it. It was when the lights of
+Fano gleamed ahead; we were coming to a cross-roads, and I urged the
+turning to the left.
+
+"But Fano is in front," she remonstrated coldly.
+
+"This way we can avoid the town and gain the Pesaro road beyond it,"
+answered I, my tone as cool as hers.
+
+"Yet may it not be that at Fano I might find an escort?"
+
+I could have cried out at her cruelty, for in her words I could but read
+my dismissal from her service. There had been no more talk of an escort
+other than that which I afforded, and with which at first she had been
+well content.
+
+I sat my mule in silence for a moment. She had been very justly served
+had I been the vassal that she deemed me, and had I borne myself in that
+character without consideration of her sex, her station or her years.
+She had been very justly served had I wheeled about and left her there
+to make her way to Fano, and thence to Pesaro, as best she might. She
+was without money, as I knew, and she would have found in Fano such a
+reception as would have brought the bitter tears of late repentance to
+her pretty eyes.
+
+But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner
+that was to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and
+the need to use me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might
+yet do, if she lacked the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake
+of that which I had done already.
+
+"Madonna," said I. "It were wiser to choose the by-road and forego the
+escort, since we have dispensed with it so far. There are many reasons
+why a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night."
+
+"I know of none," she interrupted me.
+
+"That may well be. Nevertheless they exist."
+
+"This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste," she
+told me sullenly. "I am for Fano."
+
+She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as
+plainly as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as
+I should choose. In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule's head
+once more towards the lights of the town.
+
+"Since you are resolved, so be it," was all my answer; and we proceeded.
+
+No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she
+curtly asked me which was the best inn.
+
+"'The Golden Fish,'" said I, as curtly, and to "The Golden Fish" we
+went.
+
+Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands. She
+dismounted, leaving the reins with a groom, and entering the common-room
+she proclaimed her needs to those that occupied it by loudly calling
+upon the landlord to find her an escort of three or four knaves to
+accompany her at once to Pesaro, where they should be well rewarded by
+the Lord Giovanni, her cousin.
+
+I had followed her in, and I ground my teeth at such an egregious piece
+of folly. Her hood was thrown back, displaying the lenza of fine linen
+on her sable hair, and over this a net of purest gold all set with
+jewels. Her camorra, too, was open, and in her girdle there were gems
+for all to see. There were but a half-dozen men in the room. Two of
+these had a venerable air--they may have been traders journeying to
+Milan--whilst a third, who sat apart, was a slender, effeminate-looking
+youth. The remaining three were fellows of rough aspect, and when one of
+them--a black-browed ruffian--raised his eyes and fastened them upon the
+riches that Madonna Paola with such indifference displayed, I knew what
+was to follow.
+
+He rose upon the instant, and stepping forward, he made her a low bow.
+
+"Illustrious lady," said he, "if these two friends of mine and I find
+favour with you, here is an escort ready found. We are stout fellows,
+and very faithful."
+
+Faithful to their cut-throat trade, I made no doubt he meant.
+
+His fellows now rose also, and she looked them over, giving herself the
+airs of having spent her virgin life in judging men by their appearance.
+It was in vain I tugged her cloak, in vain I murmured the word "wait"
+under cover of my hand. She there and then engaged them, and bade them
+make ready to set out at once. One more attempt I made to induce her to
+alter her resolve.
+
+"Madonna," said I, "it is an unwise thing to go a-journeying by night
+with three unknown men, and of such villainous appearance. To me they
+seem no better than bandits."
+
+We were standing apart from the others, and she was sipping a cup of
+spiced wine that the host had mulled for her. She looked at me with a
+tolerant smile.
+
+"They are poor men," said she. "Would you have them robed in velvet?"
+
+"My quarrel is with their looks, Madonna, not their garments," I
+answered patiently. She laughed lightly, carelessly; even, I thought, a
+trifle scornfully.
+
+"You are very fanciful," said she, then added--"but if so be that you
+are afraid to trust yourself in their company, why then, sir, I need
+bring you no farther out of the road that you were following when first
+we met."
+
+Did the child think that some jealousy actuated me, and prompted me to
+inspire her with mistrust of my supplanters? She angered me. Yet now,
+more than ever was I resolved to journey with her. Leave her at the
+mercy of those ruffians, whom in her ignorance she was mad enough to
+trust, I could not--not even had she whipped me. She was so young, so
+frail and slight, that none but a craven could have found it in his
+heart to have deserted her just then.
+
+"If it please you Madonna," I answered smoothly, "I will make bold to
+travel on with you."
+
+It may be that my even accents stung her; perhaps she read in them some
+measure of reproof of the ingratitude that lay in her altered bearing
+towards me. Her eyes met mine across the table, and seemed to harden as
+she looked. Her answer came in a vastly altered tone.
+
+"Why, if you are bent that way, I shall be glad to have you avail
+yourself of my escort, Boccadoro."
+
+I had suffered the scorn now of her speech, now of her silence, for
+some hours, but never was I so near to turning on her as at that moment;
+never so near to consigning her to the fate to which her headstrong
+folly was compelling her. That she should take that tone with me!
+
+The violence of the sudden choler I suppressed turned me pale under her
+steady glance. So that, seeing it, her own cheeks flamed crimson, and
+her eyes fell, as if in token that she realised the meanness of her
+bearing. To some natures there can be nothing more odious than such a
+realisation, and of those, I think, was she; for she stamped her foot
+in a sudden pet, and curtly asked the host why there was such delay with
+the horses.
+
+"They are at the door, Madonna," he protested, bowing as he spoke. "And
+your escort is already waiting in the saddle."
+
+She turned and strode abruptly towards the threshold. Over her shoulder
+she called to me:
+
+"If you come with us, Boccadoro, you had best be brisk."
+
+"I follow, Madonna," said I, with a grim relish, "so soon as I have paid
+the reckoning."
+
+She halted and half turned, and I thought I saw a slight droop at the
+corners of her mouth.
+
+"You are keeping count of what I owe you?" she muttered.
+
+"Aye, Madonna," I answered, more grimly still, "I am keeping count." And
+I thought that my wits were vastly at fault if that account were not to
+be greatly swelled ere Pesaro was reached. Haply, indeed, my own life
+might go to swell it. I almost took a relish in that thought. Perhaps
+then, when I was stiff and cold--done to death in her service--this
+handsome, ungrateful child would come to see how much discomfort I had
+suffered for her sake.
+
+My thoughts still ran in that channel as we rode out of Pesaro, for I
+misliked the way in which those knaves disposed themselves about us.
+In front went Madonna Paola; and immediately behind her, so that their
+horses' heads were on a level with her saddle-bow, one on each side,
+went two of those ruffians. The third, whom I had heard them call
+Stefano, and who was the one who had made her the offer of their
+services, ambled at my side, a few paces in the rear, and sought to draw
+me into conversation, haply by way of throwing me off my guard.
+
+Mistrust is a fine thing at times. "Forewarned is forearmed," says the
+proverb, and of all forewarnings there is none we are more likely
+to heed than our own mistrust; for whereas we may leave unheeded the
+warnings of a friend, we seldom leave unheeded the warnings of our
+spirit.
+
+And so, while my amiable and garrulous Ser Stefano engaged me in
+pleasant conversation--addressing me ever as Messer the Fool, since he
+knew me not by name--I wrapped my cloak about me, and under cover of it
+kept my fingers on the hilt of my stout Pistoja dagger, ready to draw
+and use it at the first sign of mischief. For that sign I was all
+eyes, and had I been Argus himself I could have kept no better watch.
+Meanwhile I plied my tongue and maintained as merry a conversation with
+Ser Stefano as you could wish to hear, for he seemed a ready-witted
+knave of a most humorous turn of fancy--God rest his rascally soul! And
+so it came to pass that I did by him the very thing he sought to do by
+me; I lulled him into a careless confidence.
+
+At last the sign I had been waiting for was given. I saw it as plainly
+as if it had been meant for me; I believe I saw it before the man for
+whom it was intended, and but for my fears concerning Madonna Paola, I
+could have laughed outright at their clumsy assurance. The man who rode
+on Madonna's right turned in his saddle and put up his hand as if to
+beckon Stefano. I was regaling him with one of the choicest of Messer
+Sacchetti's paradoxes, gurgling, myself, at the humour of the thing I
+told. I paid no heed to the sign. I continued to expound my quip, as
+though we had the night before us in which to make its elusive humour
+clear. But out of the tail of my eye I watched my good friend Stefano,
+and I saw his right hand steal round to the region of his back where
+I knew his dagger to be slung. Yet was I patient. There should be no
+blundering through an excessive precipitancy. I talked on until I saw
+that my suspicions were amply realised. I caught the cold gleam of steel
+in the hand that he brought back as stealthily as he had carried it to
+his poniard. Sant' Iddio! What a coward he was for all his bulk, to go
+so slyly about the business of stabbing a poor, helpless, defenceless
+Fool.
+
+"But Sacchetti makes his point clear," I babbled on, most blandly;
+"almost as clear, as comprehensive and as penetrating as should be to
+you the point of this." And with a swift movement I swung half-round in
+my saddle, and sank my dagger to the hilt in his side even as he was in
+the act of raising his.
+
+He made no sound beyond the faintest gurgle--the first vowel of a
+suddenly choked word of wonder and surprise. He rocked a second in his
+saddle, then crashed over, and lay with arms flung wide, like a huge
+black crucifix, upon the white ground. At the same moment a piercing
+scream broke from Madonna Paola.
+
+I tremble still to think what might have been her fate had not those
+ruffians who had laid hands on her fallen into the sorry error of
+holding their single adversary too lightly. They heard the thud of the
+gallant Stefano's fall, and they never doubted that mine was the body
+that had gone down. They heard the rapid hoof-beats of my approach, yet,
+they never turned their heads to ascertain whether they might not be
+mistaken in their firm conviction that it was Messer Stefano who was
+joining them.
+
+I kissed my blade for luck, and drove it straight and full into the back
+of the fellow on Madonna Paola's right. He cried out, essayed to turn
+in his saddle that he might deal with this unlooked-for assailant, then,
+overcome, he lurched forward on to the withers of his horse and thence
+rolled over, and was dragged away at the gallop, his foot caught in a
+stirrup, by the suddenly startled brute he rode.
+
+So far things had gone with an amazing and delightful ease. If only the
+last of them had had the amiability to be intimidated by my prowess and
+to have taken to his heels, I might have issued from that contest with
+the unscathed glory of a very Mars. But from his throat there came, in
+answer to his comrade's cry, a roar of rage. He fell back from Madonna,
+and wheeled his horse to come at me, drawing his sword as he advanced.
+
+"Ride on, Madonna," I shouted. "I will rejoin you presently."
+
+The fellow laughed, a mighty ugly and discomposing laugh, which may or
+may not have shaken her faith in my promise to rejoin her. It certainly
+went near to shaking mine. However, she displayed a presence of mind
+full worthy of the haughtiness and ingratitude of which she had showed
+herself capable. She urged her mule forward, and, so, left him a clear
+road to attack me. I made a mistake then that went mighty near to
+costing me my life. I paused to twist my cloak about my left arm
+intending to use it as a buckler. Had I but risked the arm itself, all
+unprotected, in that task, it may well be that it had served me better.
+As it was, my preparations were far from complete when already he was
+upon me, with the result that the waving slack of my cloak was in my way
+to hamper and retard the movements of my arm.
+
+His sword leapt at me, a murderous blue-white flash of moonlit steel.
+I put up my half-swaddled arm to divert the thrust, holding my dagger
+ready in my right, and gripping my mule with all the strength of my
+two knees. I caught the blade, it is true, and turned aside the stroke
+intended for my heart. But the slack of the cloak clung to the neck of
+my mule, so that I could not carry my arm far enough to send his point
+clear of my body. It took me in the shoulder, stinging me, first icy
+cold then burning hot, as it went tearing its way through. For just a
+second was I daunted, more at knowing myself touched than by the actual
+pain. Then I flung my whole body forward to reach him at the close
+quarters to which he had come, and I buried my dagger in his breast,
+high up at the base of his dirty throat.
+
+The force of the blow carried me forward, even as it bore him backward;
+and so, with his sword-blade in my shoulder, and my dagger where I had
+planted it, we hurtled over together and lay a second amidst what seemed
+a forest of equine legs. Then something smote me across the head, and I
+was knocked senseless.
+
+Conceive me, if you can, a sorrier, or more useless thing. A senseless
+Fool!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. FOOL'S LUCK
+
+
+My return to consciousness seemed to afford me such sensations as a
+diver may experience as he rises up and up through the depth of water
+he has plumbed--or as a disembodied soul may know in its gentle ascent
+towards Heaven. Indeed the latter parallel may be more apt. For through
+the mist that suffused my senses there penetrated from overhead a voice
+that seemed to invoke every saint in the calendar on the behalf of some
+poor mortal. A very litany of intercession was it, not quite, it would
+appear, devoid of self-seeking.
+
+"Sainted Virgin, restore him! Good St. Paul, who wert done to death with
+a sword, let him not perish, else am I lost indeed!" came the voice.
+
+I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes, whereat the voice cried out
+gladly that its intercessions had been heard, and I knew that it was on
+my behalf that the saints of Heaven had been disturbed in their beatific
+peace. My head was pillowed in a woman's lap, and it took me a moment or
+two to realise that that lap was Madonna Paula's, as was hers the voice
+that had reached my awakening senses, the voice that now welcomed me
+back to life in terms that were very different from the last that I
+could remember her having used towards me.
+
+"Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!" she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
+
+Her face was black with shadow, but in her voice I caught a hint of
+tears, and I wondered whether they were shed on my behalf or on her own.
+
+"I do!" I answered fervently. "Have you any notion of what hour it is?"
+
+"None," she sighed. "You have been so long unconscious that I was losing
+hope of ever hearing your voice again."
+
+I became aware of a dull ache on the right side of my head. I put up my
+hand, and withdrew it moist. She saw the action.
+
+"One of the horses must have struck you with its hoof after you fell,"
+she explained. "But I was more concerned for your other wound. I
+withdrew the sword with my own hands."
+
+That other wound she spoke of was now making itself felt as well. It was
+a gnawing, stinging pain in the region of my left shoulder, which
+seemed to turn me numb to the waist on that side of my body, and render
+powerless my arm. I questioned her touching my three adversaries, and
+she silently pointed to three black masses that lay some little distance
+from us in the snow.
+
+"Not all dead?" I cried.
+
+"I do not know," she answered, with a sob. "I have not dared go near
+them. They frighten me. Mother of Heaven, what a night of horror it
+has been! Oh, that I had taken your advice, Messer Boccacloro!" she
+exclaimed in a passion of self-reproach.
+
+I laughed, seeking to soften her distress.
+
+"To me it seems, that whether you would or not, you have been compelled
+to take it, after all. Those fellows lie there harmless enough, and I am
+still--as I urged that I should be--your only escort."
+
+"A nobler protector never woman had," she assured me, and I felt a hot
+pearl of moisture fail upon my brow.
+
+"You were wise, at least, to journey with a Fool," I answered her. "For
+fools are proverbially lucky folk, and to-night has proven me of all
+fools the luckiest. But, Madonna," I suggested, in a different tone,
+"should we not be better advised to attempt to resume, this interesting
+journey of ours? We do not seem to lack horses?"
+
+A couple of nags were standing by the road-side, together with our
+mules, and I was afterwards to learn that she, herself, it was had
+tethered them.
+
+"It must be yet some three leagues to Pesaro," I added, "and if we
+journey slowly, as I fear me that we must, we should arrive there soon
+after daybreak."
+
+"Do you think that you can stand?" she asked, a hopeful ring in her
+voice.
+
+"I might essay it," answered I, and I would have done so, there and
+then, but that she detained me.
+
+"First let me see to this hurt in your head," said she. "I have been
+bathing it with snow while you were unconscious."
+
+She gathered a fresh handful as she spoke, and, very tenderly she wiped
+away the blood. Then from her own head she took the fine linen lanza
+that she wore, and made a bandage--a bandage sweet with the faint
+fragrance of marsh-mallow--and bound it about my battered skull. When
+that was done she turned her attention to my shoulder. This was a more
+difficult matter, and all that we could do was to attempt to stanch the
+blood, which already had drenched my doublet on that side. To this end
+she passed a long scarf under my arm, and wound it several times about
+my shoulder.
+
+At last her gentle ministrations ended, I sought to rise. A dizziness
+assailed me scarce was I on my feet, and it is odds I had fallen back,
+but that she caught and steadied me.
+
+"Mother in Heaven! You are too weak to ride," she exclaimed. "You must
+not attempt it."
+
+"Nay, but I will," I answered, with more stoutness of tone than I felt
+of body, and notwithstanding that my knees were loosening under my
+weight. "It is a faintness that will pass."
+
+If ever man willed himself to conquer weakness, that did I then, and
+with some measure of success--or else it was that my faintness passed
+of itself. I drew away from her support, and straightening myself, I
+crossed to where the animals were tethered, staggering at first, but
+presently with a surer foot. She followed me, watching my steps with
+as much apprehension as a mother may feel when her first-born makes his
+earliest attempts at walking, and as ready to spring to my aid did I
+show signs of stumbling. But I kept up, and presently my senses seemed
+to clear, and I stepped out more surely.
+
+Awhile we stood discussing which of the animals we should take. It was
+my suggestion that we should ride the horses but she wisely contended
+that the mules would prove the more convenient if the slower. I agreed
+with her, and then, ere we set out, I went to see to my late opponents.
+One of them--Ser Stefano--was cold and stiff; the other two still lived,
+and from the nature of their wounds seemed likely to survive, if only
+they were not frozen to death before some good Samaritan came upon them.
+
+I knelt a moment to offer up a prayer for the repose of the soul of him
+that was dead, and I bound up the wounds of the living as best I could,
+to save them greater loss of blood. Indeed, had it lain in my power, I
+would have done more for them. But in what case was I to render further
+aid? After all, they had brought their fate upon themselves, and I doubt
+not they were paying a score that they had heaped up heavily in the
+past.
+
+I went back to the mules, and, despite my remonstrances, Madonna Paola
+insisted upon aiding me to mount, urging me to have a care of my wound,
+and to make no violent movement that should set it bleeding again. Then
+she mounted too, nimble as any boy that ever robbed an orchard, and we
+set out once more. And now it was a very contrite and humbled lady that
+rode with me, and one that was at no pains to dissemble her contrition,
+but, rather, could speak of nothing else.
+
+It moved me strangely to have her suing pardon from me, as though I had
+been her equal instead of the sometime jester of the Court of Pesaro,
+dismissed for an excessive pertness towards one with whom his master
+curried favour.
+
+And presently, as was perhaps but natural after all that she had
+witnessed, she fell to questioning me as to how it came to pass that
+one of such wit, resource and courage should follow the mean calling
+to which I had owned. In answer I told her without reservation the full
+story of my shame. It was a thing that I had ever most zealously kept
+hidden, as already I have shown.
+
+To be a Fool was evil enough in all truth; but to let men know that
+under my motley was buried the identity of a man patrician-born was
+something infinitely worse. For, however vile the trade of a Fool may
+be, it is not half so vile for a low-born clod who is too indolent or
+too sickly to do honest work as for one who has accepted it out of a
+half-cowardice and persevered in it through very sloth.
+
+Yet on that night and after all that had chanced, no matter how my
+cheeks might burn in the gloom as I rode beside her, I was glad for once
+to tell that ignominious story, glad that she should know what weight of
+circumstance had driven me to wear my hideous livery.
+
+But since my story dealt oddly with that Lord of Pesaro, the kinsman
+whose shelter she was now upon her way to seek, I must first assure
+myself that the candour to which I was disposed would not offend.
+
+"Does it happen, Madonna," I inquired, "that you are well acquainted
+with the Lord of Pesaro?"
+
+"Nay; I have never seen him," answered she. "When he was at Rome, a year
+ago in the service of the Pope, I was at my studies in the convent. His
+father was my father's cousin, so that my kinship is none so near. Why
+do you ask?"
+
+"Because my story deals with him, Madonna, and it is no pretty tale. Not
+such a narrative as I should choose wherewith to entertain you. Still,
+since you have asked for it, you shall hear it.
+
+"It was in the year that Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, celebrated his
+nuptials with the Lady Lucrezia Borgia--three years ago, therefore--that
+one morning there rode into the courtyard of his castle of Pesazo a
+tall and lean young man on a tall and lean old horse. He was garbed and
+harnessed after a fashion that proclaimed him half-knight, half-peasant,
+and caused the castle lacqueys to eye him with amusement and greet him
+with derision. Lacqueys are great arbiters of fashion.
+
+"In a loud, imperious voice this cockerel called for Giovanni, Lord
+of Pesaro, whereupon, resenting the insolence of his manner, the
+men-at-arms would have driven him out without more ado. But it chanced
+that from one of the windows of his stronghold the tyrant espied his
+odd visitor. He was in a mood that craved amusement, and marvelling what
+madman might be this, he made his way below and bade them stand back and
+let me speak--for I, Madonna, was that lean young man.
+
+"'Are you,' quoth I, 'the Lord of Pesaro?'
+
+"He answered me courteously that he was, whereupon I did my errand to
+him. I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.
+
+"'Your father,' said I, 'Costanzo of Pesaro, was a foul brigand, who
+robbed my father of his castle and lands of Biancomonte, leaving him
+to a needy and poverty-stricken old age. I am here to avenge upon your
+father's son my father's wrongs; I am here to redeem my castle and
+my lands. If so be that you are a true knight, you will take up the
+challenge that I fling you, and you will do battle with me, on horse or
+foot, and with whatsoever arms you shall decree, God defending him that
+has justice on his side.'
+
+"Knowing the world as I know it now, Madonna," I interpolated, "I
+realise the folly of that act of mine. But in those days my views
+belonged to a long departed age of chivalry, of which I had learnt from
+such books as came my way at Biancomonte, and which I believed was the
+life of to-day in the world of men. It was a thing which some tyrants
+would have had me broken on the wheel. But Giovanni Sforza never so much
+as manifested anger. There was a complacent smile on his white face and
+his fingers toyed carelessly with his beard.
+
+"I waited patiently, very haughty of mien and very fierce at heart, and
+when the amusement began to fade from his eyes, I begged that he would
+deliver me his answer.
+
+"'My answer,' quoth he, 'is that you get you back to the place from
+whence you came, and render thanks to God on your knees every morning of
+the life I am sparing you that Giovanni Sforza is more entertained than
+affronted by your frenzy.'
+
+"At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.
+
+"'Do you disdain me?' I questioned, choking with rage. He turned, with
+a shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his
+glove, and conduct him from the castle. Several that had stood at hand
+made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning
+fury that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me. They were
+many, I was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and
+dragging me from my horse.
+
+"They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then
+get me hanged without delay. Had he done that, the world being as it is,
+perhaps none could blame him. But he elected to spare my life, yet
+on such terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the
+consideration of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of
+Biancomonte whilst I went forth to seek my fortune--such was the tale
+I had told her. I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my
+death must have been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very
+want. The thought of that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in
+durance waiting for my end, and when the priest came, whom they had sent
+to shrive me, he found me weeping, which he took to argue a contrite
+heart. He bore the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of Pesaro came
+to visit me in consequence, and found me sorely changed from my furious
+mood of some hours earlier.
+
+"I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother's sake. If I
+feared death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to
+her."
+
+"At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my
+eyes and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had
+been my erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him. I told him the
+truth--that for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother
+in the hills who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus
+cut off.
+
+"He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.
+Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious
+depth I was far indeed from suspecting. He asked me would I take solemn
+oath that if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand against
+him. That oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the death
+that was impending.
+
+"'You have been wise,' said he,' and you shall have your life on one
+condition--that you devote it to my service.'
+
+"'Even that will I do,' I answered readily. He turned to an attendant,
+and ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley. No word passed between us
+until that man returned with those garish garments. Then Giovanni smiled
+on me in his mocking, infernal way.
+
+"'Not that,' I cried, guessing his purpose.
+
+"'Aye, that,' he answered me; 'that or the hangman's noose. A man who
+could devise so monstrous a jest as was your challenge to the Tyrant of
+Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would. I need such a one. There
+are two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers, deformed vermin
+that excite as much disgust as mirth. I need a sprightlier man, a man of
+some learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would seem
+to be.'
+
+"I recoiled in horror and disgust. Was this his clemency--this sparing
+of my life that he might submit it to an eternal shame? For a moment my
+mother was forgotten. I thought only of myself, and I grew resolved to
+hang.
+
+"'When you spoke of service,' said I 'I thought of service of an
+honourable sort.'
+
+"'The service that I offer you is honourable,' he said, with cold
+amusement. 'Indeed, remembering that your life was forfeit, you should
+account yourself most fortunate. You shall be well housed and well fed,
+you shall wear silk and lie in fine linen, on condition that you are
+merry. If you prove dull our castellan shall have you whipped--for such
+a one as you could not be dull save out of sullenness, of which we shall
+seek to cure you if you show signs of it.'
+
+"'I will not do it,' I cried, 'it were too base.'
+
+"'My friend,' he answered me, 'the choice is yours. You shall have an
+hour in which to resolve what you will do. When they open this door for
+you at sunset, come forth clad as you are, and you shall hang. If
+you prefer to live, then don me that robe and cap of motley, and, on
+condition that you are merry, life is yours.'"
+
+I paused a moment. Our horses were moving slowly, for the tale engrossed
+us both, me in the telling, her in the hearing. Presently--
+
+"I need not harass you with the reflections that were mine during that
+hour, Madonna. Rather let me ask you: how should a man so placed make
+choice to be full worthy of the office proffered him?"
+
+There was a moment's silence while she pondered.
+
+"Why," she answered me, at last, "a fool I take it would have chosen
+death: the wise man life, since it must hold the hope of better days."
+
+"And since it asked a man of wit to play the fool to such a tune as the
+Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly. But was
+that choice indeed so wise? The story ends not there. That young men
+whose early life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed,
+well-housed and fed as the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he
+fell into a slothful spirit, and was content to play the Fool for bed
+and board.
+
+"There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
+tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of
+all, from prince to scullion. But in the three years that I had dwelt at
+Pesaro my identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been aware
+of it. Moreover, a court is a place of changes, and in three years there
+had been such comings and goings at the Court of Giovanni Sforza, that
+not more than one or two remained of those that had inhabited it when
+first I entered on my existence there. Thus had my position grown
+steadily more bearable. I was just a jester and no more, and so, in
+a measure--though I blush to say it--I grew content. I gathered
+consolation from the fact that there were not any who now remembered the
+story of my coming to Pesaro, or who knew of the cowardliness I had been
+guilty of when I consented to mask myself in the motley and assume the
+name of Boccadoro. I counted on the Lord Giovanni's generosity to let
+things continue thus, and, meanwhile, I provided for my mother out of
+the vails that were earned me by my shame. But there came a day when
+Giovanni in evil wantonness of spirit chose to make merry at the Fool's
+expense.
+
+"To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such
+as I, and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the
+derision of his Court, haply I had been his jester still. But such sport
+as that would have satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of his soul.
+The man whom his cruel mockery crucified for their entertainment was
+Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he revealed to them, relating in his own
+fashion the tale I have told you.
+
+"At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
+all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live. Passion surged
+up in him, and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the bone--in
+short, to slay me with a whip.
+
+"From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
+Lucrezia. But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it
+happens that I am a wanderer now."
+
+At that I left it. I had no mind to tell her what motives had impelled
+Lucrezia Borgia to rescue me, nor on what errand I had gone to Rome and
+was from Rome returning.
+
+She had heard me in silence, and now that I had done, she heaved a sigh,
+for which gentle expression of pity out of my heart I thanked her. We
+were silent, thereafter, for a little while. At length she turned her
+head to regard me in the light of the now declining moon.
+
+"Messer Biancomonte," said she, and the sound of the old name, falling
+from her lips, thrilled me with a joy unspeakable, and seemed already to
+reinvest me in my old estate, "Messer Biancomonte, you have done me in
+these four-and-twenty hours such service as never did knight of old for
+any lady--and you did it, too, out of the most disinterested and noble
+of motives, proving thereby how truly knightly is that heart of yours,
+which, for my sake, has all but beat its last to-night. You must journey
+on to Pesaro with me despite this banishment of which you have told me.
+I will be surety that no harm shall come to you. I could not do less,
+and I shall hope to do far more. Such influence as I may prove to have
+with my cousin of Pesaro shall be exerted all on your behalf, my
+friend; and if in the nature of Giovanni Sforza there be a tithe of the
+gratitude with which you have inspired me, you shall, at least, have
+justice, and Biancomonte shall be yours again."
+
+I was silent for a spell, so touched was I by the kindness she
+manifested me--so touched, indeed, and so unused to it that I forgot how
+amply I had earned it, and how rudely she had used me ere that was done.
+
+"Alas!" I sighed. "God knows I am no longer fit to sit in the house of
+the Biancomonte. I am come too low, Madonna."
+
+"That Lazzaro, after whom you are named," she answered, "had come yet
+lower. But he lived again, and resumed his former station. Take your
+courage from that."
+
+"He lived not at the mercy of Giovanni of Pesaro," said I.
+
+There was a fresh pause at that. Then--"At least," she urged me, "you'll
+come to Pesaro with me?"
+
+"Why yes," said I. "I could not let you go alone." And in my heart I
+felt a pang of shame, and called myself a cur for making use of her as I
+was doing to reach the Court of Giovanni Sforza.
+
+"You need fear no consequences," she promised me. "I can be surety for
+that at least."
+
+In the east a brighter, yellower light than the moon's began to show.
+It was the dawn, from which I gathered that it must be approaching
+the thirteenth hour. Pesaro could not be more than a couple of leagues
+farther, and, presently, when we had gained the summit of the slight
+hill we were ascending, we beheld in the distance a blurred mass looming
+on the edge of the glittering sea. A silver ribbon that uncoiled itself
+from the western hills disappeared behind it. That silvery streak was
+the River Foglia; that heap of buildings against the landscape's virgin
+white, the town of Pesaro.
+
+Madonna pointed to it with a sudden cry of gladness. "See Messer
+Biancomonte, how near we are. Courage, my friend; a little farther, and
+yonder we have rest and comfort for you."
+
+She had need, in truth, to cry me "Courage!" for I was weakening fast
+once more. It may have been the much that I had talked, or the infernal
+jolting of my mule, but I was losing blood again, and as we were on the
+point of riding forward my senses swam, so that I cried out; and but for
+her prompt assistance I might have rolled headlong from my saddle.
+
+As it was, she caught me about the waist as any mother might have
+done her son. "What ails you?" she inquired, her newly-aroused anxiety
+contrasting sharply with her joyous cry of a moment earlier. "Are you
+faint, my friend?" It needed no confession on my part. My condition was
+all too plain as I leaned against her frail body for support.
+
+"It is my wound," I gasped. Then I set my teeth in anguish. So near the
+haven, and to fail now! It could not be; it must not be. I summoned all
+my resolution, all my fortitude; but in vain. Nature demanded payment
+for the abuses she had suffered.
+
+"If we proceed thus," she ventured fearfully, "you leaning against me,
+and going at a slow pace--no faster than a walk--think you, you can bear
+it? Try, good Messer 'Biancomonte."
+
+"I will try, Madonna," I replied. "Perhaps thus, and if I am silent, we
+may yet reach Pesaro together. If not--if my strength gives out--the
+town is yonder and the day is coming. You will find your way without
+me."
+
+"I will not leave you, sir," she vowed; and it was good to hear her.
+
+"Indeed, I hope you may not know the need," I answered wearily. And thus
+we started on once more.
+
+Sant' Iddio! What agonies I suffered ere the sun rose up out of the sea
+to flood us with his winter glory! What agonies were mine during those
+two hours or so of that last stage of our eventful journey! "I must bear
+up until we are at the gates of Pesaro," I kept murmuring to myself,
+and, as if my spirit were inclined to become the servant of my will and
+hold my battered flesh alive until we got that far, Pesaro's gates I had
+the joy of entering ere I was constrained to give way.
+
+Dimly I remember--for very dim were my perceptions growing--that as we
+crossed the bridge and passed beneath the archway of the Porta Romana,
+the officer turned out to see who came. At sight of me be gaped a moment
+in astonishment.
+
+"Boccadoro?" he exclaimed, at last. "So soon returned?"
+
+"Like Perseus from the rescue of Andromeda," answered I, in a feeble
+voice, "saving that Perseus was less bloody than am I. Behold the
+Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, the noble cousin of our High and
+Mighty Lord."
+
+And then as if my task being done, I were free to set my weary brain
+to rest, my senses grew confused, the officer's voice became a hum that
+gradually waxed fainter as I sank into what seemed the most luxurious
+and delicious sleep that ever mortal knew.
+
+Two days later, when I was conscious once more, I learned what
+excitement those words of mine had sown, with what honours Madonna Paola
+was escorted to the Castle, and how the citizens of Pesaro turned out
+upon hearing the news which ran like fire before us. And Madonna, it
+seems, had loudly proclaimed how gallantly I had served her, for as they
+bore me along in a cloak carried by four men-at-arms, the cry that was
+heard in the streets of Pesaro that morning was "Boccadoro!" They
+had loved me, had those good citizens of Pesaro, and the news of my
+departure had cast a gloom upon the town. To have their hero return in
+a manner so truly heroic provoked that brave display of their affection,
+and I deeply doubt if ever in the days of greatest loyalty the name of
+Sforza was as loudly cried in Pesaro as, they tell me, was the name of
+Sforza's Fool that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+
+If Madonna Paola did not achieve quite all that she had promised me so
+readily, yet she achieved more than from my acquaintance with the nature
+of Giovanni Sforza--and my knowledge of the deep malice he entertained
+for me--I should have dared to hope.
+
+The Tyrant of Pesaro, as I was soon to learn, was greatly taken with
+this fair cousin of his, whom that morning he had beheld for the first
+time. And being taken with her, it may be that Giovanni listened the
+more readily to her intercessions on my poor behalf. Since it was she
+who begged this thing, he could not wholly refuse. But since he was
+Giovanni Sforza, he could not wholly grant. He promised her that my
+life, at least, should be secure, and that not only would he pardon me,
+but that he would have his own physician see to it that I was made sound
+again. For the time, that was enough, he thought. First let them bring
+me back to life. When that was achieved, it would be early enough to
+consider what course this life should take thereafter.
+
+And she, knowing him not and finding him so kind and gracious, trusted
+that he would perform that which he tricked her into believing that he
+promised.
+
+For some ten days I lay abed, feverish at first and later very weak from
+the great loss of blood I had sustained. But after the second day, when
+my fever had abated, I had some visitors, among whom was Madonna Paola,
+who bore me the news that her intercessions for me with the Lord
+of Pesaro were likely to bear fruit, and that I might look for my
+reinstatement. Yet, if I permitted myself to hope as she bade me; I did
+so none too fully.
+
+My situation, bearing in mind how at once I had served and thwarted the
+ends of Cesare Borgia, was perplexing.
+
+Another visitor I had was Messer Magistri--the pompous seneschal of
+Pesaro--who, after his own fashion, seemed to have a liking for me, and
+a certain pity. Here was my chance of discharging the true errand on
+which I was returned.
+
+"I owe thanks," said I, "to many circumstances for the sparing of
+my life; but above all people and all things do I owe thanks to our
+gracious Lady Lucrezia. Do you think, Messer Magistri, that she would
+consent to see me and permit me again to express the gratitude that
+fills my heart?"
+
+Mosser Magistri thought that he could promise this, and consented
+to bear my message to her. Within the hour she was at my bedside and
+divining that, haply, I had news to give her of the letter I had born
+her brother, she dismissed Magistri who was in attendance.
+
+Once we were alone her first words were of kindly concern for my
+condition, delivered in that sweet, musical voice that was by no means
+the least charm of a princess to whom Nature had been prodigal of gifts.
+For without going to that length of exaggerated praise which some have
+bestowed--for her own ear, and with an eye to profit--upon Madonna
+Lucrezia, yet were I less than truthful if I sought to belittle her
+ample claims to beauty. Some six years later than the time of which I
+write she was met on the occasion of her entry into Ferrara by a certain
+clown dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd Paris, who proffered
+her the apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that since
+beholding her he had been forced to alter his old-time judgment in
+favour of Venus.
+
+He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for
+which he should have been soundly whipped. Her nose was a shade too
+long, her chin a shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such
+comparisons. Still, that she had a certain gracious beauty, as I have
+said, it is not mine to deny. There was an almost childish freshness in
+her face, an almost childish innocence in her fine gray eyes, and, above
+all, a golden and resplendent hair as brought to mind the tresses of
+God's angels.
+
+That fair child--for no more than a child was she--drew a chair to my
+bedside.
+
+There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my
+behalf, and answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad
+again in a day or two.
+
+"Brave lad," she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the coverlet,
+as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool, "count me
+ever your friend hereafter, for what you have done for Madonna Paola.
+For although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you did so to serve
+one who is more to me than any family, more than any sister could be."
+
+"What I did, Madonna," I answered, "I did with the better heart since it
+opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my Lord,
+your Illustrious brother, set me--one that otherwise might well have
+overtaxed my wits."
+
+"Ah?" Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a glance
+that revealed to the full their matchless beauty. Care seemed of
+a sudden to have aged her face. The question of her eyes needed no
+translation into words.
+
+"The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
+answer to your own," I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I
+drew the package, which during Magistri's absence I had abstracted from
+my boot that I might have it in readiness when she came.
+
+She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of
+her mouth.
+
+"I had hoped he would have found better employment for you," she said.
+
+"His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the
+future did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch. But by
+aiding Madonna Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim
+the redemption of that promise; though had it not been for Madonna Paola
+and what I did, I scarce know how I should have penetrated here to you."
+
+She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood
+reading the letter, her back toward me. Presently I heard a stifled
+sob. The letter was crushed in her hand. Then moments passed ere she
+confronted me once more. But her manner as all changed; she was agitated
+and preoccupied, and for all that she forced herself to talk of me and
+my affairs, her mind was clearly elsewhere. At last she left me, nor did
+I see her again during the time I was confined to my bed.
+
+On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like,
+I was permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on the
+terrace that overlooks the sea. I found no garments but some suits of
+motley, and so, in despite of my repugnance now to reassume that garb, I
+had no choice but to array myself in one of these. I selected the least
+garish one--a suit of black and yellow stripes, with hose that was half
+black, half yellow, too; and so, leaning upon the crutch they had left
+me, I crept forth into the sunlight, the very ghost of the man that I
+had been a fortnight ago.
+
+I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards
+Ancona, and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air
+of the Adriatic. The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some
+twenty paces off--there was a stretch of soft, green turf.
+
+I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I
+was yet abed. It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with
+the proverbs of one Domenico Lopez--all very proper nourishment for
+a jester's mind. The odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and
+among the proverbs there were many that were new to me in framing and
+in substance. Moreover, I was glad of this means of improving my
+acquaintance with the tongue of Spain, and I was soon absorbed. So
+absorbed, indeed, as never to hear the footsteps of the Lord Giovanni,
+when presently he approached me unattended, nor to guess at his presence
+until his shadow fell athwart my page. I raised my eyes, and seeing who
+it was I made shift to get on my feet; but he commanded me to remain
+seated, commenting sympathetically upon my weak condition.
+
+He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile fluttered
+across his white face.
+
+"You choose your reading with rare judgment," said he. "Read on, and
+prime your mind with fresh humour, prepare yourself with new conceits
+for our amusement against the time when health shall be more fully
+restored you."
+
+It was in such words as these that he intimated to me that I was
+pardoned, and reinstated--as the Fool of the Court of Pesaro. That was
+to be the sum of his clemency. We were precisely where we had been. Once
+before had he granted me my life on condition that I should amuse him;
+he did no more than repeat that mercy now. I stared at him in wonder,
+open-mouthed, whereit he laughed.
+
+"You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro?" said he, his fingers
+straying to his beard as was his custom. "My clemency is no more than
+you deserve in return for the service you have rendered to the House of
+Sforza." And he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs that
+had borne itself bravely in the chase.
+
+I answered nothing. I sat there as if I had been a part of the stone
+from which my seat was hewn, for I lacked the strength to rise and
+strangle him as he deserved--moreover, I was bound by an oath, which it
+would have damned my soul to break, never to raise my hand against him.
+
+And then, before he could say more, two ladies issued from the doorway
+on my right. They were Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Paola. Upon espying
+me they hastened forward with expressions of pleased surprise at seeing
+me risen and out, and when I would have got to my feet they stayed me
+as Giovanni had done. Madonna Paola's words seemed addressed to heaven
+rather than to me, for they were words of thanksgiving for this recovery
+of my strength.
+
+"I have no thanks," she ended warmly, "that can match the deeds by which
+you earned them, Messer Biancomonte."
+
+My eyes drifting to Giovanni's face surprised its sudden darkening.
+
+"Madonna Paola," said he, in an icy voice, "you have uttered a name that
+must not be heard within my walls of Pesaro, if you would prove yourself
+the friend of Boccadoro. To remind me of his true identity is to remind
+me of that which counts not in his favour."
+
+She turned to regard him, a mild surprise in her blue eyes.
+
+"But, my lord, you promised--" she began.
+
+"I promised," he interposed, with an easy smile and manner never so
+deprecatory, "that I would pardon him, grant him his life and restore
+him to my favour."
+
+"But did you not say that if he survived and was restored to strength
+you would then determine the course his life should take?"
+
+Still smiling, he produced his comfit-box, and raised the lid.
+
+"That is a thing he seems to have determined for himself," he answered
+smoothly--he could be smooth as a cat upon occasion, could this bastard
+of Costanzo Sforza. "I came upon him here, arrayed as you behold
+him, and reading a book of Spanish quips. Is it not clear that he has
+chosen?"
+
+Between thumb and forefinger he balanced a sugar-crusted comfit of
+coriander seed steeped in marjoram vinegar, and having put his question
+he bore the sweet-meat to his mouth. The ladies looked at him, and from
+him to me. Then Madonna Paola spoke, and there seemed a reproachful
+wonder in her voice.
+
+"Is this indeed your choice?" she asked me.
+
+"It is the choice that was forced on me," said I, in heat. "They left me
+no garment save these of folly. That I was reading this book it pleases
+my lord to interpret into a further sign of my intentions."
+
+She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of
+Madonna Lucrezia. He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of
+rare loftiness.
+
+"I am more clement than you think," said he, "in having done so much.
+For the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving
+political issues you little dream of. What is this?"
+
+He had turned abruptly. A servant was approaching, leading a
+mud-splashed courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
+
+"Whence are you?" Giovanni questioned him.
+
+"From the Holy See," answered the courier, bowing, "with letters for the
+High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his noble
+spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia."
+
+He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown
+overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant. Then bidding the
+servant see to the courier's refreshment, he dismissed them both.
+
+A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he
+would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro
+were, there and then, forgotten by us all. For the thought that rose
+uppermost in our minds--saving always that of Madonna Lucrezia--was that
+these communications concerned the sheltering of Madonna Paola, and were
+a command for her immediate return to Rome. At last Giovanni handed his
+wife the letter intended for her, and, in silence, broke the seal of his
+own.
+
+He unfolded it with a grim smile, but scarce had he begun to read when
+his expression softened into one of terror, and his face grew ashen.
+Next it flared crimson, the veins on his brow stood out like ropes, and
+his eyes flashed furiously upon Madonna Lucrezia. She was reading, her
+bosom rising and falling in token of the excitement that possessed her.
+
+"Madonna," he cried in an awful voice, "I have here a command from the
+Holy See to repair at once to Rome, to answer certain charges that are
+preferred against me relating to my marriage. Madonna, know you aught of
+this?"
+
+"I know, sir," she answered steadily, "that I, too, have here a letter
+calling me to Rome. But there is no reason given for the summons."
+
+Intuitively it flashed across my mind that whatever the matter might
+be, Madonna Lucrezia had full knowledge of it through the letter I had
+brought her from her brother.
+
+"Can you conjecture, Madonna, what are these charges to which my letter
+vaguely alludes?" Giovanni was inquiring.
+
+"Your pardon, but the subject is scarcely of a nature to permit
+discussion in the castle courtyard. Its character is intimate."
+
+He looked at her very searchingly, but for all that he was a man of
+almost twice her years, her wits were more than a match for his, and
+his scrutiny can have told him nothing. She preserved a calm, unruffled
+front.
+
+"In five minutes, Madonna," said he, very sternly, "I shall be honoured
+if you will receive me in your closet."
+
+She inclined her head, murmuring an unhesitating assent. Satisfied, he
+bowed to her and to Madonna Paola--who had been looking on with eyes
+that wonder had set wide open--and turning on his heel he strode briskly
+away. As he passed into the castle, Madonna Lucrezia heaved a sigh and
+rose.
+
+"My poor Boccadoro," she cried, "I fear me your affairs must wait a
+while. But think of me always as your friend, and believe that if I can
+prevail upon my brother to overlook the ill-turn you did him when you
+entered the service of this child"--and she pointed to Madonna Paola--"I
+shall send for you from Rome, for in Pesaro I fear you have little to
+hope for. But let this be a secret between us."
+
+From those words of hers I inferred, as perhaps she meant I should, that
+once she left Pesaro to obey her father's summons, our little northern
+state was to know her no more. Once again, only, did I see her, on the
+occasion of her departure, some four days later, and then but for a
+moment. Back to Pesaro she came no more, as you shall learn anon; but
+behind her she left a sweet and fragrant memory, which still endures
+though many years are sped and much calumny has been heaped upon her
+name.
+
+I might pause here to make some attempt at refuting the base falsehoods
+that had been bruited by that time-serving vassal Guicciardini,
+and others of his kidney, whom the upstart Cardinal Giuliano della
+Rovere--sometime pedlar--in his jealous fury at seeing the coveted
+pontificate pass into the family of Borgia, bought and hired to do his
+loathsome work of calumny and besmirch the fame of as sweet a lady as
+Italy has known. But this poor chronicle of mine is rather concerned
+with the history of Madonna Paola di Santafior, and it were a divergence
+well-nigh unpardonable to set my pen at present to that other task.
+Moreover, there is scarce the need. If any there be who doubt me, or if
+future generations should fall into the error of lending credence to the
+lies of that villain Guicciardini, of that arch-villain Giuliano della
+Rovere, or of other smaller fry who have lent their helot's pens to
+weave mendacious records of her life, dubbing her murderess, adulteress,
+and Heaven knows what besides--I will but refer them to the archives
+of Ferrara, whose Duchess she became at the age of one-and-twenty, and
+where she reigned for eighteen years. There shall it be found recorded
+that she was an exemplary, God-fearing woman; a faithful and honoured
+wife; a wise, devoted mother; and a princess, beloved and esteemed by
+her people for her piety, her charity and her wisdom. If such records as
+are there to be read by earnest seekers after truth be not sufficient to
+convince, and to reveal those others whom I have named in the light of
+their true baseness, then were it idle for me to set up in these pages a
+passing refutation of the falsehoods which it has grieved me so often to
+hear repeated.
+
+It was two days later that the Lord Giovanni set out for Rome, obedient
+to the command he had received. But before his departure--on the eve of
+it, to be precise--there arrived at Pesaro a very wonderful and handsome
+gentleman. This was the brother of Madonna Paola, the High and Mighty
+Lord Filippo di Santafior. He had had a hint in Rome that his connivance
+at his sister's defiant escape was suspected at the Vatican, and he
+had wisely determined that his health would thrive better in a northern
+climate for a while.
+
+A very splendid creature was this Lord Filippo, all shimmering
+velvet, gleaming jewels, costly furs and glittering gold. His face
+was effeminate, though finely featured, and resembled, in much, his
+sister's. He rode a cream-coloured horse, which seemed to have been
+steeped in musk, so strongly was it scented. But of all his affectations
+the one with which I as taken most was to see one of his grooms approach
+him when he dismounted, to dust his wondrous clothes down to his shoes,
+which he wore in the splayed fashion set by the late King of France who
+was blessed with twelve toes on each of his deformed feet.
+
+The Lord Giovanni, himself not lacking in effeminacy, was greatly taken
+by the wondrous raiment, the studied lisp and the hundred affectations
+of this peerless gallant. Had he not been overburdened at the time by
+the Papal business that impended, he might there and then have cemented
+the intimacy which was later to spring up between them. As it was, he
+made him very welcome, and placed at his and his sister's disposal
+the beautiful palace that his father had begun, and he, himself, had
+completed, which was known as the Palazza Sforza. On the morrow Giovanni
+left Pesaro with but a small retinue, in which I was thankful not to be
+included.
+
+Two days later Madonna Lucrezia followed her husband, the fact that they
+journeyed not together, seeming to wear an ominous significance. Her
+eyes had a swollen look, such as attends much weeping, which afterwards
+I took as proof that she knew for what purpose she was going, and was
+moved to bitter grief at the act to which her ambitious family was
+constraining her.
+
+After their departure things moved sluggishly at Pesaro. The nobles
+of the Lord Giovanni's Court repaired to their several houses in the
+neighboring country, and save for the officers of the household the
+place became deserted.
+
+Madonna Paola remained at the Sforza Palace, and I saw her only once
+during the two mouths that followed, and then it was about the streets,
+and she had little more than a greeting for me as she passed. At her
+side rode her brother, a splendid blaze of finery, falcon on wrist.
+
+My days were spent in reading and reflection, for there was naught else
+to do. I might have gone my ways, had I so wished it, but something kept
+me there at Pesaro, curious to see the events with which the time was
+growing big.
+
+We grew sadly stagnant during Lent, and what with the uneventful course
+of things, and the lean fare proscribed by Mother Church, it was a very
+dispirited Boccadoro that wandered aimlessly whither his dulling fancy
+took him. But in Holy Week, at last, we received an abrupt stir which
+set a whirlpool of excitement in the Dead Sea of our lives. It was the
+sudden reappearance of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+He came alone, dust-stained and haggard, on a horse that dropped dead
+from exhaustion the moment Pesaro was reached, and in his pallid cheek
+and hollow eye we read the tale of some great fear and some disaster.
+
+That night we heard the story of how he had performed the feat of riding
+all the way from Rome in four-and-twenty hours, fleeing for his life
+from the peril of assassination, of which Madonna Lucrezia had warned
+him.
+
+He went off to his Castle of Gradara, where he shut himself up with the
+trouble we could but guess at, and so in Pesaro, that brief excitement
+spent, we stagnated once again.
+
+I seemed an anomaly in so gloomy a place, and more than once did I think
+of departing and seeking out my poor old mother in her mountain home,
+contenting myself hereafter with labouring like any honest villano born
+to the soil. But there ever seemed to be a voice that bade me stay
+and wait, and the voice bore a suggestion of Madonna Paola. But why
+dissemble here? Why cast out hints of voices heard, supernatural in
+their flavour? The voice, I doubt not, was just my own inclination,
+which bade me hope that once again it might be mine to serve that lady.
+
+An eventful year in the history of the families of Sforza and Borgia was
+that year of grace 1497.
+
+Spring came, and ere it had quite grown to summer we had news of the
+assassination of the Duke of Gandia, and the tale that he was done to
+death by his elder brother, Cesare Borgia; a tale which seemed to lack
+for reasonable substantiation, and which, despite the many voices that
+make bold to noise it broadcast, may or may not be true.
+
+In that same month of June messages passed between Rome and Pesaro, and
+gradually the burden of the messages leaked out in rumours that Pope
+Alexander and his family were pressing the Lord Giovanni to consent to a
+divorce. At last he left Pesaro again; this time to journey to Milan and
+seek counsel with his powerful cousin, Lodovico, whom they called "The
+Moor." When he returned he was more sulky and downcast than ever, and at
+Gradara he lived in an isolation that had been worthy of a hermit.
+
+And thus that miserable year wore itself out, and, at last, in December,
+we heard that the divorce was announced, and that Lucrezia Borgia was
+the Tyrant of Pesaro's wife no more. The news of it and the reasons
+that were put forward as having led to it were roared across Italy in
+a great, derisive burst of laughter, of which the Lord Giovanni was the
+unfortunate and contemptible butt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
+
+
+And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine,
+it may be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of
+the next three years of the history of Pesaro.
+
+Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he
+seemed again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been
+before shame overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding.
+Madonna Paola and her brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in Pesaro,
+where they now appeared to have taken up their permanent abode. Madonna
+Paola--following her inclinations--withdrew to the Convent of Santa
+Caterina, there to pursue in peace the studies for which she had a
+taste, whilst her splendid, profligate brother became the ornament--the
+arbiter elegantiarum--of our court.
+
+Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics
+a stew was simmering that demanded all that family's attention, and of
+whose import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had
+flung aside his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer rein
+to the boundless ambition that consumed him.
+
+With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never
+been. Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce left
+discernible any semblance of reality, for I was once again Boccadoro,
+the golden-mouthed Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every jester
+throughout Italy. My shame that for a brief season had risen up in arms
+seemed to be laid to rest once more, and I was content with the burden
+that was mine. Money I had in plenty, for when I pleased him the Lord
+Giovanni's vails were often handsome, and much of my earnings went to
+my poor mother, who would sooner have died starving than have bought
+herself bread with those ducats could she have guessed at what manner of
+trade Lazzaro Biancomonte had earned them.
+
+The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa
+Caterina, whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to pay
+his duty to his fair cousin. In the summer of 1500, she being then come
+to the age of eighteen, and as divinely beautiful a lady as you could
+find in Italy, she allowed herself to be persuaded by her brother--who,
+I make no doubt had been, in his turn, persuaded by the Lord of
+Pesaro--to leave her convent and her studies, and to take up her life
+at the Sforza Palace, where Filippo held by now a sort of petty court of
+his own.
+
+And now it fell out that the Lord Giovanni was oftener at the Palace
+than at the Castle, and during that summer Pesaro was given over to
+such merrymaking as it had never known before. There was endless
+lute-thrumming and recitation of verses by a score of parasite poets
+whom the Lord Giovanni encouraged, posing now as a patron of letters;
+there were balls and masques and comedies beyond number, and we were as
+gay as though Italy held no Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who was
+sweeping northward with his all-conquering flood of mercenaries.
+
+But one there was who, though the very centre of all these merry doings,
+the very one in whose honour and for whose delectation they were set
+afoot, seemed listless and dispirited in that boisterous crowd. This
+was Madonna Paola, to whom, rumour had it, that her kinsman, the Lord
+Giovanni, was paying a most ardent suit.
+
+I saw her daily now, and often would she choose me for her sole
+companion; often, sitting apart with me, would she unburden her heart
+and tell me much that I am assured she would have told no other. A
+strange thing may it have seemed, this confidence between the Fool and
+the noble Lady of Santafior--my Holy Flower of the Quince, as in my
+thoughts I grew to name her. Perhaps it may have been because she found
+me ever ready to be sober at her bidding, when she needed sober company
+as those other fools--the greater fools since they accounted themselves
+wise--could not afford her.
+
+That winter adventure betwixt Cagli and Pesaro was a link that bound us
+together, and caused her to see under my motley and my masking smile
+the true Lazzaro Biancomonte whom for a little season she had known. And
+when we were alone it had become her wont to call me Lazzaro, leaving
+that other name that they had given me for use when others were at hand.
+Yet never did she refer to my condition, or wound me by seeking to spur
+me to the ambition to become myself again. Haply she was content that I
+should be as I sas, since had I sought to become different it must have
+entailed my quitting Pesaro, and this poor lady was so bereft of friends
+that she could not afford to lose even the sympathy of the despised
+jester.
+
+It was in those days that I first came to love her with as pure a flame
+as ever burned within the heart of man, for the very hopelessness of it
+preserved its holy whiteness. What could I do, if I would love her,
+but love her as the dog may love his mistress? More was surely not for
+me--and to seek more were surely a madness that must earn me less. And
+so, I was content to let things be, and keep my heart in check,
+thanking God for the mercy of her company at times, and for the precious
+confidences she made me, and praying Heaven--for of my love was I grown
+devout--that her life might run a smooth and happy course, and ready,
+in the furtherance of such an object, to lay down my own should the need
+arise. Indeed there were times when it seemed to me that it was a good
+thing to be a Fool to know a love of so rare a purity as that--such a
+love as I might never have known had I been of her station, and in such
+case as to have hoped to win her some day for my own.
+
+One evening of late August, when the vines were heavy with ripe fruit,
+and the scent of roses was permeating the tepid air, she drew me from
+the throng of courtiers that made merry in the Palace, and led me out
+into the noble gardens to seek counsel with me, she said, upon a matter
+of gravest moment. There, under the sky of deepest blue, crimsoning to
+saffron where the sun had set, we paced awhile in silence, my own senses
+held in thrall by the beauty of the eventide, the ambient perfumes
+of the air and the strains of music that faintly reached us from the
+Palace. Madonna's head was bent, and her eyes were set upon the ground
+and burdened, so my furtive glance assured me, with a gentle sorrow.
+At length she spoke, and at the words she uttered my heart seemed for a
+moment to stand still.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, "they would have me marry."
+
+For a little spell there was a silence, my wits seeming to have grown
+too numbed to attempt to seek an answer. I might be content, indeed, to
+love her from a distance, as the cloistered monk may love and worship
+some particular saint in Heaven; yet it seems that I was not proof
+against jealousy for all the abstract quality of my worship.
+
+"Lazzaro," she repeated presently, "did you hear me? They would have me
+marry."
+
+"I have heard some such talk," I answered, rousing myself at last; "and
+they say that it is the Lord Giovanni who would prove worthy of your
+hand."
+
+"They say rightly, then," she acknowledged. "The Lord Giovanni it is."
+
+Again there was a silence, and again it was she who broke it.
+
+"Well, Lazzaro?" she asked. "Have you naught to say?"
+
+"What would you have me say, Madonna? If this wedding accords with your
+own wishes, then am I glad."
+
+"Lazzaro, Lazzaro! you know that it does not."
+
+"How should I know it, Madonna?"
+
+"Because your wits are shrewd, and because you know me. Think you this
+petty tyrant is such a man as I should find it in my heart to conceive
+affection for? Grateful to him am I for the shelter he has afforded us
+here; but my love--that is a thing I keep, or fain would keep, for some
+very different man. When I love, I think it will be a valorous knight, a
+gentleman of lofty mind, of noble virtues and ready address."
+
+"An excellent principle on which to go in quest of a husband, Madonna
+mia. But where in this degenerate world do you look to find him?"
+
+"Are there, then, no such men?"
+
+"In the pages of Bojardo and those other poets whom you have read too
+earnestly there may be."
+
+"Nay, there speaks your cynicism," she chided me. "But even if my
+ideals be too lofty, would you have me descend from the height of such
+a pinnacle to the level of the Lord Giovanni--a weak-spirited craven, as
+witnesses the manner in which he permitted the Borgias to mishandle him;
+a cruel and unjust tyrant, as witnesses his dealing with you, to seek no
+further instances; a weak, ignorant, pleasure-loving fool, devoid of wit
+and barren of ambition? Such is the man they would have me wed. Do
+not tell me, Lazzaro, that it were difficult to find a better one than
+this."
+
+"I do not mean to tell you that. After all, though it be my trade to
+jest, it is not my way to deal in falsehood. I think, Madonna, that if
+we were to have you write for us such an appreciation of the High and
+Mighty Giovanni Sforza, you would leave a very faithful portrait for the
+enlightenment of posterity."
+
+"Lazzaro, do not jest!" she cried. "It is your help I need. That is the
+reason why I am come to you with the tale of what they seek to force me
+into doing."
+
+"To force you?" I cried. "Would they dare so much?"
+
+"Aye, if I resist them further."
+
+"Why, then," I answered, with a ready laugh, "do not resist them
+further."
+
+"Lazzaro!" she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by what
+she accounted a flippancy.
+
+"Mistake me not," I hastened to elucidate. "It is lest they should
+employ force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I
+counsel you to offer no resistance. Beg for a little time, vaguely
+suggesting that you are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni's suit."
+
+"That were deceit," she protested.
+
+"A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny," said I.
+
+"Well? And then?" she questioned. "Such a state of things cannot endure
+for ever. It must end some day."
+
+I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full
+of confidence.
+
+"That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni's impatience
+transcends all bounds."
+
+She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression
+knitting her fine brows.
+
+"I do not take your meaning, my friend," she complained.
+
+"Then mark the enucleation. I will expound this meaning of mine through
+the medium of a parable. In Babylon of old, there dwelt a king whose
+name was Belshazzar, who, having fallen into habits of voluptuousness
+and luxury, was so enslaved by them as to feast and make merry whilst
+a certain Darius, King of the Medes, was marching in arms against his
+capital. At a feast one night the fingers of a man's hand were seen to
+write upon the wall, and the words they wrote were a belated warning:
+'Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.'"
+
+She looked at me, her eyes round with inquiry, and a faint smile of
+uncertainty on her lips.
+
+"Let me confess that your elucidation helps me but little."
+
+"Ponder it, Madonna," I urged her. "Substitute Giovanni Sforza for
+Belshazzar, Cesare Borgia for King Darius, and you have the key to my
+parable."
+
+"But is it indeed so? Does danger threaten Pesaro from that quarter?"
+
+"Aye, does it," I answered, almost impatiently. "The tide of war is
+surging up, and presently will whelm us utterly. Yet here sits the Lord
+Giovanni making merry with balls and masques and burle and banquets,
+wholly unprepared, wholly unconscious of his peril. There may be no hand
+to write a warning on his walls--or else, as in the case of Babylon, the
+hand will write when it is too late to avert the evil--yet there are not
+wanting other signs for those that have the wit to read them; nor is a
+wondrous penetration needed."
+
+"And you think then--" she began.
+
+"I think that if you are obdurate with him, he and your brother
+may hurry you by force into this union. But if you temporise with
+half-promises, with suggestions that before Christmas you may grow
+reconciled to his wishes, he will be patient."
+
+"But what if Christmas comes and finds us still in this position?"
+
+"It will need a miracle for that; or, at least, the death of Cesare
+Borgia--an unlikely event, for they say he uses great precautions.
+Saving the miracle, and providing Cesare lives, I will give the Lord
+Giovanni's reign in Pesaro at most two months."
+
+We had halted now, and were confronting each other in the descending
+gloom.
+
+"Lazzaro, dear friend," she cried, almost with gaiety, "I was wise to
+take counsel with you. You have planted in my heart a very vigorous
+growth of hope."
+
+We turned soon after, and started to retrace our steps, for she might be
+ill-advised to remain absent overlong.
+
+I left her on the terrace in a very different spirit from that in which
+she had come to me, bearing with me her promise that she would act as I
+had advised her. No doubt I had taken a load from her gentle soul, and
+oddly enough I had taken, too, a load from mine.
+
+Things fell out as I said they would in far as Giovanni Sforza and
+Filippo were concerned. Madonna's seeming amenability to their wishes
+stayed their insistence, and they could but respect her wishes to let
+the betrothal be delayed yet a little while. And during the weeks that
+followed, it was I scarce know whether more pitiable or more amusing
+to see the efforts that Giovanni made to win her ardently desired
+affection.
+
+Love has sharp eyes at times, and a dullard under the influence of the
+baby god will turn shrewd and exert rare wiles in the conduct of his
+wooing. Giovanni, by some intuition usually foreign to his dull nature,
+seemed to divine what manner of man would be Madonna Paola's ideal, and
+strove to pass himself off as possessed of the attributes of that ideal,
+with an ardour that was pitiably comical. He became an actor by the side
+of whom those comedians that played impromptus for his delectation were
+the merest bunglers with the art. He gathered that Madonna Paola loved
+the poets and their stately diction, and so, to please her better, he
+became a poet for the season.
+
+"Poeta nascitur" the proverb runs, and that proverb's truth was
+doubtless forced home upon the Lord Giovanni at an early stage of his
+excursions into the flowery meads of prosody. Fortunately he lacked the
+supreme vanity that is the attribute of most poetasters, and he was able
+to see that such things as after hours of midnight-labour he contrived
+to pen, would evoke nothing but her amusement--unless, indeed, it were
+her scorn--and render him the laughing-stock of all his Court.
+
+So, in the wisdom of despair, he came to me, and with a gentleness that
+in the past he had rarely manifested for me, he asked me was I skilled
+in writing verse. There were not wanting others to whom he might have
+gone, for there was no lack of rhymsters about his Court; but perhaps he
+thought he could be more certain of my silence than of theirs.
+
+I answered him that were the subject to my taste, I might succeed in
+throwing off some passable lines upon it. He pressed gold upon me, and
+bade me there and then set about fashioning an ode to Madonna Paola, and
+to forget, when they were done, under pain of a whipping to the bone,
+that I had written them.
+
+I obeyed him with a right good-will. For what subject of all subjects
+possible was there that made so powerful an appeal to my inclinations?
+Within an hour he had the ode--not perhaps such a poem as might stand
+comparison with the verses of Messer Petrarca, yet a very passable
+effusion, chaste of conceit and palpitating with sincerity and
+adoration. It was in that that I addressed her as the "Holy Flower of
+the Quince," which was the symbol of the House of Santafior.
+
+So great an impression made that ode that on the morrow the Lord
+Giovanni came to me with a second bribe and a second threat of torture.
+I gave him a sonnet of Petrarchian manner which went near to outshining
+the merits of the ode. And now, these requests of the Lord Giovanni's
+assumed an almost daily regularity, until it came to seem that did
+affairs continue in this manner for yet a little while, I should have
+earned me enough to have repurchased Biancomonte, and, so, ended my
+troubles. And good was the value that I gave him for his gold. How good,
+he never knew; for how was he, the clod, to guess that this despised
+jester of his Court was pouring out his very soul into the lines he
+wrote to the tyrant's orders?
+
+It is scant wonder that, at last, Madonna Paola who had begun by
+smiling, was touched and moved by the ardent worship that sighed from
+those perfervid verses. So touched, indeed, was she as to believe the
+Lord Giovanni's love to be the pure and holy thing those lines presented
+it, and to conclude that his love had wrought in him a wondrous and
+ennobling transformation. That so she thought I have the best of all
+reasons to affirm, for I had it from her very lips one day.
+
+"Lazzaro," she sighed, "it is occurring to me that I have done the Lord
+Giovanni an injustice. I have misgauged his character. I held him to
+be a shallow, unlettered clown, devoid of any finer feelings. Yet his
+verses have a merit that is far above the common note of these writings,
+and they breathe such fine and lofty sentiments as could never spring
+from any but a fine and lofty soul."
+
+How I came to keep my tongue from wagging out the truth I scarcely know.
+It may be that I was frightened of the punishment that might overtake
+me did I betray my master; but I rather think that it was the fear of
+betraying myself, and so being flung into the outer darkness where there
+was no such radiant presence as Madonna Paola's. For had I told her it
+was I had penned those poems that were the marvel of the Court, she must
+of necessity have guessed my secret, for to such quick wits as hers it
+must have been plain at once that they were no vapourings of artistry,
+but the hot expressions of a burning truth. It was in that--in their
+supreme sincerity--that their chief virtue lay.
+
+Thus weeks wore on. The vintage season came and went; the roses faded
+in the gardens of the Palazzo Sforza, and the trees put on their autumn
+garb of gold. October was upon us, and with it came, at last, the fear
+that long ago should have spurred us into activity. And now that it
+came it did not come to stimulate, but to palsy. Terror-stricken at the
+conquering advance of Valentino--which was the name they now gave Cesare
+Borgia; a name derived from his Duchy of Valentinois--Giovanni Sforza
+abruptly ceased his revelling, and made a hurried appeal for help to
+Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua--his brother-in-law, through the
+Lord of Pesaro's first marriage. The Mantuan Marquis sent him a hundred
+mercenaries under the command of an Albanian named Giacomo. As well
+might he have sent him a hundred figs wherewith to pelt the army of
+Valentino!
+
+Disaster swooped down swiftly upon the Lord of Pesaro. His very people,
+seeing in what case they were, and how unprepared was their tyrant to
+defend them, wisely resolved that they would run no risks of fire and
+pillage by aiding to oppose the irresistible force that was being hurled
+against us.
+
+It was on the second Sunday in October that the storm burst over the
+Lord Giovanni's head. He was on the point of leaving the Castle to
+attend Mass at San Domenico, and in his company were Filippo Sforza of
+Santafior and Madonna Paola, besides courtiers and attendants, amounting
+in all to perhaps a score of gallant cavaliers and ladies. The cavalcade
+was drawn up in the quadrangle, and Giovanni was on the point of
+mounting, when, of a sudden, a rumbling noise, as of distant thunder,
+but too continuous for that, arrested him, his foot already in the
+stirrup.
+
+"What is that?" he asked, an ashen pallor overspreading his effeminate
+face, as, doubtless, the thought of the enemy came uppermost in his
+mind.
+
+Men looked at one another with fear in their eyes and some of the ladies
+raised their voices in querulous beseeching for reassurance. They had
+their answer even as they asked. The Albanian Giacomo, who was now
+virtually the provost of the Castle, appeared suddenly at the gates with
+half a score of men. He raised a warning hand, which compelled the Lord
+Giovanni to pause; then he rasped out a brisk command to his followers.
+The winches creaked, and the drawbridge swung up even as with a clank
+and rattle of chains the portcullis fell.
+
+That done, he came forward to impart the ominous news which one of his
+riders had brought him at the gallop from the Porta Romana.
+
+A party of some fifty men, commanded by one of Cesare's captains, had
+ridden on in advance of the main army to call upon Pesaro to yield
+to the forces of the Church. And the people, without hesitation, had
+butchered the guard and thrown wide the gates, inviting the enemy to
+enter the town and seize the Castle. And to the end that this might be
+the better achieved, a hundred or so had traitorously taken up arms, and
+were pressing forward to support the little company that came, with
+such contemptuous daring, to storm our fortress and prepare the way for
+Valentino.
+
+It was a pretty situation this for the Lord Giovanni, and here were fine
+opportunities for some brave acting under the eyes of his adored Madonna
+Paola. How would he bear himself now? I wondered.
+
+He promised mighty well once the first shock of the news was overcome.
+
+"By God and His saints!" he roared, "though it may be all that it is
+given me to do, I'll strike a blow to punish these dastards who have
+betrayed me, and to crush the presumption of this captain who attacks us
+with fifty men. It is a contempt which he shall bitterly repent him."
+
+Then he thundered to Giacomo to marshal his men, and he called upon
+those of his courtiers who were knights to put on their armour that they
+might support him. Lastly he bade a page go help him to arm, that he
+might lead his little force in person.
+
+I saw Madonna Paola's eyes gleam with a sudden light of admiration,
+and I guessed that in the matter of Giovanni's valour her opinions were
+undergoing the same change as the verses had caused them to undergo in
+the matter of his intellect.
+
+Myself, I was amazed. For here was a Lord Giovanni I seemed never to
+have known, and I was eager to behold the sequel to so fine a prologue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+
+That valorous bearing that the Lord Giovanni showed whilst, with Madonna
+Paola's glance upon him, his fear of seeming afraid was greater than his
+actual fear of our assailants, he cast aside like a mantle once he was
+within the walls of his Castle, and under the eyes of none save the page
+and myself, for I followed idly at a respectful distance.
+
+He stood irresolute and livid of countenance, his eagerness to arm and
+to lead his mercenaries and his knights all departed out of him. It was
+that curiosity of mine to see the sequel to his stout words that had led
+me to follow him, and what I saw was, after all, no more than I might
+have looked for--the proof that his big talk of sallying forth to battle
+was but so much acting. Yet it must have been acting of such a quality
+as to have deceived even his very self.
+
+Now, however, by the main steps, he halted in the cool gloom of the
+gallery, and I saw that fear had caught his heart in an icy grip and was
+squeezing it empty. In his irresolution he turned about, and his gloomy
+eye fell upon me loitering in the porch. At that he turned to the page
+who followed in obedience to his command.
+
+"Begone!" he growled at the lad, "I will have Boccadoro, there, to help
+me arm." And with a poor attempt at mirth--"The act is a madness," he
+muttered, "and so it is fitting that folly should put on my armour for
+it. Come with me, you," he bade me, and I, obediently, gladly, went
+forward and up the wide stone staircase after him, leaving the page to
+speculate as he listed on the matter of his abrupt dismissal.
+
+I read the Lord Giovanni's motives, as clearly as if they had been
+written for me by his own hand. The opinion in which I might hold him
+was to him a matter of so small account that he little cared that I
+should be the witness of the weakness which he feared was about to
+overcome him--nay, which had overcome him already. Was I not the one man
+in Pesaro who already knew his true nature, as revealed by that matter
+of the verses which I had written, and of which he had assumed the
+authorship? He had no shame before me, for I already knew the very
+worst of him, and he was confident that I would not talk lest he should
+destroy me at my first word. And yet, there was more than that in his
+motive for choosing me to go with him in that hour, as I was to learn
+once we were closeted in his chamber.
+
+"Boccadoro," he cried, "can you not find me some way out of this?" Under
+his beard I saw the quiver of his lips as he put the question.
+
+"Out of this?" I echoed, scarce understanding him at first.
+
+"Aye, man--out of this Castle, out of Pesaro. Bestir those wits of
+yours. Is there no way in which it might be done, no disguise under
+which I might escape?"
+
+"Escape?" quoth I, looking at him, and endeavouring to keep from my
+eyes the contempt that was in my heart. Dear God! Had revenge been all I
+sought of him, how I might have gloated over his miserable downfall!
+
+"Do not stand there staring with those hollow eyes," he cried, anger
+and fear blending horridly in his voice and rendering shrill its pitch.
+"Find me a way. Come, knave, find me a way, or I'll have you broken on
+the wheel. Set your wits to save that long, lean body from destruction.
+Think, I bid you."
+
+He was moving restlessly as he spoke, swayed by the agitation of terror
+that possessed him like a devil. I looked at him now without dissembling
+my scorn. Even in such an hour as this the habit of hectoring cruelty
+remained him.
+
+"What shall it avail me to think?" I asked him in a voice that was as
+cold and steady as his was hot and quavering. "Were you a bird I might
+suggest flight across the sea to you. But you are a man, a very human, a
+very mortal man, although your father made you Lord of Pesaro."
+
+Even as I was speaking, the thunder of the besiegers reached our
+ears--such a dull roar it was as that of a stormy sea in winter time.
+Maddened by his terror he stood over me now, his eyes flashing wildly in
+his white face.
+
+"Another word in such a tone," he rasped, his fingers on his dagger,
+"and I'll make an end of you. I need your help, animal!"
+
+I shook my head, my glance meeting his without fear. I was of twice his
+strength, we were alone, and the hour was one that levelled ranks. Had
+he made the least attempt to carry out his threat, had he but drawn an
+inch of the steel he fingered, I think I should have slain him with my
+hands without fear or thought of consequences.
+
+"I have no help for you such as you need," I answered him. "I am but the
+Fool of Pesaro. Whoever looked to a Fool for miracles?"
+
+"But here is death," he almost moaned.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro," I reminded him, "your mercenaries are under arms
+by your command, and your knights are joining them. They wait for the
+fulfilment of your promise to lead them out against the enemy. Shall you
+fail them in such an hour as this?"
+
+He sank, limp as an empty scabbard, to a chair.
+
+"I dare not go. It is death," he answered miserably.
+
+"And what but death is it to remain here?" I asked, torturing him with
+more zest than ever he had experienced over the agonies of some poor
+victim on the rack. "In bearing yourself gallantly there lies a slender
+chance for you. Your people seeing you in arms and ready to defend them
+may yet be moved to a return of loyalty."
+
+"A fig for their loyalty," was his peevish, craven answer. "What shall
+it avail me when I'm slain!"
+
+God! was there ever such a coward as this, such a weak-souled,
+water-hearted dastard?
+
+"But you may not be slain," I urged him. And then I sounded a fresh
+note. "Bethink you of Madonna Paola and of the brave things you promised
+her."
+
+He flushed a little, then paled again, then sat very still. Shame had
+touched him at last, yet its grip was not enough to make a man of him.
+A moment he remained irresolute, whilst that shame fought a hard battle
+with his fears.
+
+But those fears proved stronger in the end, and his shame was overthrown
+by them.
+
+"I dare not," he gasped, his slender, delicate hands clutching at the
+arms of his chair. "Heaven knows I am not skilled in the use of arms."
+
+"It asks no skill," I assured him. "Put on your armour, take a sword and
+lay about you. The most ignorant scullion in your kitchens could perform
+it given that he had the spirit."
+
+He moistened his lips with his tongue, and his eyes looked dead as a
+snake's. Suddenly he rose and took a step towards the armour that was
+piled about a great leathern chair. Then he paused and turned to me once
+more.
+
+"Help me to put it on," he said in a voice that he strove to
+render steady. Yet scarcely had I reached the pile and taken up the
+breast-plate, when he recoiled again from the task. He broke into a
+torrent of blasphemy.
+
+"I will not sacrifice myself," he almost screamed. "Jesus! not I. I will
+find a way out of this. I will live to return with an army and regain my
+throne."
+
+"A most wise purpose. But, meanwhile, your men are waiting for you;
+Madonna Paola di Santafior is waiting for you, and--hark!--the bellowing
+crowd is waiting for you."
+
+"They wait in vain," he snarled. "Who cares for them? The Lord of Pesaro
+am I."
+
+"Care you, then, nothing for them? Will you have your name written in
+history as that of a coward who would not lift his sword to strike one
+blow for honour's sake ere he was driven out like a beast by the mere
+sound of voices?"
+
+That touched him. His vanity rose in arms.
+
+"Take up that corselet," he commanded hoarsely. I did his bidding, and,
+without a word, he raised his arms that I might fit it to his breast.
+Yet in the instant that I turned me to pick up the back-piece, a crash
+resounded through the chamber. He had hurled the breastplate to the
+ground in a fresh access of terror-rage. He strode towards me, his eyes
+glittering like a madman's.
+
+"Go you!" he cried, and with outstretched arms he pointed wildly across
+the courtyard. "You are very ready with your counsels. Let me behold
+your deeds, Do you put on the armour and go out to fight those animals."
+
+He raved, he ranted, he scarce knew what he said or did, and yet the
+words he uttered sank deep into my heart, and a sudden, wild ambition
+swelled my bosom.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro," I cried, in a voice so compelling that it sobered him,
+"if I do this thing what shall be my reward?"
+
+He stared at me stupidly for a moment. Then he laughed in a silly,
+crackling fashion.
+
+"Eh?" he queried. "Gesu!" And he passed a hand over his damp brow, and
+threw back the hair that cumbered it. "What is the thing that you would
+do, Fool?"
+
+"Why, the thing you bade me," I answered firmly. "Put on your armour,
+and shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord Giovanni,
+Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides. If I do this thing, and put to rout the
+rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my
+reward?"
+
+He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint
+colour kindling in his face. He saw how easy the thing might be. Perhaps
+he recalled that he had heard that I was skilled in arms--having spent
+my youth in the exercise of them, against the time when I might fling
+the challenge that had brought me to my Fool's estate. Maybe he recalled
+how I had borne myself against long odds on that adventure with Madonna
+Paola, years ago. Just such a vanity as had spurred him to have me write
+him verses that he might pretend were of his own making, moved him now
+to grasp at my proposal. They would all think that Giovanni's armour
+contained Giovanni himself. None would ever suspect Boccadoro the Fool
+within that shell of steel. His honour would be vindicated, and he would
+not lose the esteem of Madonna Paola. Indeed, if I returned covered with
+glory, that glory would be his; and if he elected to fly thereafter,
+he might do so without hurt to his fair name, for he would have amply
+proved his mettle and his courage.
+
+In some such fashion I doubt not that the High and Mighty Giovanni
+Sforza reasoned during the seconds that we stood, face to face and
+eye to eye, in that room, the cries of the impatient ones below almost
+drowned in the roar of the multitude beyond.
+
+At last he put out his hands to seize mine, and drawing me to the light
+he scanned my face, Heaven alone knowing what it was he sought there.
+
+"If you do this," said he, "Biancomonte shall be yours again, if it
+remains in my power to bestow it upon you now or at any future time. I
+swear it by my honour."
+
+"Swear it by your fear of Hell or by your hope of Heaven and the compact
+is made," I answered, and so palsied was he and so fallen in spirit that
+he showed no resentment at the scorn of his honour my words implied, but
+there and then took the oath I that demanded.
+
+"And now," I urged, "help me to put on this armour of yours."
+
+Hurriedly I cast off my jester's doublet and my head-dress with its
+jangling bells, and with a wild exultation, a joy so fierce as almost
+to bring tears to my eyes, I held my arms aloft whilst that poor craven
+strapped about my body the back and breast plates of his corselet. I,
+the Fool, stood there as arrogant as any knight, whilst with his noble
+hands the Lord of Pesaro, kneeling, made secure the greaves upon
+my legs, the sollerets with golden spurs, the cuissarts and the
+genouilleres. Then he rose up, and with hands that trembled in his
+eagerness, he put on my brassarts and shoulder-plates, whilst I, myself,
+drew on my gauntlets. Next he adjusted the gorget, and handed me, last
+of all, the helm, a splendid head-piece of black and gold, surmounted by
+the Sforza lion.
+
+I took it from him and passed it over my head. Then ere I snapped down
+the visor and hid the face of Boccadoro, I bade him, unless he would
+render futile all this masquerade, to lock the door of his closet, and
+lie there concealed till my return. At that a sudden doubt assailed him.
+
+"And what," quoth he, "if you do not return?"
+
+In the fever that had possessed me this was a thing that had not entered
+into my calculations, nor should it now. I laughed, and from the hollow
+of my helmet not a doubt but the sound must have seemed charged with
+mockery. I pointed to the cap and doublet I had shed.
+
+"Why, then, Illustrious, it will but remain for you to complete the
+change."
+
+"Dog!" he cried; "beast, do you deride me?"
+
+My answer was to point out towards the yard.
+
+"They are clamouring," said I. "They wax impatient. I had better go
+before they come for you." As I spoke I selected a heavy mace for only
+weapon, and swinging it to my shoulder I stepped to the door. On the
+threshold he would have stayed me, purged by his fear of what might
+befall him did I not return. But I heeded him not.
+
+"Fare you well, my Lord of Pesaro," said I. "See that none penetrates to
+your closet. Make fast the door."
+
+"Stay!" he called after me. "Do you hear me? Stay!"
+
+"Others will hear you if you commit this folly," I called back to him.
+"Get you to cover." And so I left him.
+
+Below, in the courtyard, my coming was hailed by a great, enthusiastic
+clamour. They had all but abandoned hope of seeing the Lord Giovanni, so
+long had he been about his arming. As they brought forward my charger, I
+sought with my eyes Madonna Paola. I beheld her by her brother--who, it
+seemed, was not going with us--in the front rank of the spectators.
+Her cheeks were tinged with a slight flush of excitement, and her eyes
+glowed at the brave sight of armed men.
+
+I mounted, and as I rode past her to take my place at the head of that
+company, I lowered my mace and bowed. She detained me a moment, setting
+her hand upon the glossy neck of my black charger.
+
+"My Lord," she said, in a low voice, intended for my ear alone, "this is
+a brave and gallant thing you do, and however slight may be your hope
+of prevailing, yet your honour will be safe-guarded by this act, and
+men will remember you with respect should it come to pass that a usurper
+shall possess anon your throne. Bear you that in mind to lend you a glad
+courage. I shall pray for you, my Lord, till you return."
+
+I bowed, answering never a word lest my voice should betray me; and
+musing on the matter of the strange roads that lead to a woman's heart,
+I passed on, to gain the van.
+
+Two months ago, knowing Giovanni as he was, he had been detestable to
+her, and she contemplated with loathing the danger in which she stood
+of being allied to him by marriage. Since then he had made good use of a
+poor jester's mental gifts to incline her by the fervour of some verses
+to a kindlier frame of mind, and now, making good use of that same
+jester's courage, he completed her subjection by the display of it.
+She was prepared to wed the Lord Giovanni with a glad heart and a proud
+willingness whensoever he should desire it.
+
+But Giacomo was beside me now, and in the quadrangle a silence reigned,
+all waiting for my command. From without there came such a din as seemed
+to argue that all hell was at the Castle gates. There were shouts of
+defiance and screams of abuse, whilst a constant rain of stones beat
+against the raised drawbridge.
+
+They thought, no doubt, that Giovanni and his followers were at their
+prayers, cowering with terror. No notion had they of the armed force,
+some six score strong, that waited to pour down upon them. I briskly
+issued my command, and four men detached themselves and let down the
+bridge. It fell with a crash, and ere those without had well grasped the
+situation we had hurled ourselves across and into them with the force of
+a wedge, flinging them to right and to left as we crashed through with
+hideous slaughter. The bridge swung up again when the last of Giacomo's
+mercenaries was across, and we were shut out, in the midst of that
+fierce human maelstrom.
+
+For some five minutes there raged such a brief, hot fight as will be
+remembered as long as Pesaro stands. No longer than that did it take for
+the crowd of citizens to realise that war was not their trade, and that
+they had better leave the fighting to Cesare Borgia's men; and so they
+fell away and left us a clear road to come at the men-at-arms. But
+already some forty of our saddles were empty, and the fight, though
+brief, had proved exhausting to many of us.
+
+Before us, like an array of mirrors in the October sun, shone the
+serried ranks of the steel-cased Borgia soldiers, their lances in rest,
+waiting to receive us. Their leader, a gigantic man whose head was armed
+by no more than a pot of burnished steel, from which escaped the
+long red ringlets of his hair, was that same Ramiro del' Orca who had
+commanded the party pursuing Madonna Paola three years ago. He was,
+since, become the most redoubtable of Cesare's captains, and his name
+was, perhaps, the best hated in Italy for the grim stories that were
+connected with it.
+
+As we rode on he backed to join the foremost rank of his soldiers, and
+his voice--a voice that Stentor might have envied--trumpeted a laugh at
+sight of us.
+
+"Gesu!" he roared, so that I heard him above the thunder of our hoofs.
+"What has come to Giovanni Sforza. Has he, perchance, become a man since
+Madonna Lucrezia divorced him? I will bear her the news of it, my good
+Giovanni--my living thunderbolt of Jove!"
+
+His men echoed his boisterous mood, infected by it, and this, I argued,
+boded ill for the courage of those that followed me. Another moment and
+we had swept into them, and many there were who laughed no more, or went
+to laugh with those in Hell.
+
+For myself I singled out the blustering Ramiro, and I let him know it
+by a swinging blow of my mace upon his morion. It was a most
+finely-tempered piece of steel, for my stroke made no impression on
+it, though Ramiro winced and raised his stout sword to return the
+compliment.
+
+"Body of God!" he croaked, "you become a very god of war, Giovanni. To
+me, then, my lusty Mars! We'll make a fight of it that poets shall sing
+of over winter fires. Look to yourself!"
+
+His sword caught me a cunning, well-aimed blow on the side of my helm,
+and thence, glanced to my shoulder. But for the quality of Giovanni's
+head-piece of a truth there had been an end to the warring of a Fool.
+I smote him back, a mighty blow upon his epauliere that shore the steel
+plate from his shoulder, and left him a vulnerable spot. At that he
+swore ferociously, and his bloodshot eyes grew wicked as the fiend's. A
+second time he essayed that side-long blow upon my helm, and with such
+force and ready address that he burst the fastening of my visor on the
+left, so that it swung down and left my beaver open.
+
+With a cry of triumph he closed with me, and shortened his sword to stab
+me in the face. And then a second cry escaped him, for the countenance
+he beheld was not the countenance he had looked to see. Instead of
+the fair skin, the handsome features and the bearded mouth of the
+Lord Giovanni, he beheld a shaven face, a hooked nose and a complexion
+swarthy as the devil's.
+
+"I know you, rogue," he roared. "By the Host! your valour seemed too
+fierce for Giovanni Sforza. You are Bocca--"
+
+Exerting all the strength that I had been gradually collecting, I hurled
+him back with a force that almost drove him from the saddle, and rising
+in my stirrups I rained blow after blow upon his morion ere he could
+recover.
+
+"Dog!" I muttered softly, "your knowledge shall be the death of you."
+
+He drew away from me at last, and during the moments that I spent in
+readjusting my visor he sallied, and charged me again. His blustering
+was gone and his face grown pale, for such blows as mine could not have
+been without effect. Not a doubt of it but he was taken with amazement
+to find such fighting qualities in a Fool--an amazement that must
+have eclipsed even that of finding Boccadoro in the armour of Giovanni
+Sforza.
+
+Again he swung his sword in that favourite stroke of his; but this time
+I caught the edge upon my mace, and ere he could recover I aimed a blow
+straight at his face. He lowered his head, like a bull on the point of
+charging, and so my blow descended again upon his morion, but with a
+force that rolled him, senseless, from the saddle.
+
+Before I could take a breathing space I was beset by, at least, a dozen
+of his followers who had stood at hand during the encounter, never
+doubting that victory must be ultimately with their invincible captain.
+They drove me back foot by foot, fighting lustily, and performing--it
+was said afterwards by the anxious ones that watched us from the Castle,
+among whom was Madonna Paola--such deeds of strength and prowess as
+never romancer sang of in his wildest flight of fancy.
+
+My men had suffered sorely, but the brave Giacomo still held them
+together, fired by the example that I set him, until in the end the day
+was ours. Discouraged by the disabling of their captain, so soon as they
+had gathered him up our opponents thought of nothing but retreat; and
+retreat they did, hotly pursued by us, and never allowed to pause or
+slacken rein until we had hurled them out of the town of Pesaro, to
+get them back to Cesare Borgia with the tale of their ignominious
+discomfiture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+As we rode back through the town of Pesaro, some fifty men of the six
+score that had sallied from the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the
+streets well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citizens having fled back to
+the shelter of their homes, like rats to their burrows in time of peril.
+
+As we advanced through the shambles that we had left about the Castle
+gates, it occurred to me that within the courtyard a crowd would be
+waiting to receive and welcome me, and it became necessary to devise
+some means of avoiding this reception. I beckoned Giacomo to my side.
+
+"Let it be given out that I will speak to no man until I have
+rendered thanks to Heaven for this signal victory," I muttered to the
+unsuspecting Albanian. "Do you clear a way for me so soon a we are
+within."
+
+He obeyed me so well that when the bridge had been let down, he preceded
+me with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those
+that would have approached--among the first of whom were Madonna Paola
+and her brother.
+
+"Way!" he shouted. "Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of Pesaro!"
+
+Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed still
+to conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the eastern
+wing and dismounted. Two or three attendants sprang forward, ready to
+go with me that they might assist me to disarm. But I waved them
+imperiously back, and mounted the stairs alone. Alone I crossed the
+ante-chamber, and tapped at the door of the Lord Giovanni's closet.
+Instantly it opened, for he had watched my return and been awaiting me.
+Hastily he drew me in and closed the door.
+
+He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf. Yet at the
+sight that I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to
+stare at my armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning stains,
+which loudly proclaimed the fray through which I had been.
+
+He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had
+rendered him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me,
+all in terms of a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more than
+ever his cruelties had done. I took off my helmet whilst he spoke, and
+let it fall with a crash. The face I revealed to him was livid with
+fatigue, and blackened with the dust that had caked upon my sweat. He
+came forward again and helped hastily to strip off my harness, and when
+that was done he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer of embossed
+gold from which he poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash.
+Macerated sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better
+that I might cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by
+my ablutions, he poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that
+seemed to infuse fresh life into my veins. And all the time he spoke
+of the prowess I had shown, and lamented that all these years he should
+have had me at his Court and never guessed my worth.
+
+At length I turned to resume my clothes. And since it must excite
+comment and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my
+jester's garish livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap and
+bells.
+
+"Wear it yet for a little while," he said, "and thus complete the
+service you have done me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and
+resume your true estate. Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours
+again. The Lord of Pesaro does not betray his word."
+
+I smiled grimly at the pride of his utterance.
+
+"It is an easy thing," said I, "freely to give that which is no longer
+ours."
+
+He coloured with the anger that was ever ready.
+
+"What shall that mean?" he asked.
+
+"Why, that in a few days you will have Cesare Borgia here, and you will
+be Lord of Pesaro no more. I have saved your honour for you. More than
+that it were idle to attempt."
+
+"Think not that I shall submit," he cried. "I shall find in Italy the
+help I need to return and drive the usurper out. You must have faith in
+that, yourself, else had you never bargained with me as you have done
+for the return of your Estates."
+
+To that I answered nothing, but urged him to go below and show himself;
+and the better that he might bear himself among his courtiers, I
+detailed to him the most salient features of that fight.
+
+He went, not without a certain uneasiness which, however, was soon
+dispelled by the thunder of acclamation with which he was received; not
+only by his courtiers, but by the soldiers who had fought in that hot
+skirmish, and who believed that it was he had led them.
+
+Meanwhile I sat above, in the closet he had vacated, and thence I
+watched him, with such mingling feelings in my heart as baffle now my
+halting pen. Scorn there was in my mood and a hot contempt of him
+that he could stand there and accept their acclamation with an air of
+humility that I am persuaded was assumed: a certain envious anger was
+there, too, to think that such a weak-kneed, lily-livered craven should
+receive the plaudits of the deeds that I, his buffoon, had performed for
+him. Those acclamations were not for him, although those who acclaimed
+him thought so. They were for the man who had routed Ramiro del' Orca
+and his followers, and that man assuredly was I. Yet there I crouched
+above, behind the velvet curtains where none might see me, whilst he
+stood smiling and toying with his brown beard and listening to the fine
+words of praise that, I could imagine, were falling from the lips of
+Madonna Paola, who had drawn near and was speaking to him.
+
+There is in my nature a certain love of effectiveness, a certain taste
+for theatrical parade and the contriving of odd situations. This bent of
+mine was whispering to me then to throw wide the window, and, stemming
+their noisy plaudits, announce to them the truth of what had passed. Yet
+what if I had done so? They would have accounted it but a new jest of
+Boccadoro, the Fool, and one so ill-conceived that they might urge the
+Lord Giovanni to have him whipped for it.
+
+Aye, it would have been a folly, a futile act that would have earned me
+unbelief, contempt and anger. And yet there was a moment when jealousy
+urged me almost headlong to that rashness. For in Madonna Paola's
+eyes there was a new expression as they rested on the face of Giovanni
+Sforza--an expression that told me she had come to love this man whom a
+little while ago she had despised.
+
+God! was there ever such an irony? Was there ever such a paradox? She
+loved him, and yet it was not him she loved. The man she loved was the
+man who had shown the qualities of his mind in the verses with which the
+Court was ringing; the man who had that morning given proof of his high
+mettle and knightly prowess by the deeds of arms he had performed. I was
+that man--not he at whom so adoringly she looked. And so--I argued, in
+my warped way and with the philosophy worthy of a Fool--it was I
+whom she loved, and Giovanni was but the symbol that stood for me. He
+represented the songs and the deeds that were mine.
+
+But if I did not throw wide that window and proclaim the fact to ears
+that would have been deaf to the truth of them, what think you that I
+did? I took a subtler vengeance. I repaired to my own chamber, procured
+me pen and ink, and, there, with a heart that was brimming over with
+gall, I penned an epic modelled upon the stately lines of Virgil,
+wherein I sang the prowess of the Lord Giovanni Sforza, describing that
+morning's mighty feat of arms, and detailing each particular of the
+combat 'twixt Giovanni and Ramiro del' Orca.
+
+It was a brave thing when it was done; a finer and worthier poetical
+achievement than any that I had yet encompassed, and that night, after
+they had supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been
+heard of, and whilst they were still sitting at their wine, I got me a
+lute and stole down to the banqueting hall.
+
+I announced myself by leaping on a table and loudly twanging the strings
+of my instrument. There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of acclamation.
+They were in a high good-humour, and the Fool with a new song was the
+very thing they craved.
+
+When silence was restored I began, and whilst my fingers moved
+sluggishly across the strings, striking here and there a chord,
+I recited the epic I had penned. My voice swelled with a feverish
+enthusiasm whose colossal irony none there save one could guess. He, at
+first surprised, grew angry presently, as I could see by the cloud that
+had settled on his brow. Yet he restrained himself, and the rest of
+the company were too enthralled by the breathless quality of my poem to
+bestow their glances on any countenance save mine.
+
+Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro's right, and her blue eyes
+were round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded. And when
+presently I came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro
+del' Orca, when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni's visor,
+was on the point of driving his sword into his adversary's face, I saw
+her shrink in a repetition of the morning's alarm, and her bosom heaved
+more swiftly, as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines
+and she were made anxious again for the life of the man whom she had
+learnt to love.
+
+I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling
+softly, after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety
+that had succeeded the Lord of Pesaro's brave exploits, and how upon his
+return from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his closet,
+his battered and bloody harness on his back, that he might kneel ere he
+disarmed and render thanks to God for the victory vouchsafed him.
+
+On that "Te Deum" I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
+vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my
+reward.
+
+Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the
+table on which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one
+noble woman kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth
+was indeed a mouth of gold.
+
+Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining
+with excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance,
+and I knew that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by
+causing her to realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure
+that I sang. The sight of it almost turned me faint, and I would have
+eluded them and got away as I had come but that they lifted me up and
+bore me so to the table at which the Lord Giovanni sat. He smiled, but
+his face was very pale. Could it be that I had touched him? Could it be
+that I had driven the iron into his soul, and that he could not bear to
+confront me, knowing what a dastard I must deem him?
+
+The splendid Filippo of Santafior had risen to his feet, and was waving
+a white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence. When at
+last it came he spoke, his voice silvery and his accents mincing.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro; I demand a boon. He who for years has suffered the
+ignominy of the motley is at last revealed to us as a poet of such
+magnitude of soul and richness of expression that he would not suffer
+by comparison with the great Bojardo or tim greater Virgil. Let him be
+stripped for ever of that hideous garb he wears, and let him be treated,
+hereafter, with the dignity his high gifts deserve. Thus shall the day
+come when Pesaro will take honour in calling him her son."
+
+Loud and long was the applause that succeeded his words, and when at
+last it had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved equal to the occasion,
+like the consummate actor that he was.
+
+"I would," said he, "that these high gifts, of which to-night he has
+afforded proof, could have been employed upon a worthier subject. I fear
+me that since you have heard his epic you will be prone to overestimate
+the deed of which it tells the story. I would, too, my friends," he
+continued, with a sigh, "that it were still mine to offer him such
+encouragement as he deserves. But I am sorely afraid that my days in
+Pesaro are numbered, that my sands are all but run--at least, for a
+little while. The conqueror is at our gates, and it would be vain to
+set against the overwhelming force of his numbers the handful of
+valiant knights and brave soldiers that to-day opposed and scattered his
+forerunners. It is my intention to withdraw, now that my honour is safe
+by what has passed, and that none will dare to say that it was through
+fear that I fled. Yet my absence, I trust, may be but brief. I go to
+collect the necessary resources, for I have powerful friends in this
+Italy whose interests touching the Duca Valentino go hand in hand with
+mine, and who will, thus, be the readier to lend me assistance. Once I
+have this, I shall return and then--woe to the vanquished!"
+
+The tide of enthusiasm that had been rising as he spoke, now overflowed.
+Swords leapt from their scabbards--mere toy weapons were they, meant
+more for ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest of the stouter
+arms those gentlemen were ready to wield when the time came. He quieted
+their clamours with a dignified wave of the hand.
+
+"When that day comes I shall see to it that Boccadoro has his deserts.
+Meanwhile let the suggestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon, and
+let this gifted poet be arrayed in a manner that shall sort better with
+the nobility of his mind that to-night he has revealed to us."
+
+Thus was it that I came, at last, to shed the motley and move among men
+garbed as themselves. And with my outward trappings I cast off, too,
+the name of Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte.
+
+But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon
+which I was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that
+followed that first Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the Lord
+Giovanni's Court passed out of being.
+
+It came about with his flight to Bologna, accompanied by the Albanian
+captain and his men, as well as by several of the knights who had joined
+in Sunday's fray. Ardently, as I came afterwards to learn, did he urge
+Madonna Paola and her brother to go with them, and I believe that the
+lady would have done his will in this had not the Lord Filippo opposed
+the step. He was no warrior himself, he swore--for it was a thing he
+made open boast of, affecting to despise all who followed the coarse
+trade of arms--and, as for his sister, it was not fitting that she
+should go with a fugitive party made up of a handful of knights and some
+fifty rough mercenaries, and be exposed to the hardships and perils
+that must be theirs. Not even when he was reminded that the advancing
+conqueror was Cesare Borgia did it affect him, for despite his shallow,
+mincing ways, and his paraded scorn of war and warriors, the Lord
+Filippo was stout enough at heart. He did not fear the Borgia, he
+answered serenely, and if he came, he would offer him such hospitality
+as lay within his power.
+
+He came at last, did the mighty Cesare, although between his coming and
+Giovanni's flight a full fortnight sped. As for myself, I spent the time
+at the Sforza Palace, whither the Lord Filippo had carried me as his
+guest, he being greatly taken with me and determined to become my
+patron. We had news of Giovanni, first from Bologna and later from
+Ravenna, whither he was fled. At first he talked of returning to Pesaro
+with three hundred men he hoped to have from the Marquis of Mantua. But
+probably this was no more than another piece of that big talk of his,
+meant to impress the sorrowing and repining Madonna Paola, who suffered
+more for him, maybe, than he suffered himself.
+
+She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his
+mental gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and
+for all that my gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this
+injustice to myself, I held my peace. Indeed, indeed, it was better
+so. For all that I was no longer Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, the poet, I was not so much better that I could indulge
+any mad aspirations of my own such as might have led me to betray the
+dastard who had arrayed his craven self in the peacock feathers of my
+achievements.
+
+In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me
+I made bold, on the eve of Cesare's arrival, to suggest to him that he
+should remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of
+Santa Caterina whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of
+her should remind Cesare of the old-time marriage plans which his family
+had centred round this lady, and lead to their revival. Filippo heard
+me kindly, and thanked me freely for the solicitude which my counsel
+argued. For the rest, however, it was a counsel that he frankly admitted
+he saw no need to follow.
+
+"In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained such
+plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the fortunes
+of the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable
+match for one of its members is now scarcely worthy of their attention.
+I do not think," he concluded, "that we have the least reason to fear a
+renewal of that suit."
+
+It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble
+motives in men's actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord
+Filippo would not be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to
+reopen negotiations for the bestowing of Madonna Paola's hand upon the
+Pope's nephew Ignacio. That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in the
+three years had taken place and which, he contended, would render
+them more ambitious than to seek alliance with the House of Santafior,
+rendered them, nevertheless, in his eyes a more desirable family to be
+allied with than in the days when he had counselled his sister's flight
+from Rome. And so, I thought, despite what stood between her and the
+Lord Giovanni, Filippo would know no scruple now in urging her into an
+alliance with the House of Borgia, should they manifest a willingness to
+have that old affair reopened.
+
+On the 29th of that same month of October, Cesare arrived in Pesaro. His
+entry was a triumphant procession, and the orderliness that prevailed
+among the two thousand men-at-arms that he brought with him was a thing
+that spoke eloquently for the wondrous discipline enforced by this great
+condottiero.
+
+The Lord Filippo was among those that met him, and like the time-server
+that he was, he placed the Sforza Palace at his disposal.
+
+The Duca Valentino came with his retinue and the gentlemen of his
+household, among whom was ever conspicuous by his great size and red
+ugliness the Captain Ramiro del' Orca, who now seemed to act in many
+ways as Cesare's factotum. This captain, for reasons which it is
+unnecessary to detail, I most sedulously avoided.
+
+On the evening of his arrival Cesare supped in private with Filippo and
+the members of Filippo's household--that is to say, with Madonna Paola
+and two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of
+the Lord Filippo. Cesare's only attendants were two cavaliers of his
+retinue, Bartolomeo da Capranica, his Field-Marshal, and Dorio Savelli,
+a nobleman of Rome.
+
+Cesare Borgia, this man whose name had so terrible a sound in the ears
+of Italy's little princelings, this man whose power and whose great
+gifts of mind had made him the subject of such bitter envy and fear,
+until he was the best-hated gentleman in Italy--and, therefore, the most
+calumniated--was little changed from that Cardinal of Valencia, in
+whose service I had been for a brief season. The pallor of his face was
+accentuated by the ill-health in which he found himself just then, and
+the air of feverish restlessness that had always pervaded him was grown
+more marked in the years that were sped, as was, after all, but natural,
+considering the nature of the work that had claimed him since he had
+deposed his priestly vestments. He was splendidly arrayed, and he bore
+himself with an imperial dignity, a dignity, nevertheless, tempered with
+graciousness and charm, and as I regarded him then, it was borne in upon
+me that no fitter name could his godfathers have bestowed on him than
+that of Cesare.
+
+The Lord Filippo exerted all his powers worthily to entertain his noble
+and illustrious guest, and by his extreme, almost servile affability it
+not only would seem that he had forgotten the favour and shelter he
+had received at the hands of the Lord Giovanni, but it confirmed my
+suspicions of his willingness to advance his own fortunes by breaking
+with the fallen tyrant in so far as his sister was concerned.
+
+Short of actually making the proposal itself, it would seem that Filippo
+did all in his power to urge his sister upon the attention of Cesare.
+But Duke Valentino's mind at that time was too full of the concerns of
+conquest and administration to find room for a matter to him so trifling
+as the enriching of his cousin Ignacio by a wealthy alliance. To this
+alone, I thought, was it due that Madonna Paola escaped the persecution
+that might then have been hers.
+
+On the morrow Cesare moved on to Rimini, leaving his administrators
+behind him to set right the affairs of Pesaro, and ensure its proper
+governing, in his name, hereafter.
+
+And now that, for the present, my hopes of ever seeing my own wrongs
+redressed and my estates returned to me were too slender to justify my
+remaining longer in Pesaro, I craved of the Lord Filippo permission to
+withdraw, telling him frankly that my tardily aroused duty called me to
+my widowed mother, whom for some six years I had not seen. He threw no
+difficulty in the way of my going; and I was free to depart. And now
+came the hidden pain of my leave-taking of Madonna Paola. She seemed to
+grieve at my departure.
+
+"Lazzaro," she cried, when I had told her of my intention, "do you, too,
+desert me? And I have ever held you my best of friends."
+
+I told her of the mother and of the duty that I owed her, whereupon she
+remonstrated no more, nor sought to do other than urge me to go to her.
+And then I spoke of Madonna's kindness to me, and of the friendship with
+which she had honoured one so lowly, and in the end I swore, with my
+hand on my heart and my soul on my lips, that if ever she had work for
+me, she would not need to call me twice.
+
+"This ring, Madonna," said I, "was given me by the Lord Cesare Borgia,
+and was to have proved a talisman to open wide for me the door to
+fortune. It did better service than that, Madonna. It was the talisman
+that saved you from your pursuers that day at Cagli, three years ago."
+
+"You remind me, Lazzaro," she cried, "of how much you have sacrificed
+in my service. Yours must be a very noble nature that will do so much to
+serve a helpless lady without any hope of guerdon."
+
+"Nay, nay," I answered lightly, "you must not make so much of it. It
+would never have sorted with my inclinations to have turned man-at-arms.
+This ring, Madonna, that once has served you, I beg that you will keep,
+for it may serve you again."
+
+"I could not, Lazzaro! I could not!" she exclaimed, recoiling, yet
+without any show of deeming presumptuous my words or of being offended
+by them.
+
+"If you would make me the reward that you say I have earned, you will
+do this for me. It will make me happier, Madonna. Take it"--I thrust it
+into her unwilling hand--"and if ever you should need me send it back to
+me. That ring and the name of the place where you abide by the lips of
+the messenger you choose, and with a glad heart, as fast as horse can
+bear me, shall I ride to serve you once again."
+
+"In such a spirit, yes," said she. "I take it willingly, to treasure it
+as a buckler against danger, since by means of it I can bring you to my
+aid in time of peril."
+
+"Madonna, do not overestimate my powers," I besought her. "I would have
+you see in me no more than I am. But it sometimes happens that the mouse
+may aid the lion."
+
+"And when I need the lion to aid the mouse, my good Lazzaro, I will send
+for you."
+
+There were tears in her voice, and her eyes were very bright.
+
+"Addio, Lazzaro," she murmured brokenly. "May God and His saints protect
+you. I will pray for you, and I shall hope to see you again some day, my
+friend."
+
+"Addio, Madonna!" was all that I could trust myself to say ere I fled
+from her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the
+sobs that were threatening to betray the anguish that was ravaging my
+soul.
+
+
+
+
+PART II. THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+CHAPTER XI. MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+
+However great the part that my mother--sainted woman that she was--may
+have played in my life, she nowise enters into the affairs of this
+chronicle, so that it would be an irrelevance and an impertinence to
+introduce her into these pages. Of the joy with which she welcomed me to
+the little home near Biancomonte, in which the earnings of Boccadoro the
+Fool had placed her, it could interest you but little to read in detail,
+nor could it interest you to know of the gentle patience with which
+she cheered and humoured me during the period that I sojourned there,
+tilling the little plot she owned, reaping and garnering like any born
+villano. With a woman's quick intuition she guessed perhaps the canker
+that was eating at my heart, and with a mother's blessed charity she
+sought to soothe and mitigate my pain.
+
+It was during this period of my existence that the poetic gifts I had
+discovered myself possessed of whilst at Pesaro, burst into full
+bloom; and not a little relief did I find in the penning of those
+love-songs--the true expression of what was in my heart--which have
+since been given to the world under the title of Le Rime di Boccadoro.
+And what time I tended my mother's land by day, and wrote by night of
+the feverish, despairing love that was consuming me, I waited for the
+call that, sooner or later, I knew must come. What prophetic instinct
+it was had rooted that certainty in my heart I do not pretend to say.
+Perhaps my hope was of such a strength that it assumed the form of
+certainty to solace the period of my hermitage. But that some day
+Madonna Paola's messenger would arrive bringing me the Borgia ring, I
+was as confident as that some day I must die.
+
+Two years went by, and we were in the Autumn of 1502, yet my faith
+knew no abating, my confidence was strong as ever. And, at last, that
+confidence was justified. One night of early October, as I sat at supper
+with my mother after the labours of the day, a sound of hoofs disturbed
+the peace of the silent night. It drew rapidly nearer, and long before
+the knock fell upon our door, I knew that it was the messenger from my
+lady.
+
+My mother looked at me across the board, an expression of alarm
+overspreading her old face. "Who," her eyes seemed to ask me, "was this
+horseman that rode so late?"
+
+My hound rose from the hearth with a growl, and stood bristling, his
+eyes upon the door. White-haired old Silvio, the last remaining retainer
+of the House of Biancomonte, came forth from the kitchen, with inquiry
+and fear blending on his wrinkled, weather-beaten countenance.
+
+And I, seeing all these signs of alarm, yet knowing what awaited me
+on the threshold, rose with a laugh, and in a bound had crossed the
+intervening space. I flung wide the door, and from the gloom without a
+man's voice greeted me with a question.
+
+"Is this the house of Messer Lazzaro Biancomonte?"
+
+"I am that Lazzaro Biancomonte," answered I. "What may your pleasure
+be?"
+
+The stranger advanced until he came within the light. He was plainly
+dressed, and wore a jerkin of leather and long boots. From his air I
+judged him a servant or a courier. He doffed his hat respectfully, and
+held out his right hand in which something was gleaming yellow. It was
+the Borgia ring.
+
+"Pesaro," was all he said.
+
+I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh himself
+ere he returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
+
+"I am not returning," the man informed me. "I am a courier riding to
+Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in passing."
+
+Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set
+before him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him
+to tell me what he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news
+there was of the Lord Giovanni. He had little enough to tell. Pesaro
+was flourishing and prospering under the Borgia dominion. Of the Lord
+Giovanni there was little news, saving that he was living under the
+protection of the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so long as he was content
+to abide there the Borgias seemed disposed to give him peace.
+
+Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and Madonna
+Paola. On this subject he was better informed. Madonna Paola was well
+and still lived with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro. The Lord
+Filippo was high in favour with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had been
+frequently his guest at Pesaro, whilst once, for a few days, the Lord
+Ignacio de Borgia had accompanied his illustrious cousin.
+
+I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her summons
+no longer asked conjecture. It was an easy thing for me, knowing what I
+knew, to fill in the details which the courier omitted in ignorance from
+the story.
+
+The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister
+upon the notice of the Borgia family--perhaps even approached Cesare--in
+such a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to
+Ignacio, who had, meanwhile, remained unmarried. I could read that
+opportunist's motives as easily as if he had written them down for my
+instruction. Giovanni Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I
+could imagine how he had plied his wits to aid his sister to forget
+him, or else to remember him no longer with affection. Whether he had
+succeeded or not I could not say until I had seen her; but meanwhile,
+deeming ripe the soil of her heart for the new attachment that should
+redound so much to his own credit--now that the House of Borgia had
+risen to such splendid heights--he was driving her into this alliance
+with Ignacio.
+
+Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out
+that same night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising
+to return as soon as might be. All night I rode, my soul now tortured
+with anxiety, now exalted at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which
+was so soon to be mine. I was at the gates of Pesaro before matins, and
+within the Palazzo Sforza ere its inmates had broken their fast.
+
+The Lord Filippo welcomed me with a certain effusion, chiding me for my
+long absence and the ingratitude it had seemed to indicate, and never
+dreaming by what summons I was brought back.
+
+"You are well-returned," he told me in conclusion. "We shall need you
+soon, to write an epithalamium."
+
+"You are to be wed, Magnificent?" quoth I at last, at which he laughed
+consumedly.
+
+"Nay, we shall need the song for my sister's nuptials. She is to wed the
+Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas."
+
+"A lofty theme," I answered with humility, "and one that may well demand
+resources nobler than those of my poor pen."
+
+"Then get you to work at once upon it. I will have your chamber
+prepared."
+
+He sent for his seneschal, a person--like most Of the servants at the
+Palace--strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be sumptuously
+lodged. He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity that
+seemed to surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had undergone
+such changes and been so enriched during the past two years as to go
+near defying recognition.
+
+When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for me,
+I made bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
+
+"She is in the garden, Illustrious," answered the seneschal, deeming
+me, no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had indicated
+should be shown me. "Madonna has the wisdom to seek the little sunshine
+the year still holds. Winter will be soon upon us."
+
+I agreed with the old man, and dismissed him. So soon as he was gone, I
+quitted my chamber, and all dust staineded as I was I made my way down
+to the garden. A turn in one of the boxwood-bordered alleys brought me
+suddenly face to face with Madonna Paola.
+
+A moment we stood looking at each other, my heart swelling within me
+until I thought that it must burst. Then I advanced a step and sank on
+one knee before her.
+
+"You sent for me, Madonna. I am here." There was a pause, and when
+presently I looked up into her blessed face I saw a smile of infinite
+sorrow on her lips, blending oddly with the gladness that shone from her
+sweet eyes.
+
+"You faithful one," she murmured at last. "Dear Lazzaro, I did not look
+for you so soon."
+
+"Within an hour of your messenger's arrival I was in the saddle, nor did
+I pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro. I am here to serve you
+to the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails me
+is that my power may be all too small for the service that you need."
+
+"Is its nature known to you?" she asked in wonder. Then, ere I had
+answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
+
+"I have guessed it," answered I, "guided by such scraps of information
+as from your messenger I gleaned. It concerns, unless I err, the Lord
+Ignacio Borgia."
+
+"Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness," she said, with a sad
+smile, "and I doubt me you know all."
+
+"The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me--that
+you are to be wed before Christmas. He has ordered me to write your
+epithalamium."
+
+She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by
+side, and, as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to
+make a carpet for our fret, she told me in her own way more or less
+what I have set down, even to her brother's self-seeking share in the
+transaction that she dubbed hideous and abhorrent.
+
+She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped. She
+was in her twenty-first year, but in reality she seemed to me no older
+than she had been on that day when first I saw her arguing with her
+grooms upon the road to Cagli. And from this I reassured myself that she
+had not been fretted overmuch by the absence of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+Presently she spoke of him and of her plighted word which her brother
+and those supple gentlemen of the House of Borgia were inducing her to
+dishonour.
+
+"Once before, in a case almost identical, when all seemed lost, you
+came--as if Heaven directed--to my rescue. This it is that gives me
+confidence in such aid as you might lend me now."
+
+"Alas! Madonna," I sighed, "but the times are sorely changed and the
+situations with them. What is there now that I can do?"
+
+"What you did then. Take me beyond their reach."
+
+"Ah! But whither?"
+
+"Whither but to the Lord Giovanni? Is it not to him that my troth is
+plighted?"
+
+I shook my head in sorrow, a thrust of jealousy cutting me the while.
+
+"That may not be," said I. "It were not seemly, unless the Lord Giovanni
+were here himself to take you hence."
+
+"Then I will write to the Lord Giovanni," she cried. "I will write, and
+you shall bear my letter."
+
+"What think you will the Lord Giovanni do?" I burst out, with a scorn
+that must have puzzled her. "Think you his safety does not give him care
+enough in the hiding-place to which he has crept, that he should draw
+upon himself the vengeance of the Borgias?"
+
+She stared at me in ineffable surprise. "But the Lord Giovanni is
+brave and valiant," she cried, and down in my heart I laughed in bitter
+mockery.
+
+"Do you love the Lord Giovanni, Madonna?" I asked bluntly.
+
+My question seemed to awaken fresh astonishment. It may well be that it
+awakened, too, reflection. She was silent for a little space. Then--
+
+"I honour and respect him for a noble, chivalrous and gifted gentleman,"
+she answered me, and her answer made me singularly content, spreading a
+balm upon the wounds my soul had taken. But to her fresh intercessions
+that I should carry a letter to him, I shook my head again. My mood was
+stubborn.
+
+"Believe me, Madonna, it were not only unwise, but futile."
+
+She protested.
+
+"I swear it would be," I insisted, with a convincing force that left her
+staring at me and wondering whence I derived so much assurance. "We
+must wait. From now till Christmas we have more than two months. In two
+months much may befall. As a last resource we may consider communication
+with the Lord Giovanni. But it is a forlorn hope, Madonna, and so we
+will leave it until all else has failed us."
+
+She brightened at my promise that at least if other measures proved
+unavailing, we should adopt that course, and her brightening flattered
+me, for it bore witness to the supreme confidence she had in me.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, "I know you will not fail me. I trust you more than
+any living mam; more, I think, than even the Lord Giovanni, whom, if God
+pleases, I shall some day wed."
+
+"Thanks, Madonna mia," I answered, gratefully indeed. "It is a trust
+that I shall ever strive to justify. Meanwhile have faith and hope, and
+wait."
+
+Once before, when, to escape the schemes of her brother who would have
+wed her to the Lord Giovanni, she had appealed to me, the counsel I had
+given her had been much the same as that which I gave her now. At the
+irony of it I could have laughed had any other been in question but
+Madonna Paola--this tender White Flower of the Quince that was like to
+be rudely wilted by the ruthless hands of scheming men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+
+That night I would have supped in my own quarters but that Filippo sent
+for me and bade me join him and swell the little court he kept. At times
+I believe he almost thought that he was the true Lord of Pesaro--an
+opinion that may have been shared by not a few of the citizens
+themselves. Certainly he kept a greater state and was better housed than
+the duke of Valentinois' governor.
+
+It was a jovial company of perhaps a dozen nobles and ladies that met
+about his board, and Filippo bade his servants lay for me beside him. As
+we ate he questioned me touching the occupation that I had found during
+my absence from Pesaro. I used the greatest frankness with him, and
+answered that my life had been partly a peasants, partly a poet's.
+
+"Tell me what you wrote," he bade me his eyes resting on my face with a
+new look of interest, for his love of letters was one of the few things
+about him that was not affected.
+
+"A few novelle, dealing with court-life; but chiefly verses," answered
+I.
+
+"And with these verses--what have you done?"
+
+"I have them by me, Illustrious," I answered. He smiled, seemingly well
+pleased.
+
+"You must read them to us," he cried. "If they rival that epic of yours,
+which I have never forgotten, they should be worth hearing."
+
+And presently, supper being done, I went at his bidding to my chamber
+for my precious manuscripts, and, returning, I entertained the company
+with the reading of a portion of what I had written. They heard me with
+an attention that might have rendered me vain had my ambition really
+lain in being accounted a great writer; and when I paused, now and
+again, there was a murmur of applause, and many a pat on the shoulder
+from Filippo whenever a line, a phrase or a stanza took his fancy.
+
+I was perhaps too absorbed to pay any great attention to the impression
+my verses were producing, but presently, in one of my pauses, the
+Lord Filippo startled me with words that awoke me to a sense of my
+imprudence.
+
+"Do you know, Lazzaro, of what your lines remind me in an extraordinary
+measure?"
+
+"Of what, Excellency?" I asked politely, raising my eyes from my
+manuscript. They chanced to meet the glance of Madonna Paola. It was
+riveted upon me, and its expression was one I could not understand.
+
+"Of the love-songs of the Lord Giovanni Sforza," answered he. "They
+resemble those poems infinitely more than they resemble the epic you
+wrote two years ago."
+
+I stammered something about the similarity being merely one of subject.
+But he shook his head at that, and took good note of my confusion.
+
+"No," said he, "the resemblance goes deeper. There is the same facile
+beauty of the rhymes the same freshness of the rhythm--remotely
+resembling that of Petrarca, yet very different. Conceits similar to
+those that were the beauty spots of the Lord Giovanni's verses
+are ubiquitous in yours, and above all there is the same fervent
+earnestness, the same burning tone of sincerity that rendered his
+strambotti so worthy of admiration."
+
+"It may be," I answered him, my confusion growing under the steady gaze
+of Madonna Paola, "it may be that having heard the verses of the Lord
+Giovanni, I may, unconsciously, have modelled my own lines upon those
+that made so deep an impression on me."
+
+He looked at me gravely for a moment.
+
+"That might be an explanation," he answered deliberately, "but frankly,
+if I were asked, I should give a very different one."
+
+"And that would be?" came, sharp and compelling, the voice of Madonna.
+
+He turned to her, shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Why, since you
+ask me," he said, "I should hazard the opinion that Lazzaro, here, was
+of considerable assistance to the Lord Giovanni in the penning of those
+verses with which he delighted us all--and you, Madonna, I believe,
+particularly."
+
+Madonna Paola crimsoned, and her eyes fell. The others looked at us
+with inquiring glances--at her, at Filippo and at me. With a fresh laugh
+Filippo turned to me.
+
+"Confess now, am I not right?" he asked good-humouredly.
+
+"Magnificent," I murmured in tones of protest, "ask yourself the
+question. Was it a likely thing that the Lord Giovanni would enlist the
+services of his jester in such a task?"
+
+"Give me a straightforward answer," he insisted. "Am I right or wrong?"
+
+"I am giving you more than a straightforward answer, my lord," I still
+evaded him, and more boldly now. "I am setting you on the high-road to
+solve the matter for yourself by an appeal to your own good sense and
+reason. Was it in the least likely, I repeat, that the Lord Giovanni
+would seek the services of his Fool to aid him write the verses in
+honour of the lady of his heart?"
+
+With a burst of mocking laughter, Filippo smote the table a blow of his
+clenched hand.
+
+"Your prevarications answer me," he cried. "You will not say that I am
+wrong."
+
+"But I do say that you are wrong!" I exclaimed, suddenly inspired. "I
+did not assist the Lord Giovanni with his verses. I swear it."
+
+His laughter faded; and his eyes surveyed me with a sudden solemnity.
+
+"Then why did you evade my question?" he demanded shrewdly. And then his
+countenance changed as swiftly again. It was illumined by the light of
+sudden understanding. "I have it," he cried. "The answer is plain. You
+did not assist the Lord Giovanni to write them. Why? Because you wrote
+them yourself, and you gave them to him that he might pass them off as
+his own."
+
+It was a merciful thing for me that the whole company fell into a burst
+of laughter and applauded Filippo's quick discernment, which they never
+doubted. All talked at once, and a hundred proofs were advanced in
+support of Filippo's opinion. The Lord Giovanni's celebrated dullness
+of mind, amounting almost to stupidity, was cited, and they reminded one
+another of the profound astonishment with which they had listened to the
+compositions that had suddenly burst from him.
+
+Filippo turned to his sister, on whose pale face I saw it written that
+she was as convinced as any there, and my feelings were those of a
+dastard who has broken faith with the man who trusted him.
+
+"Do you appreciate now, Madonna," he murmured, "the deceits and wiles by
+which that craven crept like a snake into your esteem?"
+
+I guessed at once that by that thrust he sought to incline her more to
+the union he had in view for her.
+
+"At least he was no craven," answered she. "His burning desire to please
+me may have betrayed him into this foolish duplicity. But he still
+must live in my memory as a brave and gallant gentleman; or have you
+forgotten, Filippo, that noble combat with the forces of Ramiro del'
+Orca?"
+
+To such a question Filippo had no answer, and presently his mood sobered
+a little. For myself, I was glad when the time came to withdraw from
+that company that twitted and pestered me and played upon my sense of
+shame at the imprudence I had committed.
+
+Now that I look back, I can scarce conceive why it should have so
+wrought upon me; for, in truth, the little love I bore the Lord Giovanni
+might rather have led me to rejoice that his imposture should be laid
+bare to the eyes of all the world. I think that really there was an
+element of fear in my feelings--fear that, upon reflection, Madonna
+Paola might ask herself how came that burning sincerity into the
+love-songs written in her honour which it was now disclosed that I had
+penned. The answer she might find to such a question was one that might
+arouse her pride and so outrage it as to lead her to cast me out of her
+friendship and never again suffer me to approach her.
+
+Such a conclusion, however, she fortunately did not arrive at. Haply she
+accounted the fervour of those lines assumed, for when on the morrow she
+met me, she did no more than gently chide me for the deceit that I had
+had a hand in practising upon her. She accepted my explanation that my
+share in that affair had been wrung from me with threats of torture, and
+putting it from her mind she returned to the matter of the approaching
+alliance she sought to elude, renewing her prayers that I should aid
+her.
+
+"I have," she told me then, "one other friend who might assist us, and
+who has the power perhaps if he but has the will. He is the Governor of
+Cesena, and for all that he holds service under Cesare Borgia, yet
+he seems much devoted to me, and I do not doubt that to further my
+interests he would even consent to pit his wits against those of the
+family he serves."
+
+"In which case, Madonna," answered I, spurred to it, perhaps, by an
+insensate pang of jealousy at the thought that there should be another
+beside myself to have her confidence, "he would be a traitor. And it
+is ever an ill thing to trust a traitor. Who once betrays may betray
+again."
+
+That she manifested no resentment, but, on the contrary, readily agreed
+with me, showed me how idle had been that jealousy of mine, and made me
+ashamed of it.
+
+"Why yes," she mused, "it is the very thought that had occurred to me,
+and caused me to spurn the aid he proffered when last he was here."
+
+"Ah!" I cried. "What aid was that?"
+
+"You must know, Lazzaro," said she, "that he comes often to Pesaro from
+Cesena, being a man in whom the Duke places great trust, and on whom he
+has bestowed considerable powers. He never fails to lie at the Palace
+when he comes, and he seems to--to have conceived a regard for me. He is
+a man of twice my years," she added hurriedly, "and haply looks upon me
+as he might upon a daughter."
+
+I sniffed the air. I had heard of such men.
+
+"A week ago, when last he came, I was cast down and grieved by the
+affair of this marriage, which Filippo had that day disclosed to me. The
+Governor of Cesena, observing my sadness, sought my confidence with a
+kindliness of which you would scarce believe him capable; for he is a
+fierce and blustering man of war. In the fulness of my heart there was
+nothing that seemed so desirable as a friendly ear into which I might
+pour the tale of my affliction. He heard me gravely, and when I had done
+he placed himself at my disposal, assuring me that if I would but trust
+myself to him, he would defeat the ends of the House of Borgia. Not
+until then did I seem to bethink me that he was the servant of that
+house, and his readiness to betray the hand that paid him sowed mistrust
+and a certain loathing of him in my mind. I let him see it, perhaps,
+which was unwise, and, may be, even ungrateful. He seemed deeply
+wounded, and the subject was abandoned. But I have since thought that
+perhaps I acted with a rashness that was--"
+
+"With a rashness that was eminently justifiable," I interrupted her.
+"You could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such a
+man."
+
+But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in
+store for me. At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion
+in the courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its
+cause, I was informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had
+arrived.
+
+Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he served,
+where Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to probe, I
+descended to the banqueting-hall at supper time.
+
+They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in
+the centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and
+crimson, brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of
+my own quarters but that his wolf's eye had already fastened on me.
+
+"Body of God!" he swore, and that was all. But his eyes were on me in a
+marvellous stare, as were now--impelled by that oath of his--the eyes
+of all the company. We looked at each other for a moment, then a great
+laugh burst from him, shaking his vast bulk and wrinkling his hideous
+face. He thrust the intervening men aside as if they had been a growth
+of sedges he would penetrate, and he advanced towards me; the Lord
+Filippo and his sister looking on with all the rest in interested
+surprise.
+
+In front of me he halted, and setting his hands on his hips he regarded
+me with a brutal mirth.
+
+"What may your trade be now?" he asked at last contemptuously.
+
+I had taken rapid stock of him in the seconds that were sped, and from
+the surpassing richness of his apparel, his gold-broidered doublet and
+crimson, fur-edged surcoat, I knew that Messer Ramiro del' Orca was
+grown to the high estate of Governor of Cesena.
+
+"A new trade even as yours," I answered him.
+
+"Nay, that is no answer," he cried, overlooking my offensiveness. "Do
+you still follow the trade of arms?"
+
+"I think," Filippo interposed, "that our Excellency is in some error.
+This gentleman is Lazzaro Biancomonte, a poet of whom Italy will one day
+be proud, despite the fact that for a time he acted as the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza's Fool."
+
+Ramiro looked at his interlocutor, as the mastiff may look at the lap
+dog. He grunted, and blew out his cheeks.
+
+"There is yet another part he played," said he, "as I have good cause
+to remember--for he is the only man that can boast of having unhorsed
+Ramiro del' Orca. He was for a brief season the Lord Giovanni Sforza
+himself."
+
+"How?" asked the profoundly amazed Filippo, whilst all present pressed
+closer to miss nothing of the disclosure that seemed to impend. Myself,
+I groaned. There was naught that I could say to stem the tide of
+revelation that was coming.
+
+"Do you then keep this paladin here arrayed like a clerk?" quoth Ramiro
+in his sardonic way. "And can it be that the secret of his feat of arms
+has been guarded so well that you are still in ignorance of it?"
+
+Filippo's wits worked swiftly, and swiftly they pieced together the
+hints that Ramiro had let fall.
+
+"You will tell us," said he, "that the fight in the streets of Pesaro,
+in which your Excellency's party suffered defeat, was led by Biancomonte
+in the armour of Giovanni Sforza?"
+
+Ramiro looked at him with that displeasure with which the jester visits
+the man who by anticipation robs his story of its points.
+
+"It was known to you?" growled he.
+
+"Not so. I have but learnt it from you. But it nowise astonishes me."
+
+And he looked at his sister, whose eyes devoured me, as if they would
+read in my soul whether this thing were indeed true. Under her eyes I
+dropped my glance like a man ashamed at hearing a disgraceful act of his
+paraded.
+
+"Had it indeed been the Lord Giovanni, he had been dead that day,"
+laughed Ramiro grimly. "Indeed it was nothing but my astonishment
+at sight of the face I was about to stab, after having broken the
+fastenings of his visor that stayed my hand for long enough to give him
+the advantage. But I bear you no grudge for that," he ended, turning on
+me with a ferocious smile, "nor yet for that other trick by which--as
+Boccadoro the Fool--you bested me. I am not a sweet man when thwarted,
+yet I can admire wit and respect courage. But see to it," he ended,
+with a sudden and most unreasonable ferocity, his visage empurpling if
+possible still more, "see to it that you pit neither that courage nor
+that wit against me again. I have heard the story of how you came to
+be Fool of the Court of Pesaro. Cesena is a dull place, and we might
+enliven it by the presence of a jester of such nimble wits as yours."
+
+He turned without awaiting my reply, and strode away to take his place
+at table, whilst I walked slowly to my accustomed seat, and took little
+part in the conversation that ensued, which, as you may imagine, had me
+and that exploit of mine for scope.
+
+Anon an elephantine trumpeting of laughter seemed to set the air
+a-quivering. Ramiro was lying back in his chair a prey to such a passion
+of mirth that it swelled the veins of his throat and brow until I
+thought that they must burst--and, from my soul, I hoped they would.
+Adown his rugged cheeks two tears were slowly trickling. The Lord
+Filippo, as presently transpired, had been telling him of the epic I
+had written in praise of the Lord Giovanni's prowess. Naught would now
+satisfy that ogre but he must have the epic read, and Filippo, who had
+retained a copy of it, went in quest of it, and himself read it aloud
+for the delight of all assembled and the torture of myself who saw in
+Madonna Paola's eyes that she accounted the deception I had practised on
+her a thing beyond pardon.
+
+Filippo had a taste for letters, as I think I have made clear, and he
+read those lines with the same fire and fervour that I, myself, had
+breathed into them two years ago. But instead of the rapt and breathless
+attention with which my reading had been attended, the present company
+listened with a smile, whilst ever and anon a short laugh or a quiet
+chuckle would mark how well they understood to-night the subtle ironies
+which had originally escaped them.
+
+I crept away, sick at heart, while they were still making sport over my
+work, cursing the Lord Giovanni, who had forced me to these things, and
+my own mad mood that had permitted me in an evil hour to be so forced.
+Yet my grief and bitterness were little things that night compared with
+what Madonna was to make them on the morrow.
+
+She sent for me betimes, and I went in fear and trembling of her wrath
+and scorn. How shall I speak of that interview? How shall I describe the
+immeasurable contempt with which she visited me, and which I felt was
+perhaps no more than I deserved.
+
+"Messer Biancomonte," said she coldly, "I have ever accounted you my
+friend, and disinterested the motives that inspired a heart seemingly
+noble to do service to a forlorn and helpless lady. It seems that I
+was wrong. That the indulging of a warped and malignant spirit was the
+inspiration you had to appear to befriend me."
+
+"Madonna, you are over-cruel," I cried out, wounded to the very soul of
+me.
+
+"Am I so?" she asked, with a cold smile upon her ivory face. "Is it not
+rather you who were cruel? Was it a fine thing to do to trick a lady
+into giving her affection to a man for gifts which he did not possess?
+You know in what manner of regard I held the Lord Giovanni Sforza so
+long as I saw him with the eyes of reason and in the light of truth. And
+you, who were my one professed friend, the one man who spoke so loudly
+of dying in my service, you falsified my vision, you masked him--either
+at his own and at my brother's bidding, or else out of the malignancy of
+your nature--in a garb that should render him agreeable in my eyes. Do
+you realise what you have done? Does not your conscience tell you? You
+have contrived that I have plighted my troth to a man such as I believed
+the Lord Giovanni to be. Mother of Mercy!" she ended, with a scorn
+ineffable; "when I dwell upon it now, it almost seems that it was to
+you I gave my heart, for yours were the deeds that earned my regard--not
+his."
+
+Such was the very argument that I had hugged to my starving soul, at
+the time the things she spoke of had befallen, and it had consoled me as
+naught in life could have consoled me. Yet now that she employed it with
+such a scornful emphasis as to make me realise how far beneath her I
+really was, how immeasurably beyond my reach was she, it was as much
+consolation to me as confession without absolution may be to the
+perishing sinner. I answered nothing. I could not trust myself to speak.
+Besides, what was there that I could say?
+
+"I summoned you back to Pesaro," she continued pitilessly, "trusting in
+your fine words and deeming honest the offer of services you made me.
+Now that I know you, you are free to depart from Pesaro when you will."
+
+Despite my shame, I dared, at last, to raise my eyes. But her face was
+averted, and she saw nothing of the entreaty, nothing of the grief that
+might have told her how false were her conclusions. One thing alone
+there was might have explained my actions, might have revealed them in a
+new light; but that one thing I could not speak of.
+
+I turned in silence, and in silence I quitted the room; for that, I
+thought, was, after all, the wisest answer I could make.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. POISON
+
+
+Despite Madonna Paola's dismissal, I remained in Pesaro. Indeed, had
+I attempted to leave, it is probable that the Lord Filippo would have
+deterred me, for I was much grown in his esteem since the disclosures
+that had earned me the disfavour of Madonna. But I had no thought of
+going. I hoped against hope that anon she might melt to a kinder mood,
+or else that by yet aiding her, despite herself, to elude the Borgia
+alliance, I might earn her forgiveness for those matters in which she
+held that I had so gravely sinned against her.
+
+The epithalamium, meanwhile, was forgotten utterly and I spent my days
+in conceiving wild plans to save her from the Lord Ignacio, only to
+abandon them when in more sober moments their impracticable quality was
+borne in upon me.
+
+In this fashion some six weeks went by, and during the time she never
+once addressed me. We saw much during those days of the Governor of
+Cesena. Indeed his time seemed mainly spent in coming and going 'twixt
+Cesena and Pesaro, and it needed no keen penetration to discern the
+attraction that brought him. He was ever all attention to Madonna, and
+there were times when I feared that perhaps she had been drawn into
+accepting the aid that once before he had proffered. But these fears
+were short-lived, for, as time sped, Madonna's aversion to the man grew
+plain for all to see. Yet he persisted until the very eve, almost, of
+her betrothal to Ignacio.
+
+One evening in early December I chanced, through the purest accident,
+to overhear her sharp repulsion of the suit that he had evidently been
+pressing.
+
+"Madonna," I heard him answer, with a snarl, "I may yet prove to you
+that you have been unwise so to use Ramiro del' Orca."
+
+"If you so much as venture to address me again upon the subject," she
+returned in the very chilliest accents, "I will lay this matter of your
+odious suit before your master Cesare Borgia."
+
+They must have caught the sound of my footsteps in the gallery in which
+they stood, and Ramiro moved away, his purple face pale for once, and
+his eyes malevolent as Satan's.
+
+I reflected with pleasure that perhaps we had now seen the last of him,
+and that before that threat of Madonna's he would see fit to ride home
+to Cesena and remain there. But I was wrong. With incredible effrontery
+and daring he lingered. The morrow was a Sunday, and, on the Tuesday or
+Wednesday following, Cesare Borgia and his cousin Ignacio were expected.
+Filippo was in the best of moods, and paid more heed to the Governor
+of Cesena's presence at Pesaro than he did to mine. It may be that he
+imagined Ramiro del' Orca to be acting under Cesare's instructions.
+
+That Sunday night we supped together, and we were all tolerably gay, the
+topic of our talk being the coming of the bridegroom. Madonna's was the
+only downcast face at the board. She was pale and worn, and there were
+dark circles round her eyes that did much to mar the beauty of her angel
+face, and inspired me with a deep and sorrowing pity.
+
+Ramiro announced his intention of leaving Pesaro on the morrow, and ere
+he went he begged leave to pledge the beautiful Lady of Santafior,
+who was so soon to become the bride of the valiant and mighty Ignacio
+Borgia. It was a toast that was eagerly received, so eager and
+uproariously that even that poor lady herself was forced to smile,
+for all that I saw it in her eyes that her heart was on the point of
+breaking.
+
+I remember how, when we had drunk, she raised her goblet--a beautiful
+chaste cup of solid gold--and drank, herself, in acknowledgment; and I
+remember, too, how, chancing to move my head, I caught a most singular,
+ill-omened smile upon the coarse lips of Messer Ramiro.
+
+At the time I thought of it no more, but in the morning when the
+horrible news that spread through the Palace gained my ears, that smile
+of Ramiro del' Orca recurred to me at once.
+
+It was from the seneschal of the Palace that I first heard that tragic
+news. I had but risen, and I was descending from my quarters, when I
+came upon him, his old face white as death, a palsy in his limbs.
+
+"Have you heard the news, Ser Lazzaro?" he cried in a quavering voice.
+
+"The news of what?" I asked, struck by the horror in his face.
+
+"Madonna Paola is dead," he told me, with a sob.
+
+I stared at him in speechless consternation, and for a moment I seemed
+forlorn of sense and understanding.
+
+"Dead?" I remember whispering. "What is it you say?" And I leaned
+forward towards him, peering into his face. "What is it you say?"
+
+"Well may you doubt your ears," he groaned. "But, Vergine Santissima!
+it is the truth. Madonna Paola, that sweet angel of God, lies cold and
+stiff. They found her so this morning."
+
+"God of Heaven!" I cried out, and leaving him abruptly I dashed down the
+steps.
+
+Scarce knowing what I did, acting upon an impulsive instinct that was as
+irresistible as it was unreasoning, I made for the apartments of Madonna
+Paola. In the antechamber I found a crowd assembled, and on every face
+was pallid consternation written. Of my own countenance I had a glimpse
+in a mirror as I passed; it was ashen, and my hollow eyes were wild as a
+madman's.
+
+Someone caught me by the arm. I turned. It was the Lord Filippo, pale
+as the rest, his affectations all fallen from him, and the man himself
+revealed by the hand of an overwhelming sorrow. With him was a grave,
+white-bearded gentleman, whose sober robe proclaimed the physician.
+
+"This is a black and monstrous affair, my friend," he murmured.
+
+"Is it true, is it really true, my lord?" I cried in such a voice that
+all eyes were turned upon me.
+
+"Your grief is a welcome homage to my own," he said. "Alas, Dio Santo!
+it is most hideously true. She lies there cold and white as marble, I
+have just seen her. Come hither, Lazzaro." He drew me aside, away from
+the crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been
+Madonna's oratory. With us came the physician.
+
+"This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned,
+Lazzaro."
+
+"Poisoned?" I echoed. "Body of God! but by whom? We all loved her. There
+was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid down his
+life in her service. Who was there, then, to poison that dear saint?"
+
+It was then that the memory of Ramiro del' Orca, and the look that in
+his eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my
+mind.
+
+"Where is the Governor of Cesena?" I cried suddenly. Filippo looked at
+me with quick surprise.
+
+"He departed betimes this morning for his castle. Why do you ask?"
+
+I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro's attentions to
+Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he had
+seemed to threaten. Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done he
+shook his head.
+
+"Why, all being as you say, should he work so wanton a destruction?" he
+asked stupidly, as if jealousy were not cause enough to drive an evil
+man to destroy that which he may not possess. "Nay, nay, your wits are
+disordered. You remember that he looked at Madonna whilst she drank, and
+you construe that into a proof that he had poisoned the cup she drank
+from. But then it is probable that we all looked at her in that same
+moment."
+
+"But not with such eyes as his," I insisted.
+
+"Could he have administered the poison with his own hands?" asked the
+doctor gravely.
+
+"No," said I, "that were a difficult matter. But he might have bribed a
+servant to drop a powder in her wine."
+
+"Why then," said he, "it should be an easy thing to find the servant. Do
+you chance to remember who served the wine?"
+
+"I remember," answered Filippo readily.
+
+"Let the man be questioned; let him be racked if necessary. Thus shall
+you probably arrive at a true knowledge; thus discover under whose
+directions he was working."
+
+It was the only thing to do, and Filippo sent me about it there and
+then, telling me the servant in question was a Venetian of the name of
+Zabatello. If confirmation had been needed that this fellow had been the
+tool of the poisoner--there was no reason to suppose that he would have
+done the thing to have served any ends of his own--that confirmation
+I had upon discovering that Zabatello was fled from Pesaro, leaving no
+trace behind him.
+
+Men were sent out by the Lord Filippo in every direction to endeavour
+to find the rogue and bring him back. Whether they caught him or not
+seemed, after all a little thing to me. She was dead; that was the
+one all-absorbing, all-effacing fact that took possession of my mind,
+blotting out all minor matters that might be concerned with it. Even
+the now assured fact that she had been poisoned was a thing that found
+little room in my consideration on that day of my burning grief.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead! The hideous phrase boomed again and again
+through my distracted mind. Compared with that overwhelming catastrophe,
+what signified to me the how or why or when she had died. She was dead,
+and the world was empty.
+
+For hours I sat on the rocks, alone by the sea, on that stormy day of
+December, and I indulged my grief where no prying eyes could witness it,
+amid the solitude of wild and angry Nature. And the moan and thud with
+which the great waves hurled themselves against the base of the black
+rock on which I was perched afforded but a feeble echo of the storm that
+raged and beat within my desolated soul.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead! The waves seemed to shout it as they leapt
+up and spattered me with brine; the wind now moaned it piteously, now
+shrieked it fiercely as it scudded by, wrapping its invisible coils
+about me, and seeming intent on tearing me from my resting-place.
+
+Towards evening, at last, I rose, and skirting the Castle, I entered the
+town, dishevelled and bedraggled, yet caring nothing what spectacle I
+might afford. And presently a grim procession overtook me, and at sight
+of the black, cowled and visored figures that advanced in the lurid
+light of their wax torches, I fell on my knees there in the street, and
+so remained, my knees deep in the mud, my head bowed, until her sainted
+body had been borne past. None heeded me. They bore her to San Domenico,
+and thither I followed presently, and in the shadow of one of the
+pillars of the aisle I crouched whilst the monks chanted their funereal
+psalms.
+
+The singing ended, the friars departed, and presently those of the Court
+and the sight-seers from the streets began to leave the church. In an
+hour I was alone--alone with the beloved dead, and there, on my knees,
+I stayed, and whether I prayed or blasphemed during that horrid hour, my
+memory will not let me say.
+
+It may have been towards the third hour of night when at last I
+staggered up--stiff and cramped from my long kneeling on the cold stone.
+Slowly, in a half-dazed condition, I move down the aisle and gained the
+door of the church. I essayed to open it. It resisted my efforts, and
+then I realised that it was locked for the night.
+
+The appreciation of my position afforded me not the slightest dismay. On
+the contrary, I think my feelings were rather of relief. I had not known
+whither I should repair--so distraught was my mood--and now chance had
+settled the matter for me by decreeing that I should remain.
+
+I turned and slowly I paced back until I stood beside the great black
+catafalque, at each corner of which a tall wax taper was burning. My
+footsteps rang with a hollow sound through the vast, gloomy spaces of
+that cold, empty church; my very breathing seemed to find an echo in it.
+But these were not things to occupy my mind in such a season, no more
+than was the icy cold by which I was half-numbed--yet of which I seemed
+to remain unconscious in the absorbing anguish that possessed me.
+
+Near the foot of the bier there was a bench, and there I sat me down,
+and resting my elbows on my knees I took my dishevelled head between my
+frozen hands. My thoughts were all of her whose poor murdered clay was
+there encased above me. I reviewed, I think, each scene of my life where
+it had touched on hers; I evoked every word she had addressed to me
+since first I had met her on the road to Cagli.
+
+And anon my mood changed, and, from cold and frozen that it had been
+by grief, it grew ablaze with the fire of anger and the lust to wreak
+vengeance upon him that had brought her to this condition. Let Filippo
+fear to move without proofs, let him doubt such proofs as I had set
+before him and deem them overslender to warrant action. Such scruples
+should not serve to restrain me. I was no lukewarm brother. Here in
+Pesaro I would remain until her poor body was delivered to the earth,
+and then I would set out upon a last emprise. Messer Ramiro del' Orca
+should account to me for this vile deed.
+
+There in the House of Peace I sat gnawing my hands and maturing my
+bloody plans whilst the night wore on. Later a still more frenzied mood
+obsessed me--a burning desire to look again upon the sweet face of her I
+had loved, the sainted visage of Madonna Paola. What was there to deter
+me? Who was there to gainsay me?
+
+I stood up and uttered that challenge aloud in my madness. My voice
+echoed mournfully up the aisles, and the sound of the echo chilled me,
+yet my purpose gathered strength.
+
+I advanced, and after a moment's pause, with the silver-broidered hem of
+the pall in my hands, I suddenly swept off that mantle of black cloth,
+setting up such a gust of wind as all but quenched the tapers. I caught
+up the bench on which I had been sitting, and, dragging it forward, I
+mounted it and stood now with my breast on a level with the coffin-lid.
+I laid hands on it and found it unfastened. Without thought or care of
+how I went about the thing, I raised it and let it crash over to the
+ground. It fell on the stone flags with a noise like that of thunder,
+which boomed and reverberated along the gloomy vault above.
+
+A figure, all in purest white, lay there under my eyes, the face covered
+by a veil. With deepest reverence, and a prayer to her sainted soul to
+forgive the desecration of my loving hands, I tremblingly drew that veil
+aside. How beautiful she was in the calm peace of death! She lay there
+like one gently sleeping, the faintest smile upon her lips, and as I
+looked it seemed hard to believe that she was truly dead. Why, her
+lips had lost nothing of their colour; they were as rosy red--or nearly
+so--as ever I had seen them in life. How could this be? The lips of the
+dead are wont to put on a livid hue. I stared a moment, my reverence and
+grief almost effaced by the intensity of my wonder. This face, so ivory
+pale, wore not the ashen aspect of one that would never wake again.
+There was a warmth about that pallor. And then I caught my nether lip
+in my teeth until it bled, and it is a miracle that I did not scream,
+seeing how overwrought was my condition.
+
+For it had seemed to me that the draperies on her bosom had slightly
+moved, a gentle, almost imperceptible heave as if she breathed. I
+looked, and there it came again.
+
+God! into what madness was I come that my eyes could so deceive me? It
+was the draught that stirred the air about the church and blew great
+shrouds of wax adown the taper's yellow sides. I manned myself to a more
+sober mood, and looked again.
+
+And now my doubts were all dispelled. I knew that I had mastered any
+errant fancy, and that my eyes were grown wise and discriminating, and I
+knew, too, that she lived. Her bosom slowly rose and fell; the colour
+of her lips, the hue of her cheeks confirmed the assurance that she
+breathed. The poison had failed in its work.
+
+I paused a second yet to ponder. That morning her appearance had been
+such that the physician had been deceived by it, and had pronounced her
+cold. Yet now there were these signs of life. What could it portend
+but that the effects of the poison were passing off and that she was
+recovering?
+
+In the wild madness of joy that sent the blood drumming and beating
+through my brain, my first impulse was to run for help. Then I bethought
+me of the closed doors, and I realised that no matter how I shouted none
+would hear me. I must succour her myself as best I could, and meanwhile
+she must be protected from the chill air of that December night in
+that church that was colder than the tomb. I had my cloak, a heavy,
+serviceable garment; and if more were needed, there was the pall which I
+had removed, and which lay in a heap about the legs of my bench.
+
+I leaned forward, and passing my hand under her head, I gently raised
+it. Then slipping it downwards, I thrust my arm after it until I had her
+round the waist in a firm grip. Thus I raised her from the coffin,
+and the warmth of her body on my arm, the ready, supple bending of her
+limbs, were so many added proofs that she was not dead.
+
+Gently and reverently I lifted her in my arms, an intoxication of holy
+joy pervading me, and the prayers falling faster from my lips than ever
+they had done since as a lad I had recited them at my mother's knee. A
+moment I laid her on the bench, whilst I divested myself of my cloak.
+Then suddenly I paused, and stood listening, holding my breath.
+
+Steps were advancing towards the door.
+
+My first impulse was to rush forward and call to those who came,
+shouting my news and imploring their help. Then a sudden, an almost
+instinctive suspicion caught and chilled me. Who was it came at such an
+hour? What could any man seek in the Church of San Domenico at dead of
+night? Was the church indeed their goal, or were they but passers-by?
+
+That last question went not long unanswered. The steps came nearer,
+whilst I stood appalled, my skin roughening like a dog's. They halted at
+the door. Something heavy hurtled against it.
+
+A voice, the voice of Ramiro del' Orca--I knew it upon the
+instant--reached my ears which concentration had rendered superacute.
+
+"It is locked, Baldassare. Get out those tools of yours and force it."
+
+My wits were working now at fever-pace. It may be that I am swift of
+thought beyond the ordinary man, or it may be that what then came to me
+was either a flash of inspiration or the conclusion to which I leapt by
+instinct. But in that moment the whole plot of Madonna's poisoning was
+revealed to me. Poisoned she had been--aye, but by some drug that did
+but produce for a little while the outward appearance of death so truly
+simulated as to deceive the most experienced of doctors. I had heard
+of such poisons, and here, in very truth, was one of them at work. His
+vengeance on her for her indifference to his suit was not so clumsy
+and primitive as that of simply slaying her. He had, by his infernal
+artifice, intended, secretly, to bear her off. To-morrow when men found
+a broken church-door and a violated bier, they would set the sacrilege
+down to some wizard who had need of the body for his dark practices of
+magic.
+
+I cursed myself in that hour that I had not earlier been moved to peer
+into her coffin whilst yet there might have been time to have saved her.
+Now? The sweat stood out in beads upon my brow. At that door there were,
+to judge by the sound of footsteps and of voices, some three or four men
+besides Messer Ramiro. For only weapon I had my dagger. What could I
+do with that to defend her? Ramiro's plan would suffer no frustration
+through my discovery; when to-morrow the sacrilege was discovered the
+cold body of Lazzaro Biancomonte lying beside the desecrated bier would
+be but an item in the work of profanation they would find--an item that
+nowise would modify the conclusion to which I anticipated they would
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. REQUIESCAT!
+
+
+A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human
+mind. Some it renders incapable of thought or action, paralysing their
+limbs and stagnating the blood in their veins; such creatures die in
+anticipating death. Others under the stress of that grim passion have
+their wits preternaturally sharpened. The instinct of self-preservation
+assumes command of all their senses, and urges them to swift and
+feverish action.
+
+I thank God with a full heart that to this latter class do I belong.
+After one gelid moment, spent with eyes and mouth agape, my hands fallen
+limp beside me and my hair bristling with affright, I became myself
+again and never calmer than in that dread moment. I went to work with
+superhuman swiftness. My cheeks may have been livid, my very lips
+bloodless; but my hands were steady and my wits under full control.
+
+Concealment--concealment for myself and her--was the thing that now
+imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were
+devised. Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case
+to be exacting, and since they were the best the place afforded I must
+trust to them without demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might
+lack the wit to search. And with that fresh hope it came to me that
+I must find a way so to dispose as to make him believe that to search
+would be a futile waste of energy.
+
+The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal. Yet a little
+time there was. The door was stout, and Messer Ramiro might take
+no violent means of bursting it, lest the noise should arouse the
+street--and I well could guess how little he would relish having lights
+to shine upon this deed of night of his.
+
+With what tools his sbirro was at work I could not say; but surely they
+must be such as would leave me a few moments. Already the fellow had
+begun. I could make out a soft crunching sound, as of steel biting into
+wood. To act, then!
+
+With movements swift as a cat's, and as silent, I went to work. Like
+a ghost I glided round the coffin to the other side, where the lid was
+lying. I took it up, and when for a moment I had deposited Madonna Paola
+on the ground, I mounted the bench and gently but quickly set back that
+lid as it had been. Next, I gathered up the cumbrous pall, and mounting
+the bench once more I spread it across the coffin. This way and that I
+pulled it, straightening it into the shape that it had worn when first I
+had entered, and casting its folds into regular lines that would lend it
+the appearance of having remained undisturbed.
+
+And what time I toiled, the half of my mind intent upon my task, the
+other half was as intent upon the progress of the worker at the door.
+
+At last it was done. I set the bench where first it had been, at the
+foot of the catafalque, and gathering up Madonna in my arms, as though
+her weight had been an infant's, I bore her swiftly out of the circle of
+light of those four tapers into the black, impenetrable gloom beyond.
+On I sped towards the high-altar, flying now as men fly in evil dreams,
+with the sensation of an enemy upon them and their progress a mere
+standing-still.
+
+Thus I gained the chancel, hurtling against the railing as I passed, and
+pausing for an instant, wondering whether those without could have heard
+the noise which in my clumsiness I had made. But the grinding sound
+continued uninterrupted, and I breathed more freely. I mounted the
+altar-steps, the distant light behind me still feebly guiding me; I ran
+round to the right, and heaved a great sigh of relief to find my hopes
+verified, and that the altar of San Domenico was as the altar of other
+churches I had known. It stood a pace or so from the wall, and behind it
+there was just such narrow hiding-room as I had looked to find.
+
+I paused at the mouth of that black opening, and even as I paused,
+something hard that gave out a metallic sound fell at the far end of the
+church. Instinct told me it was the lock which those miscreants had cut
+from the door. I waited for no more, but like a beast scudding to cover
+I plunged into that black space.
+
+Madonna, wrapped in my cloak as she was, I set down upon the ground, and
+then I crept forward on hands and knees and thrust out my head, trusting
+to the darkness to envelop me.
+
+I waited thus for some seconds, my heart beating now against my ribs as
+if it would hurl itself out of my bosom, my head and face on fire with
+the fever of reaction that succeeded my late cold pallor.
+
+From where I watched it was impossible to see the door hidden in the
+black gloom. Away in the centre of the church, an island of light in
+that vast sea of blackness, stood the catafalque with its four wax
+torches. Something creaked, and almost immediately I saw the flames of
+those tapers bend towards me, beaten over by the gust that smote them
+from the door. Thus I surmised that Ramiro and his men had entered. The
+soft fall of their feet; for they were treading lightly now, succeeded,
+and at last they came into view, shadowy at first, then sharply outlined
+as they approached the light.
+
+A moment they stood in half-whispered conversation, their voices a
+mere boom of sound in which no word was to be distinguished. Then I saw
+Ramiro suddenly step forward--I knew him by his great height--and drag
+away, even as I had done, the pall that hid the coffin. Next he seized
+the bench and gave a brisk order to his men in a less cautious voice, so
+that I caught his words.
+
+"Spread a cloak," said he, and, in obedience, the four that were with
+him took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. It was
+thus that he meant to bear her with him.
+
+He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind
+he put out his hands to remove the coffin-lid. As well as if his soul
+had been transformed into a book conceived for my amusement did I
+surmise the exultant mood that then possessed him. He had tricked
+Filippo; he had out-witted us all--Madonna herself, included--and he was
+leaving no trace behind him that should warrant any so much as to dare
+to think that this vile deed was the work of Messer Ramiro del' Orca,
+Governor of Cessna.
+
+But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the gods, delights in
+mighty contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and
+hollow lures on the very eve of working our discomfiture. From the soul
+that but a moment back had been aglow with evil satisfaction there burst
+a sudden blasphemous cry of rage that disregarded utterly the sanctity
+of that consecrated place.
+
+"By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!"
+
+It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy
+crash as he let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder sound
+awoke the night-echoes of that silent place. In a burst of maniacal
+frenzy he had caught the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty fist, and
+hurled it from its trestles.
+
+Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds in
+the excitement that possessed him.
+
+"It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo," he cried. "They have
+laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves."
+
+I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling
+veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror
+spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though
+he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
+
+"Out of this!" he growled at them. "See that your swords hang ready.
+Away!"
+
+One of them murmured something that I could not catch. Mother in
+Heaven! if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a
+suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it? But
+Ramiro's answer speedily relieved my fears.
+
+"I'll take no risks," he barked. "Come! Let us go separately. I first,
+and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can." His voice
+grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words, "Cesena"
+and "to-morrow night," from which I gathered that he was appointing that
+as their next meeting-place.
+
+Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere
+the others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that
+was here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by
+their still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
+
+Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it
+had lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those
+ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola. Her breathing was grown
+more heavy and more regular, so that in all respects she was as one
+sleeping healthily. Soon I hoped that she might awaken, for to seek to
+bear her thence and to the Palace in my arms would have been a madness.
+And now it occurred to me that I should have restoratives at hand
+against the time of her regaining consciousness. Inspiration suggested
+to me the wine that should be stored in the sacristy for altar purposes.
+It was unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in using it.
+
+I crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle-branch
+protruded, standing no higher than my head. It held some three or four
+tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at
+early Mass on dark winter mornings. I plucked one of the candles from
+its socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the
+burning tapers of the bier. Screening it with my hand, I retraced my
+steps and regained the chancel. Then turning to the left, I made for a
+door that I knew should give access to the sacristy. It yielded to my
+touch, and I passed down a short stone-flagged passage, and entered the
+spacious chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed against one wall, and
+above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix. Facing it against the
+other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard, half-buffet.
+On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a few
+vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere
+and white-washed chamber. Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one
+of the drawers. It was full of garments of different kinds, among which
+I noticed several monks' habits. I rummaged to the bottom only to find
+some odd pairs of sandals.
+
+Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better
+fortune. Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and
+fragrant with rosemary. I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to
+the cupboard above. It was locked, but the key was there. It opened,
+and my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated
+chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid
+gold, set with precious stones. But in a corner I espied a dark-brown,
+gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine, and, with a half-suppressed
+cry of joy, I seized it. In that instant a piercing scream rang through
+the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I stood there for
+some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping to my
+mind.
+
+Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned? Did the scream mean
+that Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
+
+A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that
+its first utterance had cast over me. Dropping the leather bottle,
+I sped back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the
+chancel.
+
+There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and
+ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays
+of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs
+were hung. She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very
+natural fear consequent upon awakening in such a place that had provoked
+the cry I had heard.
+
+"Madonna," I called, advancing swiftly towards her. "Madonna Paola!"
+There was a gasp, a moment's stillness, then--
+
+"Lazzaro?" She cried, questioningly. "What has happened? Why am I here?"
+
+I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
+
+"Something horrible has happened, Madonna," I answered. "But it is over
+now, and the evil is averted."
+
+"But how came I here?"
+
+"That you shall learn." I stooped to gather up the cloak which had
+slipped from her shoulders as she advanced. "Do you wrap this about
+you," I urged her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in
+that mantle. "Are you faint, Madonna?" I asked.
+
+"I scarce know," she answered in a frightened voice. "There is a black
+horror upon me. Tell me," she implored again, "what does it mean?"
+
+I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once
+she were out of these forbidding surroundings. I led her to the sacristy
+and seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once again.
+
+At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was
+insistent.
+
+"It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna," I told her. "The wine
+will warm and revive you. Come Madonna mia, drink."
+
+She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she
+drank a lusty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour
+to replace the ashen pallor of her cheeks.
+
+"I am so cold, Lazzaro," she complained.
+
+I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks' habits,
+and pulling one out I held it for her to don. She sat there now, in that
+garment of coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder,
+the fairest postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
+
+"You are good to me, Lazzaro," she murmured plaintively, "and I have
+used you very ill." She paused a second, passing her hand across her
+brow. Then--"What is the hour?" she asked.
+
+It was a question that I left unheeded. I bade her brace herself and
+have courage for the tale I was to tell. I assured her that the horror
+of it was all passed and that she had naught to fear. So soon as her
+natural curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to her
+brother at the Palace.
+
+"But how came I thence?" she cried. "I must have lain in a swoon, for
+I remember nothing." And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable
+conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered
+catafalque which she had seen--"Did they account me dead, Lazzaro?" she
+asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they
+were turned upon my own.
+
+"Yes, Madonna," answered I, "you were accounted dead." And, with that, I
+told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I left
+my own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune presence
+in the church. When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she
+shuddered and closed her eyes in very awe. At length, when I had done,
+she opened them again, and again she turned them full upon me. Their
+brightness seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that she was
+quietly weeping.
+
+"And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?" she murmured brokenly.
+"Lazzaro mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of
+you. You are indeed my one true friend--the one true friend that never
+fails me."
+
+"Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?" I asked abruptly, roughly almost.
+
+"Yes, I am stronger." She stood up as if to test her strength. "Indeed
+little ails me saving the horror of this thing. The thought of it seems
+to turn me sick and dizzy."
+
+"Sit then and rest," said I. "Presently, when you are more recovered, we
+will set out."
+
+"Whither shall we go?" she asked.
+
+"Why, to the Palace, to your brother."
+
+"Why, yes," she answered, as though it were the last suggestion that
+she had been expecting, "And to-morrow--it will be to-morrow, will it
+not?--comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride. He will owe you no mean
+thanks, Lazzaro."
+
+There was a pause. I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my
+mind, but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be from
+matins, and how soon we might be discovered by the monks. Presently she
+spoke again.
+
+"Lazzaro," she inquired very gently, "what was it brought you to the
+church?"
+
+"I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service," answered I,
+and fearing such questions as might follow--questions that I had been
+dreading ever since I had brought her to the sacristy--"If you are
+recovered we had best be going," I told her gruffly.
+
+"Nay, I am not yet enough recovered," answered she. "And before we go,
+there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have you
+make clear to me. Meanwhile, we are very well here. If the good fathers
+come upon us, what shall it signify?"
+
+I groaned inwardly, and I grew, I think, more afraid than when Ramiro
+and his men had broken into the church an hour ago.
+
+"What kept you here after all were gone?"
+
+"I remained to pray, Madonna," I answered brusquely. "Is aught else to
+be done in a church?"
+
+"To pray for me, Lazzaro?" she asked.
+
+"Assuredly, Madonna."
+
+"Faithful heart," she murmured. "And I had used you so cruelly for
+the deception you practised. But you merited my cruelty, did you not,
+Lazzaro? Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse."
+
+"Perhaps I deserved it, Madonna. But perhaps not so much as you
+bestowed, had you but understood my motives," I said unguardedly.
+
+"If I had understood your motives?" she mused. "Aye, there is much I do
+not understand. Even in this night's transactions there are not wanting
+things that remain mysterious despite the explanations you have supplied
+me. Tell me, Lazzaro, what was it led you to suppose that I still lived?
+
+"I did not suppose it," I blundered like a fool, never seeing whither
+her question led.
+
+"You did not?" she cried, in deep surprise; and now, when it was
+too late, I understood. "What was it, then, induced you to lift the
+coffin-lid?"
+
+"You ask me more than I can tell you," I answered, almost roughly. "Do
+you thank God, Madonna, that it was so, and never plague your mind to
+learn the 'why' of it."
+
+She looked at me with eyes that were singularly luminous.
+
+"But I must know," she insisted. "Have I not the right? Tell me now: Was
+it that you wished to see my face again before they gave me over to the
+grave?"
+
+"Perhaps it was that, Madonna," I answered in confusion, avoiding her
+glance. Then--"Shall we be going?" I suggested fiercely. But she never
+heeded that suggestion.
+
+She spoke as if she had not heard, and the words she uttered seemed to
+turn me into stone.
+
+"Did you love me then so much, dear Lazzaro?"
+
+I swung round to face her now, and I know that my face was white--whiter
+than hers had been when I had beheld her in her coffin. My eyes seemed
+to burn in their sockets as they met hers. A madness overtook me and
+whelmed my better judgment. I had undergone so much that day through
+grief, and that night through a hundred emotions, that I was no longer
+fully master of myself. Her words robbed me, I think, of my last
+lingering shred of reason.
+
+"Love you, Madonna?" I echoed, in a voice that was as unlike my own as
+was the mood that then possessed me. "You are the air I breathe, the
+sun that lights my miserable world. You are dearer to me than honour,
+sweeter than life. You are the guardian angel of my existence, the saint
+to whom I have turned morning and evening in my prayers for grace. Do I
+love you, Madonna--?"
+
+And there I paused. The thought of what I did and what the consequences
+must be rushed suddenly upon me. I shivered as a man shivers in awaking.
+I dropped on my knees before her, bowing my head and flinging wide my
+arms.
+
+"Forgive, Madonna," I cried entreatingly. "Forgive and forget. Never
+again will I offend."
+
+"Neither forgive nor forget will I," came her voice, charged with an
+ineffable sweetness, and her hands descended on my bowed bead, as if
+she would bless and soothe me. "I am conscious of no offence that craves
+forgiveness, and what you have said I would not forget if I could.
+Whence springs this fear of yours, dear Lazzaro? Am I more than woman,
+or you less than man that you should tremble for the confession that in
+a wild moment I have dragged from you? For that wild moment I shall be
+thankful to my life's end; for your words have been the sweetest ever
+my poor ears listened to. Once I thought that I loved the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza. But it was you I loved; for the deeds that earned him my
+affection were deeds of yours and not of his. Once I told you so in
+scorn. Yet since then I have come soberly to ponder it. I account you,
+Lazzaro, the noblest friend, the bravest gentleman and the truest lover
+that the world has known. Need it surprise you, then, that I love you
+and that mine would be a happy life if I might spend it in growing
+worthy of this noble love of yours?"
+
+There was a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes--a matter at which I
+take no shame. Air seemed to fail me for a moment, and I almost thought
+that I should swoon, so overcome was I. Transport the blackest soul from
+among the damned of Hell, wash it white of its sins and seat it on one
+of the glorious thrones of Heaven, then ponder its emotions, and you
+may learn something of what I felt. At last, when I had mastered the
+exquisite torture of my joy--
+
+"Madonna mia," I cried, "bethink you of what you say. You are the noble
+lady of Santafior, and I--"
+
+"No more of this," she interrupted me. "You are Lazzaro Biancomonte, of
+patrician birth, no matter to what odd shifts a cruel fortune may have
+driven you. Will you take me?"
+
+She had my face between her palms, and she forced my glance to meet her
+own saintly eyes.
+
+"Will you take me, Lazaro?" she repeated.
+
+"Holy Flower of the Quince!" was all that I could murmur, whereat she
+gently smiled. "Santo Fior di Cotogno!"
+
+And then a great sadness overwhelmed me. A tide that neaped the frail
+bark of happiness high and dry upon the shores of black despair.
+
+"To-morrow Madonna, comes the Lord Ignacio Borgia," I groaned.
+
+"I know, I know," said she. "But I have thought of that. Paula Sforza
+di Santafior is dead. Requiescat! We must dispose that they will let her
+rest in peace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+
+Speechless I stared at her a moment, so taken was I with the immensity
+of the thing that she suggested. Fear, amazement, and joy jostled one
+another for the possession of my mind.
+
+"Why do you look so, Lazzaro?" she exclaimed at last. "What is it daunts
+you?
+
+"How is the thing possible?" quoth I.
+
+"What difficulty does it present?" she questioned back. "The Governor
+of Cesena has rendered very possible what I propose. We may look on him
+to-morrow as our best friend."
+
+"But Ramiro knows," I reminded her.
+
+"True, but do you think that he will dare to tell the world what he
+knows? He might be asked to say how he comes by his knowledge, and that
+should prove a difficult question to answer. Tell me, Lazzaro," she
+continued, "if he had succeeded in carrying me away, what think you
+would have been said in Pesaro to-morrow when the coffin was found
+empty?"
+
+"They would assume that your body had been stolen by some wizard or some
+daring student of anatomy."
+
+"Ah! And if we were quietly to quit the church and be clear of Pesaro
+before morning, would not the same be said?"
+
+"Probably," answered I.
+
+"Then why hesitate? Is it that you do not love me enough, Lazzaro?"
+
+I smiled, and my eyes must have told her more than any protestation
+could. Then I sighed. "I hesitate, Madonna, because I would not have you
+do now what you might come, hereafter, bitterly to repent. I would
+not let you be misled by the impulse of a moment into an act whose
+consequences must endure as long as life itself."
+
+"Is that the reasoning of a lover?" she asked me, very quietly. "Is
+this cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the stormy
+passion you professed so lately?"
+
+"It is," I answered stoutly. "It is because I love you more than I love
+myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life upon
+such a broken raft as mine. You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and I--"
+
+"Enough of that," she interrupted me, rising. She swept towards me, and
+before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and
+her blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in her
+low tones, "moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me,
+and bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time. Will you wait
+until escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered, before you
+will decide to save me, and to grasp with both hands this happiness of
+ours that is not twice offered in a lifetime?"
+
+She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her
+heart. Some subtle perfume reaching me and combining with the
+dominion that her eyes seemed to have established over me completed
+my subjugation. I was as warm wax in her hands. Forgotten were all
+considerations of rank and station. We were just a man and a woman whose
+fates were linked irrevocably by love. I stooped suddenly, under the
+sway of an impulse, I could not resist, and kissed her upturned face,
+turning almost dizzy in the act. Then I broke from her clasp, and
+bracing myself for the task to which we stood committed by that kiss--
+
+"Paola," said I, "we must devise the means to get away. I will bear you
+to my mother's home near Biancomonte, that you may dwell there at least
+until we are wed. But the thing that exercises my mind is how to make
+our unobserved escape from Pesaro."
+
+"I have thought of it already," she informed me quietly.
+
+"You have thought of it?" I cried. "And of what have you thought?"
+
+For answer she stepped back a pace, and drew the cowl of the monk's
+habit over her head until her features were lost in the shadows of it.
+She stood before me now, a diminutive Dominican brother. Her meaning
+was clear to me at once. With a cry of gladness I turned to the drawer
+whence I had taken the habit in which she was arrayed, and selecting
+another one I hastily donned it above the garments that I wore.
+
+No sooner was it done than I caught her by the arm.
+
+"Come, Madonna," I bade her in an urgent voice. At the first step she
+stumbled. The habit was so long that it cumbered her feet. But that was
+a difficulty soon conquered. With my dagger I cut a piece from the skirt
+of it, enough to leave her freedom of movement; and, that accomplished,
+we set out.
+
+We crossed the church swiftly and silently, and a moment I left her
+in the porch whilst I surveyed the street. All was quiet. Pesaro still
+slept, and it must have wanted some two hours or more to the dawn.
+
+A fine rain was falling as we sallied out, and there was a sting in the
+December wind which made us draw our cowls the tighter about our face.
+Abandoning the main street, I led her down some narrow alleys, deserted
+like all the rest of the city, and not so much as a stray cat abroad in
+that foul weather. It was very dark, and a hundred times we stumbled,
+whilst in some places I almost carried her bodily to avoid the filth of
+the quarter we were traversing. At length we gained the space in front
+of the gates that open on to the northern road, known as Porta Venezia,
+and I would have blundered on and roused the guard to let us out, using
+the Borgia ring once more--that talisman whose power had grown during
+these years, so that it would now open me almost any door in Italy. But
+Paola stayed me. Wisely she counselled that we should do nothing that
+might draw too much attention upon ourselves, and she urged me to wait
+until the dawn, when the guard would be astir and the gates opened.
+
+So we fled to the shelter of a porch, and there we waited, huddling
+ourselves out of the reach of the icy rain. We talked little during the
+time we spent there. For my own part I had overmuch food for thought,
+and a very natural anxiety racked me. Soon the monks would be descending
+to the church, and they would discover the havoc there, and spread the
+alarm.
+
+Who could say but that they might even discover the abstraction of the
+two habits from the sacristy, and the hue and cry for two men in the
+sackcloth of Dominicans would be afoot--for they would infer that
+two men so disguised had made off with the body of Madonna Paola.
+The thought stirred me like a goad. I stood up. The night was growing
+thinner, and, suddenly, even as I rose, a light gleamed from one of the
+Windows of the guard-house.
+
+"God be thanked for that fellow's early rising," I cried out. "Come,
+Madonna, let us be moving."
+
+And I added my newly-conceived reasons for quitting the place without
+further delay.
+
+Cursing us for being so early abroad--a curse to which I responded with
+a sonorous "Pax Domini sit tecum" the still somnolent sentinel opened
+the post and let us pass. I was glad in the end that we had waited and
+thus avoided the necessity of showing my ring, for should inquiries be
+made concerning two monks, that ring of mine might have betrayed the
+identity of one of them. I gave thanks to Heaven that I knew the country
+well. A quarter of a league or so from Pesaro we quitted the high-road
+and took to the by-paths with which I was well acquainted.
+
+Day came, grey and forbidding at first, but presently the rain
+ceased and the sun flashed out a thousand diamonds from the drenched
+hedge-rows.
+
+We plodded on; and at length, towards noon, when we had gained the
+neighbourhood of the village of Cattolica, we halted at the hut of a
+peasant on a small campagna. I had divested myself of my monk's habit,
+and cut away the cowl from Madonna's. She had thereafter fashioned it
+by means that were mysterious to my dull man's mind into a more
+feminine-looking garb.
+
+Thus we now presented ourselves to the old man who was the sole tenant
+of that lonely and squalid house. A ducat opened his door as wide as it
+would go, and gave us free access to every cranny of his dwelling. Food
+he procured us--rough black bread, some pieces of roasted goat, and some
+goat's milk--and on this we regaled ourselves as though it had been a
+ducal banquet, for hunger had set us in the mood to account anything
+delicious. And when we had eaten we fell to talking, the old man having
+left us to go about such peasant duties as claimed his attention, and
+our talk concerned ourselves, our future first, and later on our past. I
+remember that Madonna returned to the matter of the deception that I had
+practised, seeking to learn what reasons had impelled me, and I answered
+her in all truth.
+
+"Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love. When Giovanni
+Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook
+the task with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out
+the tale of the passion that was consuming my poor heart. It occurred to
+me that if those verses were worthy, you might come to love their author
+for their beauty, and so I strove to render them beautiful. It was the
+same spirit urged me to don the Lord Giovanni's armour and fight in that
+splendid if futile skirmish. Even as you had come to love the author for
+his verses, so might you come to love the warrior for his valour. That
+you should account the one and the other the work of Giovanni Sforza
+was to me a little thing, since I was well content to think that you
+but loved him because you accounted his the things that I had performed.
+Therefore was I the one you truly loved, although you did not know it.
+Could you but conceive what consolation that reflection was to me, you
+would deal lightly with me for my deceit."
+
+"I can conceive it," she answered, very gently, her eyes downcast; "and
+now that I know the motives that impelled you, I almost love you for
+that deceit itself, for it seems to me that it holds some quality well
+worthy of devotion."
+
+Such was our talk, all of a nature to help us to a better understanding
+of each other, and all seeming to endear us more and more by showing us
+how close the past had already drawn us.
+
+Later I rose and announced my intention of adventuring into Cattolica,
+there to procure her garments more seemly than those she wore, in which
+she might journey on and come into the presence of my mother. Also,
+there was in Cattolica a man I knew, of whom I hoped for the loan of
+enough money to enable me to purchase mules, to the end that we might
+journey in more dignity and comfort. It was then about the twentieth
+hour, and I hoped to return by nightfall. I took my leave of Madonna,
+enjoining her to rest and to seek sleep whilst I was absent; and with
+that I set out.
+
+Cattolica was no more than a half-league distant, and I looked to reach
+it in a half-hour or so. I fell into thought as I trudged along, and I
+was building plans for the sunlit future that was to be ours. I was a
+man transformed that day, and I could have sung in spite of the chill
+December wind that buffeted me, so full of joy and gladness was my
+heart.
+
+At Biancomonte I was likely to spend my days as little better than a
+peasant, but surely a peasant's estate with such a companion as was to
+be mine was preferable to an emperor's throne without her.
+
+The bleak landscape seemed to me invested with a beauty that at no other
+time I should have noticed. God was good. I swore a thousand times, the
+world was a good world--so good that Heaven could scarce be better.
+
+I had come, perhaps, the better half of the distance I had to travel,
+and I was giving full rein to my joyous fancy, when suddenly I espied
+ahead a company of horsemen. They were approaching me at a brisk
+pace, but I took no thought of them, accounting myself secure from any
+molestation. If it so happened that it was a search party from Pesaro,
+seeking two men disguised as monks who had ravished the coffin
+of Madonna Paola di Santafior, what should they want of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte? And so, in my confidence, I advanced even as they trotted
+quickly towards me.
+
+Not until they were within a matter of a hundred paces did I raise my
+eyes to take their measure; and then I halted on my step, smitten of a
+sudden by an unreasoning and unreasonable fear, to see at their head
+the bulky form of the Governor of Cesena. He saw me, too, and, what
+was worse, he recognised me on the instant, for he clapped spurs to his
+horse and came at me as if he would ride me down. Within three paces of
+me he drew up his steed. Whether the memory of the other two occasions
+on which I had thwarted him arose now in his mind and made him wonder
+had not some fatality brought me across his path again to send awry his
+pretty schemes concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for certain; yet
+some suspicion of it occurred to me and filled me with apprehension.
+
+"Body of Bacchus!" he roared. "Is it truly you, Boccadoro?"
+
+"They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent," I answered him. But my tone
+was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
+
+"A fig for what they call you," he snapped contemptuously. "Whence are
+you?"
+
+"From Pesaro," I answered truthfully.
+
+"From Pesaro? But you are travelling towards it."
+
+"True. I was making for Cattolica, but I missed my way in seeking to
+shorten it. I am now returning by the high-road."
+
+The explanation satisfied him on that point, and being satisfied, he
+asked me when I had left Pesaro. A moment I hesitated.
+
+"Late last night," said I at last. He looked, at me, my foolish
+hesitation having perhaps unslipped a suspicion that was straining at
+its leash.
+
+"In that case," said he, "you can scarcely have heard the strange story
+that is being told there?"
+
+I looked at him, as if puzzled, for a second. "If you mean the story of
+Madonna Paoia's end, I heard it yesterday."
+
+"Why, what story was that?" quoth he in some surprise, his beetling
+brows coming together in one broad line of fur.
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. "Men said that she had been poisoned."
+
+"Oh, that," he cried indifferently. "But men say to-day that her
+body was stolen from the Church of San Domenico where it lay. An odd
+happening, is it not?" And his eyes covered me in a fierce scrutiny that
+again suggested to me those suspicions of his that I might be the man
+who had anticipated him. I was soon to learn that he had more grounds
+than at first I thought for those same suspicions.
+
+"Odd, indeed," I answered calmly, for all that I felt my pulses
+quickening with apprehension. "But is it true?" I added.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders. "Rumour's habit is to lie," he answered.
+"Yet for such a lie as that, so monstrous an imagination would be needed
+that, rather, am I inclined to account it truth. There are no more poets
+in Pesaro since you left. But at what hour was it that you quitted the
+city?"
+
+To hesitate again were to betray myself; it were to suggest that I
+was seeking an answer that should sort well with the rest of my story.
+Besides, what could the hour signify?
+
+"It would be about the first hour of night," I said. He looked at me
+with increasing strangeness.
+
+"You must indeed have wandered from your road to have got no farther
+than this in all that time. Perhaps you were hampered by some heavy
+burden?" He leered evilly, and I turned cold.
+
+"I was burdened with nothing heavier than this body of mine and a rather
+uneasy conscience."
+
+"Where, then, have you tarried?"
+
+At this I thought it time to rebel. Were I too meekly to submit to this
+examination, my very meekness might afford him fresh grounds for doubts.
+
+"Once have I told you," I answered wearily, "that I lost my way. And,
+however much it may flatter me to have your Excellency evincing such an
+interest in my concerns, I am at a loss to find a reason for it."
+
+He leered prodigiously once more, and his eyebrows shot up to the level
+of his cap.
+
+"I will tell you, brute beast," he answered me. "I question you because
+I suspect that you are hiding something from me."
+
+"What should I hide from your Excellency?"
+
+He dared not enlighten me on that point, for should his suspicions prove
+unfounded he would have uselessly betrayed himself.
+
+"If you are honest, why do you lie?"
+
+"I?" I ejaculated. "In what have I lied?"
+
+"In that you have told me that you left Pesaro at the first hour of
+night. At the third hour you were still in the Church of San Domenico,
+whither you followed Madonna Paola's bier."
+
+It was my turn to knit my brows. "Was I indeed?" quoth I. "Why, yes, it
+may well be. But what of that? Is the hour in which I quitted Pesaro a
+matter of such moment as to be worth lying over? If I said that I left
+about the first hour, it is because I was under the impression that it
+was so. But I was so distraught by grief at Madonna's death that I may
+have been careless in my account of time."
+
+"More lies," he blazed with sudden passion. "It may have been the third
+hour, you say. Fool, the gates of Pesaro close at the second hour of
+night. Where are your wits?"
+
+Outwardly calm, but inwardly in a panic--more for Madonna's sake than
+for my own--I promptly held out the hand on which I wore the Borgia
+ring. In a flash of inspiration did that counter suggest itself to me.
+
+"There is a key that will open any gate in Romagna at any hour."
+
+He looked at the ring, and of what passed in his mind I can but offer a
+surmise. He may have remembered that once before I had fooled him
+with the help of that gold circlet; or he may have thought that I
+was secretly in the service of the Borgias, and that, acting in their
+interests, I had carried off Madonna Paola. Be that as it may, the sight
+of the ring threw him into a fury. He turned on his horse.
+
+"Lucagnolo!" he called, and a man of officer's rank detached himself
+from the score of men-at-arms and rode forward. "Let six men escort me
+home to Cesena. Take you the remainder and beat up the country for
+three leagues about this spot. Do not leave a house outside Cattolica
+unsearched. You know what we are seeking?"
+
+The man inclined his head.
+
+"If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it," he
+answered confidently.
+
+"Set about it," was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me.
+"You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro," he sneered. "We
+shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe betide you,
+should it be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena."
+
+"So be it then," I answered as calmly as I might. "Meanwhile, perhaps
+you will now suffer me to go my ways."
+
+"The readier since your way must lie with ours."
+
+"Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica."
+
+"Not so, animal," he mimicked me with elephantine grace, "you are for
+Cesena, and you had best go with a good will. Our manner of constraining
+men is reputed rude." He turned again. "Ercole, take you this man behind
+you. Assist him, Stefano."
+
+And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to
+the steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride. Thus at every
+stride the anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they
+must find her rose ever higher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+
+I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were
+mine as we sped northward towards Cesena. If you are a person of some
+imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to
+surmise them; if you are not--why then, my tale is not for you, and
+it is more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it
+aside long before you reach this page.
+
+We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had
+fallen we were within the walls of the citadel. It was when we had
+dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of
+the soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.
+
+"Animal," said he, "they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures
+and rough ways. You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am
+maligned. For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your
+lying tongue with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until my
+men return with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me. But if
+I then discover that you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter from
+Ramiro del' Orca's flagstaff."
+
+He pointed up to the tower of the Castle, from which a beam protruded,
+laden at that moment with a ghastly burden just discernible in the
+thickening gloom. He named it well when he called it his "flagstaff,"
+and the miserable banner of carrion that hung from it was a fitting
+pennon for the ruthless Governor of Cesena. Worthy was he to have worn
+the silver hauberk of Werner von Urslingen with its motto, "The enemy of
+God, of pity and of mercy."
+
+Forbidding, black-browed men caught me with rough hands and dragged me
+off to a dank, unlighted prison, as empty of furniture as it was full of
+noisome smells. And there they left me to my ugly thoughts and my
+deeply despondent mood what time the Governor of Cesena supped with his
+officers in the hall of the Castle.
+
+Ramiro drank deep that night as was his habit, and being overladen
+with wine it entered his mind that in one of his dungeons lay Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, who, at one time, had been known as Boccadoro, the merriest
+Fool in Italy. In his drunkenness he grew merry, and when Ramiro del'
+Orca grew merry men crossed themselves and betook them to their prayers.
+He would fain be amused, and to serve that end he summoned one of his
+sbirri and bade the fellow drag Boccadoro from his dungeon and fetch him
+into his presence.
+
+When they came for me I turned cold with fear that Madonna was already
+taken, and, by contrast with such a fear as that, the reflection that he
+might carry out his threat to hang me from that black beam of his, faded
+into insignificant proportions.
+
+They ushered me into a great hall, not ill-furnished, the floor strewed
+plentifully with rushes, and warmed by an enormous fire of blazing oak.
+By the door stood two pikemen in armour, like a pair of statues; in the
+centre of the floor was a heavy oaken board, laden now with flagons and
+beakers, at which sat Ramiro with a pair of gossips so villainous to
+look at, that the sight of them reminded me of the adage "God makes a
+man and then accompanies him."
+
+The Governor made a hideous noise at sight of me, which I was
+constrained to accept as an expression of horrid glee.
+
+"Boccadoro," said he, "do you recall that when last I had the honour of
+being entertained by your pert tongue, I promised you that did you ever
+cross my path again I would raise you to the dignity of Fool of my Court
+of Cesena?"
+
+Into what magniloquence does vanity betray us! His Court of Cesena! As
+well might you describe a pig-sty as a bower of roses.
+
+But his words, despite the unsavoury thing of which they seemed to
+hold a promise, fell sweetly on my ear, inasmuch as for the time they
+relieved my fears touching Madonna. It was not to advise me of her
+capture that he had had me haled into his odious presence. I gathered
+courage.
+
+"Have you not fools enough already at Cesena?" I asked him.
+
+A moment he looked as if he were inclining to anger. Then he burst into
+a coarse laugh, and turned to one of his gossips.
+
+"Did I not tell you, Lampugnani, that his wit was quick and penetrating?
+Hear him, rogue. Already has he discerned your quality." He laughed
+consumedly at his own jest, and turning to me he pointed to a crimson
+bundle on a chair beside me. "Take those garments," he roughly bade me.
+"Go dress yourself in them, then come you back and entertain us."
+
+Without answering him, and already anticipating the nature of the
+clothes he bade me don, I lifted one of the garments from the heap. It
+was a foliated jester's cap, with a bell hanging from every point, which
+gave out a tinkling sound as I picked it up. I let it fall again as
+though it had scorched me, the memory of what stood between Madonna
+Paola and me rising like a warning spectre in my mind. I would not again
+defile myself by the garb of folly; not again would I incur the shame of
+playing the Fool for the amusement of others.
+
+"May it please your Excellency to excuse me," I answered in a firm tone.
+"I have made a vow never again to put on motley."
+
+He eyed me sardonically for a moment, as if enjoying in anticipation the
+pleasure of compelling me against my will. He sat back in his chair and
+threw one heavily-booted leg across the other.
+
+"In the Citadel of Cesena," said he, "we fear neither God nor Devil, and
+vows are as water to us--things we cannot stomach. It does not please me
+to excuse you."
+
+I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he
+accompanied his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
+
+"It is not," said I, "a question of what a vow may be to you and yours,
+but of what a vow is to me. It is a thing I cannot break."
+
+"Sangue di Cristo!" he snarled, "we will break it for you, then--that
+or your bones. Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the rack--or yet,
+if you prefer it, there is the cord yonder." And he pointed to the far
+end of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a pulley, the
+implements of the ghastly torture of the cord. Of such a nature was this
+monster that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
+
+"Let the rogue make acquaintance with it," laughed Lampugnani, showing
+a mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
+"I'll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his quips.
+Swing him up, Illustrious."
+
+But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
+
+"You shall have five minutes in which to decide," he informed me
+presently. "They say that I am cruel. Behold how patient is my clemency.
+Five minutes shall you have where many another would hang you out of
+hand for bearding him as you have done me."
+
+"You may begin at once," said I. "neither five minutes nor five years
+will alter my determination."
+
+His brow grew black with anger. "We shall see," was all he said.
+
+There was a silence now in which we waited, a storm of thoughts battling
+in my mind. Presently Ramiro caught up one of the flagons and applied
+it to his cup. It proved empty, and in a gust of passion he hurled it
+against the wall where it burst into a thousand pieces. Clearly he was
+very angry, and it taxed my wits to account for the little measure of
+patience he was showing me.
+
+"Beppo!" he called. A page lounging by the buffet sprang to attention.
+He was a slender, rather delicate lad, fair of hair and blue of eyes,
+not more than twelve years of age. An elderly man who stood beside
+him--one Mariani, the seneschal of Cesena--stepped forward also,
+solicitude in his glance.
+
+"Bring me wine," bawled the ogre. "Must I tell you what I need? If you
+do not put those eyes of yours to better service, I'll have them plucked
+from your empty head. Bestir, animal."
+
+The old man caught up a beaker from the buffet and handed it to the boy.
+
+"Here, my son," said he. "Hasten to his Excellency."
+
+The lad took the beaker from his father's hands, and trembling in his
+fear of Ramiro's anger, he sprang forward to serve him. In his haste
+the poor youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes.
+In seeking to recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the
+halberdiers that guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at
+Ramiro's feet, flooding the Governor's legs with the wine he carried.
+
+How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
+
+For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes
+glowing like a madman's. Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one
+hand to the boy's belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin. Feeling
+himself lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him,
+poor Beppo uttered a single scream of terror. Then Ramiro swung him
+round with an ease that displayed the man's prodigious strength. For
+just a second he seemed to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle
+that he held. Then, as if suddenly taking his resolve, that devil hurled
+the lad across the little intervening space, straight into the heart of
+the blazing fire.
+
+Beppo hurtled against the logs with a sickening crash, and a thousand
+sparks leapt up and vanished in the cavern of the chimney. Ramiro
+wheeled sharply about, and snatching the pike from the hands of one of
+my guards, he pinned down the poor body of the boy to make sure of his
+victim's entire destruction.
+
+Away by the buffet old Mariani looked on with a face as grey as ashes,
+his eyes protruding in horror at the thing they witnessed. One glimpse I
+had of him, and I scarce know which was the sight that sickened me more,
+the fathers anguish or the twitching limbs of the burning child. Two
+legs and two arms protruded from the blaze and writhed and wriggled
+horribly what time the flames peeled the garments from them and licked
+the flesh from the bones. At length they fell still and sank down into
+the white heat of the logs, a hideous, pungent odour spreading through
+the chamber. From the old man by the buffet, who had stood spellbound
+during this ghastly scene, there broke at last an anguished cry.
+
+"Mercy, my lord, mercy!"
+
+The Governor of Cesena straightened himself from his task, pulled the
+pike from the flames, and restored it to the man-at-arms. Then turning
+to Mariani:
+
+"Fetch me wine," he bade him curtly, as he seated himself once more
+upon the chair from which he had risen to perform that deed of ghastly
+ruthlessness.
+
+A torch spluttered suddenly in its sconce, and the fierce hissing of the
+fire--like some monster licking its chops over a bloody meal--were the
+only sounds that disturbed the stillness that ensued.
+
+Every man there, including Ramiro's table companions, was white to the
+lips; for accustomed though they might be to horrors in that brigand's
+nest, this was a horror that surpassed anything they had ever witnessed.
+The silence irked Messer Ramiro. He looked round from under his shaggy
+brows, and he spluttered out an oath.
+
+"Will you bring me this wine, pig?" he growled at the almost senseless
+Mariani, and in his air and voice there was a promise of such terrific
+things that the old man put aside his horror to make room for his fears,
+and mechanically seizing another flagon he hurried forward to minister
+to the wants of his fearful lord.
+
+Ramiro eyed him with cynical amusement.
+
+"Your hand shakes, Mariani," he derided him. "Are you cold? Go warm
+yourself," he added, with a brutal laugh and a jerk of his thumb towards
+the fire.
+
+My eyes have looked upon some gruesome sights, and I have heard such
+tales of ruthless cruelty as you would deem almost passing possibility.
+I have read of the awful doings of the Lord Bernabo Visconti at Milan in
+the olden time, but I believe that compared with this monster of Cesena
+that same Bernabo was no worse than a sucking dove. How it befell that
+men permitted him to live, how it was that none bethought him to put
+poison in his wine or a knife in his back, is something that I shall
+never wholly understand. Could it be that these robbers of whom he made
+a hedge for his protection were no better than himself, or was it that
+the man's terrific brutality was on such a scale that it filled them
+with an almost supernatural awe of him? To men better versed than am I
+in the mysterious ways of human nature do I leave the answering of these
+questions.
+
+The ogre turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, as with his hand he caressed
+his tawny beard. He seemed to have cooled a little now, and to have
+regained some mastery of his drunken self. Old Mariani tottered back to
+his buffet, and stood leaning against it, his eyes wandering, with the
+look of a man demented, to the fire that had devoured his child. There,
+indeed, if he escaped the madness with which the poignancy of his grief
+was threatening him, was a tool that might turn its edge against this
+inhuman monster, this devil, this bloody carnifex of a Governor.
+
+"Chance," said Ramiro, "has designed that you should see something of
+how we deal with clumsy knaves at Cesena, Boccadoro. To disobedient
+ones I can assure you that we are not half so merciful. There is no such
+short shrift for them. You have had more than the time I promised you
+for reflection. The garments await you yonder. Let us know--"
+
+The door opened suddenly, and a servant entered.
+
+"A courier from the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli, Tyrant of Citt� di
+Castello," he announced, unwittingly breaking in upon Ramiro's words,
+"with urgent messages for the high and Mighty Governor of Cesena."
+
+On the instant Ramiro rose, the expression of his face changing from
+cynical amusement to sober concern, the task upon which he was engaged
+forgotten.
+
+"Admit him instantly," he commanded. And whilst he waited he paced the
+chamber in long strides, his chin thrust slightly forward, suggestive of
+deep thought. And during that pause, I, too, was thinking. Not indeed
+of him, nor vainly speculating upon such matters as might be involved
+in the message, the announcement of which seemed so deeply to engage his
+mind, but chiefly of my own and Madonna Paola's concerns.
+
+It was not fear of what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new
+channel and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del' Orca's
+behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his
+diversion. It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what the
+consequences of my death might be to Paola di Santafior.
+
+However desperate a position may seem, unlooked-for loopholes often
+present themselves, and so long as we live and have sound limbs to aid
+us to seize such opportunities as may offer, it is a weak thing utterly
+to abandon hope.
+
+Was it, then, not better to submit to the shame of the motley once again
+for a little time, when by so doing I might perhaps live to work my
+own salvation, and Madonna's should she suffer capture, rather than
+stubbornly to invite him to put me to death out of a feeling of false
+pride?
+
+The very resolve seemed to lend me strength and to revive the hope that
+lay moribund in my breast. And then, scarce was it taken, when the door
+again opened, and a man, who was splashed from head to foot with mud, in
+earnest of how hard he had ridden, was ushered in.
+
+He advanced to Meser Ramiro, bowed and presented a package. Ramiro broke
+the seal, and standing with his back to the fire, immediately in the
+light shed by one of the wax torches, he read the letter. Then his eyes
+wandered to the man who had brought it, and to me it seemed that they
+dwelt particularly upon the hat the courier was holding in his hand.
+
+"Take this good fellow to the kitchen," he bade the servant that had
+introduced him, "let him be fed and rested." Then, turning to the man,
+himself, "I shall require you to set out at daybreak with my answer,"
+he said; and so, with a wave of the hand, he dismissed him. As the
+messenger departed Ramiro returned to the table, filled himself a cup of
+wine and drank.
+
+"What says the Lord Vitelli?" Lampugnani ventured to ask him.
+
+"If he knew you," answered Ramiro, with a scowl, "he would counsel me to
+strangle some of the over-inquisitive rascals that surround me."
+
+"Over-inquisitive?" echoed Lampugnani boldly. "Body of God! It
+were enough to wake the curiosity of an ecstatic hermit to have a
+mud-splashed courier from Citta di Castello at Cesena three times within
+one little week."
+
+Ramiro looked at him, and by his glance it was plain to see that the
+words had jarred his temper. Whatever it was that Vitelli wrote to
+Ramiro, this gentleman was not minded to divulge it.
+
+"If you have supped, Lampugnani," said the Governor slowly, his eyes
+upon his offending officer, "perhaps you will find some duty to perform
+ere you seek your bed."
+
+Lampugnani turned crimson, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. Then he
+rose. He was a man of choleric aspect, and that he served under Ramiro
+del' Orca was as much a danger to the Governor as to himself. He had not
+the air of one whom it was wise to threaten in however veiled a manner.
+
+"Shall I fetch you this fellow's hat ere I sleep?" he inquired, with
+contemptuous insolence.
+
+Not a word did Ramiro answer him, but his glance fastened upon
+Lampugnani with an expression before which that impudent ruffian lowered
+his own bold eyes. Thus for a moment; then with an awkward laugh to
+cover the intimidation that he felt, Lampugnani walked heavily from the
+room and banged the door after him.
+
+There was about it all a strangeness that set my wits to work in a
+mighty busy fashion. That work suffered interruption by the harsh voice
+of Ramiro.
+
+"Are you resolved, Boccadoro?" he growled at me. "Have you decided for
+the motley or the cord?"
+
+Instantly I fell into the part I was to play.
+
+"Did I choose the latter," said I, with an assumption of sudden airiness
+and such a grimace as was part and parcel of my old-time trade, "then
+were I truly worthy of the former, for I should have proved myself,
+indeed, a fool. Yet if I choose the former, I pray that you'll not
+follow the same course of reasoning, and hold me worthy of the latter."
+
+When he had understood its subtleties; for his wits were of a quality
+that would have disgraced a calf, he roared at the conceit, and
+seemingly thrown into a better humour by the promise of more such
+entertainment, he bade my guards release me, and urged me to assume the
+motley without more delay.
+
+What time I was obeying him my mind was returning to that matter of
+Lampugnani's words, and it is not difficult to understand how I should
+arrive at the only possible conclusion they suggested. The hats of the
+other messengers from Vitelli, that the officer had mentioned, had been
+brought to Ramiro. The reason for this that at once arose in my mind
+was that within the messenger's hat there was a second and more secret
+communication for the Governor.
+
+This secrecy and Ramiro's display of anger at seeing a hint of it
+betrayed by Lampugnani struck me, not unnaturally, as suspicious. What
+were these hidden communications that passed between Vitellozzo Vitelli
+and the Governor of Cesena? It was a matter of which I could not pretend
+to offer a solution, but, nevertheless, it was one, I thought, that
+promised to repay investigation.
+
+Ramiro grew impatient, and my reflections suffered interruption by his
+rough command that I should hasten. One of the men-at-arms helped me to
+truss my points, and when that was done I stepped forward--Boccadoro the
+Fool once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. THE SENESCHAL
+
+For an hour or so that night I played the Fool for Messer Ramiro's
+entertainment in a manner which did high justice to the fame that at
+Pesaro I had earned for the name of Boccadoro.
+
+Beginning with quip and jest and paradox, aimed now at him, now at the
+officer who had remained to keep him company in his cups, now at the
+servants who ministered to him, now at the guards standing at attention,
+I passed on later to play the part of narrator, and I delighted his foul
+and prurient mind with the story of Andreuccio da Perugia and another
+of the more licentious tales of Messer Giovanni Boccacci. I crimson now
+with shame at the manner in which I set myself to pander to his mood
+that with my wit I might defend my life and limbs, and preserve them for
+the service of my Holy Flower of the Quince in the hour of her need.
+
+One man alone of all those present did I spare my banter. This was the
+old seneschal, Miriani. He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever and
+anon he would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro's cup in obedience
+to the monsters imperious orders.
+
+What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so
+calm? His face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and
+rigid, its colour ashen. But his step was tolerably firm, and his hand
+seemed to have lost the trembling that had assailed it under the first
+shock of the horror he had witnessed.
+
+As I watched him furtively I thought that were I Ramiro I should beware
+of him. That frozen calm argued to me some terrible labour of the mind
+beneath that livid mask. But the Governor of Cesena appeared insensible,
+or else he was contemptuous of danger from that quarter. It may even
+have delighted his outrageous nature to behold a man whose son he had
+done to death with such brutality continue obedient and submissive to
+his will, for it may have flattered his vanity by the concession that
+bearing seemed to make to his grim power.
+
+An hour went by, my second tale was done, and I was now entrancing
+Messer Ramiro with some impromptu verses upon the divorce of Giovanni
+Sforza, a theme set me by himself, when I was interrupted by the arrival
+of a soldier, who entered unannounced.
+
+I paled and turned cold at the cry with which Ramiro rose to greet him,
+and the words he dropped, which told me that here was one of the riders
+of the party that, under Lucagnolo, had been ordered to search the
+country about Cattolica. Had they found Madonna?
+
+"Messer Lucagnolo," the fellow announced, "has sent me to report to you
+the failure of his search to the west and north of Cattolica. He has
+beaten the country thoroughly for three leagues of the town on those two
+sides, as you desired him, but unfortunately without result. He is
+now spreading his search to the south, and not a house is being left
+unvisited. By morning he hopes to report again to your Excellency."
+
+A wild wave of joy swept through my soul. They had ransacked the country
+west and north of Cattolica without result. Why then, assuredly, they
+had missed the peasant's hut that sheltered her, and where she waited
+yet for my return. Their search to the south I knew would prove equally
+futile. I could have fallen on my knees in a prayer of thanksgiving had
+my surroundings been other than they were.
+
+Ramiro's eye wandered round to me and settled on me in a lowering
+glance. By his face it was plain that the message disappointed him.
+
+"I wonder," said he, "whether we could make you talk?" And from me his
+eyes roamed on to the instrument of torture at the end of that long
+chamber. I grew sick with fear, for if he were to do this thing, and
+maim me by it, how should I avail myself or her hereafter?
+
+"Excellency," I cried, "since you met me you have hinted at something
+that I am hiding from you, at something touching which I could give you
+information did I choose. What it may be passes all thought of mine. But
+this I do assure you: no torture could make me tell you what I do not
+know, nor is any torture needed to extract from me such information as I
+may be possessed of. I do but beg that you wilt frankly question me upon
+this matter, whatever it may be, and your Excellency shall be answered
+to the best of my knowledge."
+
+He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the
+seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that
+he believed me. A moment he hesitated yet; then--
+
+"I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior," he said
+presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table. "As I told you, the
+body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from San
+Domenico. Know you aught of this?"
+
+It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to
+fight this brigand? Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and
+a lie become a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely
+justify such an exception.
+
+"I know nothing," I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with a
+ring of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, "nor can
+I even believe this rumour. It is a wild story. That the body has been
+stolen may be true enough. Such things occur; though he was a bold man
+who laid hands upon the body of a person of such importance. But that
+she lives--Gesu! that is an old wife's tale. I had, myself, the word of
+the Lord Filippo's physician that she was dead."
+
+"Nevertheless, this old wife's tale, as you dub it, is one of which I
+have had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall
+not regret it. Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have
+abstracted the body from the church. In seeking this information I am
+acting in the interests of the noble House of Borgia which I serve and
+to which she was to have been allied, as you well know."
+
+I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
+convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover
+the true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied to
+me of his service to the House of Borgia.
+
+"I will gladly lend you these wits," said I, "to disprove to you the
+rumour of which you say that you have confirmation. Let us accept the
+statement that the body has been stolen. That much, no doubt, is true,
+for even rumours require some slight foundation. But who in all this
+world could say that when the body was taken it was not dead?
+Clearly but one man--he that administered the poison. And, I ask your
+Excellency, would he be likely to tell the world what he had done?"
+
+He might have answered me: "I am that man." But he did not. Instead, he
+hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had uttered--words
+meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter; and this they
+achieved, at least in part. He flashed me a look of sudden suspicion, it
+is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his brooding eye.
+
+"Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of
+what you say," he grumbled. "But I incline to believe you, and you are a
+merry rogue. You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as you
+amuse me. But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive me.
+You shall have the cord first and other things after, and your death
+shall be the thing you'll pray for long before it takes you from my
+vengeance. If you know aught, speak now and you shall find me merciful.
+Your life and liberty shall be the recompense of your honesty towards
+me."
+
+"I repeat, Excellency," I answered, without changing colour, "that all
+that I know have I already told you."
+
+He was convinced, I think, for the time being.
+
+"Get you gone, then," he bade me. "I have other business to deal with
+ere I sleep. Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged."
+
+The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently
+motioned me to go with him. I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance,
+and withdrew in the wake of the seneschal.
+
+He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a
+gallery that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted
+presently, and, opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished
+room.
+
+A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.
+
+The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his
+hollow eyes rested on me for a second. I thought that he was on the
+point of saying something, and I waited returning his glance with one
+that quailed before the anguish of his own. I feared to speak, to offer
+an expression of the sympathy that filled my heart; for in that strange
+place I could not tell how far a man was to be trusted--even a man so
+wronged as this one. On his own part it may be that a like doubt beset
+him concerning me, for in the end he departed as he had come, no word
+having passed his ashen lips.
+
+Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had
+left in the iron sconce on the wall. The single window overlooked the
+courtyard, so that even had I been disposed and able to cut through the
+iron that barred it, I should but succeed in falling into the hands of
+the guards who abounded in that nest of infamy.
+
+So that, for the night at least, the notion of flight must be abandoned.
+What the morrow would bring forth we must wait and see. Perhaps some way
+of escape would offer itself. Then my thoughts returned to Paola, and I
+was tortured by surmises as to her fate, and chiefly as to how she could
+have eluded the search that must have been made for her in the hut where
+I had left her. Had the peasant befriended her, I wondered; and what
+did she think of my protracted absence? I sat on the edge of the bed and
+gave rein to my conjectures. The noises in the castle had all ceased,
+and still I sat on, unconscious of time, my taper burning low.
+
+It may have been midnight when I was startled by the sound of a stealthy
+step in the corridor near my door. A heavy footfall I should have left
+unheeded, but this soft tread aroused me on the instant, and I sat
+listening.
+
+It halted at my door, and was succeeded by a soft, scratching sound.
+Noiselessly I rose, and with ready hands I waited, prepared, in the
+instinct of self-preservation, to fall upon the intruder, however futile
+the act might be. But the door did not open as I expected. Instead, the
+scratching sound continued, growing slightly louder. Then it occurred to
+me, at last, that whoever came might be a friend craving admittance, and
+proceeding stealthily that others in the castle might not overhear him.
+
+Swiftly I crossed to the door, and opened. On the threshold a dark
+figure straightened itself from a stooping posture, and the light of the
+taper behind me fell on a face of a pallor that seemed to glisten in its
+intensity. It was the face of Mariani, the seneschal of the Castle of
+Cessna.
+
+One glance we exchanged, and intuitively I seemed to apprehend the
+motive of this midnight visit. He came either to bring me aid or to seek
+mine, with vengeance for his guerdon. I stood aside, and silently he
+entered my room and closed the door.
+
+"Quench your taper," he bade me in a husky whisper.
+
+Without hesitation I obeyed him, a strange excitement thrilling me. For
+a second we stood in the dark, then another light gleamed as he plucked
+away the cloak that masked a lanthorn which he had brought with him. He
+set the lanthorn on the floor, and held the cloak in his hand, ready
+at a moment's notice to conceal the light in its folds. Then pulling me
+down beside him on the bed, where he had perched himself:
+
+"My friend," said he, "it may be that I bring you assistance."
+
+"Speak, then," I bade him. "You shall not find me slow to act if there
+is the need or the way."
+
+"So I had surmised," he said. "Are you not that same Boccadoro, Fool of
+the Court of Pesaro, who donned the Lord Giovanni's armour and rode out
+to do battle in his stead?"
+
+I answered him that I was that man.
+
+"I have heard the tale," said he. "Indeed, all Italy has heard it, and
+knows you for a man of steel, as strong and audacious as you are cunning
+and resourceful. I know against what desperate odds you fought that day,
+and how you overcame this terrible Ramiro. This it is that leads me to
+hope that in the service of your own ends you may become the instrument
+of my vengeance."
+
+"Unfold your project, man," I muttered, fiercely almost, in my burning
+eagerness. "Let me hear what you would have me do."
+
+He did not answer me until a sob had shaken his old frame.
+
+"That boy," he muttered brokenly, "that golden-haired angel sent me for
+the consolation of my decaying years, that lad whom Ramiro destroyed so
+foully and wantonly, was my son. Futile though the attempt had proved, I
+had certainly set my hands at the tyrants neck, but that I founded hopes
+on you of a surer and more terrible revenge. That thought has manned me
+and upheld me when anguish was near to slaying me outright. To see the
+boy burn so under my very eyes! God of mercy and pity! That I should
+have lived so long!"
+
+"Your child burned but a moment, suffered but an instant; for the
+deed, Ramiro will burn in Hell through countless generations, through
+interminable ages."
+
+It was a paltry consolation, perhaps, but it was the best that then
+occurred to me.
+
+"Meanwhile," I begged him, "do you tell me what you would have me do."
+
+I urged him to it that he might, thereby, suffer his mind to rest a
+moment from pondering that ghastly thing that he had witnessed, that
+scene that would live before his eyes until they closed in their last
+sleep.
+
+"You heard Lampugnani quip Ramiro with the fact that three messengers
+have ridden desperately within the week from Citta di Castello to
+Cesena, and you heard, perhaps, his obscure reference to the hat?"
+
+"I heard both, and both I weighed," said I. The old man looked at me as
+if surprised.
+
+"And what," he asked, "was the conclusion you arrived at?"
+
+"Why, simply this: that whilst the messenger bore some letter from
+Vitelli to Ramiro that should serve to lull the suspicions of any who,
+wondering at so much traffic between these two, should be moved to take
+a peep into those missives, the true letter with which the courier rides
+is concealed within the lining of his hat--probably unknown even to
+himself."
+
+He stared at me as though I had been a wizard.
+
+"Messer Boccadoro--" he began.
+
+"My name," I corrected him, "is Biancomonte--Lazzaro Biancomonte."
+
+"Whatever be your name," he returned, "of the quality of your wits there
+can be no question. You have guessed for yourself the half of what I was
+come to tell you. Has your shrewdness borne you any further? Have you
+concluded aught concerning the nature of those letters?"
+
+"I have concluded that it might repay some trouble to discover what is
+contained in letters that are sent with so much secrecy. I can conceive
+nothing that might lie between the Lord of Citta di Castello and this
+ruffian of Cesena, and yet--treason lurks often where least it is
+expected, and treason makes stranger bed-fellows than misfortune."
+
+"Lampugnani was no fool, and yet a great fool," the old man murmured. He
+surmised what you have surmised. With each of the messengers Ramiro
+has dealt in the same manner. He has sent each to be fed and refreshed
+whilst waiting to return with the answer he was penning. For their
+refreshment he has ordered a very full, stout wine--not drugged, for
+that they might discover upon awaking; but a wine that of itself would
+do the work of setting them to sleep very soundly. Then, when all slept,
+and only he remained at table, like the drunkard that he is, it has been
+his habit to descend himself to the kitchen and possess himself of
+the messenger's hat. With this he has returned to the hall, opened the
+lining and withdrawn a letter.
+
+"Then, as I suppose, he has penned his answer, thrust it into the
+lining, where the other one had been, and secured it, as it was before,
+with his own hands. He has returned the hat to the place from whence he
+took it, and when the courier awakens in the morning there is another
+letter put into his hand, and he is bidden to bear it to Vitelli."
+
+He paused a moment; then continued: "Lampugnani must have suspected
+something and watched Ramiro to make sure that his suspicions were well
+founded. In that he was wise, but he was a fool to allow Ramiro to see
+what lie he had discovered. Already he has paid the penalty. He is lying
+with a dagger in his throat, for an hour ago Ramiro stabbed him while he
+slept."
+
+I shuddered. What a place of blood was this! Could it be that Cesare
+Borgia had no knowledge of what things were being performed by his
+Governor of Cesena?
+
+"Poor Lampugnani!" I sighed. "God rest his soul."
+
+"I doubt but he is in Hell," answered Mariani, without emotion. "He
+was as great a villain as his master, and he has gone to answer for his
+villainy even as this ugly monster of a Ramiro shall. But let Lampugnani
+be. I am not come to talk of him.
+
+"Returning from his bloody act, Ramiro ordered me to bed. I went, and
+as I passed Lampugnani's room I saw the door standing wide. It was thus
+that I learnt what had befallen. I remembered his words concerning the
+hat and I remembered old suspicions of my own aroused by the thought
+of the potent wine which Ramiro had ordered me to see given to the
+couriers. I sped back to the gallery that overlooks the hall. Ramiro was
+absent, and I surmised at once that he was gone to the kitchen. Then was
+it that I thought of you and of what service you might render if things
+were indeed as I now more than suspected. Like an inspiration it came to
+me how I might prepare your way. I ran down to the hall, sweating in
+my terror that he should return ere I had performed the task I went on.
+From the buffet I drew a flagon of that same stout wine that Ramiro used
+upon his messengers. I ripped away the seal and crimson cord by which it
+is distinguished, and placing it on the table I removed the flagon I had
+set for him before I had first departed.
+
+"Then I fled back to the gallery, and from the shadows I watched for his
+return. Soon he came, bearing a hat in his hand; and from that hat he
+took a letter, all as you have surmised. He read it, and I saw his face
+lighten with a fierce excitement. Then he helped himself freely to wine,
+and drank thirstily, for all that he was overladen with it. One of the
+qualities of this wine is that in quenching thirst it produces yet a
+greater. Ramiro drank again, then sat with the letter before him in the
+light of the single taper I had left burning. Presently he grew sleepy.
+He shook himself and drank again. Then again he sat conning his epistle,
+and thus I left him and came hither in quest of you."
+
+There followed a pause.
+
+"Well?" I asked at length. "What is it you would have me do? Stab him as
+he sleeps?"
+
+He shook his head. "That were too sweet and sudden a death for him. If
+it had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent
+me strength enough. But think you it would repay me for having seen my
+boy pinned by that monster's pike to the burning logs?"
+
+"What is it, then, you ask of me?"
+
+"If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if
+its treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia--it could scarce be aimed
+at another--would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it?"
+
+"Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone--what then? You know
+this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would ransack
+the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive were
+forthcoming."
+
+"That," he groaned, "is what deterred me. If I had the means of getting
+the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from
+Cesena, I should not have hesitated. Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza,
+and I could ride there in a day. But it would be impossible for me to
+leave the place before morning. I have duties to perform in the town,
+and I might get away whilst I am about them, but before then the letter
+will have been missed, and no one will be allowed to leave the citadel."
+
+"Why then," said I, "the only hope lies in abstracting that letter in
+such a manner that he shall not suspect the loss; and that seems a very
+desperate hope."
+
+We sat in silence for some moments, during which I thought intently to
+little purpose.
+
+"Does he sleep yet, think you?" I asked presently.
+
+"Assuredly he must."
+
+"And if I were to go to the gallery, is there any fear that I should be
+discovered by others?"
+
+"None. All at Cesena are asleep by now."
+
+"Then," said I, rising, "let us take a look at him. Who knows what may
+suggest itself? Come." I moved towards the door, and he took up his
+lanthorn and followed me, enjoining me to tread lightly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. THE LETTER
+
+
+On tiptoe I crept down that corridor to the gallery above the
+banqueting-hall, secure from sight in the enveloping darkness, and
+intent upon allowing no sound to betray my presence, lest Ramiro should
+have awakened. Behind me, treading as lightly, came Messer Mariani.
+
+Thus we gained the gallery. I leaned against the stout oaken balustrade,
+and looked down into the black pit of the hall, broken in the centre by
+the circle of light from the two tapers that burnt upon the table. The
+other torches had all been quenched.
+
+At the table sat Messer Ramiro, his head fallen forward and sideways
+upon his right arm which was outstretched and limp along the board.
+Before him lay a paper which I inferred to be the letter whose
+possession might mean so much.
+
+I could hear the old man breathing heavily beside me as I leaned there
+in the dark, and sought to devise a means by which that paper might be
+obtained. No doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to snatch
+it away without disturbing him. But there was always to be considered
+that when he waked and missed the letter we should have to reckon with
+his measures to regain possession of it.
+
+It became necessary, therefore, to go about it in a manner that should
+leave him unsuspicious of the theft. A little while I pondered this,
+deeming the thing desperate at first. Then an idea came to me on a
+sudden, and turning to Mariani I asked him could he find me a sheet of
+paper of about the size of that letter held by Ramiro. He answered me
+that he could, and bade me wait there until he should return.
+
+I waited, watching the sleeper below, my excitement waxing with every
+second of the delay. Ramiro was snoring now--a loud, sonorous snore that
+rang like a trumpet-blast through that vast empty hall.
+
+At last Mariani returned, bringing the sheet of paper I had asked for,
+and he was full of questions of what I intended. But neither the place
+nor the time was one in which to stand unfolding plans. Every moment
+wasted increased the uncertainty of the success of my design. Someone
+might come, or Ramiro might awaken despite the potency of the wine he
+had been given--for on so well-seasoned a toper the most potent of wines
+could have but a transient effect.
+
+So I left Mariani, and moved swiftly and silently to the head of the
+staircase.
+
+I had gone down two steps, when, in the dark, I missed the third, the
+bells in my cap jangling at the shock. I brought my teeth together and
+stood breathless in apprehension, fearing that the noise might awaken
+him, and cursing myself for a careless fool to have forgotten those
+infernal bells. Above me I heard a warning hiss from old Mariani,
+which, if anything, increased my dread. But Ramiro snored on, and I was
+reassured.
+
+A moment I stood debating whether I should go on, or first return to
+divest myself of that cap of mine. In the end I decided to pursue the
+latter course. The need for swift and sudden movement might come ere
+I was done with this adventure, and those bells might easily be the
+undoing of me. So back I went to the surprise and infinite dismay
+of Mariani until I had whispered in his ear the reason. We retreated
+together to the corridor, and there, with his help, I removed my
+jangling headgear, which I left him to restore to my chamber.
+
+Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this
+time I gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the
+hall. Ramiro's back was towards me. On my right stood the tall buffet
+from which the boy had fetched him wine that evening; this I marked out
+as the cover to which I must fly in case of need.
+
+A second I stood hesitating, still considering my course; then I went
+softly forward, my feet making no sound in the rushes of the floor. I
+had covered half the distance, and, growing bolder, I was advancing more
+swiftly and with less caution, when suddenly my knee came in contact
+with a three-legged stool that had been carelessly left where none would
+have suspected it. The blow may have hurt afterwards, indeed, I was
+conscious of a soreness at the knee; but at the moment I had no thought
+or care for physical pain. The bench went over with a crash, and for all
+that the rushes may have deadened in part the sound of its fall, to my
+nervous ear it boomed like the report of a cannon through the stillness
+of the place.
+
+I turned cold as ice, and the sweat of fear sprang out to moisten
+me from head to foot. Instantly I dropped on all fours, lest Ramiro,
+awaking suddenly, should turn; and I waited for the least sign that
+should render advisable my seeking the cover of the buffet. In the
+gallery above I could picture old Mariani clenching his teeth at the
+noise, his knees knocking together, and his face white with horror; for
+Ramiro's snoring had abruptly ceased. It came to an end with a choking
+catch of the breath, and I looked to see him raise his head and start up
+to ascertain what it was that had aroused him. But he never stirred,
+and for all that he no longer snored, his breathing continued heavy and
+regular, so that I was cheered by the assurance that I had but disturbed
+his slumber, not dispelled it.
+
+Yet, since I had disturbed and lightened it, a greater precaution was
+now necessary, and I waited there for some ten minutes maybe, a period
+that must have proved a very eternity to the old man upstairs. At last I
+had the reward of hearing the snoring recommence; lightly at first, but
+soon with all its former fullness.
+
+I rose and proceeded now with a caution that must guard me from any
+more unlooked-for obstacles. Moreover, as I approached, the darkness was
+dispelled more and more at every stride in the direction of the light.
+At last I reached the table, and stood silent as a spectre at Ramiro's
+side, looking down upon the features of the sleeping man.
+
+His face was flushed, and his tawny hair tumbled about his damp brow;
+his lips quivered as he breathed. For a moment, as I stood gazing on
+him, there was murder in my mind. His dagger hung temptingly in his
+girdle. To have drawn it and rid the world of this monster might have
+been a worthy deed, acceptable in the eyes of Heaven. But how should
+it profit me? Rather must it prove my destruction at the hands of his
+followers, and to be destroyed just then, with Paola depending upon me,
+and life full of promise once I regained my liberty, was something I had
+no mind to risk.
+
+My eyes wandered to the letter lying on the table. If this were of the
+nature we suspected, it should prove a safer tool for his destruction.
+
+To read it as it lay was an easy matter, and it came to me then that
+ere I decided upon my course it might be well that I should do so. If
+by chance it were innocent of treason, why, then, I might resort to the
+risk of that other and more desperate weapon--his own dagger.
+
+At the foot of the short flight of steps that led from the hall to the
+courtyard I could hear the slow pacing of the sentry placed there by
+Ramiro. But unless he were summoned, it was extremely unlikely that the
+fellow would leave his post, so that, I concluded, I had little to fear
+from that quarter. I drew back and taking up a position behind Ramiro's
+chair--a position more favourable to escape in the untoward event of
+his awaking--I craned forward to read the letter over his shoulder. I
+thanked God in that hour for two things: that my sight was keen, and
+that Vitellozzo Vitelli wrote a large, bold hand.
+
+Scarcely breathing, and distracted the while by the mad racing of my
+pulses, I read; and this, as nearly as I can remember, is what the
+letter contained:
+
+"ILLUSTRIOUS RAMIRO--Your answer to my last letter reached me
+safely, and it rejoiced me to learn that you had found a man for our
+undertaking. See that you have him in readiness, for the hour of action
+is at hand. Cesare goes south on the second or third day of the New
+Year, and he has announced to me his intention of passing through Cesena
+on his way, there to investigate certain charges of maladministration
+which have been preferred against you. These concern, in particular,
+certain misappropriation of grain and stores, and an excessive severity
+of rule, of which complaints have reached him. From this you will gather
+that out of a spirit of self-defence, if not to earn the reward which
+we have bound ourselves to pay you, it is expedient that you should not
+fail us. The occasion of the Duke's visit to Cesena will be, of all, the
+most propitious for our purpose. Have your arbalister posed, and may God
+strengthen his arm and render true his aim to the end that Italy may
+be rid of a tyrant. I commend myself to your Excellency, and I shall
+anxiously await your news.
+
+"VITELLOZZO VITELLI."
+
+Here indeed were my hopes realised. A plot there was, and it aimed at
+nothing less than the Duca Valentino's life. Let that letter be borne to
+Cesare Borgia at Faenza, and I would warrant that within a dozen hours
+of his receipt of it he would so dispose that all who had suffered by
+the cruel tyranny of Ramiro del' Orca would be avenged, and those
+who were still suffering would be relieved. In this letter lay my own
+freedom and the salvation of Madonna Paula, and this letter it behoved
+me at once to become possessed. It was a safer far alternative than that
+dagger of his.
+
+A moment I stood pondering the matter for the last time, then stepping
+sideways and forward, so that I was again beside him, I put out my hand
+and swiftly whipped the letter from the table. Then standing very still,
+to prevent the slightest rustle, I remained a second or two observing
+him. He snored on, undisturbed by my light-fingered action.
+
+I drew away a pace or two, as lightly as I might, and folding the letter
+I thrust it into my girdle. Then from my open doublet I drew the sheet
+that Mariani had supplied me, and, advancing again, I placed it on the
+table in a position almost identical with that which the original had
+occupied, saving that it was removed a half-finger's breadth from his
+hand, for I feared to allow it actually to touch him lest it should
+arouse him.
+
+Holding my breath, for now was I come to the most desperate part of my
+undertaking, I caught up one of the tapers and set fire to a corner of
+the sheet. That done, I left the candle lying on its side against
+the paper, so as to convey the impression to him, when presently he
+awakened, that it had fallen from it sconce. Then, without waiting for
+more, I backed swiftly away, watching the progress of the flames as they
+devoured the paper and presently reached his hand and scorched it.
+
+At that I dropped again on all fours, and having gained the corner of
+the buffet, I crouched there, even as with a sudden scream of pain he
+woke and sprang upright, shaking his blistered hand. As a matter of
+instinct he looked about to see what it was had hurt him. Then his eyes
+fell upon the charred paper on the table, and the fallen candle, which
+was still burning across one end of it, and even to the dull wits of
+Ramiro del' Orca the only possible conclusion was suggested. He stared
+at it a moment, then swept that flimsy sheet of ashes from the table
+with an oath, and sank back once more into his great leathern chair.
+
+"Body of God!" he swore aloud, "it is well that I had read it a dozen
+times. Better that it should have been burnt than that someone should
+have read it whilst I slept."
+
+The idea of such a possibility seemed to rouse him to fresh action, for
+seizing the fallen candle and replacing it in its socket, he rose once
+more, and holding it high above his head he looked about the hall.
+
+The light it shed may have been feeble, and the shadows about my buffet
+thick; but, as I have said, my doublet was open, and some ray of that
+weak candlelight must have found out the white shirt that was showing
+at my breast, for with a sudden cry he pushed back his chair and took a
+step towards me, no doubt intent upon investigating that white something
+that he saw gleaming there.
+
+I waited for no more. I had no fancy to be caught in that corner,
+utterly at his mercy. I stood up suddenly.
+
+"Magnificent, it is I," I announced, with a calm and boundless
+effrontery.
+
+The boldness of it may have staggered him a little, for he paused,
+although his eyes were glowing horribly with the frenzy that possessed
+him, the half of which was drunkenness, the other fear and wrath lest I
+should have seen his treacherous communication from Vitelli.
+
+"What make you here?" he questioned threateningly.
+
+"I thirsted, Excellency," I answered glibly. "I thirsted, and I
+bethought me of this buffet where you keep your wine."
+
+He continued to eye me, some six paces off, his half-drunken wits no
+doubt weighing the plausibility of my answer. At last--
+
+"If that be all, what cause had you to hide?" he asked me shrewdly.
+
+"One of your candles fell over and awakened you," said I. "I feared you
+might resent my presence, and so I hid."
+
+"You came not near the table?" he inquired. "You saw nothing of the
+paper that I held? Nay, by the Host! I'll take no risks. You were born
+'neath an unlucky star, fool; for be your reason for your presence here
+no more than you assert, you have come in a season that must be fatal to
+you."
+
+He set the candle on the table, then carrying his hand to his girdle he
+withdrew it sharply, and I caught the gleam of a dagger.
+
+In that instant I thought of Mariani waiting above, and like a flash it
+came to me that if I could outpace this drunken brigand, and, gaining
+the gallery well ahead of him, transfer that letter to the old man's
+hands, I should not die in vain. Cesare Borgia would avenge me, and
+Madonna Paola, at least, would be safe from this villain. If Mariani
+could reach Valentino at Faenza, I would answer for it that within
+four-and-twenty hours Messer Ramiro del' Orca would be the banner on
+that ghastly beam that he facetiously dubbed his flagstaff; and he would
+be the blackest, dirtiest banner that ever yet had fluttered there.
+
+The thought conceived in the twinkling of an eye, I acted upon without
+a second's hesitation. Ere Ramiro had taken his first step towards me,
+I had sprung to the stairs and I was leaping up them with the frantic
+speed of one upon whose heels death is treading closely.
+
+A singular, fierce joy was blent with my measure of fear; a joy at the
+thought that even now, in this extremity, I was outwitting him, for
+never a doubt had he that the burnt paper he had found on the table was
+all that was left of Vitelli's letter. His fears were that I might have
+read it, but never a suspicion crossed his mind of such a trick as I had
+played upon him.
+
+So I sped on, the gigantic Ramiro blundering after me, panting and
+blaspheming, for although powerful, his bulk and the wine he had taken
+left him no nimbleness. The distance between us widened, and if only
+Mariani would have the presence of mind to wait for me at the mouth of
+the passage, all would be as I could wish it before his dagger found my
+heart.
+
+I was assuring myself of this when in the dark I stumbled, and
+striking my legs against a stair I hurtled forward. I recovered almost
+immediately, but, in my frenzy of haste to make up for the instant lost,
+I stumbled a second time ere I was well upon my feet.
+
+With a roar Ramiro must have hurled himself forward, for I felt my ankle
+caught in a grip from which there was no escaping, and I was roughly and
+brutally dragged back and down those stairs; now my head, now my breast
+beating against the steps as I descended them one by one.
+
+But even in that hour the letter was my first thought, and I found a way
+to thrust it farther under my girdle so that it should not be seen.
+
+At last I reached the hall, half-stunned, and with all the misery of
+defeat and the certainty of the futility of my death to further torture
+my last moments. Over me stood Ramiro, his dagger upheld, ready to
+strike.
+
+"Dog!" he taunted me, "your sands are run."
+
+"Mercy, Magnificent," I gasped. "I have done nothing to deserve your
+poniard."
+
+He laughed brutally, delaying his stroke that he might prolong my agony
+for his drunken entertainment.
+
+"Address your prayers to Heaven," he mocked me, "and let them concern
+your soul."
+
+And then, like a flash of inspiration came the words that should delay
+his hand.
+
+"Spare me," I cried "for I am in mortal sin."
+
+Impious, abandoned villain, though he was, he said too much when he
+boasted that he feared neither God nor Devil. He was prone to forget
+his God, and the lessons that as a babe he had learnt at his mother's
+knee--for I take it that even Ramiro del' Orca had once been a babe--but
+deep down in his soul there had remained the fear of Hell and an almost
+instinctive obedience to the laws of Mother Church. He could perform
+such ruthless cruelties as that of hurling a page into the fire to
+punish his clumsiness; he could rack and stab and hang men with the
+least shadow of compunction or twinge of conscience, but to slay a man
+who professed himself to be in mortal sin was a deed too appalling even
+for this ruthless butcher.
+
+He hesitated a second, then he lowered his hand, his face telling me
+clearly how deeply he grudged me the respite which, yet, he dared not do
+other than accord me.
+
+"Where shall I find me a priest?" he grumbled. "Think you the Citadel of
+Cesena is a monastery? I will wait while you make an act of contrition
+for your sins. It is all the shrift I can afford you. And get it done,
+for it is time I was abed. You shall have five minutes in which to clear
+your soul."
+
+By this it seemed to me--as it may well seem to you--that matters were
+but little mended, and instead of employing the respite he accorded me
+in the pious collecting of thoughts which he enjoined, I sat up--very
+sore from my descent of the stairs--and employed those precious moments
+in putting forward arguments to turn him from, his murderous purpose.
+
+"I have lived too ungodly a life," I protested, "to be able to squeeze
+into Paradise through so narrow a tate. As you would hope for your own
+ultimate salvation, Excellency, I do beseech you not to imperil mine."
+
+This disposed him, at least, to listen to me, and proceeded to assure
+him of the harmless nature of my visit to the hall in quest of wine to
+quench my thirst. I was running the grave risk of dying with lies on my
+lips, but I was too desperate to give the matter thought just then. His
+mood seemed to relent; the delay, perhaps, had calmed his first access
+of passion, and he was grown more reasonable. But when Ramiro cooled he
+was, perhaps, more malignant than ever, for it meant a return to
+natural condition, and Ramiro's natural condition was one of cruelty
+unsurpassed.
+
+"It may be as you say," he answered me at last, sheathing his dagger,
+"and at least you have my word that I will not slay you without first
+assuring myself that you have lied. For to-night you shall remain in
+durance. To-morrow we will apply the question to you."
+
+The hope that had been reviving in my breast fell dead once more, and
+I turned cold at that threat. And yet, between now and to-morrow,
+much might betide, and I had cause for thankfulness, perhaps, for this
+respite. Thus I sought to cheer myself. But I fear I failed. To-morrow
+he would torture me, not so much to ascertain whether I had spoken
+truly, but because to his diseased mind it afforded diversion to witness
+a man's anguish. No doubt it was that had urged him now to spare my life
+and accord me this merciless piece of mercy.
+
+In a loud voice he called the sentry who was pacing below; and in a
+moment the man appeared in answer to that summons.
+
+"You will take this knave to the chamber set apart for him up there, and
+you will leave him secure under lock and bar, bringing me the key of his
+door."
+
+The fellow informed himself which was the chamber, then turning to me he
+curtly bade me go with him. Thus was I haled back to my room, with the
+promise of horrors on the morrow, but with the night before me in which
+to scheme and pray for some miracle that might yet save me. But the days
+of miracles were long past. I lay on my bed and deplored with many a
+sigh that bitter fact. And if aught had been wanting to increase the
+weight of fear and anguish on my already over-burdened mind, and to aid
+in what almost seemed an infernal plot to utterly distract me, I had it
+in fresh, wild conjectures touching Madonna Paola. Where indeed could
+she be that Ramiro's men had failed to find her for all that they had
+scoured that part of the country in which I had left her to wait for my
+return? What if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture with
+which Ramiro's lieutenant was charged?
+
+With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter
+inability to take a step in her service, I lay. There for an hour or
+so in such agony of mind as is begotten only of suspense. In my girdle
+still reposed the treasonable letter from Vitelli to Ramiro, a mighty
+weapon with which to accomplish the butcher's overthrow. But how was I
+to wield it imprisoned here?
+
+I wondered why Mariani had not returned, only to remember that the
+soldier who had locked me in had carried the key of my prison-chamber to
+Ramiro.
+
+Suddenly the stillness was disturbed by a faint tap at my door. My
+instincts and my reason told me it must be Mariani at last. In an
+instant I had leapt from the bed and whispered through the keyhole:
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"It is I--Mariani--the seneschal," came the old man's voice, very
+softly, but nevertheless distinctly. "They have taken the key."
+
+I groaned, then in a gust of passion I fell to cursing Ramiro for that
+precaution.
+
+"You have the letter?" came Mariani's voice again.
+
+"Aye, I have it still," I answered.
+
+"Have you seen what it contains?"
+
+"A plot to assassinate the Duke--no less. Enough to get this bloody
+Ramiro broken on the wheel."
+
+I was answered by a sound that was as a gasp of malicious joy. Then the
+old man's voice added:
+
+"Can you pass it under the door? There is a sufficient gap."
+
+I felt, and found that he was right; I could pass the half of my hand
+underneath. I took the letter and thrust it through. His hands fastened
+on it instantly, almost snatching it from my fingers before they were
+ready to release it.
+
+"Have courage," he bade me. "Listen. I shall endeavour to leave Cesena
+in the morning, and I shall ride straight for Faenza. If I find the Duke
+there when I arrive, he should be here within some twelve or fourteen
+hours of my departure. Fence with Ramiro, temporise if you can till
+then, and all will be well with you."
+
+"I will do what I can," I answered him. "But if he slays me in the
+meantime, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that he will
+not be long in following me."
+
+"May God shield you," he said fervently.
+
+"May God speed you," I answered him, with a still greater fervour.
+
+That night, as you may well conceive, I slept but little, and that
+little ill. The morning, instead of relieving the fears that in the
+darkness had been with me, seemed to increase them. For now was the time
+for Mariani to act, and I was fearful as to how he might succeed. I
+was full of doubts lest some obstacle should have arisen to prevent his
+departure from Cesena, and I spent my morning in wearisome speculation.
+
+I took an almost childish satisfaction in the thought that since, being
+a prisoner, I could no longer count myself the Fool of the Court
+of Cesena, I was free to strip the motley and assume the more sober
+garments in which I had been taken, and which--as you may recall--had
+been placed in my chamber on the previous evening. It was the very
+plainest raiment. For doublet I wore a buff brigandine, quilted and
+dagger-proof, and caught at the waist by a girdle of hammered steel; my
+wine-coloured hose was stout and serviceable, as were my long boots of
+untanned leather. Yet prouder was I of this sober apparel than ever king
+of his ermine.
+
+It may have been an hour or so past noon when, at last, my solitude
+was invaded by a soldier who came to order me into the presence of the
+Governor. I had been sitting at the window, leaning against the bars and
+looking out at the desolate white landscape, for there had been a heavy
+fall of snow in the night, which reminded me--as snow ever did--of my
+first meeting with Madonna Paola.
+
+I rose upon the instant, and my fears rose with me. But I kept a bold
+front as I went down into the hall, where Ramiro and the blackguards of
+his Court were sitting, with three or four men-at-arms at attention by
+the door. Close to the pulleys appertaining to the torture of the cord
+stood two leather-clad ruffians--Ramiro's executioners.
+
+At the head of the board, which was still strewn with fragments of
+food-for they had but dined--sat Ramiro del' Orca. With him were half
+a dozen of his officers, whose villainous appearance pronounced them
+worthy of their brutal leader. The air was heavy with the pungent odour
+of viands. I looked round for Mariani, and I took some comfort from the
+fact that he was absent. Might heaven please that he was even then on
+his way to Faenza.
+
+Ramiro watched my advance with a smile in which mockery was blent with
+satisfaction, for all that of the resumption of my proper raiment he
+seemed to take no heed. No doubt he had dined well, and he was now
+disposing himself to be amused.
+
+"Messer Bocadaro," said he, when I had come to a standstill, "there was
+last night a matter that was not cleared up between us and concerning
+which I expressed an intention of questioning you to-day. I should
+proceed to do so at once, were it not that there is yet another matter
+on which I am, if possible, still more desirous you should tell us all
+you know. Once already have you evaded my questions with answers which
+at the time I half believed. Even now I do not say that I utterly
+disbelieve them, but I wish to assure myself that you told the truth;
+for if you lied, why then we may still be assisted by such information
+the cord shall squeeze from you. I am referring to the mysterious
+disappearance of Madonna Paola di Santafior--a disappearance of which
+you have assured me that you knew nothing, being even in ignorance of
+the fact that the lady was not really dead. I had confidently expected
+that the party searching for Madonna Paola would have succeeded ere this
+in finding her. But this morning my hopes suffered disappointment. My
+men have returned empty-handed once more."
+
+"For which mercy may Heaven be praised!" I burst out.
+
+He scowled at me; then he laughed evilly.
+
+"My men have returned--all save three. Captain Lucagnolo with two of
+his followers, has undertaken to go beyond the area I appointed for the
+search, and to proceed to the village of Cattolica. While he is pursuing
+his inquiries there, I have resolved to pursue my own here. I now
+call upon you, Boccadoro, to tell us what you know of Madonna Paola's
+whereabouts."
+
+"I know nothing," I answered stoutly. "I am prepared to take oath that I
+know nothing of her whereabouts."
+
+"Tell me, then, at least," said he, "where you bestowed her."
+
+I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
+
+"Do you think that I would tell you if I had the knowledge?" was the
+scornful question with which I answered him. "You may pursue your
+inquiries as you will and where you will, but I pray God they may all
+prove as futile as must those that you would pursue here and upon my own
+person."
+
+This was how I fenced with him, this was the manner in which I followed
+Mariani's sound advice that I should temporise! Oh! I know that my words
+were the words of a fool, yet no fear that Ramiro would inspire me could
+have restrained them.
+
+There was a murmur at the table, and his fellows turned their eyes on
+Ramiro to see how he would receive this bearding. He smiled quietly, and
+raising his hand he made a sign to the executioners.
+
+Rude hands seized me from behind, and the doublet was torn from my back
+by fingers that never paused to untruss my points.
+
+They turned me about, and hurried me along until I stood under the
+pulleys of the torture, and one of the men held me securely whilst
+the other passed the cords about my wrists. Then both the executioners
+stepped back, to be ready to hoist me at the Governor's signal.
+
+He delayed it, much as an epicure delays the consumption of a delectable
+morsel, heightening by suspense the keen desire of his palate. He
+watched me closely, and had my lips quivered or my eyelids fluttered, he
+would have hailed with joy such signs of weakness. But I take pride in
+truthfully writing that I stood bold and impassively before him, and if
+I was pale I thank Heaven that pallor was the habit of my countenance,
+so that from that he could gather no satisfaction. And standing there, I
+gave him back look for look, and waited.
+
+"For the last time, Boccadoro," he said slowly, attempting by words
+to shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of
+the cord, "I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this
+stubbornness. If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the
+third, the torture will compel you to disclose what you may know. Would
+you not be better advised to speak at once, while your limbs are soundly
+planted in their sockets, rather than let yourself be maimed, perhaps
+for life, ere you will do so?"
+
+There was a stir of hoofs without. They thundered on the planks of the
+drawbridge and clattered on the stones of the courtyard. The thought of
+Cesare Borgia rose to my mind. But never did drowning man clutch at
+a more illusory straw. Cold reason quenched my hope at once. If the
+greatest imaginable success attended Mariani's journey, the Duke could
+not reach Cesena before midnight, and to that it wanted some ten hours
+at least. Moreover, the company that came was small to judge by the
+sound--a half-dozen horses at the most.
+
+But Ramiro's attention had been diverted from me by the noise.
+Half-turning in his chair, he called to one of the men-at-arms to
+ascertain who came. Before the fellow could do his bidding, the door was
+thrust open and Lucagnolo appeared on the threshold, jaded and worn with
+hard riding.
+
+A certain excitement arose in me at sight of him, despite my confidence
+that he must be returning empty-handed.
+
+Ramiro rose, pushed back his chair and advanced towards the new-comer.
+
+"Well?" he demanded. "What news?"
+
+"Excellency, the girl is here."
+
+That answer seemed to turn me into stone, so great was the shock of this
+sudden shattering of the confidence that had sustained me.
+
+"My search in the country failing," pursued the captain, as he came
+forward, "I made bold to exceed your orders by pushing my inquiries as
+far as the village of Cattolica. There I found her after some little
+labour."
+
+Surely I dreamt. Surely, I told myself, this was not possible. There was
+some mistake. Lucagnolo had drought some wench whom he believed to be
+Madonna Paola.
+
+But even as I was assuring myself of this, the door opened again, and
+between two men-at-arms, white as death, her garments stained with mud
+and all but reduced to rags, and her eyes wild with a great fear, came
+my beloved Paola.
+
+With a sound that was as a grunt of satisfaction, Ramiro strode forward
+to meet her. But her eyes travelled past him and rested upon me,
+standing there between the leather-clad executioners with the cords of
+the torture pinioning my wrists, and I saw the anguish deepen in their
+blue depths.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. DOOMED
+
+Across the length of that hall our eyes met--hers and mine--and held
+each other's glances. To me the room and all within it formed an
+indistinct and misty picture, from out of which there clearly gleamed my
+Paola's sweet, white face.
+
+All at the table had risen with Ramiro, and now, copying their leader,
+they bared their heads in outward token of such respect as certainly
+would have been felt by any men less abandoned than were they before so
+much saintly beauty and distress.
+
+Lucagnolo had stepped aside, and Ramiro was now bowing low and
+ceremoniously before Madonna. His face I could not see, since his back
+was towards me, but his tones, as they floated across the hall to where
+I stood, came laden with subservience.
+
+"Madonna, I give praise and thanks to Heaven for this," said he. "I was
+afflicted by the gravest misgivings for your safety, and I am more than
+thankful to behold you safe and sound."
+
+There was a hypocritical flavour of courtliness about his words, and
+a mincing of his tones that suggested the efforts of a bull-calf to
+imitate the warbling of a throstle.
+
+Madonna paid him no heed; indeed, she appeared not to have heard him,
+for her eyes continued to look past him and at me. At last her lips
+parted, and although she scarcely seemed to raise her voice above a
+whisper, the word uttered reached my ears across the stillness of the
+great room, and the word was "Lazzaro!"
+
+At mention of my name, and at the tone in which it was uttered--a tone
+that betrayed same measure of what was in her heart--Ramiro wheeled
+sharply in my direction, his brows wrinkling. A certain craftiness he
+had, for all that I ever accounted him the dullest-witted clod that ever
+rose to his degree of honour. He must have realised how expedient it was
+that in all he did he should present himself to Madonna in a favourite
+light.
+
+"Release him," he bade the executioners that held me, and in an instant
+I was set free. The order given, he turned again to Madonna.
+
+"You have been torturing him," she cried, and her words were hard and
+fierce, her eyes blazing. "You shall repent it, Ser Ramiro. The Lord
+Cesare Borgia shall hear of it."
+
+Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have
+been to her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my
+destruction. Ramiro laughed easily.
+
+"Madonna, you are at fault. We have not been torturing him, though I
+confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question. But
+your timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were asking
+him concerned your whereabouts!"
+
+I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some
+premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind. But realising
+the futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited agonisedly.
+
+"You had tortured him in vain then," she answered scornfully. "For
+Lazzaro Biancomonte would never have betrayed me. Nor could he have
+betrayed me if he would, for after your men had searched the hut in
+which I was hidden, I walked to Cattolica thinking foolishly that I
+should be safer there."
+
+Lackaday! She had told him the very thing he had sought to know. Yet to
+make doubly sure he pursued the scent a little farther.
+
+"Indeed it seems to me that had I tortured him I had given him no
+more than he deserved for having abandoned you in that hut. Madonna, I
+tremble to think of the harm that might have come to you through that
+knave's desertion." And he scowled across at me, much as the Pharisee
+might have scowled upon the publican.
+
+"He is no knave," she answered, and I could have groaned to hear her
+working my undoing, though not by so much as a sign might I inspire her
+with caution, for that sign must have been seen by others. "Nor did he
+abandon me. He left me only to go in quest of the necessaries for our
+journey. If harm has come to me the blame of it must not rest on him."
+
+"Of what harm do you speak, Madonna?" he cried, in a voice laden with
+concern.
+
+"Of what harm," she echoed, eyeing him with a scorn that would have
+slain him had he any manhood left. "Of what harm? Mother of Mercy,
+defend me! Do you ask the question? What greater harm could have come
+to me than to have fallen into the hands of Ramiro del' Orca and his
+brigands?"
+
+He stood looking at her, and I doubt not that his face was a very
+picture of simulated consternation.
+
+"Surely, Madonna, you do not understand that we are your friends, that
+you can so abuse us. But you will be faint, Madonna," he cried, with
+a fresh and deep solicitude. "A cup of wine." And he waved his hand
+towards the table.
+
+"It would poison me, I think," she answered coldly.
+
+"You are cruel, and--alas!--mistrustful," said he. "Can you guess
+nothing of the anxiety that has been mine these two days, of the fears
+that have haunted me as I thought of you and your wanderings?"
+
+Her lip curled, and her face took on some slight vestige of colour. Her
+spirit was a thing for which I might then have come to love her had it
+not been that already I loved her to distraction.
+
+"Yes," said she, "I can guess something of your dismay when you found
+your schemes frustrated; when you found that you had come too late to
+San Domenico."
+
+"Will you not forgive me that shift to which my adoration drove me?" he
+implored, in a honeyed voice--and a more fearful thing than Ramiro the
+butcher was Ramiro the lover.
+
+At that scarcely covert avowal of his passion she recoiled a step as she
+might before a thing unclean. The little colour faded from her cheek,
+the scorn departed from her lip, and a sickly, deadly fear overspread
+her lovely face. God! that I should stand there and witness this insult
+to the woman I adored and worshipped with a fervour that the Church
+seeks to instil into us for those about the throne of Heaven. It might
+not be. A blind access of fury took me. Of the consequences I thought
+nothing. Reason left me utterly, and the slight hope that might lie in
+temporising was disregarded.
+
+Before those about me could guess my purpose, or those others, too
+engrossed in the scene at the far end of the hall, could intervene, I
+had sprung from between the executioners and dashed across the space
+that separated me from the Governor of Cesena. One well-aimed blow, and
+there should be an end to Messer Ramiro. That was the only thought that
+found room in my disordered mind.
+
+One or two there were who cried out as I sped past them, swift as the
+hound when it speeds after the fleeing hare. But I was upon Ramiro ere
+any could have sufficiently mastered his surprise to interfere.
+
+By the nape of his great neck I caught him from behind, and setting my
+knee at his spine I wrenched him backward, and so flung him over on
+the floor. Down I went with him, my hand reaching for the dagger at his
+jewelled girdle, and I had found and drawn it in that swift action of
+mine ere he had bethought him of his hands. Up it flashed and down. I
+sank it through the crimson velvet of his rich doublets straight at the
+spot where his heart should be--if he were so human as to have a heart.
+The next instant I turned cold and sick. My desperate effort had been
+all for nothing. In my hand I was left with the bronze hilt of his great
+poniard; the blade had broken off against the mesh of steel the coward
+wore beneath his finery.
+
+There was a rush of feet about us, a piercing scream from Madonna Paola,
+and it was to her that I owed my life in that grim moment. A dozen
+blades were naked and would have transfixed me as I lay, but that she
+covered my body with her own and bade them strike at me through her.
+
+A moment later and the powerful hands of the Governor of Cesena were at
+my throat. I was lifted and tossed aside, as though I had been a hound
+and he the bull I had beset. And as he swung me over and crushed me
+to the ground, he knelt above me and grinned horribly into my purpling
+face.
+
+A second we stayed so, and I thought indeed that my hour was come, when
+suddenly I felt the blood in my head released once more. He had taken
+his hands from my throat. He seized me now by the collar and dragged me
+rudely to my feet.
+
+"Take this knave and lock him in his chamber," he bade a couple of his
+bravi. "I may have need of him ere he dies."
+
+"Messer Ramiro," came the interceding voice of Madonna Paola, "what he
+did, he did for me. You will not let him die for it?"
+
+There was a pause during which he looked at her, whilst the men were
+roughly dragging me across the hall.
+
+"Who knows, Madonna?" he said, with a bow and an infernal smile. "If you
+were to beg his life, it might even come to pass that I might spare it."
+
+He did not wait for her answer, but stepping after me he called to the
+men that led me. In obedience they halted, and he came forward. We were
+now at the foot of the staircase.
+
+"Boccadoro," said he, planting himself before me, and eyeing me with
+eyes that were very full of malice, "you will recall the punishment I
+promised you if I came to discover it was you had thwarted me in Pesaro.
+It is the second time you have fooled Ramiro del' Orca. There does not
+live the man who can boast that he did it thrice, nor will I risk it
+that you be that man. Make your peace with Heaven, for at sunset--in
+an hour's time--you hang. There is one little thing that might save you
+even yet, and if you find life sweet, you would do well to pray that
+that little thing may come to pass."
+
+I answered him nothing, but I bowed my head in token that I had heard
+and he signed to the men to proceed with me, whilst turning on his heel
+he stepped down the hall again to where Madonna Paola, overcome with
+weakness, had sunk upon a stool.
+
+As I was leaving the gallery I had a last glimpse of her, sitting there
+with drawn face and haggard eyes that followed me as I passed from her
+sight, whilst Ramiro del' Orca stood beside her murmuring words that did
+not reach me. His so-called courtiers and his men-at-arms were trooping
+out of the room, no doubt in obedience to his dismissal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE SUNSET
+
+
+I have heard tell of the calm that comes upon brave men when hope is
+dead and their doom has been pronounced. Uncertainty may have tortured
+and made cowards of them; but once that uncertainty is dissolved and
+suspense is at an end, resignation enters their soul, and, possessing
+it, gives to their bearing a noble and dignified peace. By the mercy of
+Heaven they are made, maybe, to see how poor and evanescent a thing is
+life; and they come to realise that since to die is a necessity there is
+no avoiding, as well might it betide to-day as ten years hence.
+
+Such a mood, however, came not to soothe that last hour of mine, and yet
+I account myself no coward. It was an hour of such torture and anguish
+as never before I had experienced--much though I had undergone--and the
+source of all my suffering lay in the fact that Madonna Paola was in
+the hands of the ogre of Cesena. Had it not been for that most untoward
+circumstance I almost believe that while I waited for the sun to set on
+that December afternoon, my mood had not only been calm but even in some
+measure joyous, for it must have comforted my last moments to reflect
+that for all that Messer Ramiro was about to hang me, yet had I sown the
+seeds of his own destruction ere he had brought me to this pass.
+
+I did, indeed, reflect upon it, and it may even be that, in spite of
+all, I culled some grain of comfort from the reflection. But let that
+be. My narrative would drag wearily were I to digress that I might tell
+you at length the ugly course of my thoughts whilst the sands of my last
+hour were running swiftly out. For, after all, my concern and yours is
+with the story of Lazzaro Biancomonte, sometime known as Boccadoro the
+Fool, and not with his philosophies--philosophies so unprofitable that
+it can benefit no man that I should set them down.
+
+My windows faced west, and so I was able to watch the fall of the sun,
+and measure by its shortening distance from the horizon the ebbing of
+my poor life. At last the nether rim of that round, fiery orb was on
+the point of touching the line of distant hills, and it was casting a
+crimson glow along the white, snow-sheeted landscape that was singularly
+suggestive of a tide of blood--a very fitting tide to flow and ebb about
+the walls of the Castle of Cesena.
+
+One little thing there was might save me, Ramiro had said. But I had
+shut the thought out of my mind to keep me from utter distraction. The
+only little thing in which I held that my salvation could lie would be
+in the miraculous arrival of Cesare Borgia, and of that not the faintest
+hope existed. If the greatest luck attended Mariani's errand and the
+greatest speed were made by the Duke once he received the letter, he
+could not reach Cesena in less than another eight hours. And another
+eight minutes, to reckon by the swift sinking of the sun would see the
+time appointed for my hanging. I thought of Joshua in that grim hour,
+and in a mood that approached the whimsical I envied him his gift. If I
+could have stayed the setting of the sun, and held it where it was till
+midnight, all might yet be well if Mariani had been diligent and Cesare
+swift.
+
+The key grating in the lock put an end to my vague musings, and reminded
+me of the fact that I had neglected to employ that last hour as would
+have become a good son of Mother Church. For an instant I believe that
+my heart turned me to thoughts of God, and sent up a prayer for mercy
+for my poor sinful soul. Then the door swung wide. Two halberdiers and
+a carnifex in his odious leathern apron stood before me. Clearly Ramiro
+sought to be exact, and to have me hanging the instant the sun should
+vanish.
+
+"It is time," said one of the soldiers, whilst the executioner, stepping
+into my chamber, pinioned my wrists behind me, and retaining hold of the
+cord bade me march. He followed, holding that slender cord, and so, like
+a beast to the shambles, went I.
+
+Once more they led me into the hall, where the shadows were lengthening
+in dark contrast to the splashes of sunlight that lingered on the floor,
+and whose blood-red hue was deepened by the gules of the windows through
+which it was filtered.
+
+Ramiro was waiting for me, and six of his officers were in attendance.
+But, for once, there were no men-at-arms at hand. On a chair, the one
+usually occupied by Ramiro, himself, sat Madonna Paola, still in her
+torn and bedraggled raiment, her face white, her eyes wild as they had
+been when first she had been haled into Ramiro's presence, some two
+hours ago, and her features so rigidly composed that it told the tale of
+the awful self-control she must be exerting--a self-control that might
+end with a sudden snap that would plunge her into madness.
+
+A wild rage possessed me at sight of her. Let Ramiro be ruthless and
+cruel where men were concerned; that was a thing for which forgiveness
+might be found him. But that he should submit a lady, delicately
+nurtured as was Madonna, to such horrors as she had undergone since she
+had awakened from his sleeping-potion in the Church of San Domenico, was
+something for which no Hell could punish him condignly.
+
+Ramiro met me with a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I
+could espy his wicked, infernal mockery peeping forth.
+
+"I deplore your end, Lazzaro Biancomonte," said he slowly, "for you are
+a brave man, and brave men are rare. You were worthy of better things,
+but you chose to cross swords with Ramiro del' Orca, and you have got
+your death-blow. May God have mercy on your soul."
+
+"I am praying," said I, "for just so much mercy as you shall have
+justice. If my prayer is heard, I should be well-content."
+
+He changed countenance a little. So, too, I thought, did Madonna Paola.
+My firmness may have yielded her some grain of comfort. Ramiro set his
+hands on his hips, and eyed me squarely.
+
+"You are a dauntless rogue," he confessed.
+
+I laughed for answer, and in that moment it entered my mind that I might
+yet enjoy some measure of revenge in this life. More than that, I might
+benefit Madonna. For were the seed I was about to sow to take root in
+the craven heart of Ramiro del' Orca, it would so fully occupy his mind
+that he would have little time to bestow on Paola in the few hours that
+were left him. But before I could bethink me of words, he was speaking
+again.
+
+"I held out to you a slender hope," said he. "I told you that there
+was one little thing might save you. That hope has borne no fruit; the
+little thing, I spoke of has not come to pass. It rested with Madonna
+Paola, here. She had it in her hands to effect your salvation, but she
+has refused. Your blood rests on her head."
+
+She shuddered at the words, and a low moan escaped her. She covered her
+face with her hands. A moment I stood looking at her; then I shifted my
+glance to Ramiro.
+
+"Will it please you, Illustrious, to allow me a few moments'
+conversation with Madonna Paola di Santafior?"
+
+I invested my tones with a weight of meaning that did not escape him.
+His face suddenly lightened; whilst one of his officers--a fellow very
+fitly named Lupone--laughed outright.
+
+"Your hero seems none so heroic after all," he said derisively to the
+Governor. "The imminence of death makes him amenable."
+
+Ramiro scowled on him for answer. Then, turning to me--"Do you think you
+could bend her stubbornness?" quoth he.
+
+"I might attempt it," answered I.
+
+His eyes flashed with evil hope; his lips parted in a smile. He shot
+a glance at Madonna, who had withdrawn her hands from her face and
+was regarding me now with a strange expression of horror and
+incredulity--marvelling, no doubt, to find me such a craven as I must
+have seemed.
+
+Ramiro looked at the diminishing sunlight on the floor.
+
+"In some five minutes the sun will have completely set," said he. "Those
+five minutes you shall have to seek to enlist Madonna's aid on your
+behalf. If you succeed--and she may tell you on what terms you are to
+have your life--you shall depart from Cesena to-night a free man."
+
+He paused a moment, and his eyes, lighted by an odious smile, rested
+once more on Madonna Paula. Then he bade all withdraw, and went with
+them into an adjoining chamber, fondly nurturing the hopes that were
+begotten of his belief that Lazzaro Biancomonte was a villain.
+
+When we were alone, she and I, I stood a moment where they had left me,
+my hands pinioned behind me, and the cord which the executioner had
+held trailing the ground like a lambent tail. Then I went slowly forward
+until I stood close before her. Her eyes were on my face, still with
+that same look of unbelief.
+
+"Madonna mia," said I, "do not for an instant think that it is my
+purpose to ask of you any sacrifice that might save my worthless
+life. Rather was my purpose in seeking these few moments with you, to
+strengthen and encourage you by such news as it is mine to bring."
+
+She looked now as if she scarcely understood.
+
+"If I will wed him to-night, he has promised that you shall go free,"
+she said in a whisper. "He says that he can bring a priest from the
+neighbourhood at a moment's notice."
+
+"Do not heed him," I cried sternly.
+
+"I do not heed him," said she, more composedly. "If he seeks to force
+me, I shall find a way of setting myself free. Dear Mother of Heaven!
+death were a sweet and restful thing after all that I have suffered in
+these days."
+
+Then she fell suddenly to weeping.
+
+"Think me not an utter coward, Lazzaro. Willingly would I do this thing
+to save so noble a life as yours, did I not think that you must hate
+me for it. I was stout and firm in my refusal, confident that you would
+have had me so. Was I not right, my poor, poor Lazzaro?"
+
+"Madonna, you were right," I answered firmly and calmly.
+
+"And you are to die, amor mio," she murmured passionately. "You are to
+die when the promise of happiness seemed held out to us. And yet, were
+you to live at the price at which life is offered you, would your life
+be endurable? Tell me the truth, Lazzaro; swear it to me. For if life is
+the dearer thing to you, why then, you shall have your life."
+
+"Need you ask me, Paola?" questioned I. "Does not your heart tell
+you how much easier is death than would be such life as I must lead
+hereafter, even if we could trust Ramiro, which we cannot. Be brave,
+Madonna, and help me to be brave and to bear thyself with a becoming
+fortitude. Now listen to what I have to tell you. Ramiro del' Orca is a
+traitor who is plotting the death of his overlord. Proofs of it are by
+now in the hands of Cesare Borgia, and in some seven or eight hours the
+Duke himself should be here to put this monster to the question touching
+these matters. I will say a word in his ear ere I depart that will fill
+his mind with a very wholesome fear, and you will find that during
+the few hours left him he will have little leisure to think of you and
+afflict you with his odious wooing. Be strong, then, for a little while,
+for Cesare is coming to set you free."
+
+She looked at me now with eyes that were wide open. Suddenly--
+
+"Could we not gain time?" she cried, and in her eagerness she rose and
+set her hands upon my shoulders. "Could I not pretend to acquiesce to
+his wishes, and so delay your end?"
+
+"I have thought of it," I answered gloomily, "but the thought has
+brought me no hope. Ramiro is not to be trusted. He might tell you
+that he sets me free, but he dare not do so; he fears that I may have
+knowledge of his dealings with Vitelli, and assuredly he would break
+faith with us. Again the coming of the Duke might be delayed. Alas!"
+I ended in despair, "there is nothing to be done but to let things run
+their course."
+
+There was even more in my mind than I expressed. My mistrust of Ramiro
+went further than I had explained, and concerning Madonna more closely
+than it did me.
+
+"Nay, Lazzaro mine," she still protested, "I will attempt it. It is, at
+least, well worth the risk.
+
+"You forget," said I, "that even when Cesare comes we cannot say how he
+will bear himself towards you. You were to have been betrothed to his
+cousin, Ignacio. It is a matter upon which he may insist."
+
+She looked at me for a moment with anguish in her eyes that turned my
+misery into torture.
+
+"Lazzaro," she moaned, "was ever woman so beset! I think that Heaven
+must have laid some curse upon me."
+
+Her face was close to mine. I stooped forward and kissed her on her
+brow.
+
+"May God have you in His keeping, Madonna mia," I murmured. "The sun is
+gone."
+
+"Lazzaro!" It was the cry of a breaking heart. Her arms went round my
+neck, and in a passion of grief her kisses burned on my lips.
+
+Then the door of the anteroom opened--and I thanked God for the mercy
+of that interruption. I whispered a word to her, and in obedience she
+sprang back, and sank limp and broken on the chair once again.
+
+Ramiro entered, his men behind him, his face alit with eagerness. There
+and then I swamped his hopes.
+
+"The sun is gone, Magnificent," said I. "You had best get me hanged."
+
+His brow darkened, for there was a note of mockery and triumph in my
+voice.
+
+"You have fooled me, animal," he cried. His jaw set, and his eyes
+continued to regard me with an evil glow. Then he laughed terribly,
+shrugged his shoulders, and spoke again. "After all, it shall avail you
+little." He turned to the carnifex. "Federigo, do your work," said
+he, whereupon the fellow stepped behind me, and the halberdiers ranged
+themselves one on either side of me again.
+
+"A word ere I go, Messer del' Orca," I demanded insolently.
+
+He looked at me sharply, wondering, maybe, at the fresh tone I took.
+
+"Say it and begone," he sullenly permitted me.
+
+I paused a moment to choose fitting words for that portentous death-song
+of mine. At length--
+
+"You boasted to me a little while ago," said I, smiling grimly, "that
+the man did not live who had thrice fooled you. That man does live, for
+that man am I."
+
+"Bah!" he returned contemptuously, thinking, no doubt, that I referred
+to my interview with Madonna Paola. "You may take what pride you will
+from such a thought. You are upon the threshold of death."
+
+"True, but the thought is one that affords me more comfort and joy than
+pride. As much comfort and joy as you shall take horror when I tell you
+in what manner I have fooled you." I paused to heighten the sensation of
+my words.
+
+"To such good purpose have I used my wits that ere another sun shall
+rise and set you will have followed me along the black road that I am
+now treading--the road whose bourne is the gallows. Bethink you of the
+charred paper that last night you brushed from this table when you awoke
+to find a candle fallen on the treacherous letter Vitellozzo Vitelli
+sent you in the lining of a hat."
+
+His jaw fell, his face flamed redder than ever for a second, then it
+went grey as ashes.
+
+"Of what do you prate, fool?" he questioned huskily, seeking to bluster
+it before the startled glances of his officers.
+
+"I speak," said I, "of that charred paper. It was I who laid the candle
+across it; but it was a virgin sheet I burned. Vitelli's letter I had
+first abstracted."
+
+"You lie!" he almost screamed.
+
+"To prove that I do not, I will tell you what it contained. It held
+proof that bribed by the Tyrant of Citta di Castello you had undertaken
+to pose an arbalister to slay the Duke on the occasion of his coming
+visit to Cesena."
+
+He glared at me a moment in furious amazement. Then he turned to his
+officers.
+
+"Do not heed him," he bade them. "The dog lies to sow doubts in your
+minds ere he goes out to hang. It is a puerile revenge."
+
+I laughed with amused confidence. There was one among them had heard
+Lampugnani's words touching the messenger's hat--words that had cost
+the fellow his life. But my concern was little with the effect my words
+might produce upon his followers.
+
+"By to-morrow you will know whether I have lied or not. Nay, before then
+shall you know it, for by midnight Cesare Borgia should be at Cesena.
+Vitellozzo Vitelli's letter is in his hands by now."
+
+At that Ramiro burst into a laugh. So convinced was he of the
+impossibility of my having got the letter to the Duke, even if what I
+had said of its abstraction were true, that he gathered assurance from
+what seemed to him so monstrous an exaggeration.
+
+"By your own words are you confounded," said he. "Out of your own mouth
+have you proven your lies. Assuming that all you say were true, how
+could you, who since last night have been a prisoner, have got a
+messenger to bear anything from you to Cesare Borgia?"
+
+I looked at him with a contemptuous amusement that daunted him.
+
+"Where is Mariani?" I asked quietly. "Where is the father of the lad you
+so brutally and wantonly slew yesternight? Seek him throughout Cesena,
+and when you find him not, perhaps you will realise that one who had
+seen his own son suffer such an outrageous and cruel death at your
+brigand's hands would be a willing and ready instrument in an act that
+should avenge him."
+
+Vergine santa! What a consternation was his. He must have missed Mariani
+early in the day, for he took no measure, asked no questions that might
+confirm or refute the thing I announced. His face grew livid, and his
+knees loosened. He sank on to a chair and mopped the cold sweat from his
+brow with his great brown hand. No thought had he now for the eyes of
+his officers or their opinions. Fear, icy and horrid, such fear as in
+his time he had inspired in a thousand hearts was now possessed of his.
+Sweet indeed was the flavour of my vengeance.
+
+His officers instinctively drew away from him before the guilt so
+clearly written on his face, and their eyes were full of doubt as to
+how they should proceed and of some fear--for it must have been passing
+through their minds that they stood, themselves, in danger of being
+involved with him in the Duke's punishment of his disloyalty.
+
+This was more than had ever entered into my calculations or found room
+in my hopes. By a brisk appeal to them, it almost seemed that I might
+work my salvation in this eleventh hour.
+
+Madonna watched the scene with eyes that suggested to me that the same
+hope had arisen in her own mind. My halberdiers and the carnifex alone
+stood stolidly indifferent. Ramiro was to them the man that hired them;
+with his intriguing they had no concern.
+
+For a moment or two there was a silence, and Ramiro sat staring before
+him, his white face glistening with the sweat of fear. A very coward at
+heart was this overbearing ogre of Cesena, who for years had been the
+terror and scourge of the countryside. At last he mastered his emotion
+and sprang to his feet.
+
+"You have had the laugh of me," he snarled, fury now ringing in his
+voice. "But ere you die you may regret it that you mocked me."
+
+He turned to the executioner.
+
+"Strip him," he commanded fiercely. "He shall not hang as I intended--at
+least not before we have torn every bone of his body from its socket.
+To the cord with him!" And he pointed to the torture at the end of the
+hall.
+
+The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola
+leapt to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new
+excitement.
+
+"Is there none here," he cried, appealing to Ramiro's officers, "that
+will draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the Duca Valentino?
+There stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his loyalty to
+Cesare Borgia. The Duke is likely to demand a heavy price for the
+life of that faithful one to whose warning he owes his escape of
+assassination. Will none of you side now with the right that anon you
+may stand well with Cesare Borgia when he comes? Or, by idly allowing
+this traitor to have his way, will you participate in the punishment
+that must be his?"
+
+It was the very spur they needed. And scarce was that final question of
+hers flung at those knaves, when the answer came from one of them. It
+was that same sturdy Lupone.
+
+"I, for one, am for the Duke," said he, and his sword leapt from its
+scabbard. "I draw my iron for Valentino. Let every loyal man do likewise
+and seize this traitor." And with his sword he pointed at Ramiro.
+
+In an instant three others bared their weapons and ranged themselves
+beside him. The remaining two--of whom was Lucagnolo--folded their
+hands, manifesting by that impassivity that they were minded to take
+neither one side nor the other.
+
+The carnifex paused in his labours of undressing me, and the affair
+promised to grow interesting. But Ramiro did not stand his ground. Fury
+swelling his veins and crimsoning his huge face, he sprang to the door
+and bellowed to his guards. Six men trooped in almost at once, and
+reinforced by the halberdiers that had been guarding me, they made short
+work of the resistance of those four officers. In as little time as it
+takes me to record it, they were disarmed and ranged against the wall
+behind those guards and others that had come to their support--to be
+dealt with by Ramiro after he had dealt with me.
+
+His fear of Cesare's coming was put by for the moment in his fierce
+lust to be avenged upon me who had betrayed him and the officers who
+had turned against him. Madonna sank back once more in her despair. The
+little spark that she had so bravely fanned to life had been quenched
+almost as soon as it had shown itself.
+
+"Now, Federigo," said Ramiro grimly, "I am waiting."
+
+The executioner resumed his work, and in an instant I stood stripped of
+my brigandine. As the fellow led me, unresisting, to the torture--for
+what resistance could have availed me now?--I tried to pray for strength
+to endure what was to come. I was done with life; for some portion of
+an hour I must go through the cruellest of agonies; and then, when it
+pleased God in His mercy that I should swoon, it would be to wake no
+more in this world. For they would bear out my unconscious body, and
+hang it by the neck from that black beam they called Ramiro del' Orca's
+flagstaff.
+
+I cast a last glance at Madonna. She had fallen on her knees, and with
+folded hands was praying intently, none heeding her.
+
+Federigo halted me beneath the pulleys, and his horrid hands grew busy
+adjusting the ropes to my wrists.
+
+And then, when the last ray of hope had faded, but before the
+executioner had completed his hideous task, a trumpet-blast, winding a
+challenge to the gates of the Castle of Cesena, suddenly rang out upon
+the evening air, and startled us all by its sudden and imperious note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a
+miracle had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight hours
+before it was possible for Mariani to have fetched him from Faenza. The
+same doubt may have crossed Ramiro's mind, for he changed colour and
+sprang to the door to bawl an order forbidding his men to lower the
+bridge.
+
+But he was too late. Before he was answered by his followers, we heard
+the creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending
+in a thud that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat.
+Then came the loud continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers.
+Paralysed by fear Ramiro stood where he had halted, turning his eyes
+wildly in this direction and in that, but never moving one way or the
+other.
+
+It must be Cesare, I swore to myself. Who else could ride to Cessna with
+such numbers? But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he had
+seen Mariani, for he could not have ridden from Faenza. Madonna had
+risen too, and with a white face and straining eyes she was looking
+towards the door.
+
+And then our doubts were at last ended. There was a jangle of spurs and
+the fall of feet, and through the open door stepped a straight, martial
+figure in a doublet of deep crimson velvet, trimmed with costly lynx
+furs and slashed with satin in the sleeves and shoulder-puffs; jewels
+gleamed in the massive chain across his breast and at the marroquin
+girdle that carried his bronze-hilted sword; his hose was of red silk,
+and his great black boots were armed with golden spurs. But to crown all
+this very regal splendour was the beautiful, pale, cold face of Cesare
+Borgia, from out of which two black eyes flashed and played like
+sword-points on the company.
+
+Behind him surged a press of mercenaries, in steel, their weapons naked
+in their hands, so that no doubt was left of the character of this
+visit.
+
+Collecting himself, and bethinking him that after all, he had best
+dissemble a good countenance; Ramiro advanced respectfully to meet his
+overlord. But ere he had taken three steps the Duke stayed him.
+
+"Stand where you are, traitor," was the imperious command. "I'll trust
+you no nearer to my person." And to emphasise his words he raised his
+gloved left hand, which had been resting on his sword-hilt, and in which
+I now observed that he held a paper.
+
+Whether Ramiro recognised it, or whether it was that the mere sight of
+a paper reminded him of the letter which on my testimony should be in
+Cesare's keeping, or whether again the word "traitor" with which Cesare
+branded him drove the iron deeper into his soul, I cannot say; but to
+this I can testify: that he turned a livid green, and stood there before
+his formidable master in an attitude so stricken as to have aroused pity
+for any man less a villain than was he.
+
+And now Cesare's eye, travelling round, alighted on Madonna Paola,
+standing back in the shadows to which she had instinctively withdrawn at
+his coming. At sight of her he recoiled a pace, deeming, no doubt, that
+it was an apparition stood before him. Then he looked again, and being a
+man whose mind was above puerile superstitions, he assured himself that
+by what miracle the thing was wrought, the figure before him was the
+living body of Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior. He swept the velvet
+cap with its jewelled plume from off his auburn locks, and bowed low
+before her.
+
+"In God's name, Madonna, how are you come to life again, and how do I
+find you here of all places?"
+
+She made no ado about enlightening him.
+
+"That villain," said she, and her finger pointed straight and firmly
+at Ramiro, "put a sleeping-potion in my wine on the last night he dined
+with us at Pesaro, and when all thought me dead he came to the Church of
+San Domenico with his men to carry off my sleeping body. He would have
+succeeded in his fell design but that Lazzaro Biancomonte there, whom
+you have stayed him in the act of torturing to death, was beforehand
+and saved me from his clutches for a time. This morning at Cattolica his
+searching sbirri discovered me and brought me hither, where I have been
+for the past three hours, and where, but for your Excellency's timely
+arrival, I shudder to think of the indignities I might have suffered."
+
+"I thank you, Madonna, for this clear succinctness," answered Cesare
+coldly, as was his habit. They say he was a passionate man, and such
+indeed I do believe him to have been; but even in the hottest frenzy of
+rage, outwardly he was ever the same--icily cold and tranquil. And this,
+no doubt, was the thing that made him terrible.
+
+"Presently, Madonna," he pursued, "I shall ask you to tell me how it
+chanced that, having saved you, Messer Biancomonte did not bear you
+to your brother's house. But first I have business with my Governor of
+Cesena--a score which is rendered, if possible, heavier than it already
+stood by this thing that you have told me."
+
+"My lord," cried out Ramiro, finding his tongue at last, "Madonna has
+misinformed you. I know nothing of who administered the sleeping-potion.
+Certainly it was not I. I heard a rumour that her body had been stolen,
+and--"
+
+"Silence!" Cesare commanded sternly. "Did I question you, dog?"
+
+His beautiful, terrible eyes fastened upon Ramiro in a glance that
+defied the man to answer him. Cowed, like a hound at sight of the whip,
+Ramiro whimpered into silence.
+
+Cesare waved his hand in his direction, half-turning to the men-at-arms
+behind him.
+
+"Take and disarm him," was his passionless command. And while they were
+doing his bidding, he turned to me and ordered the executioner beside me
+to unbind my hands and set me at liberty.
+
+"I owe you a heavy debt, Messer Biancomonte," he said, without any
+warmth, even now that his voice was laden with a message of gratitude.
+"It shall be discharged. It is thanks to your daring and resource that
+the seneschal Mariani was able to bring me this letter, this piece of
+culminating proof against Ramiro del' Orca. It is fortunate for you that
+Mariani was not put to it to ride to Faenza to find me, or else I am
+afraid we had not reached Cesena in time to save your life. I met him
+some leagues this side of Faenza, as I was on my way to Sinigaglia."
+
+He turned abruptly to Ramiro.
+
+"In this letter which Vitelli wrote you," said he, "it is suggested that
+there are others in the conspiracy. Tell me now, who are those others?
+See that you answer me with truth, for I shall compel proofs from you of
+such accusations as you may make."
+
+Ramiro looked at him with eyes rendered dull by agony. He moistened his
+lips with his tongue, and turning his head towards his men--
+
+"Wine," he gasped, from very force of habit. "A cup of wine!"
+
+"Let it be supplied him," said Cesare coldly, and we all stood waiting
+while a servant filled him a cup. Ramiro gulped the wine avidly, never
+pausing until the goblet was empty.
+
+"Now," said Cesare, who had been watching him, "will it please you to
+answer my question?"
+
+"My lord," said Ramiro, revived and strengthened in spirit by the
+draught, "I must ask your Excellency to be a little plainer with me.
+To what conspiracy is it that you refer? I know of none. What is this
+letter which you say Vitelli wrote me? I take it you refer to the Lord
+of Citta di Castello. But I can recall no letters passing between us. My
+acquaintance with him is of the slightest."
+
+Cesare looked at him a second.
+
+"Approach," he curtly bade him, and Ramiro came forward, one of the
+Borgia halberdiers on either side of him, each holding him by an arm.
+The Duke thrust the letter under his eyes. "Have you never seen that
+before?"
+
+Ramiro looked at it a moment, and his attempt at dissembling
+bewilderment was a ludicrous thing to witness.
+
+"Never," he said brazenly at last.
+
+Cesare folded the letter and slipped it into the breast of his doublet.
+From his girdle he took a second paper. He turned from Ramiro.
+
+"Don Miguel," he called.
+
+From behind his men-at-arms a tall man, all dressed in black, stood
+forward. It was Cesare's Spanish captain, one whose name was as well
+known and as well-dreaded in Italy as Cesare's own. The Duke held out to
+him the paper that he had produced.
+
+"You heard the question that I asked Messer del' Orca?" he inquired.
+
+"I heard, Illustrious," answered Miguel, with a bow.
+
+"See that you obtain me an answer to it, as well as an account of
+the other matters that I have noted on this list--concerning the
+misappropriation of stores, the retention of taxes illicitly levied, and
+the wanton cruelty towards my good citizens of Cesena. Put him to the
+question without delay, and record me his replies. The implements are
+yonder."
+
+And with the same calm indifference which characterised his every word
+and action Cesare pointed to the torture, and turned to Madonna Paola,
+as though he gave the matter of Ramiro del' Orca and his misdeeds not
+another thought.
+
+"Mercy, my lord," rang now the voice of Ramiro, laden with horrid fear.
+"I will speak."
+
+"Then do so--to Don Miguel. He will question you in my name." Again he
+turned to Madonna. "Madonna Paola, may I conduct you hence? Things may
+perhaps occur which it is not seemly your gentle eyes should witness.
+Messer Biancomonte, attend us."
+
+Now, in spite of all that Ramiro had made me suffer, I should have been
+loath to have remained and witnessed his examination. That they would
+torture him was now inevitable. His chance of answering freely was
+gone. Even if he returned meek replies to Don Miguel's questions,
+that gentleman would, no doubt, still submit him to the cord by way of
+assuring himself that such replies were true ones.
+
+Gladly, then, did I turn to follow the Duke and Madonna Paola into the
+adjoining chamber to which Cesare led the way, even as Don Miguel's
+voice was raised to command his men to clear the hall, to the end that
+he might conduct his examination in private.
+
+The three of us stood in the anteroom. A servant had lighted the tapers
+and closed the doors, and the Duke turned to me.
+
+"First, Messer Biancomonte, to discharge my debt. You are, if I am not
+misinformed, the lord by right of birth of certain lands that bear
+your name, which suffered sequestration during the reign of the late
+Costanzo, Tyrant of Pesaro, whose son Giovanni upheld that confiscation.
+Am I right?"
+
+"Your Excellency is very well informed. The Lord of Pesaro did make me
+tardy restitution--so tardy, indeed, that the lands which he restored to
+me had already virtually passed from his possession."
+
+Cesare smiled.
+
+"In recompense for the service you have rendered me this day," said he,
+and my heart thrilled at the words and at the thought of the joy which
+I was about to bear to my old mother, "I reinvest you in your lands
+of Biancomonte for so long as you are content to recognise in me your
+overlord, and to be loyal, true and faithful to my rule."
+
+I bowed, murmuring something of the joy I felt and the devotion I should
+entertain.
+
+"Then that is done with. You shall have the deed from my hand by
+morning. And now, Madonna, will you grant me some explanation of your
+conduct in leaving Pesaro in this man's company, instead of repairing to
+your brother's house, when you awakened from the effects of the
+potion Ramiro gave you, or must I seek the explanation from Messer
+Biancomonte?"
+
+Her eyes fell before the scrutiny of his, and when they were raised
+again it was to meet my glance, and if Cesare could not, for himself,
+read the message of those eyes, why then, his penetration was by no
+means what the world accounted it.
+
+"My lord," I cried, "let me explain. I love Madonna Paola. It was love
+of her that led me to the church and kept me there that night. It was
+love of her and the overmastering passion of my grief at her so sudden
+death that led me, in a madness, to desire once more to look upon her
+face ere they delivered it to earth's keeping. Thus was it that I came
+to discover that she lived; thus was it that I anticipated Ramiro del'
+Orca. He came upon us almost before I had raised her from the coffin,
+yet love lent me strength and craft to delude him. We hid awhile in the
+sacristy, and it was there, after Madonna had revived, that the pent-up
+passion of years burst the bond with which reason had bidden me restrain
+it."
+
+"By the Host!" cried Cesare, his brows drawn down in a frown. "You are a
+bold man to tell me this. And you, Madonna," he cried, turning suddenly
+to her, "what have you to say?"
+
+"Only, my lord, that I have suffered more I think in these past few days
+than has ever fallen to the life-time's share of another woman. I think,
+my lord, that I have suffered enough to have earned me a little peace
+and a little happiness for the remainder of my days. All my life have
+men plagued me with marriages that were hateful to me, and this has
+culminated in the brutal act of Ramiro del' Orca. Do you not think that
+I have endured enough?"
+
+He stared at her for a moment.
+
+"Then you love this fellow?" he gasped. "You, Madonna Paola Sforza di
+Santafior, one of the noblest ladies in all Italy, confess to love this
+lordling of a few barren acres?"
+
+"I loved him, Illustrious, when he was less, much less, than that.
+I loved him when he was little better than the Fool of the Court of
+Pesaro, and not even the shame of the motley that disgraced him could
+stay the impulse of my affections."
+
+He laughed curiously.
+
+"By my faith," said he, "I have gone through life complaining of the
+want of frankness in the men and women I have met. But you two seem
+to deal in it liberally enough to satisfy the most ardent seeker after
+truth. I would that Pontius Pilate could have known you." Then he grew
+sterner. "But what account of this evening's adventure am I to bear to
+my cousin Ignacio?"
+
+She hung her head in silence, whilst my own spirit trembled. Then
+suddenly I spoke.
+
+"My lord," said I, "if you take her back to Pesaro, you may keep the
+deed of Biancomonte. For unless Madonna Paola goes thither with me, your
+gift is a barren one, your reward of no account or value to me."
+
+"I would not have it so," said he, his head on one side and his fingers
+toying with his auburn beard. "You saved my life, and you must be
+rewarded fittingly."
+
+"Then, Illustrious, in payment for my preservation of your life, do you
+render happy mine, and we shall thus be quits."
+
+"My lord," cried Paola, putting forth her hands in supplication, "if you
+have ever loved, befriend us now."
+
+A shadow darkened his face for an instant, then it was gone, and his
+expression was as inscrutable as ever. Yet he took her hands in his and
+looked down into her eyes.
+
+"They say that I am hard, bloodthirsty and unfeeling," he said in tones
+that were almost of complaint. "But I am not proof against so much
+appeal. Ignacio must find him a bride in Spain; and if he is wise and
+would taste the sweets of life, he will see to it that he finds him a
+willing one."
+
+"As for you two, Cesare Borgia shalt stand your friend. He owes you no
+less. I will be godfather to your nuptials. Thus shall the blame and
+consequences rest on me. Paola Sforza di Santafior is dead, men think.
+We will leave them thinking it. Filippo must know the truth. But you can
+trust me to make your brother take a reasonable view of what has come
+to pass. After all, there may be a disparity in your ranks. But it is
+purely adventitious, for noble though you may be, Madonna Paola, you are
+wedding one who seems no less noble at heart, whatever the parts he may
+have played in life." He smiled inscrutably, as he added: "I have in
+mind that you once sought service with me Messer Biancomonte, and if a
+martial life allures you still, I'll make you lord of something better
+far than Biancomonte."
+
+I thanked him, and Madonna joined me in that expression of gratitude--an
+expression that fell very short of all that was in our hearts. But
+touching that offer of his that I should follow his fortunes, I begged
+him not to insist.
+
+"The possession of Biancomonte has from my cradle been the goal of all
+my hopes. It is patrimony enough for me, and there, with Madonna
+Paola, I'll take a long farewell of ambition, which is but the seed of
+discontent."
+
+"Why, as you will," he sighed. And then, before more could be said,
+there came from the adjoining room a piercing scream.
+
+Cesare raised his head, and his lips parted in the faintest vestige of a
+smile.
+
+"They are exacting the truth from the Governor of Cesena," said he. "I
+think, Madonna, that we had better move a little farther off. Ramiro's
+voice makes indifferent music for a lady's ear."
+
+She was white as death at the horrid noise and all the things of which
+it may have reminded her, and so we passed from the antechamber and
+sought the more distant places of the castle.
+
+Here let me pause. We were married on the morrow which was Christmas
+eve, and in the grey dawn of the Christmas morning we set out for
+Biancomonte with the escort which Cesare Borgia placed at our disposal.
+
+As we rode out from the Citadel of Cesena, we saw the last of Ramiro
+del' Orca. Beyond the gates, in the centre of the public square, a block
+stood planted in the snow. On the side nearer the castle there was a
+dark mass over which a rich mantle had been thrown; it was of purple
+colour, and in the uncertain light it was not easy to tell where the
+cloak ended, and the stain that embrued the snow began. On the other
+side of the block a decapitated head stood mounted on an upright pike,
+and the sightless eyes of Ramiro del' Orca looked from his grinning face
+upon the town of Cesena, which he had so wantonly misruled.
+
+Madonna shuddered and turned her head aside as we rode past that dread
+emblem of the Borgia justice.
+
+To efface from her mind the memory of such a thing on such a day, I
+talked to her, as we cantered out into the country, of the life to come,
+of the mother that waited to welcome us, and of the glad tidings with
+which we were to rejoice her on that Christmas day.
+
+There is no moral to my story. I may not end with one of those graceful
+admonitions beloved of Messer Boccacci to whom in my jester's days
+I owed so much. Not mine is it to say with him "Wherefore, gentle
+ladies"--or "noble sirs--beware of this, avoid that other thing."
+
+Mine is a plain tale, written in the belief that some account of
+those old happenings that befell me may offer you some measure of
+entertainment, and written, too, in the support of certain truths which
+my contemporaries have been shamefully inclined and simoniacally induced
+to suppress. Many chroniclers set forth how the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli
+and his associates were barbarously strangled by Cesare's orders at
+Sinigaglia, and wilfully--for I cannot believe that it results from
+ignorance--are they silent touching the reason, leaving you to imagine
+that it was done in obedience to a ruthlessness of character beyond
+parallel, so that you may come to consider Cesare Borgia as black as
+they were paid to paint him.
+
+To confute them do I set down these facts of which my knowledge cannot
+be called in question, and also that you may know the true story of
+Paola di Santafior--and more particularly that part of it which lies
+beyond the death she did not die.
+
+The sun of that Christmas day was setting as we drew near to Biancomonte
+and the humble dwelling of my old mother. We fell into talk of her once
+more. Suddenly Paola turned in her saddle to confront me.
+
+"Tell me, Lord of Biancomonte, will she love me a little, think you?"
+she asked, to plague me.
+
+"Who would not love you, Lady of Biancomonte?" counter-questioned I.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shame of Motley, by Raphael Sabatini
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 3408-8.txt or 3408-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/3408/
+
+Produced by John Stuart Middleton
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/3408-8.zip b/old/3408-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..759c7d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3408-8.zip
diff --git a/old/3408-h.htm.2021-01-27 b/old/3408-h.htm.2021-01-27
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6be6df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3408-h.htm.2021-01-27
@@ -0,0 +1,10913 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    p { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Shame of Motley</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Rafael Sabatini</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 6, 2001 [eBook #3408]<br />
+[Most recently updated: January 27, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: John Stuart Middleton, and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***</div>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE SHAME OF MOTLEY
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions <br />in the Life of Lazzaro
+      Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, <br />sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Rafael Sabatini
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_PART1"> <b>PART I.</b> </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>FLOWER
+        OF THE QUINCE</b> <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CARDINAL OF VALENCIA <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MADONNA PAOLA <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE COZENING OF
+        RAMIRO <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MADONNA'S
+        INGRATITUDE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FOOL'S
+        LUCK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        SUMMONS FROM ROME <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"MENE,
+        MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN&rdquo; <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FOOL-AT-ARMS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010">
+        CHAPTER X. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FALL OF PESARO <br /><br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_PART2"> <b>PART II.</b> </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>THE
+        OGRE OF CESENA</b> <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MADONNA'S
+        SUMMONS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        GOVERNOR OF CESENA <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;POISON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;REQUIESCAT! <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER
+        XV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AN ILL ENCOUNTER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016">
+        CHAPTER XVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE SENESCHAL <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LETTER <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;DOOMED <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE SUNSET <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AVE CAESAR! <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PART1" id="link2H_PART1">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      PART I. FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by
+      suspense. It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with
+      after I had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from
+      Pesaro, and I wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious
+      Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia might see fit to offer me the
+      honourable employment with which Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that he
+      would reward the service I had rendered the House of Borgia by my journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days were sped, yet nought had happened to signify that things would
+      shape the course by me so ardently desired; that the means would be
+      afforded me of mending my miserable ways, and repairing the wreck my life
+      had suffered on the shoals of Fate. True, I had been housed and fed, and
+      the comforts of indolence had been mine; but, for the rest, I was still
+      clothed in the livery of folly which I had worn on my arrival, and,
+      wherever I might roam, there followed ever at my heels a crowd of
+      underlings, seeking to have their tedium lightened by jests and capers,
+      and voting me&mdash;when their hopes proved barren&mdash;the sorriest Fool
+      that had ever worn the motley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that third day I speak of, my patience tried to its last strand, I had
+      beaten a lacquey with my hands, and fled from the cursed gibes his fellows
+      aimed at me, out into the misty gardens and the chill January air, whose
+      sting I could, perhaps, the better disregard by virtue of the heat of
+      indignation that consumed me. Was it ever to be so with me? Could nothing
+      lift the curse of folly from me, that I must ever be a Fool, and worse,
+      the sport of other fools?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was there on one of the terraces crowning the splendid heights above
+      immortal Rome that Messer Gianluca found me. He greeted me courteously; I
+      answered with a snarl, deeming him come to pursue the plaguing from which
+      I had fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia is asking for
+      you, Messer Boccadoro,&rdquo; he announced. And so despairing had been my mood
+      of ever hearing such a summons that, for a moment, I accounted it some
+      fresh jest of theirs. But the gravity of his fat countenance reassured me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go, then,&rdquo; I answered with alacrity, and so confident was I that
+      the interview to which he bade me was the first step along the road to
+      better fortune, that I permitted myself a momentary return to the Fool's
+      estate from which I thought myself on the point of being for ever freed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall use the interview to induce his Excellency to submit a tenth
+      beatitude to the approval of our Holy Father: Blessed are the bearers of
+      good tidings. Come on, Messer the seneschal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I led the way, in my impatience forgetful of his great paunch and little
+      legs, so that he was sorely tried to keep pace with me. Yet who would not
+      have been in haste, urged by such a spur as had I? Here, then, was the end
+      of my shameful travesty. To-morrow a soldier's harness should replace the
+      motley of a jester; the name by which I should be known again to men would
+      be that of Lazzaro Biancomonte, and no longer Boccadoro&mdash;the Fool of
+      the golden mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus much had Madonna Lucrezia's promises led me to expect, and it was
+      with a soul full of joyous expectation that I entered the great man's
+      closet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He received me in a manner calculated to set me at my ease, and yet there
+      was about him a something that overawed me. Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of
+      Valencia, was then in his twenty-third year, for all that there hung about
+      him the semblance of a greater age, just as his cardinalitial robes lent
+      him the appearance of a height far above the middle stature that was his
+      own. His face was pale and framed in a silky auburn beard; his nose was
+      aquiline and strong; his eyes the keenest that I have ever seen; his
+      forehead lofty and intelligent. He seemed pervaded by an air of feverish
+      restlessness, something surpassing the vivida vis animi, something that
+      marked him to discerning eyes for a man of incessant action of body and of
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My sister tells me,&rdquo; he said in greeting, &ldquo;that you are willing to take
+      service under me, Messer Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such was the hope that guided me to Rome, Most Excellent,&rdquo; I answered
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surprise flashed into his eyes, and was gone as quickly as it had come.
+      His thin lips parted in a smile, whose meaning was inscrutable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As some reward for the safe delivery of the letter you brought me from
+      her?&rdquo; he questioned mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Precisely, Illustrious,&rdquo; I answered in all frankness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His open hand smote the table of wood-mosaics at which he sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Praised be Heaven!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;You seem to promise that I shall have in
+      you a follower who deals in truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could your Excellency, to whom my real name is known, expect ought else
+      of one who bears it&mdash;however unworthily?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was amusement in his glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you still swagger it, after having worn that livery for three years?&rdquo;
+       he asked, and his lean forefinger pointed at my hideous motley of red and
+      black and yellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I flushed and hung my head, and&mdash;as if to mock that very expression
+      of my shame&mdash;the bells on my cap gave forth a silvery tinkle at the
+      movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excellency, spare me,&rdquo; I murmured. &ldquo;Did you know all my miserable story
+      you would be merciful. Did you know with what joy I turned my back on the
+      Court of Pesaro&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; he broke in mockingly, &ldquo;when Giovanni Sforza threatened to have you
+      hanged for the overboldness of your tongue. Not until then did it occur to
+      you to turn from the shameful life in which the best years of your manhood
+      were being wasted. There! Just now I commended your truthfulness; but the
+      truth that dwells in you is no more, it seems, than the truth we may look
+      for in the mouth of Folly. At heart, I fear, you are a hypocrite, Messer
+      Biancomonte; the worst form of hypocrite&mdash;a hypocrite to your own
+      self.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did your Excellency know all!&rdquo; I cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know enough,&rdquo; he answered, with stern sorrow; &ldquo;enough to make me marvel
+      that the son of Ettore Biancomonte of Biancomonte should play the Fool to
+      Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Oh you will tell me that you went there
+      for revenge, to seek to right the wrong his father did your father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was, it was!&rdquo; I cried, with heated vehemence. &ldquo;Be flames everlasting
+      the dwelling of my soul if any other motive drove me to this shameful
+      trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause. His beautiful eyes flamed with a sudden light as they
+      rested on me. Then the lids drooped demurely, and he drew a deep breath.
+      But when he spoke there was scorn in his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, no doubt, it was that same motive kept you there, at peace for three
+      whole years, in slothful ease, the motleyed Fool, jesting and capering for
+      his enemy's delectation&mdash;you, a man with the knightly memory of your
+      foully-wronged parent to cry hourly shame upon you. No doubt you lacked
+      the opportunity to bring the tyrant to account. Or was it that you were
+      content to let him make a mock of you so long as he housed and fed you and
+      clothed you in your garish livery of shame?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare me, Excellency,&rdquo; I cried again. &ldquo;Of your charity let my past be
+      done with. When he drove me forth with threats of hanging, from which your
+      gracious sister saved me, I turned my steps to Rome at her bidding to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To find honourable employment at my hands,&rdquo; he interrupted quietly. Then
+      suddenly rising, and speaking in a voice of thunder&mdash;&ldquo;And what, then,
+      of your revenge?&rdquo; he cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been frustrated,&rdquo; I answered lamely. &ldquo;Sufficient do I account the
+      ruin that already I have wrought in my life by the pursuit of that
+      phantom. I was trained to arms, my lord. Let me discard for good these
+      tawdry rags, and strap a soldier's harness to my back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How came you to journey hither thus?&rdquo; he asked, suddenly turning the
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Madonna Lucrezia's wish. She held that my errand would be safer
+      so, for a Fool may travel unmolested.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded that he understood, and paced the chamber with bowed head. For a
+      spell there was silence, broken only by the soft fall of his slippered
+      feet and the swish of his silken purple. At last he paused before me and
+      looked up into my face&mdash;for I was a good head taller than he was. His
+      fingers combed his auburn beard, and his beautiful eyes were full on mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a wise precaution of my sister's,&rdquo; he approved. &ldquo;I will take a
+      lesson from her in the matter. I have employment for you, Messer
+      Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I bowed my head in token of my gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall find me diligent and faithful, my lord,&rdquo; I promised him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; he sniffed, &ldquo;else should I not employ you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned from me, and stepped back to his table. He took up a package,
+      fingered it a moment, then dropped it again, and shot me one of his quiet
+      glances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is my answer to Madonna Lucrezia's letter,&rdquo; he said slowly, his
+      voice as smooth as silk, &ldquo;and I desire that you shall carry it to Pesaro
+      for me, and deliver it safely and secretly into her hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I could do no more than stare at him. It seemed as if my mind were
+      stricken numb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; he asked at last; and in his voice there was now a suggestion of
+      steel beneath the silk. &ldquo;Do you hesitate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I do,&rdquo; I answered, suddenly finding my voice, &ldquo;I do no more than
+      might a bolder man. How can I, who am banned by punishment of death,
+      contrive to penetrate again into the Court of Pesaro and reach the Lady
+      Lucrezia?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a matter that I shall leave to the shrewd wit which all Italy
+      says is the heritage of Boccadoro, the Prince of Fools. Does the task
+      daunt you?&rdquo; His glance and voice were alike harsh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In very truth it did, and I told him so, but in the terms which the shrewd
+      wit he said was mine dictated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hesitate, my lord, indeed; but more because I fear the frustration of
+      your own ends&mdash;whatever they may be&mdash;than because I dread to
+      earn a broken neck by again adventuring into Pesaro. Would not some other
+      messenger&mdash;unknown at the Court of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;be in better
+      case to acquit himself of such a task?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if I had one I could trust,&rdquo; he answered frankly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be open with you, Biancomonte. There are such grave matters at
+      issue, there are such secrets confided to that paper, that I would not for
+      a kingdom, not for our Holy Father's triple crown, that they should fall
+      into alien hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He approached me again, and his slender hand, upon which the sacred
+      amethyst was glowing, fell lightly on my shoulder. He lowered his voice
+      &ldquo;You are the man, the one man in Italy, whose interests are bound up with
+      mine in this; therefore are you the one man to whom I can entrust that
+      package.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I?&rdquo; I gasped in amazement&mdash;as well I might, for what interests had
+      Boccadoro, the Fool, in common with Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You,&rdquo; he answered vehemently, &ldquo;you, Lazzaro Biancomonte of Biancomonte,
+      whose father Costanzo of Pesaro stripped of his domains. The matters in
+      those papers mean the ruin of the Lord of Pesaro. We are all but ripe to
+      strike at him from Rome and when we strike he shall be so disfigured by
+      the blow that all Italy shall hold its sides to laugh at the sorry figure
+      he will cut. I would not say so much to any other living man but you and
+      if I tell it you it is because I need your aid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lion and mouse,&rdquo; I murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why yes, if you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this man is the husband of your sister!&rdquo; I exclaimed, almost
+      involuntarily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does that imply a doubt of what I have said?&rdquo; he flashed, his head thrown
+      back, his brows drawn suddenly together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; I hastened to assure him. He smiled softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maddonna Lucrezia knows all&mdash;or nearly all. Of what else she may
+      need to learn, that letter will inform her. It is the last thread, the
+      last knot needed, before we can complete the net in which we are to hold
+      that tyrant? Now, will you bear the letter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Would I bear it? Dear God! To achieve the end in view I would have spent
+      my remaining days in motley, making sport for grooms and kitchen wenches.
+      Some such answer did I make him, and he smiled his satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall journey as you are,&rdquo; he bade me. &ldquo;I am guided by my sister,
+      assured that the coat of a Fool is stouter protection than the best
+      hauberk ever tempered. When you have done your errand come you back to me,
+      and you shall have employment better suited to one who bears the name of
+      Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may depend upon me in this, my lord,&rdquo; I promised gravely. &ldquo;I shall
+      not fail you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well&rdquo; said he; and those wondrous eyes of his rested again upon my
+      face. &ldquo;How soon can you set out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At once, my lord. Does not the by-word say that a fool makes little
+      preparation for a journey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded, and moved to a coffer, a beautiful piece of Venetian work in
+      ultramarine and gold. From this he took a heavy bag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you will find the best of all travelling companions.&rdquo; I
+      thanked him, and set the bag on the crook of my left arm, and by its
+      weight I knew how true he was to the notorious splendour of his race. &ldquo;And
+      this,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;is a talisman that may serve to help you out of any evil
+      plight, and open many a door that you may find locked.&rdquo; And he handed me a
+      signet ring on which was graven the steer that is the emblem of the House
+      of Borgia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He raised aloft the hand on which was glistening the sacred amethyst&mdash;two
+      fingers crooked and two erect. Wondering what this should mean, I stared
+      inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kneel,&rdquo; he bade me. And realising what he would be about, I sank on to my
+      knees whilst he murmured the Apostolic benediction over my bowed head. The
+      rushes of the floor were the only witnesses of the smile that crept to my
+      lips at this sudden assumption of his churchly office by that most worldly
+      prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Such preparations as I had to make were soon complete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although it was agreed that I was to travel in the motley, yet, in my
+      lately-born shame of that apparel, I decided that I would conceal it as
+      best might be, revealing it only should the need arise. Moreover, it was
+      incumbent that I should afford myself more protection against the
+      inclement January night than that of my foliated cape, my crested cap and
+      silken hose. So, a black cloak, heavy and ample, a broad-brimmed hat, and
+      a pair of riding boots of untanned leather were my further equipment. In
+      the lining of one of those boots I concealed the Lord Cesare's package;
+      his money&mdash;some twenty ducats&mdash;I carried in a belt about my
+      waist, and his ring I set boldly on my finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Few moments did it need me to make ready, yet fewer, it seems, would the
+      Borgia impatience have had me employ; for scarce was I booted when someone
+      knocked at my door. I opened, and there entered a very mountain of a man,
+      whose corselet flashed back the yellow light of my tapers, as might have
+      done a mirror, and whose harsh voice barked out to ask if I was ready.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had had some former acquaintance with this fellow, having first met him
+      during the previous year, on the occasion of the Court of Pesaro's sojourn
+      at Rome. His name was Ramiro del' Orca, and throughout the Papal army it
+      stood synonymous for masterfulness and grim brutality. He was, as I have
+      said, an enormous man, of prodigious bodily strength, heavy, yet of good
+      proportions. Of his face one gathered the impression of a blazing furnace.
+      His cheeks and nose were of a vivid red, and still more fiery was the
+      hair, now hidden 'neath his morion, and the beard that tapered to a
+      dagger's point. His very eyes kept tune with the red harmony of his
+      ferocious countenance, for the whites were ever bloodshot as a drunkard's&mdash;which,
+      with no want of truth, men said he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; grunted that fiery, self-sufficient vassal, &ldquo;be stirring, sir
+      Fool. I have orders to see you to the gates. There is a horse ready
+      saddled for you. It is the Lord Cardinal's parting gift. Resolve me now,
+      which will be the greater ass&mdash;the one that rides, or the one that is
+      ridden?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O monstrous riddle!&rdquo; I exclaimed, as I took up my cloak and hat. &ldquo;Who am
+      I that I should solve it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It baffles you, sir Fool?&rdquo; quoth he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In very truth it does.&rdquo; I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells set up
+      a jangle. &ldquo;For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse. But,&rdquo; I pursued,
+      in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of the jester's wit,
+      &ldquo;were you to make a trio of us, including Messer Ramiro del' Orca, Captain
+      in the army of his Holiness, no doubt would then afflict me. I should
+      never hesitate which of the three to pronounce the ass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall that mean?&rdquo; he asked, with darkening brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That its meaning proves obscure to you confirms the verdict I was hinting
+      at,&rdquo; I taunted him. &ldquo;For asses are notoriously of dull perceptions.&rdquo; Then
+      stepping forward briskly: &ldquo;Come, sir,&rdquo; I sharply urged him, &ldquo;whilst we
+      engage upon this pretty play of wit, his Excellency's business waits,
+      which is an ill thing. Where is this horse you spoke of?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He showed me his strong, white teeth in a very evil smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were it not for that same business&mdash;&rdquo; he began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would do fine things, I am assured,&rdquo; I interrupted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would I not?&rdquo; he snarled. &ldquo;By the Host! I should be wringing your pert
+      neck, or laying bare your bones with a thong of bullock-hide, you ill
+      conditioned Fool!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked at him with pleasant, smiling eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You confirm the opinion that is popularly held of you,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may that be?&rdquo; quoth he, his eyes very evil. &ldquo;In Rome, I'm told, they
+      call you hangman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He growled in his throat like an angered cur, and his hands were jerked to
+      the level of his breast, the fingers bending talon-wise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he muttered fiercely, &ldquo;I'll teach one fool, at least&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us cease these pleasantries, I entreat you,&rdquo; I laughed. &ldquo;Saints
+      defend me! If your mood incline to raillery you'll find your match in some
+      lad of the stables. As for me, I have not the time, had I the will, to
+      engage you further. Let me remind you that I would be gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reminder was well-timed. He bethought him of the journey I must go, on
+      which he was charged to see me safely started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, then,&rdquo; he growled, in a white heat of passion that was only
+      curbed by the consideration of that slender, pale young cardinal, his
+      master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, some of his rage he vented in roughly taking me by the collar of my
+      doublet, and dragging the almost headlong from the room, and so a-down a
+      flight of steps out into the courtyard. Meet treatment for a Fool&mdash;a
+      treatment to which time might have inured me; for had I not for three
+      years already been exposed to rough usage of this kind at the hands of
+      every man above the rank of groom? And had I once rebelled in act as I did
+      in soul, and used the strength wherewith God endowed me to punish my
+      ill-users, a whip would have reminded me into what sorry slavery had I
+      sold myself when I put on the motley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the
+      courtyard when we descended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of hoofs,
+      muffled by the snow. Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare upon the
+      all-encompassing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward the horse that
+      was destined to bear me. I donned my broad-brimmed hat, and wrapped my
+      cloak about me. Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears, from those
+      minions with whom I had herded during my three days at the Vatican. Then
+      Messer del' Orca thrust me forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mount, Fool, and be off,&rdquo; he rasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mounted, and turned to him. He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog wore
+      human shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, farewell,&rdquo; I simpered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No brother of yours, Fool,&rdquo; snarled he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True&mdash;my cousin only. The fool of art is no brother to the fool of
+      nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A whip!&rdquo; he roared to his grooms. &ldquo;Fetch me a whip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and over the
+      narrow drawbridge. Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my shoulder.
+      They stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men, looking black
+      against the whiteness of the ground. Behind them rose the brown walls of
+      the rocca illumined by the flare of torches, from which the smell of rosin
+      reached my nostrils as I paused. I waved my hat to them in token of
+      farewell, and digging my spurless heels into the flanks of my horse, I
+      ambled down through the biting wind and drifting snow, into the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell from a
+      window, and there stole through the chink of a door to glow upon the snow
+      in earnest of the snug warmth within. Silence reigned, broken only by the
+      moan of the wind under the eaves, for although it was no more than
+      approaching the second hour of night, yet who but the wight whom necessity
+      compelled would be abroad in such weather?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All night I rode despite that weather's foulness&mdash;a foulness that
+      might have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less
+      attuned to his own supreme desires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to Magliano,
+      and there I broke my fast and took some rest. My horse had suffered by the
+      journey more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh one at Magliano,
+      but there was none to be had&mdash;so they told me&mdash;this side of
+      Narni, wherefore I was forced to set out once more upon that poor jaded
+      beast that had carried me all night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the
+      journey accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster. Here I
+      paused to dine, but here, again, they told me that no horses might be had.
+      And so, leading by the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride, lest I
+      should kill it outright, I entered the territory of Urbino on foot, and
+      trudged wearily amain through the snow that was some inches deep by now.
+      In this miserable fashion I covered the seven leagues, or so, to Spoleto,
+      where I arrived exhausted as night was falling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay. I found a company of
+      gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley&mdash;when I had
+      thrown off my sodden cloak and hat&mdash;pressed me, willy-nilly, into
+      amusing them. And so I spent the night at my Fool's trade, giving them
+      drolleries from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti&mdash;the horn-books
+      of all jesters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending to
+      travel with a better speed. The snow was thick and soft at first, but as I
+      approached the hills it grew more crisp. Overhead the sky was of an
+      unbroken blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was warmth in the
+      sunshine. All day I rode hard, and never rested until towards nightfall I
+      found myself on the spurs of the Apennines in the neighborhood of Gualdo,
+      the better half of my journey well-accomplished. The weather had changed
+      again at sunset. It was snowing anew, and the north wind was howling like
+      a choir of the damned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it
+      might suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I drew
+      rein before that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse. Despite
+      the early hour the door was already barred, for the bedding of travellers
+      formed no part of the traffic of so lowly a house as this nameless,
+      wayside wine-shop. Theirs was a trade that ended with the daylight.
+      Nevertheless I was assured they could be made to find me a rag of straw to
+      lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the
+      light of the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not
+      over-clean. Behind him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman as
+      you might look to find the mate of such a man: broad and tall of frame and
+      most scurvily cross-grained of face. It may well be that had he bidden me
+      welcome, she had driven me back into the night; but since he made some
+      demur when I asked for lodging, and protested that in his house was but
+      accommodation too rude to offer my magnificence, the woman thrust him
+      aside, and loudly bade me enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests
+      should suffer were my trade disclosed. I bade the man see to my horse, and
+      then escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room above, which,
+      in obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my convenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner, and
+      in the centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy chair
+      beside it. The floor was black with age and filth, and broken everywhere
+      by rat-holes. She set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the table, and with
+      some apology for the rudeness of the chamber she asked in tones almost
+      defiant if my excellency would be content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perforce,&rdquo; said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key to the
+      respect of such a creature; &ldquo;a king might thank Heaven for a kennel on
+      such a night as this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered
+      had I supped. I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have been
+      poisoned by such foulnesses as they might have set before me. So I
+      answered her that all I needed was a cup of wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the
+      door. It had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three legged
+      stool against it that it might give me warning of intrusion. Next I threw
+      off my cloak and hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I flung myself
+      upon my miserable couch. But jaded though I might be, it was not yet my
+      intent to sleep. Now that the half of my journey was accomplished, I found
+      myself beset by doubts which had not before assailed me, touching the
+      manner in which this mission of mine was to be accomplished. It would
+      prove no easy thing for me to penetrate unnoticed into the town of Pesaro,
+      much less into the Sforza Court, where for three years I had pursued my
+      Fool's trade. There was scarce a man, a woman or a child in the entire
+      domains of Giovanni Sforza to whom Boccadoro, the Fool, was not known; and
+      many a villano, who had never noticed the features of the Lord of Pesaro,
+      could have told you the very colour of his jester's eyes; which, after
+      all, is no strange thing, for&mdash;sad reflection!&mdash;in a world in
+      which Wisdom may be overlooked, Folly goes never disregarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would
+      gain the presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in others.
+      And then my thoughts wandered into speculation. What might be this
+      momentous letter that I carried? What was this secret traffic 'twixt
+      Cesare Borgia and his sister? Since Cesare had said that it meant the ruin
+      of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;a ruin so utter, so complete and humiliating that
+      it must provoke the scornful mirth of all Italy&mdash;the knowledge of it
+      must soon be mine. Meanwhile I was an agent of that ruin. Dear God! how
+      that reflection warmed me! What joy I took in the thought that, though he
+      knew it not, nor could come to know it, I Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he had
+      abused and whose spirit he had broken&mdash;was become a tool to expedite
+      the work of abasement and destruction that was ripening for him. And
+      realizing all this, that letter I vowed to Heaven I would carry, suffering
+      no obstacle to daunt me, suffering nothing to turn me from my path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out impatiently:
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; but how?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured
+      myself a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive rat
+      that had thrust its head above the boards. Then I quenched the light, and
+      flung myself once more upon my bed, in the hope that darkness would prove
+      a stimulant to thought and bring me to the solution I was seeking. It
+      brought me sleep instead. Unconsciously I sank to it, my riddle all
+      unsolved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing the
+      pattern of my lattice on the ceiling. The stormy night had been succeeded
+      by a calm and sunlit day. And by its light the place wore a more loathsome
+      look than it had done last night, so that at the very sight of it I leapt
+      from my couch and grew eager to be gone. I set a ducat on the table, and
+      going to the door I called my hostess. The stairs creaked presently 'neath
+      her portentous weight, and, panting slightly, she stood before me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed in
+      the cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then in
+      rage&mdash;deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the
+      garb of folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some
+      scurvy tumbling or some witless jests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ossa di Cristo!&rdquo; was her cry. &ldquo;Have I housed a Fool?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has
+      been a singularly choice resort. Woman&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you 'woman' me?&rdquo; she stormed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no,&rdquo; said I politely. &ldquo;I was at fault. I'll keep the title for your
+      husband&mdash;God help him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are these,&rdquo; she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, &ldquo;the jests with
+      which you pay the score?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jests?&rdquo; quoth I. &ldquo;Score? Pish! More eyes, less tongue would more befit a
+      hostess who has never housed a fool.&rdquo; And with a splendid gesture I
+      pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table. At sight of the gold her eyes
+      grew big with greed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My master&mdash;&rdquo; she began, and coming forward took the piece in her
+      hand, to assure herself that she was not the dupe of magic. &ldquo;A fool with
+      gold!&rdquo; she marvelled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is a shame to his calling,&rdquo; I acknowledged. Then&mdash;&ldquo;Get me a needle
+      and a length of thread,&rdquo; said I. She scuttled off to do my bidding, like
+      nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty. She was
+      back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a rent
+      about me she might make bold to stitch. What a key to courtesy is gold, my
+      masters! I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which it
+      stood in need. Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my way
+      below, calling for my horse as I descended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed. That last night's
+      draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was
+      theirs to tender. I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and stood
+      waiting in the squalid common-room, my mind divided 'twixt impatience to
+      resume the road to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the means I was to
+      adopt to enter it and yet save my neck&mdash;for this was now become an
+      obsessing problem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an approaching
+      cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs upon the thick
+      snow carpet. The company halted at the door, and a loud, gruff voice was
+      raised to cry:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Locandiere! Afoot, sluggard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four
+      mounted men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn so
+      that nothing might be seen of him or her that rode within. Grooms were
+      those four, as all the world might see at the first glance, and the livery
+      they wore was that of the noble House of Santafior&mdash;the holy white
+      flower of the quince being embroidered on the breast of their gabardines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was
+      soon guessed they had spent the night in the saddle. Their horses were in
+      a foam of sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from foot
+      to cap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared, leading
+      my horse by the bridle. Now at an inn the traveller that arrives is ever
+      of more importance than he that departs. At sight of those horsemen, the
+      taverner forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow in welcome to the one
+      that seemed the leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most Magnificent,&rdquo; said he to that liveried hind, &ldquo;command me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need a guide,&rdquo; the fellow answered with an ill grace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A guide, Illustrious?&rdquo; quoth the host. &ldquo;A guide?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said a guide, fool,&rdquo; answered him the groom. &ldquo;Heard you never of such
+      animals? We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the shortest
+      road to Cagli.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The taverner shook his grey head stupidly. He bowed again until I fancied
+      I could hear the creak of his old joints.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here be no guides, Magnificent,&rdquo; he deplored. &ldquo;Perhaps at Gualdo&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Animal,&rdquo; was the retort&mdash;for true courtesy commend me to a lacquey!&mdash;&ldquo;it
+      is not our wish to pursue the road as far as Gualdo, else had we not
+      stopped at this kennel of yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I scarce know what it can have been that moved me to act as I then did,
+      for, in the truth, the manner of that rascal of a groom was little
+      prepossessing, and his master, I doubted, could be little better that he
+      left the fellow to hector it thus over that wretched tavern oaf. But I
+      stepped forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you say that you were journeying to Cagli?&rdquo; questioned I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed me sourly, suspicion writ athwart his round, ill-favoured face,
+      But my motley was hidden from his sight. My cloak, my hat and boots
+      allowed naught of my true condition to appear, and might as well have
+      covered a lordling as a jester. Yet his inveterate surliness the rascal
+      could not wholly conquer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may be the purpose of your question?&rdquo; he growled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To serve your master, whoever he may be,&rdquo; I answered him serenely,
+      &ldquo;although it is a service I do not press upon him. I, too, am journeying
+      to Cagli, and like yourselves, I am in haste and go the shorter way across
+      the hills, with which I am well acquainted. If it so please you to follow
+      me your need of a guide may thus be satisfied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the tone to take if I would be respected. Had I proposed that we
+      should journey in company I should not have earned me the half of the
+      deference which was accorded to my haughtily granted leave that they might
+      follow me if they so chose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With marked submission did he give me thanks in his master's name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mounted and set out, and at my heels came now the litter and its escort.
+      Thus did we quit the plain and breast the slopes, where the snow grew
+      deeper and firmer underfoot as we advanced. And as I went, still plaguing
+      my mind to devise a means by which I might penetrate to the Court of
+      Pesaro, little did I dream that the matter was being solved for me&mdash;the
+      solution having begun with my offer to guide that company across the
+      hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. MADONNA PAOLA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted and paused
+      awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was to lead us down
+      to Cagli. The air was sharp and cold, for all that overhead was spread a
+      cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured down its light upon the
+      wide expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness so dazzling as to be
+      hurtful to the sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that following
+      company as if I had been unconscious of its existence. But now that we
+      paused, their fat, white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo, approached
+      me and sought to draw me into conversation. I yielded readily enough, for
+      I scented a mystery about that closely-curtained litter, and mysteries are
+      ever provoking to such a mind as mine. For all that it might profit me
+      naught to learn who rode there, and why with all this haste, yet these
+      were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity was aroused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you journeying beyond Cagli?&rdquo; I asked him presently, in an idle tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes
+      confirming the existence of the mystery I scented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answered, after a pause. &ldquo;We hope to reach Urbino before night.
+      And you? Are you journeying far?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That far, at least,&rdquo; I answered him, emulating the caution he had shown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the
+      litter were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and so far
+      was the vision different from that which&mdash;for no reason that I can
+      give&mdash;I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. A
+      lady&mdash;a very child, indeed&mdash;had leapt nimbly to the ground ere
+      any of those grooms could offer her assistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and to
+      one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine beauty
+      it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that writer's
+      catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shape and stature,
+      despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicately featured and of an
+      ivory pallor. Her eyes&mdash;blue as the heavens overhead&mdash;were not
+      of the colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was her hair of the golden
+      brown which that arbiter commends. Had Firenzuola seen her, it may well be
+      that he had altered or modified his views. She was sumptuously arrayed in
+      a loose-sleeved camorra of grey velvet that was heavy with costly furs;
+      above the lenza of fine linen on her head gleamed the gold thread of a
+      jewelled net, and at her waist a girdle of surpassing richness, all set
+      with gems, glowed like a thing of fire in the bright sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked about
+      her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached us across
+      the gleaming snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this,&rdquo; she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfect
+      match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, &ldquo;the traveller who so
+      kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am in your debt, sir,&rdquo; she protested, with an odd earnestness. &ldquo;You do
+      not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any time
+      Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, you
+      shall find me very willing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of her
+      identity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I hated
+      the very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, you overrate my service. It so chanced that I was travelling
+      this way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reason of
+      my churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not see the
+      motley worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her. No doubt she
+      accounted me a clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and so she
+      turned away, telling Giacopo that as soon as the horses were breathed they
+      might push on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna,&rdquo; answered he, &ldquo;if they are to
+      carry us as far as Cagli. Heaven send that we may obtain fresh cattle
+      there, else is all lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there any for
+      those others.&rdquo; And she waved her hand towards the valley below and the
+      road by which we had come. From this and from what was said I gathered
+      that they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at their heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have a warrant which we have not,&rdquo; was Giacopo's answer, gloomily
+      delivered, &ldquo;and they will seize cattle where they can find it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the peril
+      that aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir stranger,&rdquo;
+       said Giacopo to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better the horse should die of cold than I,&rdquo; I answered gruffly, and
+      turning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood that was
+      chilling in my veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me that
+      compelled my glance. To some it might compare but ill with the luxuriant
+      splendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a wondrously
+      impressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse of snow,
+      expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by virtue of that
+      very lack of expression. From Fabriano, at our feet, was spread to the
+      east, the broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the Masone, as far as
+      Mount Comero, which, in the distance, lifted its round shoulder from the
+      haze of sea. To the west the country lay under the same winding-sheet of
+      snow as far as eye might range, to the towers of distant Perugia, to the
+      Lake Trasimeno&mdash;a silver sheen that broke the white monotony&mdash;to
+      Etruscan Cortona, perched like an eyrie on its mountain top, and to the
+      line of Tuscan hills, like heavy, low-lying clouds upon the blue horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded by a
+      volley of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to my
+      companions. They stood grouped together, and their eyes were on the road
+      by which we had scaled those heights. Their first expression of loud
+      astonishment had been succeeded by an utter silence. I stepped forward to
+      command a better view of what they contemplated, and in the plain below,
+      midway between Narni and the slopes, a mile or so behind us, I caught a
+      glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the sunshine. A company of some dozen
+      men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the tracks we had left behind us
+      in the snow. Could these be the pursuers?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady's silvery voice, behind
+      me, put it into words. She had drawn aside the curtains of her litter and
+      she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points of brilliance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, &ldquo;they are Borgia
+      soldiers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your fear is father to that opinion,&rdquo; she answered scornfully. &ldquo;How can
+      you descry it at this distance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, either God had given that knave an eagle's sight, or else, as she
+      suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what he
+      thought he saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The leader's bannerol bears the device of a red bull,&rdquo; he answered
+      promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In God's name, let us get forward, then!&rdquo; cried Giacopo. &ldquo;Orsu! To horse,
+      knaves!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were in
+      the saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule of
+      the litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no more
+      ceremony than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no ado. A chase
+      is an interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if a greater
+      safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener excitement with the hunted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at a
+      pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace us
+      from any party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to the unreasoning
+      minds of those poltroons, and so from the danger behind us we fled, and
+      courted a more deadly and certain peril in the fleeing. At first I sought
+      to remonstrate with Giacopo; but he was deaf to the wisdom that I spoke.
+      He turned upon me a face which terror had rendered whiter than its natural
+      habit, white as the egg of a duck, with a hint of blue or green behind it.
+      I had, besides, an ugly impression of teeth and eyeballs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death is behind us, sir,&rdquo; he snarled. &ldquo;Let us get on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death is more assuredly before you,&rdquo; I answered grimly. &ldquo;If you will
+      court it, go your way. As for me, I am over-young to break my neck and be
+      left on the mountain-side to fatten crows. I shall follow at my leisure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gesu!&rdquo; he cried, through chattering teeth. &ldquo;Are you a coward, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it was;
+      but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no more
+      than provoke my mirth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, then, valiant runagate,&rdquo; I laughed at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yard
+      of moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than these
+      rational animals that bestrode them. Twice did it chance that a man was
+      flung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have been
+      uttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching the plain
+      with never so much as a broken bone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.
+      The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the
+      descent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than an
+      amble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo. His head was ever
+      turned to look behind&mdash;unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his
+      eyes were ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to
+      behold the flash of the pursuers' steel. The end soon followed. He drew
+      rein and called a halt, sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived of
+      wit&mdash;which is to pay him the compliment of supposing that he ever had
+      wit to be deprived of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola's head appeared, her
+      voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, our horses are done. It is useless to go farther.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Useless?&rdquo; she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could ring the
+      voice that I had heard so gentle. &ldquo;Of what do you talk, you knave? Ride on
+      at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is vain to ride on,&rdquo; he answered obdurately, insolence rising in his
+      voice. &ldquo;Another half-league&mdash;another league at most, and we are
+      taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cagli is less than a league distant,&rdquo; she reminded him. &ldquo;Once there, we
+      can obtain fresh horses. You will not fail me now, Giacopo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli,&rdquo; he reminded her, &ldquo;and,
+      meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri.&rdquo; And he pointed to
+      the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will stand by me, my friends,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Giacopo, here, is a
+      coward; but you are better men.&rdquo; They stirred, and one of them was
+      momentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will go with you, Madonna,&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;Let Giacopo remain behind,
+      if so he will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nor
+      tolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;as
+      caught you will be, and within the hour. If you would save your necks,
+      stay here and make surrender.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonna
+      leapt from the litter, the better to confront them. The corners of her
+      sensitive little mouth were quivering now with the emotion that possessed
+      her, and on her eyes there was a film of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cowards!&rdquo; she blazed at them, &ldquo;you hinds, that lack the spirit even
+      to run! Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you could
+      not show yourselves more palsied. I was a fool,&rdquo; she sobbed, stamping her
+      foot so that the snow squelched under it. &ldquo;I was a fool to entrust myself
+      to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; answered one of them, &ldquo;if flight could still avail us, you
+      should not find us stubborn. But it were useless. I tell you again,
+      Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were but a
+      half-league behind. Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and we
+      shall be seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool!&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;a half-league behind, you say; and you forget that we
+      were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it. If you but press on we
+      shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent. Besides,
+      Giacopo,&rdquo; she added, turning again to the leader, &ldquo;you may be at fault;
+      you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting them our
+      pursuers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arnaldo, there, made no mistake. He told us what he saw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!&rdquo; she
+      exclaimed, between grief and anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved. I
+      have said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tender
+      child to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compass
+      of that hatred? I had inferred that her pursuers were of the House of
+      Borgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I might
+      prove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to serve her
+      in this extremity. And to be of service to her, her winsome beauty had
+      already inflamed me. For there was I know not what about this child that
+      seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me that there and then
+      I would have risked my life in her good service. Oh, you may laugh who
+      read. Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed myself, I think, at the
+      heroics to which I was yielding&mdash;I, the Fool, most base of lacqueys&mdash;over
+      a damsel of the noble House of Santafior. It was shame of my motley,
+      maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about me as I urged
+      forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady,&rdquo; said I bluntly and without preamble, &ldquo;can I assist you? I have
+      inferred your case from what I have overheard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise&mdash;hers no less than her
+      grooms'.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can you do alone, sir?&rdquo; she asked, her gentle glance upraised to
+      mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I may
+      do something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are,&rdquo; she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,
+      investing her tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a
+      stranger into her confidence. Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in
+      which she found herself. Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies
+      hot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, or to
+      despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem. With both hands
+      she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of her despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you could
+      not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but know the
+      details of my sorry circumstance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That power, Madonna, it may be that I have,&rdquo; said I, and at those words
+      of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest. They
+      leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a sudden
+      hopeful. &ldquo;And,&rdquo; I continued, &ldquo;if you will have utter faith in me, I see a
+      way to render doubly certain your escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured her
+      that I promised no more than I could accomplish. For the rest she had to
+      choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I do not know you, nor why you should interest yourself
+      in the concerns of a desolated woman. But, Heaven knows, I am in no case
+      to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I doubt the good
+      faith that moves you. Let me hear, sir, how you would propose to serve
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whence are you?&rdquo; I inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Rome,&rdquo; she informed me without hesitation, &ldquo;to seek at my cousin's
+      Court of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the Borgia family is
+      submitting me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At her cousin's Court of Pesaro! An odd coincidence, this&mdash;and while
+      I was pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I might
+      assist myself. Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serve her,
+      I had it now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; said I, surprise investing my voice, &ldquo;at Pesaro there is Madonna
+      Lucrezia of that same House of Borgia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna Lucrezia is my friend,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;as sweet and gentle a friend
+      as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her own family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned to what
+      was of more immediate interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you fled,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;with these?&rdquo; And I indicated her attendants. &ldquo;Not
+      content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you in the snow, you have
+      had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of Santafior. So that
+      by asking a few questions any that were so inclined might follow you with
+      ease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened wide her eyes at that. Oftentimes have I observed that it needs
+      a fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of this world. I
+      leapt from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, the bridle on my
+      arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen now, Madonna. If you would make good your escape it first imports
+      that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort. Separate from it for
+      a little while. Take you my horse&mdash;it is a very gentle beast, and it
+      wilt carry you with safety&mdash;and ride on, alone, to Cagli.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alone?&rdquo; quoth she, in some surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes,&rdquo; I answered gruffly. &ldquo;What of that? At the Inn of 'The Full
+      Moon' ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escort
+      there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection. She is a
+      worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend you readily.
+      But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo; she inquired eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning, for
+      these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we&mdash;&rdquo; began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You four,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;shall escort me&mdash;for I shall replace Madonna in
+      the litter&mdash;you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus shall we draw
+      the pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they
+      would lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments to
+      persuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us all
+      from harm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with you?
+      Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sake of a
+      lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have had
+      with the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This escutcheon,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;is the shield that shall stand between us and
+      danger from any of the house that bears these arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey me&mdash;the
+      more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to their
+      present situation. In danger they already stood from those that followed
+      as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying one who was
+      armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape that danger. But
+      even as I was convincing them, by the same arguments was I sowing doubts
+      in the lady's subtler mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are attached to that house?&rdquo; quoth she, in accents of mistrust. She
+      wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering was there
+      treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to justify
+      suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;if you would save yourself I implore that you will
+      trust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights, and
+      then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you but this:
+      Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done better
+      than to have left you with your grooms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face lighted. A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have thought of that,&rdquo; said she. And what more she would have
+      added I put off by urging her to mount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sitting the man's saddle as best she might&mdash;well enough, indeed, to
+      fill us all with surprise and admiration&mdash;she took her leave of me
+      with pretty words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have but to follow the road,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;and it will bring you straight
+      to Cagli. The distance is a short league, and you should come there
+      safely. Farewell, Madonna!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I not know,&rdquo; she asked at parting, &ldquo;the name of him that has so
+      generously befriended me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I hesitated a second. Then&mdash;&ldquo;They call me Boccadoro,&rdquo; answered I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are you well-named,&rdquo;
+       said she. Then, gathering her mantle about her, and waving me farewell,
+      she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardly hinds who had
+      failed her in the hour of her need.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine; then
+      stepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, rogues,&rdquo; said I to the escort, &ldquo;strike me that road to Fabriano.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you not, sir,&rdquo; protested Giacopo. &ldquo;But this I know&mdash;that if
+      you intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for your
+      pains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool!&rdquo; I scorned him, &ldquo;since when has it been worth the while of any man
+      to betray such creatures as are you? Plague me no more! Be moving, else I
+      leave you to your coward's fate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality. It
+      quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of those
+      knaves had caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter moved
+      forward, whilst Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a pace
+      as their weary horses would yield. In this guise we took the road south,
+      in the direction opposite to that travelled by the lady. As we rode, I
+      summoned Giacopo to my side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take your daggers,&rdquo; I bade him, &ldquo;and rip me that blazon from your coats.
+      See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the House of
+      Santafior, or all is lost. It is a precaution you would have taken earlier
+      if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of my
+      comment on his wit. For the rest, they did my bidding there and then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, I drew
+      the curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up to
+      pondering the manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when they
+      overtook me. From that I passed on to the contemplation of the position in
+      which I found myself, and the thing that I had done. And the proportions
+      of the jest that I was perpetrating afforded me no little amusement. It
+      was a burla not unworthy the peerless gifts of Boccadoro, and a fitting
+      one on which to close his wild career of folly. For had I not vowed that
+      Boccadoro I would be no more once the errand on which I travelled was
+      accomplished? By Cesare Borgia's grace I looked to&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and the
+      realisation that in the last few moments we had increased our pace. I put
+      out my head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Giacopo!&rdquo; I shouted. He was at my side in an instant. &ldquo;Why are we
+      galloping?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are behind,&rdquo; he answered, and fear was again overspreading his fat
+      face. &ldquo;We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You caught a glimpse of whom?&rdquo; quoth I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, of the Borgia soldiers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Animal,&rdquo; I answered him, &ldquo;what have we to do with them? They may have
+      mistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit. But since we are
+      not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonable speed.
+      We do not wish to have the air of fugitives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He understood me, and I was obeyed. For a half-hour we rode at a more
+      gentle pace. That was about the time they took to come up with us, still a
+      league or so from Fabriano. We heard their cantering hoofs crushing the
+      snow, and then a loud imperious voice shouting to us a command to stay.
+      Instantly we brought up in unconcerned obedience, and they thundered
+      alongside with cries of triumph at having run their prey to earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtains with
+      a jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt. Whom my
+      appearance astounded the more&mdash;whether the lacqueys of Santafior, or
+      the Borgia men-at-arms that now encircled us&mdash;I cannot guess. But in
+      the crowd of faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look of
+      deep amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twenty
+      men-at-arms, whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del' Orca&mdash;that
+      same mountain of a man who had attended my departure from the Vatican
+      three nights ago. From the circumstance that so important a personage
+      should have been charged with the pursuit of the Lady of Santafior, I
+      inferred that great issues were at stake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered the bannerol
+      bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality to Madonna's
+      servants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for a little
+      season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sainted Host!&rdquo; he roared at last. &ldquo;What trickery may this be?&rdquo; And
+      sidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my litter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold me
+      reclining there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots, and
+      my motley garb of red and black and yellow all revealed. I believe their
+      astonishment by far surpassed the Captain's own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro,&rdquo; I greeted him. Then, seeing that he
+      only stared, and made no shift to speak: &ldquo;Maybe,&rdquo; quoth I, &ldquo;you'll explain
+      why you detain me. I am in haste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Explain?&rdquo; he thundered. &ldquo;Sangue di Cristo! The burden of explaining lies
+      with you. What make you here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, &ldquo;I am about the business
+      of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Davvero?&rdquo; he jeered. He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by the
+      collar of my doublet. &ldquo;Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there will
+      be a fool the less in the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, the world might spare more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He scowled at my pleasantry. To him, apparently, the situation afforded no
+      scope for philosophical reflections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the girl?&rdquo; he asked abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Girl?&rdquo; quoth I. &ldquo;What girl? Am I a mother-abbess, that you should set me
+      such a question?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two dark lines showed between his brows. His voice quivered with passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ask you again&mdash;where is the girl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment provided
+      for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here be no girls, Messer del' Orca,&rdquo; I answered him in the same tone.
+      &ldquo;Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained the
+      expression of it, whispered a doubt into his mind. He released me, and
+      turned upon his men, a baffled look in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was not this the party?&rdquo; he inquired ferociously. &ldquo;Have you misled me,
+      beasts?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemed the party, Illustrious,&rdquo; answered one of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you dare tell me that 'it seemed'?&rdquo; he roared, seeking to father upon
+      them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had made. &ldquo;But&mdash;What
+      is the livery of these knaves?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They wear none,&rdquo; someone answered him, and at that answer he seemed to
+      turn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he bridled afresh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet the party, I'll swear, is this!&rdquo; he insisted; and turning once more
+      to me: &ldquo;Explain, animal!&rdquo; he bade me in terrifying tones. &ldquo;Explain, or, by
+      the Host! be you ignorant or not, I'll have you hanged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I accounted it high time to take another tone with him. Hanging was a
+      discomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Draw nearer, fool,&rdquo; said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, so greatly
+      did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir captain,&rdquo; I
+      pursued. &ldquo;But this I know&mdash;that if you persist in hindering me, or
+      commit the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will answer for
+      it, hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going upon a secret mission&rdquo;&mdash;and here I sank my voice to a
+      whisper for his ears alone&mdash;&ldquo;in the service of the house that hires
+      you, as for yourself you might easily have inferred. Behold.&rdquo; And I
+      revealed my ring. &ldquo;Detain me longer at your peril.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in Cesare
+      Borgia's service, and this coupled with the sight of that talisman
+      effected in his manner a swift and wholesome change. Had I, arrayed in the
+      panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory could not have been
+      more complete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenly to
+      the four winds of Heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this litter,&rdquo; he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me, &ldquo;and these
+      four knaves&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me,&rdquo; I questioned, with sudden earnestness, &ldquo;are you in quest of
+      just such a party?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye that I am,&rdquo; he answered sharply, intelligence returning to his
+      glance, inquiry burning in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House of
+      Santafior?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time. Such a party
+      passed us at the gallop about an hour ago. It would be an hour, would it
+      not, Giacopo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say an hour,&rdquo; answered the lacquey dully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what direction?&rdquo; came Ramiro's frenzied question. He doubted me no
+      longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the direction of Fabriano I should say,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;Although it may
+      well be that they were making for Sinigaglia. The road branches farther
+      on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the priceless
+      information I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse
+      command to his followers. A moment later and they were cantering past us,
+      the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last of them
+      had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only indication of the
+      halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown where their horses
+      had crushed the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozening
+      of Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so much
+      relief and relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on the cushions of
+      my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughter which
+      was interrupted ere it was half done by Giacopo, who had dismounted and
+      approached me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fooled us finely,&rdquo; said he, with venom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he, and
+      were his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the man
+      who had saved them?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fooled us finely,&rdquo; he insisted in a louder voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, knave, is my trade,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;But it rather seems to me that it was
+      Messer Ramiro del' Orca whom I fooled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; he answered querulously. &ldquo;But what when he discerns how you have
+      played upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you have thrown
+      him off the scent? What when he returns?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare me,&rdquo; I begged, &ldquo;I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but you shall answer me,&rdquo; he cried, livid with a passion that my
+      bantering tone had quickened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
+      returns?&rdquo; I questioned meekly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that actuates
+      you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will not I,&rdquo; he vowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I, nor I, nor I!&rdquo; chorused his followers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it of
+      ours how Messer del' Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.
+      Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for Cagli. Seek her at
+      the sign of 'The Full Moon,' and then away for Pesaro. If you are brisk
+      you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza's fortress long
+      before Messer del' Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, he ever does
+      so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornful mirth
+      of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith, I'm done with the business,&rdquo; he cried, and the other three
+      expressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How done with it?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps to
+      Rome. I'll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself,&rdquo; said I, with
+      unmeasured scorn, &ldquo;you'll risk it for the greatest fool and the
+      cowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man. And your mistress? Is
+      she to wait at Cagli until doomsday? If anywhere within the bulk of that
+      elephant's body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you'll get you to horse
+      and ride to the help of that poor lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly. Messer Giacopo
+      went the length of raising his hand to me. But I am a man of amazing
+      strength&mdash;amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do not have
+      the air of it. Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught that miserable
+      vassal by the breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice, then tossed
+      him headlong into a drift of snow by the roadside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me. But I flung
+      myself on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the stout
+      Pistoja dagger that I carried, I presented with it a bold and truculent
+      front, no whit intimidated by their numbers. Four to one though they were,
+      they thought better of it. A moment they stood off, consulting among
+      themselves; then Giacopo mounted, and with some mocking counsel as to how
+      I should dispose of the litter and the mules, they made off, no doubt, to
+      find their way back to Rome. Giacopo, as I was afterwards to discover, was
+      Madonna Paola's purse-bearer, so that they would not lack for means.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens that
+      they were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli, and
+      who would await them in vain. There, on the mule, I sat in the noontide
+      sunlight, and pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as to have grown
+      forgetful of my own. At last I resolved to ride on to Cagli alone, and
+      inform her that her men were fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramiro del'
+      Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, and return
+      hot-foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means as I had no
+      stomach for enduring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving no
+      sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I had
+      tricked him. Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.
+      Slowly, then, did I consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way back to
+      Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser Ramiro
+      would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up the trail. I
+      remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my mule back to that
+      as fast as it would travel with the litter and the other mule attached to
+      it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on the very edge of that
+      shallow precipice. Then exerting all my strength, I contrived to roll the
+      litter over. Down that steep incline it went, over and over, gathering
+      more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinking at last into the
+      drift at the bottom. There were signs enough to show its presence, but
+      those signs would hardly be read by any but the sharpest eyes, or by such
+      as might be looking for it in precisely such a position. I must trust to
+      luck that it escaped the notice of Messer Ramiro. But even if he did
+      discover it, I did not think that it would tell him overmuch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That done I resumed my hat and cloak&mdash;which I had retained&mdash;mounted
+      once more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as
+      might be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That distance
+      covered, again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I stripped one of
+      the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind a hedge,
+      then I drove the beast loose into a field. The peasant-owner of that land
+      might conclude upon the morrow that it had rained asses in the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I had
+      passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of the
+      four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.
+      Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at their
+      cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on towards Cagli.
+      It was a short league farther, and in little more than half an hour, my
+      mule half-dead, I halted at the door of &ldquo;The Full Moon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my
+      cloak, and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed all
+      Cagli had seemed when I rode up. She came forward&mdash;a woman with a
+      brown, full face, and large kindly eyes&mdash;and I asked her whether a
+      lady had arrived there in safety that morning. At first she seemed
+      mistrustful, but when I had assured her that I was in that lady's service,
+      she frankly owned that Madonna was safe in her own room. Thither I allowed
+      her to lead me, at once eager and reluctant. Eager with my own eyes to
+      assure myself of her perfect safety; reluctant that, since a man may not
+      penetrate to a lady's chamber hat on head, by uncovering I must disclose
+      my shameful trade. Yet there was nothing for it but a bold face, and as I
+      mounted the stairs in the woman's wake, I told myself that I was doubly a
+      fool to be tormented by qualms of such a nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna's room. The lady rose from
+      the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyes wearing an
+      anxious look. At sight of my head crowned with the crested, horned hood of
+      folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together, and she looked
+      more closely to see whether I was indeed the man who had befriended her
+      that morning in her extremity. In the eyes of the hostess I caught a gleam
+      of recognition. She knew me for the merry loon who had entertained her
+      guests one night a fortnight since, when on my way from Pesaro to Rome.
+      But before she could give expression to this discovery of hers, the lady
+      spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave us awhile, my woman,&rdquo; she commanded. But I stayed the hostess as
+      she was withdrawing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This lady,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;will need an escort of three or four stout knaves
+      upon a journey that she is going. She will be setting out as soon as may
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what of my grooms?&rdquo; cried the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; I informed her, &ldquo;they have deserted you. That is the reason of
+      my presence here. You shall hear the story of it presently. Meanwhile, we
+      must arrange to replace them.&rdquo; And I turned again to the hostess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face. But as I
+      looked at her she shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli,&rdquo; she made answer.
+      &ldquo;The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on the
+      pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for the
+      Feast of the Epiphany.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surely be
+      found. She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there because they
+      would not be elsewhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady's face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence she
+      shrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is your ostler,&rdquo; quoth I at last. &ldquo;He will do for one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is the only man I have. My husband and my sons are gone to Pesaro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she was
+      well-advised, for she contended that there was work to be done such as was
+      beyond her years and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off, as
+      well might she close her inn&mdash;a thing that was impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned. It was
+      impossible to send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of some ten
+      leagues, and the most of it by night&mdash;for if she would make sure of
+      escaping, she must journey now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, ready to
+      my hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despite my
+      banishment, and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia. For, surely,
+      considering the mission on which ostensibly I should be returning&mdash;as
+      the saviour and protector of his kinswoman&mdash;Giovanni Sforza could not
+      enforce that ban against me. Next I bethought me of the other aspect that
+      the business wore. In fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgia ends; in
+      rescuing Madonna Paola I had perhaps set at naught the Cardinal of
+      Valencia's aims. If so, what then? It would seem that because the lady's
+      eyes were mild and sweet, and because her beauty had so deeply wrought
+      upon me, I had indeed fooled away my chance of salvation from the life and
+      trade that were grown hateful to me. For back to Rome and Cesare Borgia I
+      should dare go no more. Clearly I had burned my boats, and I had done it
+      almost unthinkingly, acting upon the good impulse to befriend this lady,
+      and never reckoning the cost down to its total. For all that the thing I
+      had done, and what I might yet do, should offer me the means I needed to
+      enter Pesaro without danger to my neck, I did not see that I was to derive
+      great profit in the end&mdash;unless my profit lay in knowing that I had
+      advanced the ruin of Giovanni Sforza by delivering my letter to Lucrezia.
+      That at any rate was enough incentive clearly to define for me the line
+      that I should take through this tangle into which the ever-jesting Fates
+      had thrust me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexing
+      situation, the hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenly Madonna
+      Paola spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said she, in faltering accents, &ldquo;I&mdash;I have not the right to
+      ask you, and I stand already so deeply in your debt. Not a doubt of it,
+      but it will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to inform
+      me of the flight of my grooms. Yet if you could&mdash;&rdquo; She paused, timid
+      of proceeding, and her glance fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which this
+      very evidently noble lady addressed a Fool. I opened the door for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may leave us now,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;I will come to you presently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolved upon.
+      My hate had conquered my last doubt. What first imported was that I should
+      get to Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were about to ask me,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that I should accompany you to
+      Pesaro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hesitated, sir,&rdquo; she murmured. I bowed respectfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was not the need, Madonna,&rdquo; I assured her. &ldquo;I am at your service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;the claim that every distressed lady has upon a man of
+      heart. Let us say no more. It were best not to delay in setting out,
+      although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger from
+      Ramiro del' Orca now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is he?&rdquo; she inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told her, whereupon&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did they come up with you?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;What passed between you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on a
+      fool's errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, and of
+      how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule. She heard me, her
+      eyes sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee that was
+      almost childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was brave. I allayed
+      what little fears remained her by pointing out how effectively we had
+      effaced our tracks, and how vainly now Messer del' Orca might beat the
+      country in quest of a lady in a litter, escorted by four grooms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonder at
+      my generous readiness to befriend her&mdash;a wonder all devoid of
+      suspicion touching the single-mindedness of my purpose. But I reminded her
+      that we had little leisure to stand talking, and left her to make her
+      preparations for the journey, whilst I went below to see that my mule and
+      her horse were saddled. I made bold to pay the reckoning, and when
+      presently she spoke of it, with flaming cheeks, and would have pledged me
+      a jewel, I bade her look upon it as a loan which anon she might repay me
+      when I had brought her safely to her kinsman's Court at Pesaro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side by side
+      and talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of her flight
+      and of her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest to her heart,
+      found readiest expression. I went wrapped in my cloak once more, my
+      head-dress hidden 'neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that the few wayfarers
+      we chanced on need not marvel to see a lady in such friendly intercourse
+      with a Fool. And so dull was I that day as not to marvel, myself, at such
+      a state of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on our
+      left, casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere encompassed
+      us, as we cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping that
+      Messer Ramiro del' Orca might not chance upon the discovery of how
+      egregiously I had fooled him. He was dull-witted and slow at inference,
+      and upon that I built the hope that he might fail to associate me with
+      Madonna Paola's elusion of his pursuit. Thus the chance might yet be mine
+      of returning to Rome and the honourable employment Cesare Borgia had
+      promised me. If only that were so to fall out, I might yet contrive to
+      mend the wreckage of my life. I was returned, it seems, to the ways of
+      early youth, when we build our hopes of future greatness upon untenable
+      foundations!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that January
+      evening, fired by the gentle child that rode beside me. Fate had sent me
+      to her aid that day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of that
+      circumstance, a certain right in her. Had Fate no other favours for me in
+      her lap! I bethought me of the very House of Sforza, to which I had been
+      so shamefully attached, and of its humble source in that peasant,
+      Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for his abnormal strength of body,
+      who rose to great and princely heights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance but
+      given me&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went no further. Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wild
+      musings. Cesare Borgia would come to know&mdash;he must, whether Ramiro
+      told him, or whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro
+      must give him of our meeting&mdash;how I had thwarted him in one thing,
+      whilst I had served him in another. Fate was against me. I had fallen too
+      low to ever rise again, and no dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and
+      inspired, perhaps, by a child who was beautiful as one of the saints of
+      God, would ever come to be realised by poor Boccadoro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets of
+      Fossombrone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V. MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We stayed in Fossombrone little more than a half-hour, and having made a
+      hasty supper we resumed our way, giving out that we wished to reach Fano
+      ere we slept. And so by the first hour of night Fossombrone was a league
+      or so behind us, and we were advancing briskly towards the sea. Overhead a
+      moon rode at the full in a clear sky, and its light was reflected by the
+      snow, so that we were not discomforted by any darkness. We fell,
+      presently, into a gentler pace, for, after all, there could be no
+      advantage in reaching Pesaro before morning, and as we rode we talked, and
+      I made bold to ask her the cause of her flight from Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She told me then that she was Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, and that
+      Pope Alexander, in his nepotism and his desire to make rich and powerful
+      alliances for his family, had settled upon her as the wife for his nephew,
+      Ignacio Borgia. He had been emboldened to this step by the fact that her
+      only protector was her brother, Filippo di Santafior, whom they had sought
+      to coerce. It was her brother, who, seeing himself in a dangerous and
+      unenviable position, had secretly suggested flight to her, urging her to
+      repair to her kinsman Giovanni Sforza at Pesaro. Her flight, however, must
+      have been speedily discovered and the Borgias, who saw in that act a
+      defiance of their supreme authority, had ordered her pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her
+      capture, and once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they
+      would have driven her into the alliance by means of which they sought to
+      bring her fortune into their own house. This drew her into fresh
+      protestations of the undying gratitude she entertained towards me,
+      protestations which I would have stemmed, but that she persisted in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a good and noble thing that you have done,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and I think
+      that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is scarce likely that
+      in all Italy I should have found another man who would have done so much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;It is no
+      less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would have done
+      seeing you so beset.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, that is more than I can ever think,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Who for the sake
+      of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have you? Who
+      would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the defection of
+      my grooms? Who, when other escort failed, would have gone the length of
+      journeying all this way to render a service that is beyond repayment? And,
+      above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid would have submitted to
+      this travesty of yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Travesty?&rdquo; quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last. &ldquo;What
+      travesty, Madonna?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my pursuers
+      and that you still wear in my poor service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly saw
+      her eyes meet mine. So! that was the reason of her kindness and of the
+      easy familiarity of her speech with me! She deemed me some knight-errant
+      who caracoled through Italy in quest of imperilled maidens needing aid. Of
+      a certainty she had gathered her knowledge of the world from the works of
+      Messer Bojardo, or perhaps from the &ldquo;Amadis of Gaul&rdquo; of Messer Bernardo
+      Tasso. And, no doubt, she thought that suits of motley grew on bushes by
+      the roadside, whence those who had a fancy for disguise might cull them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, well, it were better she should know the truth at once, and choose
+      such a demeanour as she considered fitting towards a Fool. I had no
+      stomach for the courtesies that were meant for such a man as I was not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, you are in error,&rdquo; I informed her, speaking slowly. &ldquo;This garb
+      is no travesty. It is my usual raiment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause and I saw the slackening of her reins. No doubt, had we
+      been afoot she would have halted, the better to confront me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo; she asked, and a new note, imperious and chill, was sounding
+      already in her voice. &ldquo;You would not have me understand that you are by
+      trade a Fool?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Allowing that I am not a fool by birth, under what other circumstances,
+      think you, I should be likely to wear the garments of a Fool?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this morning,&rdquo; she protested, after a brief pause, &ldquo;when first I met
+      you, you were not so arrayed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was arrayed even as I am now, in a cloak and hat and boots that hid my
+      motley from such undiscerning eyes as were yours and your grooms'&mdash;all
+      taken up with your own fears as you then were.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was in the tail of that a sting, as I meant there should be, for the
+      sudden haughtiness of her tone was cutting into me. Was I less worthy of
+      thanks because I was a Fool? Had I on that account done less to serve and
+      save her? Or was it that the action which, in a spurred and armoured
+      knight, had been accounted noble was deemed unworthy of thanks in a
+      crested, motleyed jester? It seemed, indeed, that some such reasoning she
+      followed, for after that we spoke no more until we were approaching Fano.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A many times before had I felt the shame of my ignoble trade, but never so
+      acutely as at that moment. It had seared my soul when Giovanni Sforza had
+      told my story to his Court, ere he had driven me from Pesaro with threats
+      of hanging, and it had burned even deeper when later, Madonna Lucrezia,
+      upon entrusting me with her letter to her brother, had upbraided me with
+      the supineness that so long had held me in that vile bondage. But deepest
+      of all went now the burning iron of that disgrace. For my companion's
+      silence seemed to argue that had she known my quality she would have
+      scorned the aid of which she had availed herself to such good purpose. If
+      any doubt of this had mercifully remained me, her next words would have
+      served to have resolved it. It was when the lights of Fano gleamed ahead;
+      we were coming to a cross-roads, and I urged the turning to the left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Fano is in front,&rdquo; she remonstrated coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This way we can avoid the town and gain the Pesaro road beyond it,&rdquo;
+       answered I, my tone as cool as hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet may it not be that at Fano I might find an escort?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I could have cried out at her cruelty, for in her words I could but read
+      my dismissal from her service. There had been no more talk of an escort
+      other than that which I afforded, and with which at first she had been
+      well content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat my mule in silence for a moment. She had been very justly served had
+      I been the vassal that she deemed me, and had I borne myself in that
+      character without consideration of her sex, her station or her years. She
+      had been very justly served had I wheeled about and left her there to make
+      her way to Fano, and thence to Pesaro, as best she might. She was without
+      money, as I knew, and she would have found in Fano such a reception as
+      would have brought the bitter tears of late repentance to her pretty eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner that
+      was to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and the
+      need to use me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might yet do,
+      if she lacked the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake of that
+      which I had done already.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;It were wiser to choose the by-road and forego the
+      escort, since we have dispensed with it so far. There are many reasons why
+      a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know of none,&rdquo; she interrupted me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may well be. Nevertheless they exist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste,&rdquo; she told
+      me sullenly. &ldquo;I am for Fano.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as
+      plainly as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as I
+      should choose. In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule's head
+      once more towards the lights of the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since you are resolved, so be it,&rdquo; was all my answer; and we proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she
+      curtly asked me which was the best inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'The Golden Fish,'&rdquo; said I, as curtly, and to &ldquo;The Golden Fish&rdquo; we went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands. She
+      dismounted, leaving the reins with a groom, and entering the common-room
+      she proclaimed her needs to those that occupied it by loudly calling upon
+      the landlord to find her an escort of three or four knaves to accompany
+      her at once to Pesaro, where they should be well rewarded by the Lord
+      Giovanni, her cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had followed her in, and I ground my teeth at such an egregious piece of
+      folly. Her hood was thrown back, displaying the lenza of fine linen on her
+      sable hair, and over this a net of purest gold all set with jewels. Her
+      camorra, too, was open, and in her girdle there were gems for all to see.
+      There were but a half-dozen men in the room. Two of these had a venerable
+      air&mdash;they may have been traders journeying to Milan&mdash;whilst a
+      third, who sat apart, was a slender, effeminate-looking youth. The
+      remaining three were fellows of rough aspect, and when one of them&mdash;a
+      black-browed ruffian&mdash;raised his eyes and fastened them upon the
+      riches that Madonna Paola with such indifference displayed, I knew what
+      was to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose upon the instant, and stepping forward, he made her a low bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Illustrious lady,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if these two friends of mine and I find
+      favour with you, here is an escort ready found. We are stout fellows, and
+      very faithful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Faithful to their cut-throat trade, I made no doubt he meant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His fellows now rose also, and she looked them over, giving herself the
+      airs of having spent her virgin life in judging men by their appearance.
+      It was in vain I tugged her cloak, in vain I murmured the word &ldquo;wait&rdquo;
+       under cover of my hand. She there and then engaged them, and bade them
+      make ready to set out at once. One more attempt I made to induce her to
+      alter her resolve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;it is an unwise thing to go a-journeying by night with
+      three unknown men, and of such villainous appearance. To me they seem no
+      better than bandits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We were standing apart from the others, and she was sipping a cup of
+      spiced wine that the host had mulled for her. She looked at me with a
+      tolerant smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are poor men,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Would you have them robed in velvet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My quarrel is with their looks, Madonna, not their garments,&rdquo; I answered
+      patiently. She laughed lightly, carelessly; even, I thought, a trifle
+      scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very fanciful,&rdquo; said she, then added&mdash;&ldquo;but if so be that you
+      are afraid to trust yourself in their company, why then, sir, I need bring
+      you no farther out of the road that you were following when first we met.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Did the child think that some jealousy actuated me, and prompted me to
+      inspire her with mistrust of my supplanters? She angered me. Yet now, more
+      than ever was I resolved to journey with her. Leave her at the mercy of
+      those ruffians, whom in her ignorance she was mad enough to trust, I could
+      not&mdash;not even had she whipped me. She was so young, so frail and
+      slight, that none but a craven could have found it in his heart to have
+      deserted her just then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it please you Madonna,&rdquo; I answered smoothly, &ldquo;I will make bold to
+      travel on with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that my even accents stung her; perhaps she read in them some
+      measure of reproof of the ingratitude that lay in her altered bearing
+      towards me. Her eyes met mine across the table, and seemed to harden as
+      she looked. Her answer came in a vastly altered tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, if you are bent that way, I shall be glad to have you avail yourself
+      of my escort, Boccadoro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I had suffered the scorn now of her speech, now of her silence, for some
+      hours, but never was I so near to turning on her as at that moment; never
+      so near to consigning her to the fate to which her headstrong folly was
+      compelling her. That she should take that tone with me!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The violence of the sudden choler I suppressed turned me pale under her
+      steady glance. So that, seeing it, her own cheeks flamed crimson, and her
+      eyes fell, as if in token that she realised the meanness of her bearing.
+      To some natures there can be nothing more odious than such a realisation,
+      and of those, I think, was she; for she stamped her foot in a sudden pet,
+      and curtly asked the host why there was such delay with the horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are at the door, Madonna,&rdquo; he protested, bowing as he spoke. &ldquo;And
+      your escort is already waiting in the saddle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned and strode abruptly towards the threshold. Over her shoulder
+      she called to me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you come with us, Boccadoro, you had best be brisk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I follow, Madonna,&rdquo; said I, with a grim relish, &ldquo;so soon as I have paid
+      the reckoning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She halted and half turned, and I thought I saw a slight droop at the
+      corners of her mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are keeping count of what I owe you?&rdquo; she muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered, more grimly still, &ldquo;I am keeping count.&rdquo; And I
+      thought that my wits were vastly at fault if that account were not to be
+      greatly swelled ere Pesaro was reached. Haply, indeed, my own life might
+      go to swell it. I almost took a relish in that thought. Perhaps then, when
+      I was stiff and cold&mdash;done to death in her service&mdash;this
+      handsome, ungrateful child would come to see how much discomfort I had
+      suffered for her sake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My thoughts still ran in that channel as we rode out of Pesaro, for I
+      misliked the way in which those knaves disposed themselves about us. In
+      front went Madonna Paola; and immediately behind her, so that their
+      horses' heads were on a level with her saddle-bow, one on each side, went
+      two of those ruffians. The third, whom I had heard them call Stefano, and
+      who was the one who had made her the offer of their services, ambled at my
+      side, a few paces in the rear, and sought to draw me into conversation,
+      haply by way of throwing me off my guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mistrust is a fine thing at times. &ldquo;Forewarned is forearmed,&rdquo; says the
+      proverb, and of all forewarnings there is none we are more likely to heed
+      than our own mistrust; for whereas we may leave unheeded the warnings of a
+      friend, we seldom leave unheeded the warnings of our spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so, while my amiable and garrulous Ser Stefano engaged me in pleasant
+      conversation&mdash;addressing me ever as Messer the Fool, since he knew me
+      not by name&mdash;I wrapped my cloak about me, and under cover of it kept
+      my fingers on the hilt of my stout Pistoja dagger, ready to draw and use
+      it at the first sign of mischief. For that sign I was all eyes, and had I
+      been Argus himself I could have kept no better watch. Meanwhile I plied my
+      tongue and maintained as merry a conversation with Ser Stefano as you
+      could wish to hear, for he seemed a ready-witted knave of a most humorous
+      turn of fancy&mdash;God rest his rascally soul! And so it came to pass
+      that I did by him the very thing he sought to do by me; I lulled him into
+      a careless confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the sign I had been waiting for was given. I saw it as plainly as
+      if it had been meant for me; I believe I saw it before the man for whom it
+      was intended, and but for my fears concerning Madonna Paola, I could have
+      laughed outright at their clumsy assurance. The man who rode on Madonna's
+      right turned in his saddle and put up his hand as if to beckon Stefano. I
+      was regaling him with one of the choicest of Messer Sacchetti's paradoxes,
+      gurgling, myself, at the humour of the thing I told. I paid no heed to the
+      sign. I continued to expound my quip, as though we had the night before us
+      in which to make its elusive humour clear. But out of the tail of my eye I
+      watched my good friend Stefano, and I saw his right hand steal round to
+      the region of his back where I knew his dagger to be slung. Yet was I
+      patient. There should be no blundering through an excessive precipitancy.
+      I talked on until I saw that my suspicions were amply realised. I caught
+      the cold gleam of steel in the hand that he brought back as stealthily as
+      he had carried it to his poniard. Sant' Iddio! What a coward he was for
+      all his bulk, to go so slyly about the business of stabbing a poor,
+      helpless, defenceless Fool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Sacchetti makes his point clear,&rdquo; I babbled on, most blandly; &ldquo;almost
+      as clear, as comprehensive and as penetrating as should be to you the
+      point of this.&rdquo; And with a swift movement I swung half-round in my saddle,
+      and sank my dagger to the hilt in his side even as he was in the act of
+      raising his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made no sound beyond the faintest gurgle&mdash;the first vowel of a
+      suddenly choked word of wonder and surprise. He rocked a second in his
+      saddle, then crashed over, and lay with arms flung wide, like a huge black
+      crucifix, upon the white ground. At the same moment a piercing scream
+      broke from Madonna Paola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tremble still to think what might have been her fate had not those
+      ruffians who had laid hands on her fallen into the sorry error of holding
+      their single adversary too lightly. They heard the thud of the gallant
+      Stefano's fall, and they never doubted that mine was the body that had
+      gone down. They heard the rapid hoof-beats of my approach, yet, they never
+      turned their heads to ascertain whether they might not be mistaken in
+      their firm conviction that it was Messer Stefano who was joining them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I kissed my blade for luck, and drove it straight and full into the back
+      of the fellow on Madonna Paola's right. He cried out, essayed to turn in
+      his saddle that he might deal with this unlooked-for assailant, then,
+      overcome, he lurched forward on to the withers of his horse and thence
+      rolled over, and was dragged away at the gallop, his foot caught in a
+      stirrup, by the suddenly startled brute he rode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far things had gone with an amazing and delightful ease. If only the
+      last of them had had the amiability to be intimidated by my prowess and to
+      have taken to his heels, I might have issued from that contest with the
+      unscathed glory of a very Mars. But from his throat there came, in answer
+      to his comrade's cry, a roar of rage. He fell back from Madonna, and
+      wheeled his horse to come at me, drawing his sword as he advanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ride on, Madonna,&rdquo; I shouted. &ldquo;I will rejoin you presently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellow laughed, a mighty ugly and discomposing laugh, which may or may
+      not have shaken her faith in my promise to rejoin her. It certainly went
+      near to shaking mine. However, she displayed a presence of mind full
+      worthy of the haughtiness and ingratitude of which she had showed herself
+      capable. She urged her mule forward, and, so, left him a clear road to
+      attack me. I made a mistake then that went mighty near to costing me my
+      life. I paused to twist my cloak about my left arm intending to use it as
+      a buckler. Had I but risked the arm itself, all unprotected, in that task,
+      it may well be that it had served me better. As it was, my preparations
+      were far from complete when already he was upon me, with the result that
+      the waving slack of my cloak was in my way to hamper and retard the
+      movements of my arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His sword leapt at me, a murderous blue-white flash of moonlit steel. I
+      put up my half-swaddled arm to divert the thrust, holding my dagger ready
+      in my right, and gripping my mule with all the strength of my two knees. I
+      caught the blade, it is true, and turned aside the stroke intended for my
+      heart. But the slack of the cloak clung to the neck of my mule, so that I
+      could not carry my arm far enough to send his point clear of my body. It
+      took me in the shoulder, stinging me, first icy cold then burning hot, as
+      it went tearing its way through. For just a second was I daunted, more at
+      knowing myself touched than by the actual pain. Then I flung my whole body
+      forward to reach him at the close quarters to which he had come, and I
+      buried my dagger in his breast, high up at the base of his dirty throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The force of the blow carried me forward, even as it bore him backward;
+      and so, with his sword-blade in my shoulder, and my dagger where I had
+      planted it, we hurtled over together and lay a second amidst what seemed a
+      forest of equine legs. Then something smote me across the head, and I was
+      knocked senseless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conceive me, if you can, a sorrier, or more useless thing. A senseless
+      Fool!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI. FOOL'S LUCK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      My return to consciousness seemed to afford me such sensations as a diver
+      may experience as he rises up and up through the depth of water he has
+      plumbed&mdash;or as a disembodied soul may know in its gentle ascent
+      towards Heaven. Indeed the latter parallel may be more apt. For through
+      the mist that suffused my senses there penetrated from overhead a voice
+      that seemed to invoke every saint in the calendar on the behalf of some
+      poor mortal. A very litany of intercession was it, not quite, it would
+      appear, devoid of self-seeking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sainted Virgin, restore him! Good St. Paul, who wert done to death with a
+      sword, let him not perish, else am I lost indeed!&rdquo; came the voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes, whereat the voice cried out
+      gladly that its intercessions had been heard, and I knew that it was on my
+      behalf that the saints of Heaven had been disturbed in their beatific
+      peace. My head was pillowed in a woman's lap, and it took me a moment or
+      two to realise that that lap was Madonna Paula's, as was hers the voice
+      that had reached my awakening senses, the voice that now welcomed me back
+      to life in terms that were very different from the last that I could
+      remember her having used towards me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!&rdquo; she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face was black with shadow, but in her voice I caught a hint of tears,
+      and I wondered whether they were shed on my behalf or on her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; I answered fervently. &ldquo;Have you any notion of what hour it is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None,&rdquo; she sighed. &ldquo;You have been so long unconscious that I was losing
+      hope of ever hearing your voice again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I became aware of a dull ache on the right side of my head. I put up my
+      hand, and withdrew it moist. She saw the action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of the horses must have struck you with its hoof after you fell,&rdquo; she
+      explained. &ldquo;But I was more concerned for your other wound. I withdrew the
+      sword with my own hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That other wound she spoke of was now making itself felt as well. It was a
+      gnawing, stinging pain in the region of my left shoulder, which seemed to
+      turn me numb to the waist on that side of my body, and render powerless my
+      arm. I questioned her touching my three adversaries, and she silently
+      pointed to three black masses that lay some little distance from us in the
+      snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not all dead?&rdquo; I cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; she answered, with a sob. &ldquo;I have not dared go near them.
+      They frighten me. Mother of Heaven, what a night of horror it has been!
+      Oh, that I had taken your advice, Messer Boccacloro!&rdquo; she exclaimed in a
+      passion of self-reproach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I laughed, seeking to soften her distress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me it seems, that whether you would or not, you have been compelled to
+      take it, after all. Those fellows lie there harmless enough, and I am
+      still&mdash;as I urged that I should be&mdash;your only escort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A nobler protector never woman had,&rdquo; she assured me, and I felt a hot
+      pearl of moisture fail upon my brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were wise, at least, to journey with a Fool,&rdquo; I answered her. &ldquo;For
+      fools are proverbially lucky folk, and to-night has proven me of all fools
+      the luckiest. But, Madonna,&rdquo; I suggested, in a different tone, &ldquo;should we
+      not be better advised to attempt to resume, this interesting journey of
+      ours? We do not seem to lack horses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A couple of nags were standing by the road-side, together with our mules,
+      and I was afterwards to learn that she, herself, it was had tethered them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be yet some three leagues to Pesaro,&rdquo; I added, &ldquo;and if we journey
+      slowly, as I fear me that we must, we should arrive there soon after
+      daybreak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that you can stand?&rdquo; she asked, a hopeful ring in her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might essay it,&rdquo; answered I, and I would have done so, there and then,
+      but that she detained me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First let me see to this hurt in your head,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I have been
+      bathing it with snow while you were unconscious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gathered a fresh handful as she spoke, and, very tenderly she wiped
+      away the blood. Then from her own head she took the fine linen lanza that
+      she wore, and made a bandage&mdash;a bandage sweet with the faint
+      fragrance of marsh-mallow&mdash;and bound it about my battered skull. When
+      that was done she turned her attention to my shoulder. This was a more
+      difficult matter, and all that we could do was to attempt to stanch the
+      blood, which already had drenched my doublet on that side. To this end she
+      passed a long scarf under my arm, and wound it several times about my
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last her gentle ministrations ended, I sought to rise. A dizziness
+      assailed me scarce was I on my feet, and it is odds I had fallen back, but
+      that she caught and steadied me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother in Heaven! You are too weak to ride,&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;You must not
+      attempt it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but I will,&rdquo; I answered, with more stoutness of tone than I felt of
+      body, and notwithstanding that my knees were loosening under my weight.
+      &ldquo;It is a faintness that will pass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If ever man willed himself to conquer weakness, that did I then, and with
+      some measure of success&mdash;or else it was that my faintness passed of
+      itself. I drew away from her support, and straightening myself, I crossed
+      to where the animals were tethered, staggering at first, but presently
+      with a surer foot. She followed me, watching my steps with as much
+      apprehension as a mother may feel when her first-born makes his earliest
+      attempts at walking, and as ready to spring to my aid did I show signs of
+      stumbling. But I kept up, and presently my senses seemed to clear, and I
+      stepped out more surely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Awhile we stood discussing which of the animals we should take. It was my
+      suggestion that we should ride the horses but she wisely contended that
+      the mules would prove the more convenient if the slower. I agreed with
+      her, and then, ere we set out, I went to see to my late opponents. One of
+      them&mdash;Ser Stefano&mdash;was cold and stiff; the other two still
+      lived, and from the nature of their wounds seemed likely to survive, if
+      only they were not frozen to death before some good Samaritan came upon
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knelt a moment to offer up a prayer for the repose of the soul of him
+      that was dead, and I bound up the wounds of the living as best I could, to
+      save them greater loss of blood. Indeed, had it lain in my power, I would
+      have done more for them. But in what case was I to render further aid?
+      After all, they had brought their fate upon themselves, and I doubt not
+      they were paying a score that they had heaped up heavily in the past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went back to the mules, and, despite my remonstrances, Madonna Paola
+      insisted upon aiding me to mount, urging me to have a care of my wound,
+      and to make no violent movement that should set it bleeding again. Then
+      she mounted too, nimble as any boy that ever robbed an orchard, and we set
+      out once more. And now it was a very contrite and humbled lady that rode
+      with me, and one that was at no pains to dissemble her contrition, but,
+      rather, could speak of nothing else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It moved me strangely to have her suing pardon from me, as though I had
+      been her equal instead of the sometime jester of the Court of Pesaro,
+      dismissed for an excessive pertness towards one with whom his master
+      curried favour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And presently, as was perhaps but natural after all that she had
+      witnessed, she fell to questioning me as to how it came to pass that one
+      of such wit, resource and courage should follow the mean calling to which
+      I had owned. In answer I told her without reservation the full story of my
+      shame. It was a thing that I had ever most zealously kept hidden, as
+      already I have shown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be a Fool was evil enough in all truth; but to let men know that under
+      my motley was buried the identity of a man patrician-born was something
+      infinitely worse. For, however vile the trade of a Fool may be, it is not
+      half so vile for a low-born clod who is too indolent or too sickly to do
+      honest work as for one who has accepted it out of a half-cowardice and
+      persevered in it through very sloth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet on that night and after all that had chanced, no matter how my cheeks
+      might burn in the gloom as I rode beside her, I was glad for once to tell
+      that ignominious story, glad that she should know what weight of
+      circumstance had driven me to wear my hideous livery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But since my story dealt oddly with that Lord of Pesaro, the kinsman whose
+      shelter she was now upon her way to seek, I must first assure myself that
+      the candour to which I was disposed would not offend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it happen, Madonna,&rdquo; I inquired, &ldquo;that you are well acquainted with
+      the Lord of Pesaro?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay; I have never seen him,&rdquo; answered she. &ldquo;When he was at Rome, a year
+      ago in the service of the Pope, I was at my studies in the convent. His
+      father was my father's cousin, so that my kinship is none so near. Why do
+      you ask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because my story deals with him, Madonna, and it is no pretty tale. Not
+      such a narrative as I should choose wherewith to entertain you. Still,
+      since you have asked for it, you shall hear it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was in the year that Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, celebrated his
+      nuptials with the Lady Lucrezia Borgia&mdash;three years ago, therefore&mdash;that
+      one morning there rode into the courtyard of his castle of Pesazo a tall
+      and lean young man on a tall and lean old horse. He was garbed and
+      harnessed after a fashion that proclaimed him half-knight, half-peasant,
+      and caused the castle lacqueys to eye him with amusement and greet him
+      with derision. Lacqueys are great arbiters of fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a loud, imperious voice this cockerel called for Giovanni, Lord of
+      Pesaro, whereupon, resenting the insolence of his manner, the men-at-arms
+      would have driven him out without more ado. But it chanced that from one
+      of the windows of his stronghold the tyrant espied his odd visitor. He was
+      in a mood that craved amusement, and marvelling what madman might be this,
+      he made his way below and bade them stand back and let me speak&mdash;for
+      I, Madonna, was that lean young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Are you,' quoth I, 'the Lord of Pesaro?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He answered me courteously that he was, whereupon I did my errand to him.
+      I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Your father,' said I, 'Costanzo of Pesaro, was a foul brigand, who
+      robbed my father of his castle and lands of Biancomonte, leaving him to a
+      needy and poverty-stricken old age. I am here to avenge upon your father's
+      son my father's wrongs; I am here to redeem my castle and my lands. If so
+      be that you are a true knight, you will take up the challenge that I fling
+      you, and you will do battle with me, on horse or foot, and with whatsoever
+      arms you shall decree, God defending him that has justice on his side.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowing the world as I know it now, Madonna,&rdquo; I interpolated, &ldquo;I realise
+      the folly of that act of mine. But in those days my views belonged to a
+      long departed age of chivalry, of which I had learnt from such books as
+      came my way at Biancomonte, and which I believed was the life of to-day in
+      the world of men. It was a thing which some tyrants would have had me
+      broken on the wheel. But Giovanni Sforza never so much as manifested
+      anger. There was a complacent smile on his white face and his fingers
+      toyed carelessly with his beard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I waited patiently, very haughty of mien and very fierce at heart, and
+      when the amusement began to fade from his eyes, I begged that he would
+      deliver me his answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'My answer,' quoth he, 'is that you get you back to the place from whence
+      you came, and render thanks to God on your knees every morning of the life
+      I am sparing you that Giovanni Sforza is more entertained than affronted
+      by your frenzy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Do you disdain me?' I questioned, choking with rage. He turned, with a
+      shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his
+      glove, and conduct him from the castle. Several that had stood at hand
+      made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning fury
+      that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me. They were many, I
+      was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and dragging me
+      from my horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then get
+      me hanged without delay. Had he done that, the world being as it is,
+      perhaps none could blame him. But he elected to spare my life, yet on such
+      terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the consideration
+      of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of Biancomonte
+      whilst I went forth to seek my fortune&mdash;such was the tale I had told
+      her. I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my death must have
+      been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very want. The thought of
+      that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in durance waiting for my
+      end, and when the priest came, whom they had sent to shrive me, he found
+      me weeping, which he took to argue a contrite heart. He bore the tale of
+      it to Giovanni, and the Lord of Pesaro came to visit me in consequence,
+      and found me sorely changed from my furious mood of some hours earlier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother's sake. If I feared
+      death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my eyes
+      and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had been my
+      erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him. I told him the truth&mdash;that
+      for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother in the hills
+      who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus cut off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips. Then
+      of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious depth I
+      was far indeed from suspecting. He asked me would I take solemn oath that
+      if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand against him. That
+      oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the death that was
+      impending.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'You have been wise,' said he,' and you shall have your life on one
+      condition&mdash;that you devote it to my service.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Even that will I do,' I answered readily. He turned to an attendant, and
+      ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley. No word passed between us until
+      that man returned with those garish garments. Then Giovanni smiled on me
+      in his mocking, infernal way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Not that,' I cried, guessing his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Aye, that,' he answered me; 'that or the hangman's noose. A man who
+      could devise so monstrous a jest as was your challenge to the Tyrant of
+      Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would. I need such a one. There are
+      two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers, deformed vermin that
+      excite as much disgust as mirth. I need a sprightlier man, a man of some
+      learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would seem to
+      be.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recoiled in horror and disgust. Was this his clemency&mdash;this
+      sparing of my life that he might submit it to an eternal shame? For a
+      moment my mother was forgotten. I thought only of myself, and I grew
+      resolved to hang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'When you spoke of service,' said I 'I thought of service of an
+      honourable sort.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'The service that I offer you is honourable,' he said, with cold
+      amusement. 'Indeed, remembering that your life was forfeit, you should
+      account yourself most fortunate. You shall be well housed and well fed,
+      you shall wear silk and lie in fine linen, on condition that you are
+      merry. If you prove dull our castellan shall have you whipped&mdash;for
+      such a one as you could not be dull save out of sullenness, of which we
+      shall seek to cure you if you show signs of it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'I will not do it,' I cried, 'it were too base.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'My friend,' he answered me, 'the choice is yours. You shall have an hour
+      in which to resolve what you will do. When they open this door for you at
+      sunset, come forth clad as you are, and you shall hang. If you prefer to
+      live, then don me that robe and cap of motley, and, on condition that you
+      are merry, life is yours.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I paused a moment. Our horses were moving slowly, for the tale engrossed
+      us both, me in the telling, her in the hearing. Presently&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I need not harass you with the reflections that were mine during that
+      hour, Madonna. Rather let me ask you: how should a man so placed make
+      choice to be full worthy of the office proffered him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment's silence while she pondered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; she answered me, at last, &ldquo;a fool I take it would have chosen
+      death: the wise man life, since it must hold the hope of better days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And since it asked a man of wit to play the fool to such a tune as the
+      Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly. But was
+      that choice indeed so wise? The story ends not there. That young men whose
+      early life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed, well-housed
+      and fed as the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he fell into a
+      slothful spirit, and was content to play the Fool for bed and board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
+      tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of all,
+      from prince to scullion. But in the three years that I had dwelt at Pesaro
+      my identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been aware of it.
+      Moreover, a court is a place of changes, and in three years there had been
+      such comings and goings at the Court of Giovanni Sforza, that not more
+      than one or two remained of those that had inhabited it when first I
+      entered on my existence there. Thus had my position grown steadily more
+      bearable. I was just a jester and no more, and so, in a measure&mdash;though
+      I blush to say it&mdash;I grew content. I gathered consolation from the
+      fact that there were not any who now remembered the story of my coming to
+      Pesaro, or who knew of the cowardliness I had been guilty of when I
+      consented to mask myself in the motley and assume the name of Boccadoro. I
+      counted on the Lord Giovanni's generosity to let things continue thus,
+      and, meanwhile, I provided for my mother out of the vails that were earned
+      me by my shame. But there came a day when Giovanni in evil wantonness of
+      spirit chose to make merry at the Fool's expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such as I,
+      and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the derision
+      of his Court, haply I had been his jester still. But such sport as that
+      would have satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of his soul. The man
+      whom his cruel mockery crucified for their entertainment was Lazzaro
+      Biancomonte, whom he revealed to them, relating in his own fashion the
+      tale I have told you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
+      all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live. Passion surged
+      up in him, and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the bone&mdash;in
+      short, to slay me with a whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
+      Lucrezia. But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it
+      happens that I am a wanderer now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that I left it. I had no mind to tell her what motives had impelled
+      Lucrezia Borgia to rescue me, nor on what errand I had gone to Rome and
+      was from Rome returning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had heard me in silence, and now that I had done, she heaved a sigh,
+      for which gentle expression of pity out of my heart I thanked her. We were
+      silent, thereafter, for a little while. At length she turned her head to
+      regard me in the light of the now declining moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messer Biancomonte,&rdquo; said she, and the sound of the old name, falling
+      from her lips, thrilled me with a joy unspeakable, and seemed already to
+      reinvest me in my old estate, &ldquo;Messer Biancomonte, you have done me in
+      these four-and-twenty hours such service as never did knight of old for
+      any lady&mdash;and you did it, too, out of the most disinterested and
+      noble of motives, proving thereby how truly knightly is that heart of
+      yours, which, for my sake, has all but beat its last to-night. You must
+      journey on to Pesaro with me despite this banishment of which you have
+      told me. I will be surety that no harm shall come to you. I could not do
+      less, and I shall hope to do far more. Such influence as I may prove to
+      have with my cousin of Pesaro shall be exerted all on your behalf, my
+      friend; and if in the nature of Giovanni Sforza there be a tithe of the
+      gratitude with which you have inspired me, you shall, at least, have
+      justice, and Biancomonte shall be yours again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was silent for a spell, so touched was I by the kindness she manifested
+      me&mdash;so touched, indeed, and so unused to it that I forgot how amply I
+      had earned it, and how rudely she had used me ere that was done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; I sighed. &ldquo;God knows I am no longer fit to sit in the house of the
+      Biancomonte. I am come too low, Madonna.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That Lazzaro, after whom you are named,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;had come yet
+      lower. But he lived again, and resumed his former station. Take your
+      courage from that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He lived not at the mercy of Giovanni of Pesaro,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a fresh pause at that. Then&mdash;&ldquo;At least,&rdquo; she urged me,
+      &ldquo;you'll come to Pesaro with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why yes,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;I could not let you go alone.&rdquo; And in my heart I felt
+      a pang of shame, and called myself a cur for making use of her as I was
+      doing to reach the Court of Giovanni Sforza.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need fear no consequences,&rdquo; she promised me. &ldquo;I can be surety for
+      that at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the east a brighter, yellower light than the moon's began to show. It
+      was the dawn, from which I gathered that it must be approaching the
+      thirteenth hour. Pesaro could not be more than a couple of leagues
+      farther, and, presently, when we had gained the summit of the slight hill
+      we were ascending, we beheld in the distance a blurred mass looming on the
+      edge of the glittering sea. A silver ribbon that uncoiled itself from the
+      western hills disappeared behind it. That silvery streak was the River
+      Foglia; that heap of buildings against the landscape's virgin white, the
+      town of Pesaro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna pointed to it with a sudden cry of gladness. &ldquo;See Messer
+      Biancomonte, how near we are. Courage, my friend; a little farther, and
+      yonder we have rest and comfort for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had need, in truth, to cry me &ldquo;Courage!&rdquo; for I was weakening fast once
+      more. It may have been the much that I had talked, or the infernal jolting
+      of my mule, but I was losing blood again, and as we were on the point of
+      riding forward my senses swam, so that I cried out; and but for her prompt
+      assistance I might have rolled headlong from my saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it was, she caught me about the waist as any mother might have done her
+      son. &ldquo;What ails you?&rdquo; she inquired, her newly-aroused anxiety contrasting
+      sharply with her joyous cry of a moment earlier. &ldquo;Are you faint, my
+      friend?&rdquo; It needed no confession on my part. My condition was all too
+      plain as I leaned against her frail body for support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is my wound,&rdquo; I gasped. Then I set my teeth in anguish. So near the
+      haven, and to fail now! It could not be; it must not be. I summoned all my
+      resolution, all my fortitude; but in vain. Nature demanded payment for the
+      abuses she had suffered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we proceed thus,&rdquo; she ventured fearfully, &ldquo;you leaning against me, and
+      going at a slow pace&mdash;no faster than a walk&mdash;think you, you can
+      bear it? Try, good Messer 'Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will try, Madonna,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;Perhaps thus, and if I am silent, we
+      may yet reach Pesaro together. If not&mdash;if my strength gives out&mdash;the
+      town is yonder and the day is coming. You will find your way without me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not leave you, sir,&rdquo; she vowed; and it was good to hear her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, I hope you may not know the need,&rdquo; I answered wearily. And thus
+      we started on once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sant' Iddio! What agonies I suffered ere the sun rose up out of the sea to
+      flood us with his winter glory! What agonies were mine during those two
+      hours or so of that last stage of our eventful journey! &ldquo;I must bear up
+      until we are at the gates of Pesaro,&rdquo; I kept murmuring to myself, and, as
+      if my spirit were inclined to become the servant of my will and hold my
+      battered flesh alive until we got that far, Pesaro's gates I had the joy
+      of entering ere I was constrained to give way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dimly I remember&mdash;for very dim were my perceptions growing&mdash;that
+      as we crossed the bridge and passed beneath the archway of the Porta
+      Romana, the officer turned out to see who came. At sight of me be gaped a
+      moment in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boccadoro?&rdquo; he exclaimed, at last. &ldquo;So soon returned?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like Perseus from the rescue of Andromeda,&rdquo; answered I, in a feeble
+      voice, &ldquo;saving that Perseus was less bloody than am I. Behold the Madonna
+      Paola Sforza di Santafior, the noble cousin of our High and Mighty Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then as if my task being done, I were free to set my weary brain to
+      rest, my senses grew confused, the officer's voice became a hum that
+      gradually waxed fainter as I sank into what seemed the most luxurious and
+      delicious sleep that ever mortal knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days later, when I was conscious once more, I learned what excitement
+      those words of mine had sown, with what honours Madonna Paola was escorted
+      to the Castle, and how the citizens of Pesaro turned out upon hearing the
+      news which ran like fire before us. And Madonna, it seems, had loudly
+      proclaimed how gallantly I had served her, for as they bore me along in a
+      cloak carried by four men-at-arms, the cry that was heard in the streets
+      of Pesaro that morning was &ldquo;Boccadoro!&rdquo; They had loved me, had those good
+      citizens of Pesaro, and the news of my departure had cast a gloom upon the
+      town. To have their hero return in a manner so truly heroic provoked that
+      brave display of their affection, and I deeply doubt if ever in the days
+      of greatest loyalty the name of Sforza was as loudly cried in Pesaro as,
+      they tell me, was the name of Sforza's Fool that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII. THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If Madonna Paola did not achieve quite all that she had promised me so
+      readily, yet she achieved more than from my acquaintance with the nature
+      of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;and my knowledge of the deep malice he
+      entertained for me&mdash;I should have dared to hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Tyrant of Pesaro, as I was soon to learn, was greatly taken with this
+      fair cousin of his, whom that morning he had beheld for the first time.
+      And being taken with her, it may be that Giovanni listened the more
+      readily to her intercessions on my poor behalf. Since it was she who
+      begged this thing, he could not wholly refuse. But since he was Giovanni
+      Sforza, he could not wholly grant. He promised her that my life, at least,
+      should be secure, and that not only would he pardon me, but that he would
+      have his own physician see to it that I was made sound again. For the
+      time, that was enough, he thought. First let them bring me back to life.
+      When that was achieved, it would be early enough to consider what course
+      this life should take thereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And she, knowing him not and finding him so kind and gracious, trusted
+      that he would perform that which he tricked her into believing that he
+      promised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some ten days I lay abed, feverish at first and later very weak from
+      the great loss of blood I had sustained. But after the second day, when my
+      fever had abated, I had some visitors, among whom was Madonna Paola, who
+      bore me the news that her intercessions for me with the Lord of Pesaro
+      were likely to bear fruit, and that I might look for my reinstatement.
+      Yet, if I permitted myself to hope as she bade me; I did so none too
+      fully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My situation, bearing in mind how at once I had served and thwarted the
+      ends of Cesare Borgia, was perplexing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another visitor I had was Messer Magistri&mdash;the pompous seneschal of
+      Pesaro&mdash;who, after his own fashion, seemed to have a liking for me,
+      and a certain pity. Here was my chance of discharging the true errand on
+      which I was returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I owe thanks,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;to many circumstances for the sparing of my life;
+      but above all people and all things do I owe thanks to our gracious Lady
+      Lucrezia. Do you think, Messer Magistri, that she would consent to see me
+      and permit me again to express the gratitude that fills my heart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mosser Magistri thought that he could promise this, and consented to bear
+      my message to her. Within the hour she was at my bedside and divining
+      that, haply, I had news to give her of the letter I had born her brother,
+      she dismissed Magistri who was in attendance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once we were alone her first words were of kindly concern for my
+      condition, delivered in that sweet, musical voice that was by no means the
+      least charm of a princess to whom Nature had been prodigal of gifts. For
+      without going to that length of exaggerated praise which some have
+      bestowed&mdash;for her own ear, and with an eye to profit&mdash;upon
+      Madonna Lucrezia, yet were I less than truthful if I sought to belittle
+      her ample claims to beauty. Some six years later than the time of which I
+      write she was met on the occasion of her entry into Ferrara by a certain
+      clown dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd Paris, who proffered her
+      the apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that since beholding her
+      he had been forced to alter his old-time judgment in favour of Venus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for which
+      he should have been soundly whipped. Her nose was a shade too long, her
+      chin a shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such comparisons.
+      Still, that she had a certain gracious beauty, as I have said, it is not
+      mine to deny. There was an almost childish freshness in her face, an
+      almost childish innocence in her fine gray eyes, and, above all, a golden
+      and resplendent hair as brought to mind the tresses of God's angels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That fair child&mdash;for no more than a child was she&mdash;drew a chair
+      to my bedside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my behalf,
+      and answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad again in a
+      day or two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave lad,&rdquo; she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the coverlet,
+      as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool, &ldquo;count me ever
+      your friend hereafter, for what you have done for Madonna Paola. For
+      although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you did so to serve one
+      who is more to me than any family, more than any sister could be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I did, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I did with the better heart since it
+      opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my Lord,
+      your Illustrious brother, set me&mdash;one that otherwise might well have
+      overtaxed my wits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah?&rdquo; Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a glance
+      that revealed to the full their matchless beauty. Care seemed of a sudden
+      to have aged her face. The question of her eyes needed no translation into
+      words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
+      answer to your own,&rdquo; I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I drew
+      the package, which during Magistri's absence I had abstracted from my boot
+      that I might have it in readiness when she came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of her
+      mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had hoped he would have found better employment for you,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the future
+      did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch. But by aiding
+      Madonna Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim the
+      redemption of that promise; though had it not been for Madonna Paola and
+      what I did, I scarce know how I should have penetrated here to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood
+      reading the letter, her back toward me. Presently I heard a stifled sob.
+      The letter was crushed in her hand. Then moments passed ere she confronted
+      me once more. But her manner as all changed; she was agitated and
+      preoccupied, and for all that she forced herself to talk of me and my
+      affairs, her mind was clearly elsewhere. At last she left me, nor did I
+      see her again during the time I was confined to my bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like, I
+      was permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on the
+      terrace that overlooks the sea. I found no garments but some suits of
+      motley, and so, in despite of my repugnance now to reassume that garb, I
+      had no choice but to array myself in one of these. I selected the least
+      garish one&mdash;a suit of black and yellow stripes, with hose that was
+      half black, half yellow, too; and so, leaning upon the crutch they had
+      left me, I crept forth into the sunlight, the very ghost of the man that I
+      had been a fortnight ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards
+      Ancona, and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air of
+      the Adriatic. The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some twenty
+      paces off&mdash;there was a stretch of soft, green turf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I was
+      yet abed. It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with the
+      proverbs of one Domenico Lopez&mdash;all very proper nourishment for a
+      jester's mind. The odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and among
+      the proverbs there were many that were new to me in framing and in
+      substance. Moreover, I was glad of this means of improving my acquaintance
+      with the tongue of Spain, and I was soon absorbed. So absorbed, indeed, as
+      never to hear the footsteps of the Lord Giovanni, when presently he
+      approached me unattended, nor to guess at his presence until his shadow
+      fell athwart my page. I raised my eyes, and seeing who it was I made shift
+      to get on my feet; but he commanded me to remain seated, commenting
+      sympathetically upon my weak condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile fluttered
+      across his white face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You choose your reading with rare judgment,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Read on, and prime
+      your mind with fresh humour, prepare yourself with new conceits for our
+      amusement against the time when health shall be more fully restored you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in such words as these that he intimated to me that I was pardoned,
+      and reinstated&mdash;as the Fool of the Court of Pesaro. That was to be
+      the sum of his clemency. We were precisely where we had been. Once before
+      had he granted me my life on condition that I should amuse him; he did no
+      more than repeat that mercy now. I stared at him in wonder, open-mouthed,
+      whereit he laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro?&rdquo; said he, his fingers straying
+      to his beard as was his custom. &ldquo;My clemency is no more than you deserve
+      in return for the service you have rendered to the House of Sforza.&rdquo; And
+      he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs that had borne
+      itself bravely in the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered nothing. I sat there as if I had been a part of the stone from
+      which my seat was hewn, for I lacked the strength to rise and strangle him
+      as he deserved&mdash;moreover, I was bound by an oath, which it would have
+      damned my soul to break, never to raise my hand against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, before he could say more, two ladies issued from the doorway on
+      my right. They were Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Paola. Upon espying me
+      they hastened forward with expressions of pleased surprise at seeing me
+      risen and out, and when I would have got to my feet they stayed me as
+      Giovanni had done. Madonna Paola's words seemed addressed to heaven rather
+      than to me, for they were words of thanksgiving for this recovery of my
+      strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no thanks,&rdquo; she ended warmly, &ldquo;that can match the deeds by which
+      you earned them, Messer Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      My eyes drifting to Giovanni's face surprised its sudden darkening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna Paola,&rdquo; said he, in an icy voice, &ldquo;you have uttered a name that
+      must not be heard within my walls of Pesaro, if you would prove yourself
+      the friend of Boccadoro. To remind me of his true identity is to remind me
+      of that which counts not in his favour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned to regard him, a mild surprise in her blue eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my lord, you promised&mdash;&rdquo; she began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I promised,&rdquo; he interposed, with an easy smile and manner never so
+      deprecatory, &ldquo;that I would pardon him, grant him his life and restore him
+      to my favour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But did you not say that if he survived and was restored to strength you
+      would then determine the course his life should take?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still smiling, he produced his comfit-box, and raised the lid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a thing he seems to have determined for himself,&rdquo; he answered
+      smoothly&mdash;he could be smooth as a cat upon occasion, could this
+      bastard of Costanzo Sforza. &ldquo;I came upon him here, arrayed as you behold
+      him, and reading a book of Spanish quips. Is it not clear that he has
+      chosen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Between thumb and forefinger he balanced a sugar-crusted comfit of
+      coriander seed steeped in marjoram vinegar, and having put his question he
+      bore the sweet-meat to his mouth. The ladies looked at him, and from him
+      to me. Then Madonna Paola spoke, and there seemed a reproachful wonder in
+      her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this indeed your choice?&rdquo; she asked me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the choice that was forced on me,&rdquo; said I, in heat. &ldquo;They left me
+      no garment save these of folly. That I was reading this book it pleases my
+      lord to interpret into a further sign of my intentions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of
+      Madonna Lucrezia. He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of rare
+      loftiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am more clement than you think,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;in having done so much. For
+      the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving political
+      issues you little dream of. What is this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had turned abruptly. A servant was approaching, leading a mud-splashed
+      courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whence are you?&rdquo; Giovanni questioned him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the Holy See,&rdquo; answered the courier, bowing, &ldquo;with letters for the
+      High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his noble
+      spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown
+      overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant. Then bidding the
+      servant see to the courier's refreshment, he dismissed them both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he
+      would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro
+      were, there and then, forgotten by us all. For the thought that rose
+      uppermost in our minds&mdash;saving always that of Madonna Lucrezia&mdash;was
+      that these communications concerned the sheltering of Madonna Paola, and
+      were a command for her immediate return to Rome. At last Giovanni handed
+      his wife the letter intended for her, and, in silence, broke the seal of
+      his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He unfolded it with a grim smile, but scarce had he begun to read when his
+      expression softened into one of terror, and his face grew ashen. Next it
+      flared crimson, the veins on his brow stood out like ropes, and his eyes
+      flashed furiously upon Madonna Lucrezia. She was reading, her bosom rising
+      and falling in token of the excitement that possessed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; he cried in an awful voice, &ldquo;I have here a command from the
+      Holy See to repair at once to Rome, to answer certain charges that are
+      preferred against me relating to my marriage. Madonna, know you aught of
+      this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, sir,&rdquo; she answered steadily, &ldquo;that I, too, have here a letter
+      calling me to Rome. But there is no reason given for the summons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Intuitively it flashed across my mind that whatever the matter might be,
+      Madonna Lucrezia had full knowledge of it through the letter I had brought
+      her from her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you conjecture, Madonna, what are these charges to which my letter
+      vaguely alludes?&rdquo; Giovanni was inquiring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your pardon, but the subject is scarcely of a nature to permit discussion
+      in the castle courtyard. Its character is intimate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her very searchingly, but for all that he was a man of almost
+      twice her years, her wits were more than a match for his, and his scrutiny
+      can have told him nothing. She preserved a calm, unruffled front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In five minutes, Madonna,&rdquo; said he, very sternly, &ldquo;I shall be honoured if
+      you will receive me in your closet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She inclined her head, murmuring an unhesitating assent. Satisfied, he
+      bowed to her and to Madonna Paola&mdash;who had been looking on with eyes
+      that wonder had set wide open&mdash;and turning on his heel he strode
+      briskly away. As he passed into the castle, Madonna Lucrezia heaved a sigh
+      and rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My poor Boccadoro,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;I fear me your affairs must wait a while.
+      But think of me always as your friend, and believe that if I can prevail
+      upon my brother to overlook the ill-turn you did him when you entered the
+      service of this child&rdquo;&mdash;and she pointed to Madonna Paola&mdash;&ldquo;I
+      shall send for you from Rome, for in Pesaro I fear you have little to hope
+      for. But let this be a secret between us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From those words of hers I inferred, as perhaps she meant I should, that
+      once she left Pesaro to obey her father's summons, our little northern
+      state was to know her no more. Once again, only, did I see her, on the
+      occasion of her departure, some four days later, and then but for a
+      moment. Back to Pesaro she came no more, as you shall learn anon; but
+      behind her she left a sweet and fragrant memory, which still endures
+      though many years are sped and much calumny has been heaped upon her name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I might pause here to make some attempt at refuting the base falsehoods
+      that had been bruited by that time-serving vassal Guicciardini, and others
+      of his kidney, whom the upstart Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere&mdash;sometime
+      pedlar&mdash;in his jealous fury at seeing the coveted pontificate pass
+      into the family of Borgia, bought and hired to do his loathsome work of
+      calumny and besmirch the fame of as sweet a lady as Italy has known. But
+      this poor chronicle of mine is rather concerned with the history of
+      Madonna Paola di Santafior, and it were a divergence well-nigh
+      unpardonable to set my pen at present to that other task. Moreover, there
+      is scarce the need. If any there be who doubt me, or if future generations
+      should fall into the error of lending credence to the lies of that villain
+      Guicciardini, of that arch-villain Giuliano della Rovere, or of other
+      smaller fry who have lent their helot's pens to weave mendacious records
+      of her life, dubbing her murderess, adulteress, and Heaven knows what
+      besides&mdash;I will but refer them to the archives of Ferrara, whose
+      Duchess she became at the age of one-and-twenty, and where she reigned for
+      eighteen years. There shall it be found recorded that she was an
+      exemplary, God-fearing woman; a faithful and honoured wife; a wise,
+      devoted mother; and a princess, beloved and esteemed by her people for her
+      piety, her charity and her wisdom. If such records as are there to be read
+      by earnest seekers after truth be not sufficient to convince, and to
+      reveal those others whom I have named in the light of their true baseness,
+      then were it idle for me to set up in these pages a passing refutation of
+      the falsehoods which it has grieved me so often to hear repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was two days later that the Lord Giovanni set out for Rome, obedient to
+      the command he had received. But before his departure&mdash;on the eve of
+      it, to be precise&mdash;there arrived at Pesaro a very wonderful and
+      handsome gentleman. This was the brother of Madonna Paola, the High and
+      Mighty Lord Filippo di Santafior. He had had a hint in Rome that his
+      connivance at his sister's defiant escape was suspected at the Vatican,
+      and he had wisely determined that his health would thrive better in a
+      northern climate for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A very splendid creature was this Lord Filippo, all shimmering velvet,
+      gleaming jewels, costly furs and glittering gold. His face was effeminate,
+      though finely featured, and resembled, in much, his sister's. He rode a
+      cream-coloured horse, which seemed to have been steeped in musk, so
+      strongly was it scented. But of all his affectations the one with which I
+      as taken most was to see one of his grooms approach him when he
+      dismounted, to dust his wondrous clothes down to his shoes, which he wore
+      in the splayed fashion set by the late King of France who was blessed with
+      twelve toes on each of his deformed feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord Giovanni, himself not lacking in effeminacy, was greatly taken by
+      the wondrous raiment, the studied lisp and the hundred affectations of
+      this peerless gallant. Had he not been overburdened at the time by the
+      Papal business that impended, he might there and then have cemented the
+      intimacy which was later to spring up between them. As it was, he made him
+      very welcome, and placed at his and his sister's disposal the beautiful
+      palace that his father had begun, and he, himself, had completed, which
+      was known as the Palazza Sforza. On the morrow Giovanni left Pesaro with
+      but a small retinue, in which I was thankful not to be included.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days later Madonna Lucrezia followed her husband, the fact that they
+      journeyed not together, seeming to wear an ominous significance. Her eyes
+      had a swollen look, such as attends much weeping, which afterwards I took
+      as proof that she knew for what purpose she was going, and was moved to
+      bitter grief at the act to which her ambitious family was constraining
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After their departure things moved sluggishly at Pesaro. The nobles of the
+      Lord Giovanni's Court repaired to their several houses in the neighboring
+      country, and save for the officers of the household the place became
+      deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna Paola remained at the Sforza Palace, and I saw her only once
+      during the two mouths that followed, and then it was about the streets,
+      and she had little more than a greeting for me as she passed. At her side
+      rode her brother, a splendid blaze of finery, falcon on wrist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My days were spent in reading and reflection, for there was naught else to
+      do. I might have gone my ways, had I so wished it, but something kept me
+      there at Pesaro, curious to see the events with which the time was growing
+      big.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We grew sadly stagnant during Lent, and what with the uneventful course of
+      things, and the lean fare proscribed by Mother Church, it was a very
+      dispirited Boccadoro that wandered aimlessly whither his dulling fancy
+      took him. But in Holy Week, at last, we received an abrupt stir which set
+      a whirlpool of excitement in the Dead Sea of our lives. It was the sudden
+      reappearance of the Lord Giovanni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came alone, dust-stained and haggard, on a horse that dropped dead from
+      exhaustion the moment Pesaro was reached, and in his pallid cheek and
+      hollow eye we read the tale of some great fear and some disaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night we heard the story of how he had performed the feat of riding
+      all the way from Rome in four-and-twenty hours, fleeing for his life from
+      the peril of assassination, of which Madonna Lucrezia had warned him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went off to his Castle of Gradara, where he shut himself up with the
+      trouble we could but guess at, and so in Pesaro, that brief excitement
+      spent, we stagnated once again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I seemed an anomaly in so gloomy a place, and more than once did I think
+      of departing and seeking out my poor old mother in her mountain home,
+      contenting myself hereafter with labouring like any honest villano born to
+      the soil. But there ever seemed to be a voice that bade me stay and wait,
+      and the voice bore a suggestion of Madonna Paola. But why dissemble here?
+      Why cast out hints of voices heard, supernatural in their flavour? The
+      voice, I doubt not, was just my own inclination, which bade me hope that
+      once again it might be mine to serve that lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An eventful year in the history of the families of Sforza and Borgia was
+      that year of grace 1497.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spring came, and ere it had quite grown to summer we had news of the
+      assassination of the Duke of Gandia, and the tale that he was done to
+      death by his elder brother, Cesare Borgia; a tale which seemed to lack for
+      reasonable substantiation, and which, despite the many voices that make
+      bold to noise it broadcast, may or may not be true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that same month of June messages passed between Rome and Pesaro, and
+      gradually the burden of the messages leaked out in rumours that Pope
+      Alexander and his family were pressing the Lord Giovanni to consent to a
+      divorce. At last he left Pesaro again; this time to journey to Milan and
+      seek counsel with his powerful cousin, Lodovico, whom they called &ldquo;The
+      Moor.&rdquo; When he returned he was more sulky and downcast than ever, and at
+      Gradara he lived in an isolation that had been worthy of a hermit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus that miserable year wore itself out, and, at last, in December,
+      we heard that the divorce was announced, and that Lucrezia Borgia was the
+      Tyrant of Pesaro's wife no more. The news of it and the reasons that were
+      put forward as having led to it were roared across Italy in a great,
+      derisive burst of laughter, of which the Lord Giovanni was the unfortunate
+      and contemptible butt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII. &ldquo;MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine, it
+      may be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of the
+      next three years of the history of Pesaro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he
+      seemed again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been
+      before shame overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding. Madonna
+      Paola and her brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in Pesaro, where
+      they now appeared to have taken up their permanent abode. Madonna Paola&mdash;following
+      her inclinations&mdash;withdrew to the Convent of Santa Caterina, there to
+      pursue in peace the studies for which she had a taste, whilst her
+      splendid, profligate brother became the ornament&mdash;the arbiter
+      elegantiarum&mdash;of our court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics a
+      stew was simmering that demanded all that family's attention, and of whose
+      import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had flung
+      aside his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer rein to the
+      boundless ambition that consumed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never
+      been. Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce left
+      discernible any semblance of reality, for I was once again Boccadoro, the
+      golden-mouthed Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every jester throughout
+      Italy. My shame that for a brief season had risen up in arms seemed to be
+      laid to rest once more, and I was content with the burden that was mine.
+      Money I had in plenty, for when I pleased him the Lord Giovanni's vails
+      were often handsome, and much of my earnings went to my poor mother, who
+      would sooner have died starving than have bought herself bread with those
+      ducats could she have guessed at what manner of trade Lazzaro Biancomonte
+      had earned them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa Caterina,
+      whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to pay his duty to
+      his fair cousin. In the summer of 1500, she being then come to the age of
+      eighteen, and as divinely beautiful a lady as you could find in Italy, she
+      allowed herself to be persuaded by her brother&mdash;who, I make no doubt
+      had been, in his turn, persuaded by the Lord of Pesaro&mdash;to leave her
+      convent and her studies, and to take up her life at the Sforza Palace,
+      where Filippo held by now a sort of petty court of his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now it fell out that the Lord Giovanni was oftener at the Palace than
+      at the Castle, and during that summer Pesaro was given over to such
+      merrymaking as it had never known before. There was endless lute-thrumming
+      and recitation of verses by a score of parasite poets whom the Lord
+      Giovanni encouraged, posing now as a patron of letters; there were balls
+      and masques and comedies beyond number, and we were as gay as though Italy
+      held no Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who was sweeping northward
+      with his all-conquering flood of mercenaries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But one there was who, though the very centre of all these merry doings,
+      the very one in whose honour and for whose delectation they were set
+      afoot, seemed listless and dispirited in that boisterous crowd. This was
+      Madonna Paola, to whom, rumour had it, that her kinsman, the Lord
+      Giovanni, was paying a most ardent suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw her daily now, and often would she choose me for her sole companion;
+      often, sitting apart with me, would she unburden her heart and tell me
+      much that I am assured she would have told no other. A strange thing may
+      it have seemed, this confidence between the Fool and the noble Lady of
+      Santafior&mdash;my Holy Flower of the Quince, as in my thoughts I grew to
+      name her. Perhaps it may have been because she found me ever ready to be
+      sober at her bidding, when she needed sober company as those other fools&mdash;the
+      greater fools since they accounted themselves wise&mdash;could not afford
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That winter adventure betwixt Cagli and Pesaro was a link that bound us
+      together, and caused her to see under my motley and my masking smile the
+      true Lazzaro Biancomonte whom for a little season she had known. And when
+      we were alone it had become her wont to call me Lazzaro, leaving that
+      other name that they had given me for use when others were at hand. Yet
+      never did she refer to my condition, or wound me by seeking to spur me to
+      the ambition to become myself again. Haply she was content that I should
+      be as I sas, since had I sought to become different it must have entailed
+      my quitting Pesaro, and this poor lady was so bereft of friends that she
+      could not afford to lose even the sympathy of the despised jester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in those days that I first came to love her with as pure a flame as
+      ever burned within the heart of man, for the very hopelessness of it
+      preserved its holy whiteness. What could I do, if I would love her, but
+      love her as the dog may love his mistress? More was surely not for me&mdash;and
+      to seek more were surely a madness that must earn me less. And so, I was
+      content to let things be, and keep my heart in check, thanking God for the
+      mercy of her company at times, and for the precious confidences she made
+      me, and praying Heaven&mdash;for of my love was I grown devout&mdash;that
+      her life might run a smooth and happy course, and ready, in the
+      furtherance of such an object, to lay down my own should the need arise.
+      Indeed there were times when it seemed to me that it was a good thing to
+      be a Fool to know a love of so rare a purity as that&mdash;such a love as
+      I might never have known had I been of her station, and in such case as to
+      have hoped to win her some day for my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening of late August, when the vines were heavy with ripe fruit, and
+      the scent of roses was permeating the tepid air, she drew me from the
+      throng of courtiers that made merry in the Palace, and led me out into the
+      noble gardens to seek counsel with me, she said, upon a matter of gravest
+      moment. There, under the sky of deepest blue, crimsoning to saffron where
+      the sun had set, we paced awhile in silence, my own senses held in thrall
+      by the beauty of the eventide, the ambient perfumes of the air and the
+      strains of music that faintly reached us from the Palace. Madonna's head
+      was bent, and her eyes were set upon the ground and burdened, so my
+      furtive glance assured me, with a gentle sorrow. At length she spoke, and
+      at the words she uttered my heart seemed for a moment to stand still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;they would have me marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a little spell there was a silence, my wits seeming to have grown too
+      numbed to attempt to seek an answer. I might be content, indeed, to love
+      her from a distance, as the cloistered monk may love and worship some
+      particular saint in Heaven; yet it seems that I was not proof against
+      jealousy for all the abstract quality of my worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she repeated presently, &ldquo;did you hear me? They would have me
+      marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard some such talk,&rdquo; I answered, rousing myself at last; &ldquo;and
+      they say that it is the Lord Giovanni who would prove worthy of your
+      hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say rightly, then,&rdquo; she acknowledged. &ldquo;The Lord Giovanni it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again there was a silence, and again it was she who broke it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Have you naught to say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would you have me say, Madonna? If this wedding accords with your
+      own wishes, then am I glad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro, Lazzaro! you know that it does not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should I know it, Madonna?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because your wits are shrewd, and because you know me. Think you this
+      petty tyrant is such a man as I should find it in my heart to conceive
+      affection for? Grateful to him am I for the shelter he has afforded us
+      here; but my love&mdash;that is a thing I keep, or fain would keep, for
+      some very different man. When I love, I think it will be a valorous
+      knight, a gentleman of lofty mind, of noble virtues and ready address.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An excellent principle on which to go in quest of a husband, Madonna mia.
+      But where in this degenerate world do you look to find him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there, then, no such men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the pages of Bojardo and those other poets whom you have read too
+      earnestly there may be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, there speaks your cynicism,&rdquo; she chided me. &ldquo;But even if my ideals
+      be too lofty, would you have me descend from the height of such a pinnacle
+      to the level of the Lord Giovanni&mdash;a weak-spirited craven, as
+      witnesses the manner in which he permitted the Borgias to mishandle him; a
+      cruel and unjust tyrant, as witnesses his dealing with you, to seek no
+      further instances; a weak, ignorant, pleasure-loving fool, devoid of wit
+      and barren of ambition? Such is the man they would have me wed. Do not
+      tell me, Lazzaro, that it were difficult to find a better one than this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not mean to tell you that. After all, though it be my trade to jest,
+      it is not my way to deal in falsehood. I think, Madonna, that if we were
+      to have you write for us such an appreciation of the High and Mighty
+      Giovanni Sforza, you would leave a very faithful portrait for the
+      enlightenment of posterity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro, do not jest!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It is your help I need. That is the
+      reason why I am come to you with the tale of what they seek to force me
+      into doing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To force you?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;Would they dare so much?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, if I resist them further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then,&rdquo; I answered, with a ready laugh, &ldquo;do not resist them further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro!&rdquo; she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by what she
+      accounted a flippancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mistake me not,&rdquo; I hastened to elucidate. &ldquo;It is lest they should employ
+      force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I counsel you
+      to offer no resistance. Beg for a little time, vaguely suggesting that you
+      are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni's suit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That were deceit,&rdquo; she protested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well? And then?&rdquo; she questioned. &ldquo;Such a state of things cannot endure
+      for ever. It must end some day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full of
+      confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni's impatience
+      transcends all bounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression
+      knitting her fine brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not take your meaning, my friend,&rdquo; she complained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then mark the enucleation. I will expound this meaning of mine through
+      the medium of a parable. In Babylon of old, there dwelt a king whose name
+      was Belshazzar, who, having fallen into habits of voluptuousness and
+      luxury, was so enslaved by them as to feast and make merry whilst a
+      certain Darius, King of the Medes, was marching in arms against his
+      capital. At a feast one night the fingers of a man's hand were seen to
+      write upon the wall, and the words they wrote were a belated warning:
+      'Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at me, her eyes round with inquiry, and a faint smile of
+      uncertainty on her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me confess that your elucidation helps me but little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ponder it, Madonna,&rdquo; I urged her. &ldquo;Substitute Giovanni Sforza for
+      Belshazzar, Cesare Borgia for King Darius, and you have the key to my
+      parable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But is it indeed so? Does danger threaten Pesaro from that quarter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, does it,&rdquo; I answered, almost impatiently. &ldquo;The tide of war is
+      surging up, and presently will whelm us utterly. Yet here sits the Lord
+      Giovanni making merry with balls and masques and burle and banquets,
+      wholly unprepared, wholly unconscious of his peril. There may be no hand
+      to write a warning on his walls&mdash;or else, as in the case of Babylon,
+      the hand will write when it is too late to avert the evil&mdash;yet there
+      are not wanting other signs for those that have the wit to read them; nor
+      is a wondrous penetration needed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you think then&mdash;&rdquo; she began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that if you are obdurate with him, he and your brother may hurry
+      you by force into this union. But if you temporise with half-promises,
+      with suggestions that before Christmas you may grow reconciled to his
+      wishes, he will be patient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what if Christmas comes and finds us still in this position?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will need a miracle for that; or, at least, the death of Cesare Borgia&mdash;an
+      unlikely event, for they say he uses great precautions. Saving the
+      miracle, and providing Cesare lives, I will give the Lord Giovanni's reign
+      in Pesaro at most two months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We had halted now, and were confronting each other in the descending
+      gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro, dear friend,&rdquo; she cried, almost with gaiety, &ldquo;I was wise to take
+      counsel with you. You have planted in my heart a very vigorous growth of
+      hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We turned soon after, and started to retrace our steps, for she might be
+      ill-advised to remain absent overlong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I left her on the terrace in a very different spirit from that in which
+      she had come to me, bearing with me her promise that she would act as I
+      had advised her. No doubt I had taken a load from her gentle soul, and
+      oddly enough I had taken, too, a load from mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Things fell out as I said they would in far as Giovanni Sforza and Filippo
+      were concerned. Madonna's seeming amenability to their wishes stayed their
+      insistence, and they could but respect her wishes to let the betrothal be
+      delayed yet a little while. And during the weeks that followed, it was I
+      scarce know whether more pitiable or more amusing to see the efforts that
+      Giovanni made to win her ardently desired affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Love has sharp eyes at times, and a dullard under the influence of the
+      baby god will turn shrewd and exert rare wiles in the conduct of his
+      wooing. Giovanni, by some intuition usually foreign to his dull nature,
+      seemed to divine what manner of man would be Madonna Paola's ideal, and
+      strove to pass himself off as possessed of the attributes of that ideal,
+      with an ardour that was pitiably comical. He became an actor by the side
+      of whom those comedians that played impromptus for his delectation were
+      the merest bunglers with the art. He gathered that Madonna Paola loved the
+      poets and their stately diction, and so, to please her better, he became a
+      poet for the season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poeta nascitur&rdquo; the proverb runs, and that proverb's truth was doubtless
+      forced home upon the Lord Giovanni at an early stage of his excursions
+      into the flowery meads of prosody. Fortunately he lacked the supreme
+      vanity that is the attribute of most poetasters, and he was able to see
+      that such things as after hours of midnight-labour he contrived to pen,
+      would evoke nothing but her amusement&mdash;unless, indeed, it were her
+      scorn&mdash;and render him the laughing-stock of all his Court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, in the wisdom of despair, he came to me, and with a gentleness that in
+      the past he had rarely manifested for me, he asked me was I skilled in
+      writing verse. There were not wanting others to whom he might have gone,
+      for there was no lack of rhymsters about his Court; but perhaps he thought
+      he could be more certain of my silence than of theirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered him that were the subject to my taste, I might succeed in
+      throwing off some passable lines upon it. He pressed gold upon me, and
+      bade me there and then set about fashioning an ode to Madonna Paola, and
+      to forget, when they were done, under pain of a whipping to the bone, that
+      I had written them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I obeyed him with a right good-will. For what subject of all subjects
+      possible was there that made so powerful an appeal to my inclinations?
+      Within an hour he had the ode&mdash;not perhaps such a poem as might stand
+      comparison with the verses of Messer Petrarca, yet a very passable
+      effusion, chaste of conceit and palpitating with sincerity and adoration.
+      It was in that that I addressed her as the &ldquo;Holy Flower of the Quince,&rdquo;
+       which was the symbol of the House of Santafior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So great an impression made that ode that on the morrow the Lord Giovanni
+      came to me with a second bribe and a second threat of torture. I gave him
+      a sonnet of Petrarchian manner which went near to outshining the merits of
+      the ode. And now, these requests of the Lord Giovanni's assumed an almost
+      daily regularity, until it came to seem that did affairs continue in this
+      manner for yet a little while, I should have earned me enough to have
+      repurchased Biancomonte, and, so, ended my troubles. And good was the
+      value that I gave him for his gold. How good, he never knew; for how was
+      he, the clod, to guess that this despised jester of his Court was pouring
+      out his very soul into the lines he wrote to the tyrant's orders?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is scant wonder that, at last, Madonna Paola who had begun by smiling,
+      was touched and moved by the ardent worship that sighed from those
+      perfervid verses. So touched, indeed, was she as to believe the Lord
+      Giovanni's love to be the pure and holy thing those lines presented it,
+      and to conclude that his love had wrought in him a wondrous and ennobling
+      transformation. That so she thought I have the best of all reasons to
+      affirm, for I had it from her very lips one day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she sighed, &ldquo;it is occurring to me that I have done the Lord
+      Giovanni an injustice. I have misgauged his character. I held him to be a
+      shallow, unlettered clown, devoid of any finer feelings. Yet his verses
+      have a merit that is far above the common note of these writings, and they
+      breathe such fine and lofty sentiments as could never spring from any but
+      a fine and lofty soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How I came to keep my tongue from wagging out the truth I scarcely know.
+      It may be that I was frightened of the punishment that might overtake me
+      did I betray my master; but I rather think that it was the fear of
+      betraying myself, and so being flung into the outer darkness where there
+      was no such radiant presence as Madonna Paola's. For had I told her it was
+      I had penned those poems that were the marvel of the Court, she must of
+      necessity have guessed my secret, for to such quick wits as hers it must
+      have been plain at once that they were no vapourings of artistry, but the
+      hot expressions of a burning truth. It was in that&mdash;in their supreme
+      sincerity&mdash;that their chief virtue lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus weeks wore on. The vintage season came and went; the roses faded in
+      the gardens of the Palazzo Sforza, and the trees put on their autumn garb
+      of gold. October was upon us, and with it came, at last, the fear that
+      long ago should have spurred us into activity. And now that it came it did
+      not come to stimulate, but to palsy. Terror-stricken at the conquering
+      advance of Valentino&mdash;which was the name they now gave Cesare Borgia;
+      a name derived from his Duchy of Valentinois&mdash;Giovanni Sforza
+      abruptly ceased his revelling, and made a hurried appeal for help to
+      Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua&mdash;his brother-in-law, through the
+      Lord of Pesaro's first marriage. The Mantuan Marquis sent him a hundred
+      mercenaries under the command of an Albanian named Giacomo. As well might
+      he have sent him a hundred figs wherewith to pelt the army of Valentino!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disaster swooped down swiftly upon the Lord of Pesaro. His very people,
+      seeing in what case they were, and how unprepared was their tyrant to
+      defend them, wisely resolved that they would run no risks of fire and
+      pillage by aiding to oppose the irresistible force that was being hurled
+      against us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the second Sunday in October that the storm burst over the Lord
+      Giovanni's head. He was on the point of leaving the Castle to attend Mass
+      at San Domenico, and in his company were Filippo Sforza of Santafior and
+      Madonna Paola, besides courtiers and attendants, amounting in all to
+      perhaps a score of gallant cavaliers and ladies. The cavalcade was drawn
+      up in the quadrangle, and Giovanni was on the point of mounting, when, of
+      a sudden, a rumbling noise, as of distant thunder, but too continuous for
+      that, arrested him, his foot already in the stirrup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; he asked, an ashen pallor overspreading his effeminate
+      face, as, doubtless, the thought of the enemy came uppermost in his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men looked at one another with fear in their eyes and some of the ladies
+      raised their voices in querulous beseeching for reassurance. They had
+      their answer even as they asked. The Albanian Giacomo, who was now
+      virtually the provost of the Castle, appeared suddenly at the gates with
+      half a score of men. He raised a warning hand, which compelled the Lord
+      Giovanni to pause; then he rasped out a brisk command to his followers.
+      The winches creaked, and the drawbridge swung up even as with a clank and
+      rattle of chains the portcullis fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That done, he came forward to impart the ominous news which one of his
+      riders had brought him at the gallop from the Porta Romana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A party of some fifty men, commanded by one of Cesare's captains, had
+      ridden on in advance of the main army to call upon Pesaro to yield to the
+      forces of the Church. And the people, without hesitation, had butchered
+      the guard and thrown wide the gates, inviting the enemy to enter the town
+      and seize the Castle. And to the end that this might be the better
+      achieved, a hundred or so had traitorously taken up arms, and were
+      pressing forward to support the little company that came, with such
+      contemptuous daring, to storm our fortress and prepare the way for
+      Valentino.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a pretty situation this for the Lord Giovanni, and here were fine
+      opportunities for some brave acting under the eyes of his adored Madonna
+      Paola. How would he bear himself now? I wondered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He promised mighty well once the first shock of the news was overcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By God and His saints!&rdquo; he roared, &ldquo;though it may be all that it is given
+      me to do, I'll strike a blow to punish these dastards who have betrayed
+      me, and to crush the presumption of this captain who attacks us with fifty
+      men. It is a contempt which he shall bitterly repent him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he thundered to Giacomo to marshal his men, and he called upon those
+      of his courtiers who were knights to put on their armour that they might
+      support him. Lastly he bade a page go help him to arm, that he might lead
+      his little force in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw Madonna Paola's eyes gleam with a sudden light of admiration, and I
+      guessed that in the matter of Giovanni's valour her opinions were
+      undergoing the same change as the verses had caused them to undergo in the
+      matter of his intellect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Myself, I was amazed. For here was a Lord Giovanni I seemed never to have
+      known, and I was eager to behold the sequel to so fine a prologue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX. THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      That valorous bearing that the Lord Giovanni showed whilst, with Madonna
+      Paola's glance upon him, his fear of seeming afraid was greater than his
+      actual fear of our assailants, he cast aside like a mantle once he was
+      within the walls of his Castle, and under the eyes of none save the page
+      and myself, for I followed idly at a respectful distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood irresolute and livid of countenance, his eagerness to arm and to
+      lead his mercenaries and his knights all departed out of him. It was that
+      curiosity of mine to see the sequel to his stout words that had led me to
+      follow him, and what I saw was, after all, no more than I might have
+      looked for&mdash;the proof that his big talk of sallying forth to battle
+      was but so much acting. Yet it must have been acting of such a quality as
+      to have deceived even his very self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, however, by the main steps, he halted in the cool gloom of the
+      gallery, and I saw that fear had caught his heart in an icy grip and was
+      squeezing it empty. In his irresolution he turned about, and his gloomy
+      eye fell upon me loitering in the porch. At that he turned to the page who
+      followed in obedience to his command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begone!&rdquo; he growled at the lad, &ldquo;I will have Boccadoro, there, to help me
+      arm.&rdquo; And with a poor attempt at mirth&mdash;&ldquo;The act is a madness,&rdquo; he
+      muttered, &ldquo;and so it is fitting that folly should put on my armour for it.
+      Come with me, you,&rdquo; he bade me, and I, obediently, gladly, went forward
+      and up the wide stone staircase after him, leaving the page to speculate
+      as he listed on the matter of his abrupt dismissal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I read the Lord Giovanni's motives, as clearly as if they had been written
+      for me by his own hand. The opinion in which I might hold him was to him a
+      matter of so small account that he little cared that I should be the
+      witness of the weakness which he feared was about to overcome him&mdash;nay,
+      which had overcome him already. Was I not the one man in Pesaro who
+      already knew his true nature, as revealed by that matter of the verses
+      which I had written, and of which he had assumed the authorship? He had no
+      shame before me, for I already knew the very worst of him, and he was
+      confident that I would not talk lest he should destroy me at my first
+      word. And yet, there was more than that in his motive for choosing me to
+      go with him in that hour, as I was to learn once we were closeted in his
+      chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boccadoro,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;can you not find me some way out of this?&rdquo; Under
+      his beard I saw the quiver of his lips as he put the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of this?&rdquo; I echoed, scarce understanding him at first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, man&mdash;out of this Castle, out of Pesaro. Bestir those wits of
+      yours. Is there no way in which it might be done, no disguise under which
+      I might escape?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Escape?&rdquo; quoth I, looking at him, and endeavouring to keep from my eyes
+      the contempt that was in my heart. Dear God! Had revenge been all I sought
+      of him, how I might have gloated over his miserable downfall!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not stand there staring with those hollow eyes,&rdquo; he cried, anger and
+      fear blending horridly in his voice and rendering shrill its pitch. &ldquo;Find
+      me a way. Come, knave, find me a way, or I'll have you broken on the
+      wheel. Set your wits to save that long, lean body from destruction. Think,
+      I bid you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was moving restlessly as he spoke, swayed by the agitation of terror
+      that possessed him like a devil. I looked at him now without dissembling
+      my scorn. Even in such an hour as this the habit of hectoring cruelty
+      remained him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall it avail me to think?&rdquo; I asked him in a voice that was as cold
+      and steady as his was hot and quavering. &ldquo;Were you a bird I might suggest
+      flight across the sea to you. But you are a man, a very human, a very
+      mortal man, although your father made you Lord of Pesaro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as I was speaking, the thunder of the besiegers reached our ears&mdash;such
+      a dull roar it was as that of a stormy sea in winter time. Maddened by his
+      terror he stood over me now, his eyes flashing wildly in his white face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another word in such a tone,&rdquo; he rasped, his fingers on his dagger, &ldquo;and
+      I'll make an end of you. I need your help, animal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I shook my head, my glance meeting his without fear. I was of twice his
+      strength, we were alone, and the hour was one that levelled ranks. Had he
+      made the least attempt to carry out his threat, had he but drawn an inch
+      of the steel he fingered, I think I should have slain him with my hands
+      without fear or thought of consequences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no help for you such as you need,&rdquo; I answered him. &ldquo;I am but the
+      Fool of Pesaro. Whoever looked to a Fool for miracles?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But here is death,&rdquo; he almost moaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord of Pesaro,&rdquo; I reminded him, &ldquo;your mercenaries are under arms by your
+      command, and your knights are joining them. They wait for the fulfilment
+      of your promise to lead them out against the enemy. Shall you fail them in
+      such an hour as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He sank, limp as an empty scabbard, to a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not go. It is death,&rdquo; he answered miserably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what but death is it to remain here?&rdquo; I asked, torturing him with
+      more zest than ever he had experienced over the agonies of some poor
+      victim on the rack. &ldquo;In bearing yourself gallantly there lies a slender
+      chance for you. Your people seeing you in arms and ready to defend them
+      may yet be moved to a return of loyalty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fig for their loyalty,&rdquo; was his peevish, craven answer. &ldquo;What shall it
+      avail me when I'm slain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      God! was there ever such a coward as this, such a weak-souled,
+      water-hearted dastard?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you may not be slain,&rdquo; I urged him. And then I sounded a fresh note.
+      &ldquo;Bethink you of Madonna Paola and of the brave things you promised her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He flushed a little, then paled again, then sat very still. Shame had
+      touched him at last, yet its grip was not enough to make a man of him. A
+      moment he remained irresolute, whilst that shame fought a hard battle with
+      his fears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But those fears proved stronger in the end, and his shame was overthrown
+      by them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not,&rdquo; he gasped, his slender, delicate hands clutching at the arms
+      of his chair. &ldquo;Heaven knows I am not skilled in the use of arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It asks no skill,&rdquo; I assured him. &ldquo;Put on your armour, take a sword and
+      lay about you. The most ignorant scullion in your kitchens could perform
+      it given that he had the spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He moistened his lips with his tongue, and his eyes looked dead as a
+      snake's. Suddenly he rose and took a step towards the armour that was
+      piled about a great leathern chair. Then he paused and turned to me once
+      more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Help me to put it on,&rdquo; he said in a voice that he strove to render
+      steady. Yet scarcely had I reached the pile and taken up the breast-plate,
+      when he recoiled again from the task. He broke into a torrent of
+      blasphemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not sacrifice myself,&rdquo; he almost screamed. &ldquo;Jesus! not I. I will
+      find a way out of this. I will live to return with an army and regain my
+      throne.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most wise purpose. But, meanwhile, your men are waiting for you;
+      Madonna Paola di Santafior is waiting for you, and&mdash;hark!&mdash;the
+      bellowing crowd is waiting for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They wait in vain,&rdquo; he snarled. &ldquo;Who cares for them? The Lord of Pesaro
+      am I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Care you, then, nothing for them? Will you have your name written in
+      history as that of a coward who would not lift his sword to strike one
+      blow for honour's sake ere he was driven out like a beast by the mere
+      sound of voices?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That touched him. His vanity rose in arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take up that corselet,&rdquo; he commanded hoarsely. I did his bidding, and,
+      without a word, he raised his arms that I might fit it to his breast. Yet
+      in the instant that I turned me to pick up the back-piece, a crash
+      resounded through the chamber. He had hurled the breastplate to the ground
+      in a fresh access of terror-rage. He strode towards me, his eyes
+      glittering like a madman's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go you!&rdquo; he cried, and with outstretched arms he pointed wildly across
+      the courtyard. &ldquo;You are very ready with your counsels. Let me behold your
+      deeds, Do you put on the armour and go out to fight those animals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He raved, he ranted, he scarce knew what he said or did, and yet the words
+      he uttered sank deep into my heart, and a sudden, wild ambition swelled my
+      bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord of Pesaro,&rdquo; I cried, in a voice so compelling that it sobered him,
+      &ldquo;if I do this thing what shall be my reward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared at me stupidly for a moment. Then he laughed in a silly,
+      crackling fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh?&rdquo; he queried. &ldquo;Gesu!&rdquo; And he passed a hand over his damp brow, and
+      threw back the hair that cumbered it. &ldquo;What is the thing that you would
+      do, Fool?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the thing you bade me,&rdquo; I answered firmly. &ldquo;Put on your armour, and
+      shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord Giovanni,
+      Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides. If I do this thing, and put to rout the
+      rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my
+      reward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint
+      colour kindling in his face. He saw how easy the thing might be. Perhaps
+      he recalled that he had heard that I was skilled in arms&mdash;having
+      spent my youth in the exercise of them, against the time when I might
+      fling the challenge that had brought me to my Fool's estate. Maybe he
+      recalled how I had borne myself against long odds on that adventure with
+      Madonna Paola, years ago. Just such a vanity as had spurred him to have me
+      write him verses that he might pretend were of his own making, moved him
+      now to grasp at my proposal. They would all think that Giovanni's armour
+      contained Giovanni himself. None would ever suspect Boccadoro the Fool
+      within that shell of steel. His honour would be vindicated, and he would
+      not lose the esteem of Madonna Paola. Indeed, if I returned covered with
+      glory, that glory would be his; and if he elected to fly thereafter, he
+      might do so without hurt to his fair name, for he would have amply proved
+      his mettle and his courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In some such fashion I doubt not that the High and Mighty Giovanni Sforza
+      reasoned during the seconds that we stood, face to face and eye to eye, in
+      that room, the cries of the impatient ones below almost drowned in the
+      roar of the multitude beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he put out his hands to seize mine, and drawing me to the light he
+      scanned my face, Heaven alone knowing what it was he sought there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do this,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;Biancomonte shall be yours again, if it
+      remains in my power to bestow it upon you now or at any future time. I
+      swear it by my honour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swear it by your fear of Hell or by your hope of Heaven and the compact
+      is made,&rdquo; I answered, and so palsied was he and so fallen in spirit that
+      he showed no resentment at the scorn of his honour my words implied, but
+      there and then took the oath I that demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; I urged, &ldquo;help me to put on this armour of yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hurriedly I cast off my jester's doublet and my head-dress with its
+      jangling bells, and with a wild exultation, a joy so fierce as almost to
+      bring tears to my eyes, I held my arms aloft whilst that poor craven
+      strapped about my body the back and breast plates of his corselet. I, the
+      Fool, stood there as arrogant as any knight, whilst with his noble hands
+      the Lord of Pesaro, kneeling, made secure the greaves upon my legs, the
+      sollerets with golden spurs, the cuissarts and the genouilleres. Then he
+      rose up, and with hands that trembled in his eagerness, he put on my
+      brassarts and shoulder-plates, whilst I, myself, drew on my gauntlets.
+      Next he adjusted the gorget, and handed me, last of all, the helm, a
+      splendid head-piece of black and gold, surmounted by the Sforza lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took it from him and passed it over my head. Then ere I snapped down the
+      visor and hid the face of Boccadoro, I bade him, unless he would render
+      futile all this masquerade, to lock the door of his closet, and lie there
+      concealed till my return. At that a sudden doubt assailed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what,&rdquo; quoth he, &ldquo;if you do not return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the fever that had possessed me this was a thing that had not entered
+      into my calculations, nor should it now. I laughed, and from the hollow of
+      my helmet not a doubt but the sound must have seemed charged with mockery.
+      I pointed to the cap and doublet I had shed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then, Illustrious, it will but remain for you to complete the
+      change.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dog!&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;beast, do you deride me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      My answer was to point out towards the yard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are clamouring,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;They wax impatient. I had better go before
+      they come for you.&rdquo; As I spoke I selected a heavy mace for only weapon,
+      and swinging it to my shoulder I stepped to the door. On the threshold he
+      would have stayed me, purged by his fear of what might befall him did I
+      not return. But I heeded him not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fare you well, my Lord of Pesaro,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;See that none penetrates to
+      your closet. Make fast the door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay!&rdquo; he called after me. &ldquo;Do you hear me? Stay!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Others will hear you if you commit this folly,&rdquo; I called back to him.
+      &ldquo;Get you to cover.&rdquo; And so I left him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Below, in the courtyard, my coming was hailed by a great, enthusiastic
+      clamour. They had all but abandoned hope of seeing the Lord Giovanni, so
+      long had he been about his arming. As they brought forward my charger, I
+      sought with my eyes Madonna Paola. I beheld her by her brother&mdash;who,
+      it seemed, was not going with us&mdash;in the front rank of the
+      spectators. Her cheeks were tinged with a slight flush of excitement, and
+      her eyes glowed at the brave sight of armed men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mounted, and as I rode past her to take my place at the head of that
+      company, I lowered my mace and bowed. She detained me a moment, setting
+      her hand upon the glossy neck of my black charger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lord,&rdquo; she said, in a low voice, intended for my ear alone, &ldquo;this is a
+      brave and gallant thing you do, and however slight may be your hope of
+      prevailing, yet your honour will be safe-guarded by this act, and men will
+      remember you with respect should it come to pass that a usurper shall
+      possess anon your throne. Bear you that in mind to lend you a glad
+      courage. I shall pray for you, my Lord, till you return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I bowed, answering never a word lest my voice should betray me; and musing
+      on the matter of the strange roads that lead to a woman's heart, I passed
+      on, to gain the van.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two months ago, knowing Giovanni as he was, he had been detestable to her,
+      and she contemplated with loathing the danger in which she stood of being
+      allied to him by marriage. Since then he had made good use of a poor
+      jester's mental gifts to incline her by the fervour of some verses to a
+      kindlier frame of mind, and now, making good use of that same jester's
+      courage, he completed her subjection by the display of it. She was
+      prepared to wed the Lord Giovanni with a glad heart and a proud
+      willingness whensoever he should desire it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Giacomo was beside me now, and in the quadrangle a silence reigned,
+      all waiting for my command. From without there came such a din as seemed
+      to argue that all hell was at the Castle gates. There were shouts of
+      defiance and screams of abuse, whilst a constant rain of stones beat
+      against the raised drawbridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They thought, no doubt, that Giovanni and his followers were at their
+      prayers, cowering with terror. No notion had they of the armed force, some
+      six score strong, that waited to pour down upon them. I briskly issued my
+      command, and four men detached themselves and let down the bridge. It fell
+      with a crash, and ere those without had well grasped the situation we had
+      hurled ourselves across and into them with the force of a wedge, flinging
+      them to right and to left as we crashed through with hideous slaughter.
+      The bridge swung up again when the last of Giacomo's mercenaries was
+      across, and we were shut out, in the midst of that fierce human maelstrom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some five minutes there raged such a brief, hot fight as will be
+      remembered as long as Pesaro stands. No longer than that did it take for
+      the crowd of citizens to realise that war was not their trade, and that
+      they had better leave the fighting to Cesare Borgia's men; and so they
+      fell away and left us a clear road to come at the men-at-arms. But already
+      some forty of our saddles were empty, and the fight, though brief, had
+      proved exhausting to many of us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before us, like an array of mirrors in the October sun, shone the serried
+      ranks of the steel-cased Borgia soldiers, their lances in rest, waiting to
+      receive us. Their leader, a gigantic man whose head was armed by no more
+      than a pot of burnished steel, from which escaped the long red ringlets of
+      his hair, was that same Ramiro del' Orca who had commanded the party
+      pursuing Madonna Paola three years ago. He was, since, become the most
+      redoubtable of Cesare's captains, and his name was, perhaps, the best
+      hated in Italy for the grim stories that were connected with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we rode on he backed to join the foremost rank of his soldiers, and his
+      voice&mdash;a voice that Stentor might have envied&mdash;trumpeted a laugh
+      at sight of us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gesu!&rdquo; he roared, so that I heard him above the thunder of our hoofs.
+      &ldquo;What has come to Giovanni Sforza. Has he, perchance, become a man since
+      Madonna Lucrezia divorced him? I will bear her the news of it, my good
+      Giovanni&mdash;my living thunderbolt of Jove!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His men echoed his boisterous mood, infected by it, and this, I argued,
+      boded ill for the courage of those that followed me. Another moment and we
+      had swept into them, and many there were who laughed no more, or went to
+      laugh with those in Hell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For myself I singled out the blustering Ramiro, and I let him know it by a
+      swinging blow of my mace upon his morion. It was a most finely-tempered
+      piece of steel, for my stroke made no impression on it, though Ramiro
+      winced and raised his stout sword to return the compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he croaked, &ldquo;you become a very god of war, Giovanni. To me,
+      then, my lusty Mars! We'll make a fight of it that poets shall sing of
+      over winter fires. Look to yourself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His sword caught me a cunning, well-aimed blow on the side of my helm, and
+      thence, glanced to my shoulder. But for the quality of Giovanni's
+      head-piece of a truth there had been an end to the warring of a Fool. I
+      smote him back, a mighty blow upon his epauliere that shore the steel
+      plate from his shoulder, and left him a vulnerable spot. At that he swore
+      ferociously, and his bloodshot eyes grew wicked as the fiend's. A second
+      time he essayed that side-long blow upon my helm, and with such force and
+      ready address that he burst the fastening of my visor on the left, so that
+      it swung down and left my beaver open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a cry of triumph he closed with me, and shortened his sword to stab
+      me in the face. And then a second cry escaped him, for the countenance he
+      beheld was not the countenance he had looked to see. Instead of the fair
+      skin, the handsome features and the bearded mouth of the Lord Giovanni, he
+      beheld a shaven face, a hooked nose and a complexion swarthy as the
+      devil's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you, rogue,&rdquo; he roared. &ldquo;By the Host! your valour seemed too
+      fierce for Giovanni Sforza. You are Bocca&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Exerting all the strength that I had been gradually collecting, I hurled
+      him back with a force that almost drove him from the saddle, and rising in
+      my stirrups I rained blow after blow upon his morion ere he could recover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dog!&rdquo; I muttered softly, &ldquo;your knowledge shall be the death of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew away from me at last, and during the moments that I spent in
+      readjusting my visor he sallied, and charged me again. His blustering was
+      gone and his face grown pale, for such blows as mine could not have been
+      without effect. Not a doubt of it but he was taken with amazement to find
+      such fighting qualities in a Fool&mdash;an amazement that must have
+      eclipsed even that of finding Boccadoro in the armour of Giovanni Sforza.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he swung his sword in that favourite stroke of his; but this time I
+      caught the edge upon my mace, and ere he could recover I aimed a blow
+      straight at his face. He lowered his head, like a bull on the point of
+      charging, and so my blow descended again upon his morion, but with a force
+      that rolled him, senseless, from the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before I could take a breathing space I was beset by, at least, a dozen of
+      his followers who had stood at hand during the encounter, never doubting
+      that victory must be ultimately with their invincible captain. They drove
+      me back foot by foot, fighting lustily, and performing&mdash;it was said
+      afterwards by the anxious ones that watched us from the Castle, among whom
+      was Madonna Paola&mdash;such deeds of strength and prowess as never
+      romancer sang of in his wildest flight of fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My men had suffered sorely, but the brave Giacomo still held them
+      together, fired by the example that I set him, until in the end the day
+      was ours. Discouraged by the disabling of their captain, so soon as they
+      had gathered him up our opponents thought of nothing but retreat; and
+      retreat they did, hotly pursued by us, and never allowed to pause or
+      slacken rein until we had hurled them out of the town of Pesaro, to get
+      them back to Cesare Borgia with the tale of their ignominious
+      discomfiture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X. THE FALL OF PESARO
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As we rode back through the town of Pesaro, some fifty men of the six
+      score that had sallied from the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the
+      streets well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citizens having fled back to
+      the shelter of their homes, like rats to their burrows in time of peril.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we advanced through the shambles that we had left about the Castle
+      gates, it occurred to me that within the courtyard a crowd would be
+      waiting to receive and welcome me, and it became necessary to devise some
+      means of avoiding this reception. I beckoned Giacomo to my side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be given out that I will speak to no man until I have rendered
+      thanks to Heaven for this signal victory,&rdquo; I muttered to the unsuspecting
+      Albanian. &ldquo;Do you clear a way for me so soon a we are within.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He obeyed me so well that when the bridge had been let down, he preceded
+      me with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those that
+      would have approached&mdash;among the first of whom were Madonna Paola and
+      her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Way!&rdquo; he shouted. &ldquo;Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of Pesaro!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed still
+      to conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the eastern
+      wing and dismounted. Two or three attendants sprang forward, ready to go
+      with me that they might assist me to disarm. But I waved them imperiously
+      back, and mounted the stairs alone. Alone I crossed the ante-chamber, and
+      tapped at the door of the Lord Giovanni's closet. Instantly it opened, for
+      he had watched my return and been awaiting me. Hastily he drew me in and
+      closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf. Yet at the sight
+      that I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to stare at
+      my armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning stains, which
+      loudly proclaimed the fray through which I had been.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had
+      rendered him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me,
+      all in terms of a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more than
+      ever his cruelties had done. I took off my helmet whilst he spoke, and let
+      it fall with a crash. The face I revealed to him was livid with fatigue,
+      and blackened with the dust that had caked upon my sweat. He came forward
+      again and helped hastily to strip off my harness, and when that was done
+      he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer of embossed gold from which he
+      poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash. Macerated sweet herbs he
+      found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better that I might cleanse
+      myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by my ablutions, he poured me a
+      goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that seemed to infuse fresh life into
+      my veins. And all the time he spoke of the prowess I had shown, and
+      lamented that all these years he should have had me at his Court and never
+      guessed my worth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length I turned to resume my clothes. And since it must excite comment
+      and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my jester's
+      garish livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap and bells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wear it yet for a little while,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and thus complete the service
+      you have done me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and resume your
+      true estate. Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours again. The
+      Lord of Pesaro does not betray his word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I smiled grimly at the pride of his utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is an easy thing,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;freely to give that which is no longer
+      ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He coloured with the anger that was ever ready.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall that mean?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, that in a few days you will have Cesare Borgia here, and you will be
+      Lord of Pesaro no more. I have saved your honour for you. More than that
+      it were idle to attempt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think not that I shall submit,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I shall find in Italy the help
+      I need to return and drive the usurper out. You must have faith in that,
+      yourself, else had you never bargained with me as you have done for the
+      return of your Estates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To that I answered nothing, but urged him to go below and show himself;
+      and the better that he might bear himself among his courtiers, I detailed
+      to him the most salient features of that fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went, not without a certain uneasiness which, however, was soon
+      dispelled by the thunder of acclamation with which he was received; not
+      only by his courtiers, but by the soldiers who had fought in that hot
+      skirmish, and who believed that it was he had led them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile I sat above, in the closet he had vacated, and thence I watched
+      him, with such mingling feelings in my heart as baffle now my halting pen.
+      Scorn there was in my mood and a hot contempt of him that he could stand
+      there and accept their acclamation with an air of humility that I am
+      persuaded was assumed: a certain envious anger was there, too, to think
+      that such a weak-kneed, lily-livered craven should receive the plaudits of
+      the deeds that I, his buffoon, had performed for him. Those acclamations
+      were not for him, although those who acclaimed him thought so. They were
+      for the man who had routed Ramiro del' Orca and his followers, and that
+      man assuredly was I. Yet there I crouched above, behind the velvet
+      curtains where none might see me, whilst he stood smiling and toying with
+      his brown beard and listening to the fine words of praise that, I could
+      imagine, were falling from the lips of Madonna Paola, who had drawn near
+      and was speaking to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is in my nature a certain love of effectiveness, a certain taste for
+      theatrical parade and the contriving of odd situations. This bent of mine
+      was whispering to me then to throw wide the window, and, stemming their
+      noisy plaudits, announce to them the truth of what had passed. Yet what if
+      I had done so? They would have accounted it but a new jest of Boccadoro,
+      the Fool, and one so ill-conceived that they might urge the Lord Giovanni
+      to have him whipped for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aye, it would have been a folly, a futile act that would have earned me
+      unbelief, contempt and anger. And yet there was a moment when jealousy
+      urged me almost headlong to that rashness. For in Madonna Paola's eyes
+      there was a new expression as they rested on the face of Giovanni Sforza&mdash;an
+      expression that told me she had come to love this man whom a little while
+      ago she had despised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God! was there ever such an irony? Was there ever such a paradox? She
+      loved him, and yet it was not him she loved. The man she loved was the man
+      who had shown the qualities of his mind in the verses with which the Court
+      was ringing; the man who had that morning given proof of his high mettle
+      and knightly prowess by the deeds of arms he had performed. I was that man&mdash;not
+      he at whom so adoringly she looked. And so&mdash;I argued, in my warped
+      way and with the philosophy worthy of a Fool&mdash;it was I whom she
+      loved, and Giovanni was but the symbol that stood for me. He represented
+      the songs and the deeds that were mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if I did not throw wide that window and proclaim the fact to ears that
+      would have been deaf to the truth of them, what think you that I did? I
+      took a subtler vengeance. I repaired to my own chamber, procured me pen
+      and ink, and, there, with a heart that was brimming over with gall, I
+      penned an epic modelled upon the stately lines of Virgil, wherein I sang
+      the prowess of the Lord Giovanni Sforza, describing that morning's mighty
+      feat of arms, and detailing each particular of the combat 'twixt Giovanni
+      and Ramiro del' Orca.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a brave thing when it was done; a finer and worthier poetical
+      achievement than any that I had yet encompassed, and that night, after
+      they had supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been heard
+      of, and whilst they were still sitting at their wine, I got me a lute and
+      stole down to the banqueting hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I announced myself by leaping on a table and loudly twanging the strings
+      of my instrument. There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of acclamation.
+      They were in a high good-humour, and the Fool with a new song was the very
+      thing they craved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When silence was restored I began, and whilst my fingers moved sluggishly
+      across the strings, striking here and there a chord, I recited the epic I
+      had penned. My voice swelled with a feverish enthusiasm whose colossal
+      irony none there save one could guess. He, at first surprised, grew angry
+      presently, as I could see by the cloud that had settled on his brow. Yet
+      he restrained himself, and the rest of the company were too enthralled by
+      the breathless quality of my poem to bestow their glances on any
+      countenance save mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro's right, and her blue eyes were
+      round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded. And when
+      presently I came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro
+      del' Orca, when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni's visor, was
+      on the point of driving his sword into his adversary's face, I saw her
+      shrink in a repetition of the morning's alarm, and her bosom heaved more
+      swiftly, as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines and she
+      were made anxious again for the life of the man whom she had learnt to
+      love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling
+      softly, after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety
+      that had succeeded the Lord of Pesaro's brave exploits, and how upon his
+      return from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his closet, his
+      battered and bloody harness on his back, that he might kneel ere he
+      disarmed and render thanks to God for the victory vouchsafed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that &ldquo;Te Deum&rdquo; I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
+      vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my
+      reward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the
+      table on which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one
+      noble woman kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth
+      was indeed a mouth of gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining with
+      excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance, and I
+      knew that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by causing
+      her to realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure that I
+      sang. The sight of it almost turned me faint, and I would have eluded them
+      and got away as I had come but that they lifted me up and bore me so to
+      the table at which the Lord Giovanni sat. He smiled, but his face was very
+      pale. Could it be that I had touched him? Could it be that I had driven
+      the iron into his soul, and that he could not bear to confront me, knowing
+      what a dastard I must deem him?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The splendid Filippo of Santafior had risen to his feet, and was waving a
+      white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence. When at last it
+      came he spoke, his voice silvery and his accents mincing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord of Pesaro; I demand a boon. He who for years has suffered the
+      ignominy of the motley is at last revealed to us as a poet of such
+      magnitude of soul and richness of expression that he would not suffer by
+      comparison with the great Bojardo or tim greater Virgil. Let him be
+      stripped for ever of that hideous garb he wears, and let him be treated,
+      hereafter, with the dignity his high gifts deserve. Thus shall the day
+      come when Pesaro will take honour in calling him her son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Loud and long was the applause that succeeded his words, and when at last
+      it had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved equal to the occasion, like the
+      consummate actor that he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that these high gifts, of which to-night he has
+      afforded proof, could have been employed upon a worthier subject. I fear
+      me that since you have heard his epic you will be prone to overestimate
+      the deed of which it tells the story. I would, too, my friends,&rdquo; he
+      continued, with a sigh, &ldquo;that it were still mine to offer him such
+      encouragement as he deserves. But I am sorely afraid that my days in
+      Pesaro are numbered, that my sands are all but run&mdash;at least, for a
+      little while. The conqueror is at our gates, and it would be vain to set
+      against the overwhelming force of his numbers the handful of valiant
+      knights and brave soldiers that to-day opposed and scattered his
+      forerunners. It is my intention to withdraw, now that my honour is safe by
+      what has passed, and that none will dare to say that it was through fear
+      that I fled. Yet my absence, I trust, may be but brief. I go to collect
+      the necessary resources, for I have powerful friends in this Italy whose
+      interests touching the Duca Valentino go hand in hand with mine, and who
+      will, thus, be the readier to lend me assistance. Once I have this, I
+      shall return and then&mdash;woe to the vanquished!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tide of enthusiasm that had been rising as he spoke, now overflowed.
+      Swords leapt from their scabbards&mdash;mere toy weapons were they, meant
+      more for ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest of the stouter
+      arms those gentlemen were ready to wield when the time came. He quieted
+      their clamours with a dignified wave of the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When that day comes I shall see to it that Boccadoro has his deserts.
+      Meanwhile let the suggestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon, and
+      let this gifted poet be arrayed in a manner that shall sort better with
+      the nobility of his mind that to-night he has revealed to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus was it that I came, at last, to shed the motley and move among men
+      garbed as themselves. And with my outward trappings I cast off, too, the
+      name of Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro
+      Biancomonte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon
+      which I was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that
+      followed that first Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the Lord
+      Giovanni's Court passed out of being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It came about with his flight to Bologna, accompanied by the Albanian
+      captain and his men, as well as by several of the knights who had joined
+      in Sunday's fray. Ardently, as I came afterwards to learn, did he urge
+      Madonna Paola and her brother to go with them, and I believe that the lady
+      would have done his will in this had not the Lord Filippo opposed the
+      step. He was no warrior himself, he swore&mdash;for it was a thing he made
+      open boast of, affecting to despise all who followed the coarse trade of
+      arms&mdash;and, as for his sister, it was not fitting that she should go
+      with a fugitive party made up of a handful of knights and some fifty rough
+      mercenaries, and be exposed to the hardships and perils that must be
+      theirs. Not even when he was reminded that the advancing conqueror was
+      Cesare Borgia did it affect him, for despite his shallow, mincing ways,
+      and his paraded scorn of war and warriors, the Lord Filippo was stout
+      enough at heart. He did not fear the Borgia, he answered serenely, and if
+      he came, he would offer him such hospitality as lay within his power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came at last, did the mighty Cesare, although between his coming and
+      Giovanni's flight a full fortnight sped. As for myself, I spent the time
+      at the Sforza Palace, whither the Lord Filippo had carried me as his
+      guest, he being greatly taken with me and determined to become my patron.
+      We had news of Giovanni, first from Bologna and later from Ravenna,
+      whither he was fled. At first he talked of returning to Pesaro with three
+      hundred men he hoped to have from the Marquis of Mantua. But probably this
+      was no more than another piece of that big talk of his, meant to impress
+      the sorrowing and repining Madonna Paola, who suffered more for him,
+      maybe, than he suffered himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his
+      mental gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and for
+      all that my gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this injustice
+      to myself, I held my peace. Indeed, indeed, it was better so. For all that
+      I was no longer Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro Biancomonte, the poet,
+      I was not so much better that I could indulge any mad aspirations of my
+      own such as might have led me to betray the dastard who had arrayed his
+      craven self in the peacock feathers of my achievements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me I
+      made bold, on the eve of Cesare's arrival, to suggest to him that he
+      should remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of
+      Santa Caterina whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of her
+      should remind Cesare of the old-time marriage plans which his family had
+      centred round this lady, and lead to their revival. Filippo heard me
+      kindly, and thanked me freely for the solicitude which my counsel argued.
+      For the rest, however, it was a counsel that he frankly admitted he saw no
+      need to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained such
+      plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the fortunes of
+      the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable match
+      for one of its members is now scarcely worthy of their attention. I do not
+      think,&rdquo; he concluded, &ldquo;that we have the least reason to fear a renewal of
+      that suit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble motives
+      in men's actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord Filippo would
+      not be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to reopen
+      negotiations for the bestowing of Madonna Paola's hand upon the Pope's
+      nephew Ignacio. That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in the three
+      years had taken place and which, he contended, would render them more
+      ambitious than to seek alliance with the House of Santafior, rendered
+      them, nevertheless, in his eyes a more desirable family to be allied with
+      than in the days when he had counselled his sister's flight from Rome. And
+      so, I thought, despite what stood between her and the Lord Giovanni,
+      Filippo would know no scruple now in urging her into an alliance with the
+      House of Borgia, should they manifest a willingness to have that old
+      affair reopened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 29th of that same month of October, Cesare arrived in Pesaro. His
+      entry was a triumphant procession, and the orderliness that prevailed
+      among the two thousand men-at-arms that he brought with him was a thing
+      that spoke eloquently for the wondrous discipline enforced by this great
+      condottiero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord Filippo was among those that met him, and like the time-server
+      that he was, he placed the Sforza Palace at his disposal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duca Valentino came with his retinue and the gentlemen of his
+      household, among whom was ever conspicuous by his great size and red
+      ugliness the Captain Ramiro del' Orca, who now seemed to act in many ways
+      as Cesare's factotum. This captain, for reasons which it is unnecessary to
+      detail, I most sedulously avoided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the evening of his arrival Cesare supped in private with Filippo and
+      the members of Filippo's household&mdash;that is to say, with Madonna
+      Paola and two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of
+      the Lord Filippo. Cesare's only attendants were two cavaliers of his
+      retinue, Bartolomeo da Capranica, his Field-Marshal, and Dorio Savelli, a
+      nobleman of Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cesare Borgia, this man whose name had so terrible a sound in the ears of
+      Italy's little princelings, this man whose power and whose great gifts of
+      mind had made him the subject of such bitter envy and fear, until he was
+      the best-hated gentleman in Italy&mdash;and, therefore, the most
+      calumniated&mdash;was little changed from that Cardinal of Valencia, in
+      whose service I had been for a brief season. The pallor of his face was
+      accentuated by the ill-health in which he found himself just then, and the
+      air of feverish restlessness that had always pervaded him was grown more
+      marked in the years that were sped, as was, after all, but natural,
+      considering the nature of the work that had claimed him since he had
+      deposed his priestly vestments. He was splendidly arrayed, and he bore
+      himself with an imperial dignity, a dignity, nevertheless, tempered with
+      graciousness and charm, and as I regarded him then, it was borne in upon
+      me that no fitter name could his godfathers have bestowed on him than that
+      of Cesare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord Filippo exerted all his powers worthily to entertain his noble
+      and illustrious guest, and by his extreme, almost servile affability it
+      not only would seem that he had forgotten the favour and shelter he had
+      received at the hands of the Lord Giovanni, but it confirmed my suspicions
+      of his willingness to advance his own fortunes by breaking with the fallen
+      tyrant in so far as his sister was concerned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Short of actually making the proposal itself, it would seem that Filippo
+      did all in his power to urge his sister upon the attention of Cesare. But
+      Duke Valentino's mind at that time was too full of the concerns of
+      conquest and administration to find room for a matter to him so trifling
+      as the enriching of his cousin Ignacio by a wealthy alliance. To this
+      alone, I thought, was it due that Madonna Paola escaped the persecution
+      that might then have been hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the morrow Cesare moved on to Rimini, leaving his administrators behind
+      him to set right the affairs of Pesaro, and ensure its proper governing,
+      in his name, hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now that, for the present, my hopes of ever seeing my own wrongs
+      redressed and my estates returned to me were too slender to justify my
+      remaining longer in Pesaro, I craved of the Lord Filippo permission to
+      withdraw, telling him frankly that my tardily aroused duty called me to my
+      widowed mother, whom for some six years I had not seen. He threw no
+      difficulty in the way of my going; and I was free to depart. And now came
+      the hidden pain of my leave-taking of Madonna Paola. She seemed to grieve
+      at my departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she cried, when I had told her of my intention, &ldquo;do you, too,
+      desert me? And I have ever held you my best of friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I told her of the mother and of the duty that I owed her, whereupon she
+      remonstrated no more, nor sought to do other than urge me to go to her.
+      And then I spoke of Madonna's kindness to me, and of the friendship with
+      which she had honoured one so lowly, and in the end I swore, with my hand
+      on my heart and my soul on my lips, that if ever she had work for me, she
+      would not need to call me twice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This ring, Madonna,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;was given me by the Lord Cesare Borgia, and
+      was to have proved a talisman to open wide for me the door to fortune. It
+      did better service than that, Madonna. It was the talisman that saved you
+      from your pursuers that day at Cagli, three years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You remind me, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;of how much you have sacrificed in
+      my service. Yours must be a very noble nature that will do so much to
+      serve a helpless lady without any hope of guerdon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay,&rdquo; I answered lightly, &ldquo;you must not make so much of it. It would
+      never have sorted with my inclinations to have turned man-at-arms. This
+      ring, Madonna, that once has served you, I beg that you will keep, for it
+      may serve you again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could not, Lazzaro! I could not!&rdquo; she exclaimed, recoiling, yet without
+      any show of deeming presumptuous my words or of being offended by them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you would make me the reward that you say I have earned, you will do
+      this for me. It will make me happier, Madonna. Take it&rdquo;&mdash;I thrust it
+      into her unwilling hand&mdash;&ldquo;and if ever you should need me send it back
+      to me. That ring and the name of the place where you abide by the lips of
+      the messenger you choose, and with a glad heart, as fast as horse can bear
+      me, shall I ride to serve you once again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In such a spirit, yes,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I take it willingly, to treasure it as
+      a buckler against danger, since by means of it I can bring you to my aid
+      in time of peril.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, do not overestimate my powers,&rdquo; I besought her. &ldquo;I would have
+      you see in me no more than I am. But it sometimes happens that the mouse
+      may aid the lion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when I need the lion to aid the mouse, my good Lazzaro, I will send
+      for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There were tears in her voice, and her eyes were very bright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Addio, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she murmured brokenly. &ldquo;May God and His saints protect
+      you. I will pray for you, and I shall hope to see you again some day, my
+      friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Addio, Madonna!&rdquo; was all that I could trust myself to say ere I fled from
+      her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the sobs
+      that were threatening to betray the anguish that was ravaging my soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      PART II. THE OGRE OF CESENA
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI. MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      However great the part that my mother&mdash;sainted woman that she was&mdash;may
+      have played in my life, she nowise enters into the affairs of this
+      chronicle, so that it would be an irrelevance and an impertinence to
+      introduce her into these pages. Of the joy with which she welcomed me to
+      the little home near Biancomonte, in which the earnings of Boccadoro the
+      Fool had placed her, it could interest you but little to read in detail,
+      nor could it interest you to know of the gentle patience with which she
+      cheered and humoured me during the period that I sojourned there, tilling
+      the little plot she owned, reaping and garnering like any born villano.
+      With a woman's quick intuition she guessed perhaps the canker that was
+      eating at my heart, and with a mother's blessed charity she sought to
+      soothe and mitigate my pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was during this period of my existence that the poetic gifts I had
+      discovered myself possessed of whilst at Pesaro, burst into full bloom;
+      and not a little relief did I find in the penning of those love-songs&mdash;the
+      true expression of what was in my heart&mdash;which have since been given
+      to the world under the title of Le Rime di Boccadoro. And what time I
+      tended my mother's land by day, and wrote by night of the feverish,
+      despairing love that was consuming me, I waited for the call that, sooner
+      or later, I knew must come. What prophetic instinct it was had rooted that
+      certainty in my heart I do not pretend to say. Perhaps my hope was of such
+      a strength that it assumed the form of certainty to solace the period of
+      my hermitage. But that some day Madonna Paola's messenger would arrive
+      bringing me the Borgia ring, I was as confident as that some day I must
+      die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two years went by, and we were in the Autumn of 1502, yet my faith knew no
+      abating, my confidence was strong as ever. And, at last, that confidence
+      was justified. One night of early October, as I sat at supper with my
+      mother after the labours of the day, a sound of hoofs disturbed the peace
+      of the silent night. It drew rapidly nearer, and long before the knock
+      fell upon our door, I knew that it was the messenger from my lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My mother looked at me across the board, an expression of alarm
+      overspreading her old face. &ldquo;Who,&rdquo; her eyes seemed to ask me, &ldquo;was this
+      horseman that rode so late?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      My hound rose from the hearth with a growl, and stood bristling, his eyes
+      upon the door. White-haired old Silvio, the last remaining retainer of the
+      House of Biancomonte, came forth from the kitchen, with inquiry and fear
+      blending on his wrinkled, weather-beaten countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And I, seeing all these signs of alarm, yet knowing what awaited me on the
+      threshold, rose with a laugh, and in a bound had crossed the intervening
+      space. I flung wide the door, and from the gloom without a man's voice
+      greeted me with a question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this the house of Messer Lazzaro Biancomonte?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am that Lazzaro Biancomonte,&rdquo; answered I. &ldquo;What may your pleasure be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger advanced until he came within the light. He was plainly
+      dressed, and wore a jerkin of leather and long boots. From his air I
+      judged him a servant or a courier. He doffed his hat respectfully, and
+      held out his right hand in which something was gleaming yellow. It was the
+      Borgia ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pesaro,&rdquo; was all he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh himself
+      ere he returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not returning,&rdquo; the man informed me. &ldquo;I am a courier riding to
+      Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in passing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set
+      before him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him to
+      tell me what he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news there
+      was of the Lord Giovanni. He had little enough to tell. Pesaro was
+      flourishing and prospering under the Borgia dominion. Of the Lord Giovanni
+      there was little news, saving that he was living under the protection of
+      the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so long as he was content to abide there
+      the Borgias seemed disposed to give him peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and Madonna
+      Paola. On this subject he was better informed. Madonna Paola was well and
+      still lived with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro. The Lord Filippo was
+      high in favour with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had been frequently his
+      guest at Pesaro, whilst once, for a few days, the Lord Ignacio de Borgia
+      had accompanied his illustrious cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her summons
+      no longer asked conjecture. It was an easy thing for me, knowing what I
+      knew, to fill in the details which the courier omitted in ignorance from
+      the story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister
+      upon the notice of the Borgia family&mdash;perhaps even approached Cesare&mdash;in
+      such a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to
+      Ignacio, who had, meanwhile, remained unmarried. I could read that
+      opportunist's motives as easily as if he had written them down for my
+      instruction. Giovanni Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I
+      could imagine how he had plied his wits to aid his sister to forget him,
+      or else to remember him no longer with affection. Whether he had succeeded
+      or not I could not say until I had seen her; but meanwhile, deeming ripe
+      the soil of her heart for the new attachment that should redound so much
+      to his own credit&mdash;now that the House of Borgia had risen to such
+      splendid heights&mdash;he was driving her into this alliance with Ignacio.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out that
+      same night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising to
+      return as soon as might be. All night I rode, my soul now tortured with
+      anxiety, now exalted at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which was so
+      soon to be mine. I was at the gates of Pesaro before matins, and within
+      the Palazzo Sforza ere its inmates had broken their fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord Filippo welcomed me with a certain effusion, chiding me for my
+      long absence and the ingratitude it had seemed to indicate, and never
+      dreaming by what summons I was brought back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are well-returned,&rdquo; he told me in conclusion. &ldquo;We shall need you
+      soon, to write an epithalamium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are to be wed, Magnificent?&rdquo; quoth I at last, at which he laughed
+      consumedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, we shall need the song for my sister's nuptials. She is to wed the
+      Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A lofty theme,&rdquo; I answered with humility, &ldquo;and one that may well demand
+      resources nobler than those of my poor pen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then get you to work at once upon it. I will have your chamber prepared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He sent for his seneschal, a person&mdash;like most Of the servants at the
+      Palace&mdash;strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be
+      sumptuously lodged. He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity
+      that seemed to surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had
+      undergone such changes and been so enriched during the past two years as
+      to go near defying recognition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for me, I
+      made bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is in the garden, Illustrious,&rdquo; answered the seneschal, deeming me,
+      no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had indicated
+      should be shown me. &ldquo;Madonna has the wisdom to seek the little sunshine
+      the year still holds. Winter will be soon upon us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I agreed with the old man, and dismissed him. So soon as he was gone, I
+      quitted my chamber, and all dust staineded as I was I made my way down to
+      the garden. A turn in one of the boxwood-bordered alleys brought me
+      suddenly face to face with Madonna Paola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment we stood looking at each other, my heart swelling within me until
+      I thought that it must burst. Then I advanced a step and sank on one knee
+      before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sent for me, Madonna. I am here.&rdquo; There was a pause, and when
+      presently I looked up into her blessed face I saw a smile of infinite
+      sorrow on her lips, blending oddly with the gladness that shone from her
+      sweet eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You faithful one,&rdquo; she murmured at last. &ldquo;Dear Lazzaro, I did not look
+      for you so soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Within an hour of your messenger's arrival I was in the saddle, nor did I
+      pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro. I am here to serve you to
+      the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails me is
+      that my power may be all too small for the service that you need.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is its nature known to you?&rdquo; she asked in wonder. Then, ere I had
+      answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have guessed it,&rdquo; answered I, &ldquo;guided by such scraps of information as
+      from your messenger I gleaned. It concerns, unless I err, the Lord Ignacio
+      Borgia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness,&rdquo; she said, with a sad
+      smile, &ldquo;and I doubt me you know all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me&mdash;that
+      you are to be wed before Christmas. He has ordered me to write your
+      epithalamium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by side,
+      and, as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to make a
+      carpet for our fret, she told me in her own way more or less what I have
+      set down, even to her brother's self-seeking share in the transaction that
+      she dubbed hideous and abhorrent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped. She
+      was in her twenty-first year, but in reality she seemed to me no older
+      than she had been on that day when first I saw her arguing with her grooms
+      upon the road to Cagli. And from this I reassured myself that she had not
+      been fretted overmuch by the absence of the Lord Giovanni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently she spoke of him and of her plighted word which her brother and
+      those supple gentlemen of the House of Borgia were inducing her to
+      dishonour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once before, in a case almost identical, when all seemed lost, you came&mdash;as
+      if Heaven directed&mdash;to my rescue. This it is that gives me confidence
+      in such aid as you might lend me now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! Madonna,&rdquo; I sighed, &ldquo;but the times are sorely changed and the
+      situations with them. What is there now that I can do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you did then. Take me beyond their reach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! But whither?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither but to the Lord Giovanni? Is it not to him that my troth is
+      plighted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I shook my head in sorrow, a thrust of jealousy cutting me the while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may not be,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;It were not seemly, unless the Lord Giovanni
+      were here himself to take you hence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will write to the Lord Giovanni,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I will write, and
+      you shall bear my letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What think you will the Lord Giovanni do?&rdquo; I burst out, with a scorn that
+      must have puzzled her. &ldquo;Think you his safety does not give him care enough
+      in the hiding-place to which he has crept, that he should draw upon
+      himself the vengeance of the Borgias?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stared at me in ineffable surprise. &ldquo;But the Lord Giovanni is brave
+      and valiant,&rdquo; she cried, and down in my heart I laughed in bitter mockery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you love the Lord Giovanni, Madonna?&rdquo; I asked bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My question seemed to awaken fresh astonishment. It may well be that it
+      awakened, too, reflection. She was silent for a little space. Then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I honour and respect him for a noble, chivalrous and gifted gentleman,&rdquo;
+       she answered me, and her answer made me singularly content, spreading a
+      balm upon the wounds my soul had taken. But to her fresh intercessions
+      that I should carry a letter to him, I shook my head again. My mood was
+      stubborn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe me, Madonna, it were not only unwise, but futile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She protested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I swear it would be,&rdquo; I insisted, with a convincing force that left her
+      staring at me and wondering whence I derived so much assurance. &ldquo;We must
+      wait. From now till Christmas we have more than two months. In two months
+      much may befall. As a last resource we may consider communication with the
+      Lord Giovanni. But it is a forlorn hope, Madonna, and so we will leave it
+      until all else has failed us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She brightened at my promise that at least if other measures proved
+      unavailing, we should adopt that course, and her brightening flattered me,
+      for it bore witness to the supreme confidence she had in me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I know you will not fail me. I trust you more than
+      any living mam; more, I think, than even the Lord Giovanni, whom, if God
+      pleases, I shall some day wed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Madonna mia,&rdquo; I answered, gratefully indeed. &ldquo;It is a trust that
+      I shall ever strive to justify. Meanwhile have faith and hope, and wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Once before, when, to escape the schemes of her brother who would have wed
+      her to the Lord Giovanni, she had appealed to me, the counsel I had given
+      her had been much the same as that which I gave her now. At the irony of
+      it I could have laughed had any other been in question but Madonna Paola&mdash;this
+      tender White Flower of the Quince that was like to be rudely wilted by the
+      ruthless hands of scheming men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      That night I would have supped in my own quarters but that Filippo sent
+      for me and bade me join him and swell the little court he kept. At times I
+      believe he almost thought that he was the true Lord of Pesaro&mdash;an
+      opinion that may have been shared by not a few of the citizens themselves.
+      Certainly he kept a greater state and was better housed than the duke of
+      Valentinois' governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a jovial company of perhaps a dozen nobles and ladies that met
+      about his board, and Filippo bade his servants lay for me beside him. As
+      we ate he questioned me touching the occupation that I had found during my
+      absence from Pesaro. I used the greatest frankness with him, and answered
+      that my life had been partly a peasants, partly a poet's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what you wrote,&rdquo; he bade me his eyes resting on my face with a
+      new look of interest, for his love of letters was one of the few things
+      about him that was not affected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few novelle, dealing with court-life; but chiefly verses,&rdquo; answered I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And with these verses&mdash;what have you done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have them by me, Illustrious,&rdquo; I answered. He smiled, seemingly well
+      pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must read them to us,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;If they rival that epic of yours,
+      which I have never forgotten, they should be worth hearing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And presently, supper being done, I went at his bidding to my chamber for
+      my precious manuscripts, and, returning, I entertained the company with
+      the reading of a portion of what I had written. They heard me with an
+      attention that might have rendered me vain had my ambition really lain in
+      being accounted a great writer; and when I paused, now and again, there
+      was a murmur of applause, and many a pat on the shoulder from Filippo
+      whenever a line, a phrase or a stanza took his fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was perhaps too absorbed to pay any great attention to the impression my
+      verses were producing, but presently, in one of my pauses, the Lord
+      Filippo startled me with words that awoke me to a sense of my imprudence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know, Lazzaro, of what your lines remind me in an extraordinary
+      measure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what, Excellency?&rdquo; I asked politely, raising my eyes from my
+      manuscript. They chanced to meet the glance of Madonna Paola. It was
+      riveted upon me, and its expression was one I could not understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of the love-songs of the Lord Giovanni Sforza,&rdquo; answered he. &ldquo;They
+      resemble those poems infinitely more than they resemble the epic you wrote
+      two years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I stammered something about the similarity being merely one of subject.
+      But he shook his head at that, and took good note of my confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;the resemblance goes deeper. There is the same facile
+      beauty of the rhymes the same freshness of the rhythm&mdash;remotely
+      resembling that of Petrarca, yet very different. Conceits similar to those
+      that were the beauty spots of the Lord Giovanni's verses are ubiquitous in
+      yours, and above all there is the same fervent earnestness, the same
+      burning tone of sincerity that rendered his strambotti so worthy of
+      admiration.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be,&rdquo; I answered him, my confusion growing under the steady gaze of
+      Madonna Paola, &ldquo;it may be that having heard the verses of the Lord
+      Giovanni, I may, unconsciously, have modelled my own lines upon those that
+      made so deep an impression on me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at me gravely for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That might be an explanation,&rdquo; he answered deliberately, &ldquo;but frankly, if
+      I were asked, I should give a very different one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that would be?&rdquo; came, sharp and compelling, the voice of Madonna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to her, shrugged his shoulders and laughed. &ldquo;Why, since you ask
+      me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I should hazard the opinion that Lazzaro, here, was of
+      considerable assistance to the Lord Giovanni in the penning of those
+      verses with which he delighted us all&mdash;and you, Madonna, I believe,
+      particularly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna Paola crimsoned, and her eyes fell. The others looked at us with
+      inquiring glances&mdash;at her, at Filippo and at me. With a fresh laugh
+      Filippo turned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confess now, am I not right?&rdquo; he asked good-humouredly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Magnificent,&rdquo; I murmured in tones of protest, &ldquo;ask yourself the question.
+      Was it a likely thing that the Lord Giovanni would enlist the services of
+      his jester in such a task?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me a straightforward answer,&rdquo; he insisted. &ldquo;Am I right or wrong?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am giving you more than a straightforward answer, my lord,&rdquo; I still
+      evaded him, and more boldly now. &ldquo;I am setting you on the high-road to
+      solve the matter for yourself by an appeal to your own good sense and
+      reason. Was it in the least likely, I repeat, that the Lord Giovanni would
+      seek the services of his Fool to aid him write the verses in honour of the
+      lady of his heart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a burst of mocking laughter, Filippo smote the table a blow of his
+      clenched hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your prevarications answer me,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;You will not say that I am
+      wrong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do say that you are wrong!&rdquo; I exclaimed, suddenly inspired. &ldquo;I did
+      not assist the Lord Giovanni with his verses. I swear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His laughter faded; and his eyes surveyed me with a sudden solemnity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why did you evade my question?&rdquo; he demanded shrewdly. And then his
+      countenance changed as swiftly again. It was illumined by the light of
+      sudden understanding. &ldquo;I have it,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;The answer is plain. You did
+      not assist the Lord Giovanni to write them. Why? Because you wrote them
+      yourself, and you gave them to him that he might pass them off as his
+      own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a merciful thing for me that the whole company fell into a burst of
+      laughter and applauded Filippo's quick discernment, which they never
+      doubted. All talked at once, and a hundred proofs were advanced in support
+      of Filippo's opinion. The Lord Giovanni's celebrated dullness of mind,
+      amounting almost to stupidity, was cited, and they reminded one another of
+      the profound astonishment with which they had listened to the compositions
+      that had suddenly burst from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Filippo turned to his sister, on whose pale face I saw it written that she
+      was as convinced as any there, and my feelings were those of a dastard who
+      has broken faith with the man who trusted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you appreciate now, Madonna,&rdquo; he murmured, &ldquo;the deceits and wiles by
+      which that craven crept like a snake into your esteem?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I guessed at once that by that thrust he sought to incline her more to the
+      union he had in view for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least he was no craven,&rdquo; answered she. &ldquo;His burning desire to please
+      me may have betrayed him into this foolish duplicity. But he still must
+      live in my memory as a brave and gallant gentleman; or have you forgotten,
+      Filippo, that noble combat with the forces of Ramiro del' Orca?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To such a question Filippo had no answer, and presently his mood sobered a
+      little. For myself, I was glad when the time came to withdraw from that
+      company that twitted and pestered me and played upon my sense of shame at
+      the imprudence I had committed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that I look back, I can scarce conceive why it should have so wrought
+      upon me; for, in truth, the little love I bore the Lord Giovanni might
+      rather have led me to rejoice that his imposture should be laid bare to
+      the eyes of all the world. I think that really there was an element of
+      fear in my feelings&mdash;fear that, upon reflection, Madonna Paola might
+      ask herself how came that burning sincerity into the love-songs written in
+      her honour which it was now disclosed that I had penned. The answer she
+      might find to such a question was one that might arouse her pride and so
+      outrage it as to lead her to cast me out of her friendship and never again
+      suffer me to approach her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a conclusion, however, she fortunately did not arrive at. Haply she
+      accounted the fervour of those lines assumed, for when on the morrow she
+      met me, she did no more than gently chide me for the deceit that I had had
+      a hand in practising upon her. She accepted my explanation that my share
+      in that affair had been wrung from me with threats of torture, and putting
+      it from her mind she returned to the matter of the approaching alliance
+      she sought to elude, renewing her prayers that I should aid her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have,&rdquo; she told me then, &ldquo;one other friend who might assist us, and who
+      has the power perhaps if he but has the will. He is the Governor of
+      Cesena, and for all that he holds service under Cesare Borgia, yet he
+      seems much devoted to me, and I do not doubt that to further my interests
+      he would even consent to pit his wits against those of the family he
+      serves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In which case, Madonna,&rdquo; answered I, spurred to it, perhaps, by an
+      insensate pang of jealousy at the thought that there should be another
+      beside myself to have her confidence, &ldquo;he would be a traitor. And it is
+      ever an ill thing to trust a traitor. Who once betrays may betray again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That she manifested no resentment, but, on the contrary, readily agreed
+      with me, showed me how idle had been that jealousy of mine, and made me
+      ashamed of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why yes,&rdquo; she mused, &ldquo;it is the very thought that had occurred to me, and
+      caused me to spurn the aid he proffered when last he was here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;What aid was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must know, Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;that he comes often to Pesaro from
+      Cesena, being a man in whom the Duke places great trust, and on whom he
+      has bestowed considerable powers. He never fails to lie at the Palace when
+      he comes, and he seems to&mdash;to have conceived a regard for me. He is a
+      man of twice my years,&rdquo; she added hurriedly, &ldquo;and haply looks upon me as
+      he might upon a daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I sniffed the air. I had heard of such men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A week ago, when last he came, I was cast down and grieved by the affair
+      of this marriage, which Filippo had that day disclosed to me. The Governor
+      of Cesena, observing my sadness, sought my confidence with a kindliness of
+      which you would scarce believe him capable; for he is a fierce and
+      blustering man of war. In the fulness of my heart there was nothing that
+      seemed so desirable as a friendly ear into which I might pour the tale of
+      my affliction. He heard me gravely, and when I had done he placed himself
+      at my disposal, assuring me that if I would but trust myself to him, he
+      would defeat the ends of the House of Borgia. Not until then did I seem to
+      bethink me that he was the servant of that house, and his readiness to
+      betray the hand that paid him sowed mistrust and a certain loathing of him
+      in my mind. I let him see it, perhaps, which was unwise, and, may be, even
+      ungrateful. He seemed deeply wounded, and the subject was abandoned. But I
+      have since thought that perhaps I acted with a rashness that was&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a rashness that was eminently justifiable,&rdquo; I interrupted her. &ldquo;You
+      could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in
+      store for me. At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion in
+      the courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its
+      cause, I was informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had
+      arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he served,
+      where Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to probe, I
+      descended to the banqueting-hall at supper time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in the
+      centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and
+      crimson, brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of my
+      own quarters but that his wolf's eye had already fastened on me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he swore, and that was all. But his eyes were on me in a
+      marvellous stare, as were now&mdash;impelled by that oath of his&mdash;the
+      eyes of all the company. We looked at each other for a moment, then a
+      great laugh burst from him, shaking his vast bulk and wrinkling his
+      hideous face. He thrust the intervening men aside as if they had been a
+      growth of sedges he would penetrate, and he advanced towards me; the Lord
+      Filippo and his sister looking on with all the rest in interested
+      surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of me he halted, and setting his hands on his hips he regarded me
+      with a brutal mirth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may your trade be now?&rdquo; he asked at last contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had taken rapid stock of him in the seconds that were sped, and from the
+      surpassing richness of his apparel, his gold-broidered doublet and
+      crimson, fur-edged surcoat, I knew that Messer Ramiro del' Orca was grown
+      to the high estate of Governor of Cesena.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A new trade even as yours,&rdquo; I answered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, that is no answer,&rdquo; he cried, overlooking my offensiveness. &ldquo;Do you
+      still follow the trade of arms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; Filippo interposed, &ldquo;that our Excellency is in some error. This
+      gentleman is Lazzaro Biancomonte, a poet of whom Italy will one day be
+      proud, despite the fact that for a time he acted as the Lord Giovanni
+      Sforza's Fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro looked at his interlocutor, as the mastiff may look at the lap dog.
+      He grunted, and blew out his cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is yet another part he played,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;as I have good cause to
+      remember&mdash;for he is the only man that can boast of having unhorsed
+      Ramiro del' Orca. He was for a brief season the Lord Giovanni Sforza
+      himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo; asked the profoundly amazed Filippo, whilst all present pressed
+      closer to miss nothing of the disclosure that seemed to impend. Myself, I
+      groaned. There was naught that I could say to stem the tide of revelation
+      that was coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you then keep this paladin here arrayed like a clerk?&rdquo; quoth Ramiro in
+      his sardonic way. &ldquo;And can it be that the secret of his feat of arms has
+      been guarded so well that you are still in ignorance of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Filippo's wits worked swiftly, and swiftly they pieced together the hints
+      that Ramiro had let fall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will tell us,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that the fight in the streets of Pesaro, in
+      which your Excellency's party suffered defeat, was led by Biancomonte in
+      the armour of Giovanni Sforza?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro looked at him with that displeasure with which the jester visits
+      the man who by anticipation robs his story of its points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was known to you?&rdquo; growled he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so. I have but learnt it from you. But it nowise astonishes me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he looked at his sister, whose eyes devoured me, as if they would read
+      in my soul whether this thing were indeed true. Under her eyes I dropped
+      my glance like a man ashamed at hearing a disgraceful act of his paraded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had it indeed been the Lord Giovanni, he had been dead that day,&rdquo; laughed
+      Ramiro grimly. &ldquo;Indeed it was nothing but my astonishment at sight of the
+      face I was about to stab, after having broken the fastenings of his visor
+      that stayed my hand for long enough to give him the advantage. But I bear
+      you no grudge for that,&rdquo; he ended, turning on me with a ferocious smile,
+      &ldquo;nor yet for that other trick by which&mdash;as Boccadoro the Fool&mdash;you
+      bested me. I am not a sweet man when thwarted, yet I can admire wit and
+      respect courage. But see to it,&rdquo; he ended, with a sudden and most
+      unreasonable ferocity, his visage empurpling if possible still more, &ldquo;see
+      to it that you pit neither that courage nor that wit against me again. I
+      have heard the story of how you came to be Fool of the Court of Pesaro.
+      Cesena is a dull place, and we might enliven it by the presence of a
+      jester of such nimble wits as yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned without awaiting my reply, and strode away to take his place at
+      table, whilst I walked slowly to my accustomed seat, and took little part
+      in the conversation that ensued, which, as you may imagine, had me and
+      that exploit of mine for scope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anon an elephantine trumpeting of laughter seemed to set the air
+      a-quivering. Ramiro was lying back in his chair a prey to such a passion
+      of mirth that it swelled the veins of his throat and brow until I thought
+      that they must burst&mdash;and, from my soul, I hoped they would. Adown
+      his rugged cheeks two tears were slowly trickling. The Lord Filippo, as
+      presently transpired, had been telling him of the epic I had written in
+      praise of the Lord Giovanni's prowess. Naught would now satisfy that ogre
+      but he must have the epic read, and Filippo, who had retained a copy of
+      it, went in quest of it, and himself read it aloud for the delight of all
+      assembled and the torture of myself who saw in Madonna Paola's eyes that
+      she accounted the deception I had practised on her a thing beyond pardon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Filippo had a taste for letters, as I think I have made clear, and he read
+      those lines with the same fire and fervour that I, myself, had breathed
+      into them two years ago. But instead of the rapt and breathless attention
+      with which my reading had been attended, the present company listened with
+      a smile, whilst ever and anon a short laugh or a quiet chuckle would mark
+      how well they understood to-night the subtle ironies which had originally
+      escaped them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I crept away, sick at heart, while they were still making sport over my
+      work, cursing the Lord Giovanni, who had forced me to these things, and my
+      own mad mood that had permitted me in an evil hour to be so forced. Yet my
+      grief and bitterness were little things that night compared with what
+      Madonna was to make them on the morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sent for me betimes, and I went in fear and trembling of her wrath and
+      scorn. How shall I speak of that interview? How shall I describe the
+      immeasurable contempt with which she visited me, and which I felt was
+      perhaps no more than I deserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messer Biancomonte,&rdquo; said she coldly, &ldquo;I have ever accounted you my
+      friend, and disinterested the motives that inspired a heart seemingly
+      noble to do service to a forlorn and helpless lady. It seems that I was
+      wrong. That the indulging of a warped and malignant spirit was the
+      inspiration you had to appear to befriend me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, you are over-cruel,&rdquo; I cried out, wounded to the very soul of
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I so?&rdquo; she asked, with a cold smile upon her ivory face. &ldquo;Is it not
+      rather you who were cruel? Was it a fine thing to do to trick a lady into
+      giving her affection to a man for gifts which he did not possess? You know
+      in what manner of regard I held the Lord Giovanni Sforza so long as I saw
+      him with the eyes of reason and in the light of truth. And you, who were
+      my one professed friend, the one man who spoke so loudly of dying in my
+      service, you falsified my vision, you masked him&mdash;either at his own
+      and at my brother's bidding, or else out of the malignancy of your nature&mdash;in
+      a garb that should render him agreeable in my eyes. Do you realise what
+      you have done? Does not your conscience tell you? You have contrived that
+      I have plighted my troth to a man such as I believed the Lord Giovanni to
+      be. Mother of Mercy!&rdquo; she ended, with a scorn ineffable; &ldquo;when I dwell
+      upon it now, it almost seems that it was to you I gave my heart, for yours
+      were the deeds that earned my regard&mdash;not his.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the very argument that I had hugged to my starving soul, at the
+      time the things she spoke of had befallen, and it had consoled me as
+      naught in life could have consoled me. Yet now that she employed it with
+      such a scornful emphasis as to make me realise how far beneath her I
+      really was, how immeasurably beyond my reach was she, it was as much
+      consolation to me as confession without absolution may be to the perishing
+      sinner. I answered nothing. I could not trust myself to speak. Besides,
+      what was there that I could say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I summoned you back to Pesaro,&rdquo; she continued pitilessly, &ldquo;trusting in
+      your fine words and deeming honest the offer of services you made me. Now
+      that I know you, you are free to depart from Pesaro when you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite my shame, I dared, at last, to raise my eyes. But her face was
+      averted, and she saw nothing of the entreaty, nothing of the grief that
+      might have told her how false were her conclusions. One thing alone there
+      was might have explained my actions, might have revealed them in a new
+      light; but that one thing I could not speak of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned in silence, and in silence I quitted the room; for that, I
+      thought, was, after all, the wisest answer I could make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII. POISON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Despite Madonna Paola's dismissal, I remained in Pesaro. Indeed, had I
+      attempted to leave, it is probable that the Lord Filippo would have
+      deterred me, for I was much grown in his esteem since the disclosures that
+      had earned me the disfavour of Madonna. But I had no thought of going. I
+      hoped against hope that anon she might melt to a kinder mood, or else that
+      by yet aiding her, despite herself, to elude the Borgia alliance, I might
+      earn her forgiveness for those matters in which she held that I had so
+      gravely sinned against her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The epithalamium, meanwhile, was forgotten utterly and I spent my days in
+      conceiving wild plans to save her from the Lord Ignacio, only to abandon
+      them when in more sober moments their impracticable quality was borne in
+      upon me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this fashion some six weeks went by, and during the time she never once
+      addressed me. We saw much during those days of the Governor of Cesena.
+      Indeed his time seemed mainly spent in coming and going 'twixt Cesena and
+      Pesaro, and it needed no keen penetration to discern the attraction that
+      brought him. He was ever all attention to Madonna, and there were times
+      when I feared that perhaps she had been drawn into accepting the aid that
+      once before he had proffered. But these fears were short-lived, for, as
+      time sped, Madonna's aversion to the man grew plain for all to see. Yet he
+      persisted until the very eve, almost, of her betrothal to Ignacio.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening in early December I chanced, through the purest accident, to
+      overhear her sharp repulsion of the suit that he had evidently been
+      pressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; I heard him answer, with a snarl, &ldquo;I may yet prove to you that
+      you have been unwise so to use Ramiro del' Orca.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you so much as venture to address me again upon the subject,&rdquo; she
+      returned in the very chilliest accents, &ldquo;I will lay this matter of your
+      odious suit before your master Cesare Borgia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They must have caught the sound of my footsteps in the gallery in which
+      they stood, and Ramiro moved away, his purple face pale for once, and his
+      eyes malevolent as Satan's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I reflected with pleasure that perhaps we had now seen the last of him,
+      and that before that threat of Madonna's he would see fit to ride home to
+      Cesena and remain there. But I was wrong. With incredible effrontery and
+      daring he lingered. The morrow was a Sunday, and, on the Tuesday or
+      Wednesday following, Cesare Borgia and his cousin Ignacio were expected.
+      Filippo was in the best of moods, and paid more heed to the Governor of
+      Cesena's presence at Pesaro than he did to mine. It may be that he
+      imagined Ramiro del' Orca to be acting under Cesare's instructions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That Sunday night we supped together, and we were all tolerably gay, the
+      topic of our talk being the coming of the bridegroom. Madonna's was the
+      only downcast face at the board. She was pale and worn, and there were
+      dark circles round her eyes that did much to mar the beauty of her angel
+      face, and inspired me with a deep and sorrowing pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro announced his intention of leaving Pesaro on the morrow, and ere he
+      went he begged leave to pledge the beautiful Lady of Santafior, who was so
+      soon to become the bride of the valiant and mighty Ignacio Borgia. It was
+      a toast that was eagerly received, so eager and uproariously that even
+      that poor lady herself was forced to smile, for all that I saw it in her
+      eyes that her heart was on the point of breaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remember how, when we had drunk, she raised her goblet&mdash;a beautiful
+      chaste cup of solid gold&mdash;and drank, herself, in acknowledgment; and
+      I remember, too, how, chancing to move my head, I caught a most singular,
+      ill-omened smile upon the coarse lips of Messer Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time I thought of it no more, but in the morning when the horrible
+      news that spread through the Palace gained my ears, that smile of Ramiro
+      del' Orca recurred to me at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was from the seneschal of the Palace that I first heard that tragic
+      news. I had but risen, and I was descending from my quarters, when I came
+      upon him, his old face white as death, a palsy in his limbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard the news, Ser Lazzaro?&rdquo; he cried in a quavering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The news of what?&rdquo; I asked, struck by the horror in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna Paola is dead,&rdquo; he told me, with a sob.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I stared at him in speechless consternation, and for a moment I seemed
+      forlorn of sense and understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead?&rdquo; I remember whispering. &ldquo;What is it you say?&rdquo; And I leaned forward
+      towards him, peering into his face. &ldquo;What is it you say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well may you doubt your ears,&rdquo; he groaned. &ldquo;But, Vergine Santissima! it
+      is the truth. Madonna Paola, that sweet angel of God, lies cold and stiff.
+      They found her so this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God of Heaven!&rdquo; I cried out, and leaving him abruptly I dashed down the
+      steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarce knowing what I did, acting upon an impulsive instinct that was as
+      irresistible as it was unreasoning, I made for the apartments of Madonna
+      Paola. In the antechamber I found a crowd assembled, and on every face was
+      pallid consternation written. Of my own countenance I had a glimpse in a
+      mirror as I passed; it was ashen, and my hollow eyes were wild as a
+      madman's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Someone caught me by the arm. I turned. It was the Lord Filippo, pale as
+      the rest, his affectations all fallen from him, and the man himself
+      revealed by the hand of an overwhelming sorrow. With him was a grave,
+      white-bearded gentleman, whose sober robe proclaimed the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a black and monstrous affair, my friend,&rdquo; he murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it true, is it really true, my lord?&rdquo; I cried in such a voice that all
+      eyes were turned upon me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your grief is a welcome homage to my own,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Alas, Dio Santo! it
+      is most hideously true. She lies there cold and white as marble, I have
+      just seen her. Come hither, Lazzaro.&rdquo; He drew me aside, away from the
+      crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been Madonna's
+      oratory. With us came the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned,
+      Lazzaro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poisoned?&rdquo; I echoed. &ldquo;Body of God! but by whom? We all loved her. There
+      was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid down his
+      life in her service. Who was there, then, to poison that dear saint?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then that the memory of Ramiro del' Orca, and the look that in his
+      eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the Governor of Cesena?&rdquo; I cried suddenly. Filippo looked at me
+      with quick surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He departed betimes this morning for his castle. Why do you ask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro's attentions to
+      Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he had
+      seemed to threaten. Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done he
+      shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, all being as you say, should he work so wanton a destruction?&rdquo; he
+      asked stupidly, as if jealousy were not cause enough to drive an evil man
+      to destroy that which he may not possess. &ldquo;Nay, nay, your wits are
+      disordered. You remember that he looked at Madonna whilst she drank, and
+      you construe that into a proof that he had poisoned the cup she drank
+      from. But then it is probable that we all looked at her in that same
+      moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not with such eyes as his,&rdquo; I insisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could he have administered the poison with his own hands?&rdquo; asked the
+      doctor gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that were a difficult matter. But he might have bribed a
+      servant to drop a powder in her wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why then,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it should be an easy thing to find the servant. Do
+      you chance to remember who served the wine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; answered Filippo readily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let the man be questioned; let him be racked if necessary. Thus shall you
+      probably arrive at a true knowledge; thus discover under whose directions
+      he was working.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the only thing to do, and Filippo sent me about it there and then,
+      telling me the servant in question was a Venetian of the name of
+      Zabatello. If confirmation had been needed that this fellow had been the
+      tool of the poisoner&mdash;there was no reason to suppose that he would
+      have done the thing to have served any ends of his own&mdash;that
+      confirmation I had upon discovering that Zabatello was fled from Pesaro,
+      leaving no trace behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men were sent out by the Lord Filippo in every direction to endeavour to
+      find the rogue and bring him back. Whether they caught him or not seemed,
+      after all a little thing to me. She was dead; that was the one
+      all-absorbing, all-effacing fact that took possession of my mind, blotting
+      out all minor matters that might be concerned with it. Even the now
+      assured fact that she had been poisoned was a thing that found little room
+      in my consideration on that day of my burning grief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was dead, dead, dead! The hideous phrase boomed again and again
+      through my distracted mind. Compared with that overwhelming catastrophe,
+      what signified to me the how or why or when she had died. She was dead,
+      and the world was empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For hours I sat on the rocks, alone by the sea, on that stormy day of
+      December, and I indulged my grief where no prying eyes could witness it,
+      amid the solitude of wild and angry Nature. And the moan and thud with
+      which the great waves hurled themselves against the base of the black rock
+      on which I was perched afforded but a feeble echo of the storm that raged
+      and beat within my desolated soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was dead, dead, dead! The waves seemed to shout it as they leapt up
+      and spattered me with brine; the wind now moaned it piteously, now
+      shrieked it fiercely as it scudded by, wrapping its invisible coils about
+      me, and seeming intent on tearing me from my resting-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards evening, at last, I rose, and skirting the Castle, I entered the
+      town, dishevelled and bedraggled, yet caring nothing what spectacle I
+      might afford. And presently a grim procession overtook me, and at sight of
+      the black, cowled and visored figures that advanced in the lurid light of
+      their wax torches, I fell on my knees there in the street, and so
+      remained, my knees deep in the mud, my head bowed, until her sainted body
+      had been borne past. None heeded me. They bore her to San Domenico, and
+      thither I followed presently, and in the shadow of one of the pillars of
+      the aisle I crouched whilst the monks chanted their funereal psalms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The singing ended, the friars departed, and presently those of the Court
+      and the sight-seers from the streets began to leave the church. In an hour
+      I was alone&mdash;alone with the beloved dead, and there, on my knees, I
+      stayed, and whether I prayed or blasphemed during that horrid hour, my
+      memory will not let me say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may have been towards the third hour of night when at last I staggered
+      up&mdash;stiff and cramped from my long kneeling on the cold stone.
+      Slowly, in a half-dazed condition, I move down the aisle and gained the
+      door of the church. I essayed to open it. It resisted my efforts, and then
+      I realised that it was locked for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The appreciation of my position afforded me not the slightest dismay. On
+      the contrary, I think my feelings were rather of relief. I had not known
+      whither I should repair&mdash;so distraught was my mood&mdash;and now
+      chance had settled the matter for me by decreeing that I should remain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned and slowly I paced back until I stood beside the great black
+      catafalque, at each corner of which a tall wax taper was burning. My
+      footsteps rang with a hollow sound through the vast, gloomy spaces of that
+      cold, empty church; my very breathing seemed to find an echo in it. But
+      these were not things to occupy my mind in such a season, no more than was
+      the icy cold by which I was half-numbed&mdash;yet of which I seemed to
+      remain unconscious in the absorbing anguish that possessed me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near the foot of the bier there was a bench, and there I sat me down, and
+      resting my elbows on my knees I took my dishevelled head between my frozen
+      hands. My thoughts were all of her whose poor murdered clay was there
+      encased above me. I reviewed, I think, each scene of my life where it had
+      touched on hers; I evoked every word she had addressed to me since first I
+      had met her on the road to Cagli.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And anon my mood changed, and, from cold and frozen that it had been by
+      grief, it grew ablaze with the fire of anger and the lust to wreak
+      vengeance upon him that had brought her to this condition. Let Filippo
+      fear to move without proofs, let him doubt such proofs as I had set before
+      him and deem them overslender to warrant action. Such scruples should not
+      serve to restrain me. I was no lukewarm brother. Here in Pesaro I would
+      remain until her poor body was delivered to the earth, and then I would
+      set out upon a last emprise. Messer Ramiro del' Orca should account to me
+      for this vile deed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There in the House of Peace I sat gnawing my hands and maturing my bloody
+      plans whilst the night wore on. Later a still more frenzied mood obsessed
+      me&mdash;a burning desire to look again upon the sweet face of her I had
+      loved, the sainted visage of Madonna Paola. What was there to deter me?
+      Who was there to gainsay me?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I stood up and uttered that challenge aloud in my madness. My voice echoed
+      mournfully up the aisles, and the sound of the echo chilled me, yet my
+      purpose gathered strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I advanced, and after a moment's pause, with the silver-broidered hem of
+      the pall in my hands, I suddenly swept off that mantle of black cloth,
+      setting up such a gust of wind as all but quenched the tapers. I caught up
+      the bench on which I had been sitting, and, dragging it forward, I mounted
+      it and stood now with my breast on a level with the coffin-lid. I laid
+      hands on it and found it unfastened. Without thought or care of how I went
+      about the thing, I raised it and let it crash over to the ground. It fell
+      on the stone flags with a noise like that of thunder, which boomed and
+      reverberated along the gloomy vault above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A figure, all in purest white, lay there under my eyes, the face covered
+      by a veil. With deepest reverence, and a prayer to her sainted soul to
+      forgive the desecration of my loving hands, I tremblingly drew that veil
+      aside. How beautiful she was in the calm peace of death! She lay there
+      like one gently sleeping, the faintest smile upon her lips, and as I
+      looked it seemed hard to believe that she was truly dead. Why, her lips
+      had lost nothing of their colour; they were as rosy red&mdash;or nearly so&mdash;as
+      ever I had seen them in life. How could this be? The lips of the dead are
+      wont to put on a livid hue. I stared a moment, my reverence and grief
+      almost effaced by the intensity of my wonder. This face, so ivory pale,
+      wore not the ashen aspect of one that would never wake again. There was a
+      warmth about that pallor. And then I caught my nether lip in my teeth
+      until it bled, and it is a miracle that I did not scream, seeing how
+      overwrought was my condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For it had seemed to me that the draperies on her bosom had slightly
+      moved, a gentle, almost imperceptible heave as if she breathed. I looked,
+      and there it came again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God! into what madness was I come that my eyes could so deceive me? It was
+      the draught that stirred the air about the church and blew great shrouds
+      of wax adown the taper's yellow sides. I manned myself to a more sober
+      mood, and looked again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now my doubts were all dispelled. I knew that I had mastered any
+      errant fancy, and that my eyes were grown wise and discriminating, and I
+      knew, too, that she lived. Her bosom slowly rose and fell; the colour of
+      her lips, the hue of her cheeks confirmed the assurance that she breathed.
+      The poison had failed in its work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I paused a second yet to ponder. That morning her appearance had been such
+      that the physician had been deceived by it, and had pronounced her cold.
+      Yet now there were these signs of life. What could it portend but that the
+      effects of the poison were passing off and that she was recovering?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the wild madness of joy that sent the blood drumming and beating
+      through my brain, my first impulse was to run for help. Then I bethought
+      me of the closed doors, and I realised that no matter how I shouted none
+      would hear me. I must succour her myself as best I could, and meanwhile
+      she must be protected from the chill air of that December night in that
+      church that was colder than the tomb. I had my cloak, a heavy, serviceable
+      garment; and if more were needed, there was the pall which I had removed,
+      and which lay in a heap about the legs of my bench.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I leaned forward, and passing my hand under her head, I gently raised it.
+      Then slipping it downwards, I thrust my arm after it until I had her round
+      the waist in a firm grip. Thus I raised her from the coffin, and the
+      warmth of her body on my arm, the ready, supple bending of her limbs, were
+      so many added proofs that she was not dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gently and reverently I lifted her in my arms, an intoxication of holy joy
+      pervading me, and the prayers falling faster from my lips than ever they
+      had done since as a lad I had recited them at my mother's knee. A moment I
+      laid her on the bench, whilst I divested myself of my cloak. Then suddenly
+      I paused, and stood listening, holding my breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steps were advancing towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My first impulse was to rush forward and call to those who came, shouting
+      my news and imploring their help. Then a sudden, an almost instinctive
+      suspicion caught and chilled me. Who was it came at such an hour? What
+      could any man seek in the Church of San Domenico at dead of night? Was the
+      church indeed their goal, or were they but passers-by?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That last question went not long unanswered. The steps came nearer, whilst
+      I stood appalled, my skin roughening like a dog's. They halted at the
+      door. Something heavy hurtled against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A voice, the voice of Ramiro del' Orca&mdash;I knew it upon the instant&mdash;reached
+      my ears which concentration had rendered superacute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is locked, Baldassare. Get out those tools of yours and force it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      My wits were working now at fever-pace. It may be that I am swift of
+      thought beyond the ordinary man, or it may be that what then came to me
+      was either a flash of inspiration or the conclusion to which I leapt by
+      instinct. But in that moment the whole plot of Madonna's poisoning was
+      revealed to me. Poisoned she had been&mdash;aye, but by some drug that did
+      but produce for a little while the outward appearance of death so truly
+      simulated as to deceive the most experienced of doctors. I had heard of
+      such poisons, and here, in very truth, was one of them at work. His
+      vengeance on her for her indifference to his suit was not so clumsy and
+      primitive as that of simply slaying her. He had, by his infernal artifice,
+      intended, secretly, to bear her off. To-morrow when men found a broken
+      church-door and a violated bier, they would set the sacrilege down to some
+      wizard who had need of the body for his dark practices of magic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cursed myself in that hour that I had not earlier been moved to peer
+      into her coffin whilst yet there might have been time to have saved her.
+      Now? The sweat stood out in beads upon my brow. At that door there were,
+      to judge by the sound of footsteps and of voices, some three or four men
+      besides Messer Ramiro. For only weapon I had my dagger. What could I do
+      with that to defend her? Ramiro's plan would suffer no frustration through
+      my discovery; when to-morrow the sacrilege was discovered the cold body of
+      Lazzaro Biancomonte lying beside the desecrated bier would be but an item
+      in the work of profanation they would find&mdash;an item that nowise would
+      modify the conclusion to which I anticipated they would come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV. REQUIESCAT!
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human mind.
+      Some it renders incapable of thought or action, paralysing their limbs and
+      stagnating the blood in their veins; such creatures die in anticipating
+      death. Others under the stress of that grim passion have their wits
+      preternaturally sharpened. The instinct of self-preservation assumes
+      command of all their senses, and urges them to swift and feverish action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank God with a full heart that to this latter class do I belong. After
+      one gelid moment, spent with eyes and mouth agape, my hands fallen limp
+      beside me and my hair bristling with affright, I became myself again and
+      never calmer than in that dread moment. I went to work with superhuman
+      swiftness. My cheeks may have been livid, my very lips bloodless; but my
+      hands were steady and my wits under full control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Concealment&mdash;concealment for myself and her&mdash;was the thing that
+      now imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were
+      devised. Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case to be
+      exacting, and since they were the best the place afforded I must trust to
+      them without demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might lack the wit
+      to search. And with that fresh hope it came to me that I must find a way
+      so to dispose as to make him believe that to search would be a futile
+      waste of energy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal. Yet a little
+      time there was. The door was stout, and Messer Ramiro might take no
+      violent means of bursting it, lest the noise should arouse the street&mdash;and
+      I well could guess how little he would relish having lights to shine upon
+      this deed of night of his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With what tools his sbirro was at work I could not say; but surely they
+      must be such as would leave me a few moments. Already the fellow had
+      begun. I could make out a soft crunching sound, as of steel biting into
+      wood. To act, then!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With movements swift as a cat's, and as silent, I went to work. Like a
+      ghost I glided round the coffin to the other side, where the lid was
+      lying. I took it up, and when for a moment I had deposited Madonna Paola
+      on the ground, I mounted the bench and gently but quickly set back that
+      lid as it had been. Next, I gathered up the cumbrous pall, and mounting
+      the bench once more I spread it across the coffin. This way and that I
+      pulled it, straightening it into the shape that it had worn when first I
+      had entered, and casting its folds into regular lines that would lend it
+      the appearance of having remained undisturbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And what time I toiled, the half of my mind intent upon my task, the other
+      half was as intent upon the progress of the worker at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last it was done. I set the bench where first it had been, at the foot
+      of the catafalque, and gathering up Madonna in my arms, as though her
+      weight had been an infant's, I bore her swiftly out of the circle of light
+      of those four tapers into the black, impenetrable gloom beyond. On I sped
+      towards the high-altar, flying now as men fly in evil dreams, with the
+      sensation of an enemy upon them and their progress a mere standing-still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus I gained the chancel, hurtling against the railing as I passed, and
+      pausing for an instant, wondering whether those without could have heard
+      the noise which in my clumsiness I had made. But the grinding sound
+      continued uninterrupted, and I breathed more freely. I mounted the
+      altar-steps, the distant light behind me still feebly guiding me; I ran
+      round to the right, and heaved a great sigh of relief to find my hopes
+      verified, and that the altar of San Domenico was as the altar of other
+      churches I had known. It stood a pace or so from the wall, and behind it
+      there was just such narrow hiding-room as I had looked to find.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I paused at the mouth of that black opening, and even as I paused,
+      something hard that gave out a metallic sound fell at the far end of the
+      church. Instinct told me it was the lock which those miscreants had cut
+      from the door. I waited for no more, but like a beast scudding to cover I
+      plunged into that black space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna, wrapped in my cloak as she was, I set down upon the ground, and
+      then I crept forward on hands and knees and thrust out my head, trusting
+      to the darkness to envelop me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I waited thus for some seconds, my heart beating now against my ribs as if
+      it would hurl itself out of my bosom, my head and face on fire with the
+      fever of reaction that succeeded my late cold pallor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From where I watched it was impossible to see the door hidden in the black
+      gloom. Away in the centre of the church, an island of light in that vast
+      sea of blackness, stood the catafalque with its four wax torches.
+      Something creaked, and almost immediately I saw the flames of those tapers
+      bend towards me, beaten over by the gust that smote them from the door.
+      Thus I surmised that Ramiro and his men had entered. The soft fall of
+      their feet; for they were treading lightly now, succeeded, and at last
+      they came into view, shadowy at first, then sharply outlined as they
+      approached the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment they stood in half-whispered conversation, their voices a mere
+      boom of sound in which no word was to be distinguished. Then I saw Ramiro
+      suddenly step forward&mdash;I knew him by his great height&mdash;and drag
+      away, even as I had done, the pall that hid the coffin. Next he seized the
+      bench and gave a brisk order to his men in a less cautious voice, so that
+      I caught his words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spread a cloak,&rdquo; said he, and, in obedience, the four that were with him
+      took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. It was thus that
+      he meant to bear her with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind he
+      put out his hands to remove the coffin-lid. As well as if his soul had
+      been transformed into a book conceived for my amusement did I surmise the
+      exultant mood that then possessed him. He had tricked Filippo; he had
+      out-witted us all&mdash;Madonna herself, included&mdash;and he was leaving
+      no trace behind him that should warrant any so much as to dare to think
+      that this vile deed was the work of Messer Ramiro del' Orca, Governor of
+      Cessna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the gods, delights in mighty
+      contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and hollow lures
+      on the very eve of working our discomfiture. From the soul that but a
+      moment back had been aglow with evil satisfaction there burst a sudden
+      blasphemous cry of rage that disregarded utterly the sanctity of that
+      consecrated place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy crash
+      as he let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder sound awoke
+      the night-echoes of that silent place. In a burst of maniacal frenzy he
+      had caught the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty fist, and hurled it
+      from its trestles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds in
+      the excitement that possessed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;They have
+      laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling
+      veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror
+      spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though
+      he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of this!&rdquo; he growled at them. &ldquo;See that your swords hang ready.
+      Away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of them murmured something that I could not catch. Mother in Heaven!
+      if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a
+      suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it? But
+      Ramiro's answer speedily relieved my fears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll take no risks,&rdquo; he barked. &ldquo;Come! Let us go separately. I first, and
+      do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can.&rdquo; His voice grew
+      lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words, &ldquo;Cesena&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;to-morrow night,&rdquo; from which I gathered that he was appointing that as
+      their next meeting-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere the
+      others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that was
+      here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by their
+      still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it had
+      lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those
+      ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola. Her breathing was grown more
+      heavy and more regular, so that in all respects she was as one sleeping
+      healthily. Soon I hoped that she might awaken, for to seek to bear her
+      thence and to the Palace in my arms would have been a madness. And now it
+      occurred to me that I should have restoratives at hand against the time of
+      her regaining consciousness. Inspiration suggested to me the wine that
+      should be stored in the sacristy for altar purposes. It was unconsecrated,
+      and there could be no sacrilege in using it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle-branch
+      protruded, standing no higher than my head. It held some three or four
+      tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at early
+      Mass on dark winter mornings. I plucked one of the candles from its
+      socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the
+      burning tapers of the bier. Screening it with my hand, I retraced my steps
+      and regained the chancel. Then turning to the left, I made for a door that
+      I knew should give access to the sacristy. It yielded to my touch, and I
+      passed down a short stone-flagged passage, and entered the spacious
+      chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed against one wall, and above it
+      hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix. Facing it against the other wall
+      loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard, half-buffet. On a bench
+      in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a few vestments
+      hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere and
+      white-washed chamber. Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one of the
+      drawers. It was full of garments of different kinds, among which I noticed
+      several monks' habits. I rummaged to the bottom only to find some odd
+      pairs of sandals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better
+      fortune. Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and
+      fragrant with rosemary. I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to
+      the cupboard above. It was locked, but the key was there. It opened, and
+      my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated
+      chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid
+      gold, set with precious stones. But in a corner I espied a dark-brown,
+      gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine, and, with a half-suppressed
+      cry of joy, I seized it. In that instant a piercing scream rang through
+      the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I stood there for
+      some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping to my
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned? Did the scream mean that
+      Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that
+      its first utterance had cast over me. Dropping the leather bottle, I sped
+      back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the chancel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and
+      ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays
+      of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs were
+      hung. She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very natural fear
+      consequent upon awakening in such a place that had provoked the cry I had
+      heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna,&rdquo; I called, advancing swiftly towards her. &ldquo;Madonna Paola!&rdquo; There
+      was a gasp, a moment's stillness, then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro?&rdquo; She cried, questioningly. &ldquo;What has happened? Why am I here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something horrible has happened, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;But it is over
+      now, and the evil is averted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how came I here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you shall learn.&rdquo; I stooped to gather up the cloak which had slipped
+      from her shoulders as she advanced. &ldquo;Do you wrap this about you,&rdquo; I urged
+      her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in that mantle. &ldquo;Are
+      you faint, Madonna?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I scarce know,&rdquo; she answered in a frightened voice. &ldquo;There is a black
+      horror upon me. Tell me,&rdquo; she implored again, &ldquo;what does it mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once
+      she were out of these forbidding surroundings. I led her to the sacristy
+      and seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was
+      insistent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna,&rdquo; I told her. &ldquo;The wine will
+      warm and revive you. Come Madonna mia, drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she drank
+      a lusty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour to
+      replace the ashen pallor of her cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so cold, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she complained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks' habits, and
+      pulling one out I held it for her to don. She sat there now, in that
+      garment of coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder, the
+      fairest postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are good to me, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she murmured plaintively, &ldquo;and I have used
+      you very ill.&rdquo; She paused a second, passing her hand across her brow. Then&mdash;&ldquo;What
+      is the hour?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a question that I left unheeded. I bade her brace herself and have
+      courage for the tale I was to tell. I assured her that the horror of it
+      was all passed and that she had naught to fear. So soon as her natural
+      curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to her brother
+      at the Palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how came I thence?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I must have lain in a swoon, for I
+      remember nothing.&rdquo; And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable
+      conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered
+      catafalque which she had seen&mdash;&ldquo;Did they account me dead, Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+       she asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they
+      were turned upon my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madonna,&rdquo; answered I, &ldquo;you were accounted dead.&rdquo; And, with that, I
+      told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I left my
+      own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune presence in the
+      church. When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she shuddered
+      and closed her eyes in very awe. At length, when I had done, she opened
+      them again, and again she turned them full upon me. Their brightness
+      seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that she was quietly weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she murmured brokenly. &ldquo;Lazzaro
+      mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of you. You are
+      indeed my one true friend&mdash;the one true friend that never fails me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?&rdquo; I asked abruptly, roughly almost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am stronger.&rdquo; She stood up as if to test her strength. &ldquo;Indeed
+      little ails me saving the horror of this thing. The thought of it seems to
+      turn me sick and dizzy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit then and rest,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Presently, when you are more recovered, we
+      will set out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither shall we go?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, to the Palace, to your brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes,&rdquo; she answered, as though it were the last suggestion that she
+      had been expecting, &ldquo;And to-morrow&mdash;it will be to-morrow, will it
+      not?&mdash;comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride. He will owe you no
+      mean thanks, Lazzaro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause. I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my
+      mind, but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be from
+      matins, and how soon we might be discovered by the monks. Presently she
+      spoke again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she inquired very gently, &ldquo;what was it brought you to the
+      church?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service,&rdquo; answered I, and
+      fearing such questions as might follow&mdash;questions that I had been
+      dreading ever since I had brought her to the sacristy&mdash;&ldquo;If you are
+      recovered we had best be going,&rdquo; I told her gruffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I am not yet enough recovered,&rdquo; answered she. &ldquo;And before we go,
+      there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have you make
+      clear to me. Meanwhile, we are very well here. If the good fathers come
+      upon us, what shall it signify?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I groaned inwardly, and I grew, I think, more afraid than when Ramiro and
+      his men had broken into the church an hour ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kept you here after all were gone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remained to pray, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered brusquely. &ldquo;Is aught else to be
+      done in a church?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To pray for me, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly, Madonna.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faithful heart,&rdquo; she murmured. &ldquo;And I had used you so cruelly for the
+      deception you practised. But you merited my cruelty, did you not, Lazzaro?
+      Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I deserved it, Madonna. But perhaps not so much as you bestowed,
+      had you but understood my motives,&rdquo; I said unguardedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had understood your motives?&rdquo; she mused. &ldquo;Aye, there is much I do
+      not understand. Even in this night's transactions there are not wanting
+      things that remain mysterious despite the explanations you have supplied
+      me. Tell me, Lazzaro, what was it led you to suppose that I still lived?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not suppose it,&rdquo; I blundered like a fool, never seeing whither her
+      question led.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did not?&rdquo; she cried, in deep surprise; and now, when it was too late,
+      I understood. &ldquo;What was it, then, induced you to lift the coffin-lid?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ask me more than I can tell you,&rdquo; I answered, almost roughly. &ldquo;Do you
+      thank God, Madonna, that it was so, and never plague your mind to learn
+      the 'why' of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at me with eyes that were singularly luminous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I must know,&rdquo; she insisted. &ldquo;Have I not the right? Tell me now: Was
+      it that you wished to see my face again before they gave me over to the
+      grave?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it was that, Madonna,&rdquo; I answered in confusion, avoiding her
+      glance. Then&mdash;&ldquo;Shall we be going?&rdquo; I suggested fiercely. But she
+      never heeded that suggestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke as if she had not heard, and the words she uttered seemed to
+      turn me into stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you love me then so much, dear Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I swung round to face her now, and I know that my face was white&mdash;whiter
+      than hers had been when I had beheld her in her coffin. My eyes seemed to
+      burn in their sockets as they met hers. A madness overtook me and whelmed
+      my better judgment. I had undergone so much that day through grief, and
+      that night through a hundred emotions, that I was no longer fully master
+      of myself. Her words robbed me, I think, of my last lingering shred of
+      reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love you, Madonna?&rdquo; I echoed, in a voice that was as unlike my own as was
+      the mood that then possessed me. &ldquo;You are the air I breathe, the sun that
+      lights my miserable world. You are dearer to me than honour, sweeter than
+      life. You are the guardian angel of my existence, the saint to whom I have
+      turned morning and evening in my prayers for grace. Do I love you, Madonna&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And there I paused. The thought of what I did and what the consequences
+      must be rushed suddenly upon me. I shivered as a man shivers in awaking. I
+      dropped on my knees before her, bowing my head and flinging wide my arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive, Madonna,&rdquo; I cried entreatingly. &ldquo;Forgive and forget. Never again
+      will I offend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither forgive nor forget will I,&rdquo; came her voice, charged with an
+      ineffable sweetness, and her hands descended on my bowed bead, as if she
+      would bless and soothe me. &ldquo;I am conscious of no offence that craves
+      forgiveness, and what you have said I would not forget if I could. Whence
+      springs this fear of yours, dear Lazzaro? Am I more than woman, or you
+      less than man that you should tremble for the confession that in a wild
+      moment I have dragged from you? For that wild moment I shall be thankful
+      to my life's end; for your words have been the sweetest ever my poor ears
+      listened to. Once I thought that I loved the Lord Giovanni Sforza. But it
+      was you I loved; for the deeds that earned him my affection were deeds of
+      yours and not of his. Once I told you so in scorn. Yet since then I have
+      come soberly to ponder it. I account you, Lazzaro, the noblest friend, the
+      bravest gentleman and the truest lover that the world has known. Need it
+      surprise you, then, that I love you and that mine would be a happy life if
+      I might spend it in growing worthy of this noble love of yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes&mdash;a matter at which
+      I take no shame. Air seemed to fail me for a moment, and I almost thought
+      that I should swoon, so overcome was I. Transport the blackest soul from
+      among the damned of Hell, wash it white of its sins and seat it on one of
+      the glorious thrones of Heaven, then ponder its emotions, and you may
+      learn something of what I felt. At last, when I had mastered the exquisite
+      torture of my joy&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna mia,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;bethink you of what you say. You are the noble
+      lady of Santafior, and I&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more of this,&rdquo; she interrupted me. &ldquo;You are Lazzaro Biancomonte, of
+      patrician birth, no matter to what odd shifts a cruel fortune may have
+      driven you. Will you take me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had my face between her palms, and she forced my glance to meet her
+      own saintly eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you take me, Lazaro?&rdquo; she repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holy Flower of the Quince!&rdquo; was all that I could murmur, whereat she
+      gently smiled. &ldquo;Santo Fior di Cotogno!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then a great sadness overwhelmed me. A tide that neaped the frail bark
+      of happiness high and dry upon the shores of black despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow Madonna, comes the Lord Ignacio Borgia,&rdquo; I groaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, I know,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;But I have thought of that. Paula Sforza di
+      Santafior is dead. Requiescat! We must dispose that they will let her rest
+      in peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV. AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Speechless I stared at her a moment, so taken was I with the immensity of
+      the thing that she suggested. Fear, amazement, and joy jostled one another
+      for the possession of my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you look so, Lazzaro?&rdquo; she exclaimed at last. &ldquo;What is it daunts
+      you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is the thing possible?&rdquo; quoth I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What difficulty does it present?&rdquo; she questioned back. &ldquo;The Governor of
+      Cesena has rendered very possible what I propose. We may look on him
+      to-morrow as our best friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Ramiro knows,&rdquo; I reminded her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, but do you think that he will dare to tell the world what he knows?
+      He might be asked to say how he comes by his knowledge, and that should
+      prove a difficult question to answer. Tell me, Lazzaro,&rdquo; she continued,
+      &ldquo;if he had succeeded in carrying me away, what think you would have been
+      said in Pesaro to-morrow when the coffin was found empty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would assume that your body had been stolen by some wizard or some
+      daring student of anatomy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! And if we were quietly to quit the church and be clear of Pesaro
+      before morning, would not the same be said?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably,&rdquo; answered I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why hesitate? Is it that you do not love me enough, Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I smiled, and my eyes must have told her more than any protestation could.
+      Then I sighed. &ldquo;I hesitate, Madonna, because I would not have you do now
+      what you might come, hereafter, bitterly to repent. I would not let you be
+      misled by the impulse of a moment into an act whose consequences must
+      endure as long as life itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the reasoning of a lover?&rdquo; she asked me, very quietly. &ldquo;Is this
+      cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the stormy passion
+      you professed so lately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; I answered stoutly. &ldquo;It is because I love you more than I love
+      myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life upon such
+      a broken raft as mine. You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and I&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough of that,&rdquo; she interrupted me, rising. She swept towards me, and
+      before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and
+      her blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in her low
+      tones, &ldquo;moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me, and
+      bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time. Will you wait until
+      escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered, before you will
+      decide to save me, and to grasp with both hands this happiness of ours
+      that is not twice offered in a lifetime?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her heart.
+      Some subtle perfume reaching me and combining with the dominion that her
+      eyes seemed to have established over me completed my subjugation. I was as
+      warm wax in her hands. Forgotten were all considerations of rank and
+      station. We were just a man and a woman whose fates were linked
+      irrevocably by love. I stooped suddenly, under the sway of an impulse, I
+      could not resist, and kissed her upturned face, turning almost dizzy in
+      the act. Then I broke from her clasp, and bracing myself for the task to
+      which we stood committed by that kiss&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Paola,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;we must devise the means to get away. I will bear you to
+      my mother's home near Biancomonte, that you may dwell there at least until
+      we are wed. But the thing that exercises my mind is how to make our
+      unobserved escape from Pesaro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have thought of it already,&rdquo; she informed me quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have thought of it?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;And of what have you thought?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For answer she stepped back a pace, and drew the cowl of the monk's habit
+      over her head until her features were lost in the shadows of it. She stood
+      before me now, a diminutive Dominican brother. Her meaning was clear to me
+      at once. With a cry of gladness I turned to the drawer whence I had taken
+      the habit in which she was arrayed, and selecting another one I hastily
+      donned it above the garments that I wore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was it done than I caught her by the arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Madonna,&rdquo; I bade her in an urgent voice. At the first step she
+      stumbled. The habit was so long that it cumbered her feet. But that was a
+      difficulty soon conquered. With my dagger I cut a piece from the skirt of
+      it, enough to leave her freedom of movement; and, that accomplished, we
+      set out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We crossed the church swiftly and silently, and a moment I left her in the
+      porch whilst I surveyed the street. All was quiet. Pesaro still slept, and
+      it must have wanted some two hours or more to the dawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fine rain was falling as we sallied out, and there was a sting in the
+      December wind which made us draw our cowls the tighter about our face.
+      Abandoning the main street, I led her down some narrow alleys, deserted
+      like all the rest of the city, and not so much as a stray cat abroad in
+      that foul weather. It was very dark, and a hundred times we stumbled,
+      whilst in some places I almost carried her bodily to avoid the filth of
+      the quarter we were traversing. At length we gained the space in front of
+      the gates that open on to the northern road, known as Porta Venezia, and I
+      would have blundered on and roused the guard to let us out, using the
+      Borgia ring once more&mdash;that talisman whose power had grown during
+      these years, so that it would now open me almost any door in Italy. But
+      Paola stayed me. Wisely she counselled that we should do nothing that
+      might draw too much attention upon ourselves, and she urged me to wait
+      until the dawn, when the guard would be astir and the gates opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So we fled to the shelter of a porch, and there we waited, huddling
+      ourselves out of the reach of the icy rain. We talked little during the
+      time we spent there. For my own part I had overmuch food for thought, and
+      a very natural anxiety racked me. Soon the monks would be descending to
+      the church, and they would discover the havoc there, and spread the alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who could say but that they might even discover the abstraction of the two
+      habits from the sacristy, and the hue and cry for two men in the sackcloth
+      of Dominicans would be afoot&mdash;for they would infer that two men so
+      disguised had made off with the body of Madonna Paola. The thought stirred
+      me like a goad. I stood up. The night was growing thinner, and, suddenly,
+      even as I rose, a light gleamed from one of the Windows of the
+      guard-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God be thanked for that fellow's early rising,&rdquo; I cried out. &ldquo;Come,
+      Madonna, let us be moving.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And I added my newly-conceived reasons for quitting the place without
+      further delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cursing us for being so early abroad&mdash;a curse to which I responded
+      with a sonorous &ldquo;Pax Domini sit tecum&rdquo; the still somnolent sentinel opened
+      the post and let us pass. I was glad in the end that we had waited and
+      thus avoided the necessity of showing my ring, for should inquiries be
+      made concerning two monks, that ring of mine might have betrayed the
+      identity of one of them. I gave thanks to Heaven that I knew the country
+      well. A quarter of a league or so from Pesaro we quitted the high-road and
+      took to the by-paths with which I was well acquainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Day came, grey and forbidding at first, but presently the rain ceased and
+      the sun flashed out a thousand diamonds from the drenched hedge-rows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We plodded on; and at length, towards noon, when we had gained the
+      neighbourhood of the village of Cattolica, we halted at the hut of a
+      peasant on a small campagna. I had divested myself of my monk's habit, and
+      cut away the cowl from Madonna's. She had thereafter fashioned it by means
+      that were mysterious to my dull man's mind into a more feminine-looking
+      garb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we now presented ourselves to the old man who was the sole tenant of
+      that lonely and squalid house. A ducat opened his door as wide as it would
+      go, and gave us free access to every cranny of his dwelling. Food he
+      procured us&mdash;rough black bread, some pieces of roasted goat, and some
+      goat's milk&mdash;and on this we regaled ourselves as though it had been a
+      ducal banquet, for hunger had set us in the mood to account anything
+      delicious. And when we had eaten we fell to talking, the old man having
+      left us to go about such peasant duties as claimed his attention, and our
+      talk concerned ourselves, our future first, and later on our past. I
+      remember that Madonna returned to the matter of the deception that I had
+      practised, seeking to learn what reasons had impelled me, and I answered
+      her in all truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love. When Giovanni
+      Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook the
+      task with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out the
+      tale of the passion that was consuming my poor heart. It occurred to me
+      that if those verses were worthy, you might come to love their author for
+      their beauty, and so I strove to render them beautiful. It was the same
+      spirit urged me to don the Lord Giovanni's armour and fight in that
+      splendid if futile skirmish. Even as you had come to love the author for
+      his verses, so might you come to love the warrior for his valour. That you
+      should account the one and the other the work of Giovanni Sforza was to me
+      a little thing, since I was well content to think that you but loved him
+      because you accounted his the things that I had performed. Therefore was I
+      the one you truly loved, although you did not know it. Could you but
+      conceive what consolation that reflection was to me, you would deal
+      lightly with me for my deceit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can conceive it,&rdquo; she answered, very gently, her eyes downcast; &ldquo;and
+      now that I know the motives that impelled you, I almost love you for that
+      deceit itself, for it seems to me that it holds some quality well worthy
+      of devotion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was our talk, all of a nature to help us to a better understanding of
+      each other, and all seeming to endear us more and more by showing us how
+      close the past had already drawn us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later I rose and announced my intention of adventuring into Cattolica,
+      there to procure her garments more seemly than those she wore, in which
+      she might journey on and come into the presence of my mother. Also, there
+      was in Cattolica a man I knew, of whom I hoped for the loan of enough
+      money to enable me to purchase mules, to the end that we might journey in
+      more dignity and comfort. It was then about the twentieth hour, and I
+      hoped to return by nightfall. I took my leave of Madonna, enjoining her to
+      rest and to seek sleep whilst I was absent; and with that I set out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cattolica was no more than a half-league distant, and I looked to reach it
+      in a half-hour or so. I fell into thought as I trudged along, and I was
+      building plans for the sunlit future that was to be ours. I was a man
+      transformed that day, and I could have sung in spite of the chill December
+      wind that buffeted me, so full of joy and gladness was my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Biancomonte I was likely to spend my days as little better than a
+      peasant, but surely a peasant's estate with such a companion as was to be
+      mine was preferable to an emperor's throne without her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bleak landscape seemed to me invested with a beauty that at no other
+      time I should have noticed. God was good. I swore a thousand times, the
+      world was a good world&mdash;so good that Heaven could scarce be better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had come, perhaps, the better half of the distance I had to travel, and
+      I was giving full rein to my joyous fancy, when suddenly I espied ahead a
+      company of horsemen. They were approaching me at a brisk pace, but I took
+      no thought of them, accounting myself secure from any molestation. If it
+      so happened that it was a search party from Pesaro, seeking two men
+      disguised as monks who had ravished the coffin of Madonna Paola di
+      Santafior, what should they want of Lazzaro Biancomonte? And so, in my
+      confidence, I advanced even as they trotted quickly towards me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not until they were within a matter of a hundred paces did I raise my eyes
+      to take their measure; and then I halted on my step, smitten of a sudden
+      by an unreasoning and unreasonable fear, to see at their head the bulky
+      form of the Governor of Cesena. He saw me, too, and, what was worse, he
+      recognised me on the instant, for he clapped spurs to his horse and came
+      at me as if he would ride me down. Within three paces of me he drew up his
+      steed. Whether the memory of the other two occasions on which I had
+      thwarted him arose now in his mind and made him wonder had not some
+      fatality brought me across his path again to send awry his pretty schemes
+      concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for certain; yet some suspicion of
+      it occurred to me and filled me with apprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Body of Bacchus!&rdquo; he roared. &ldquo;Is it truly you, Boccadoro?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent,&rdquo; I answered him. But my tone
+      was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fig for what they call you,&rdquo; he snapped contemptuously. &ldquo;Whence are
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Pesaro,&rdquo; I answered truthfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Pesaro? But you are travelling towards it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. I was making for Cattolica, but I missed my way in seeking to
+      shorten it. I am now returning by the high-road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The explanation satisfied him on that point, and being satisfied, he asked
+      me when I had left Pesaro. A moment I hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Late last night,&rdquo; said I at last. He looked, at me, my foolish hesitation
+      having perhaps unslipped a suspicion that was straining at its leash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you can scarcely have heard the strange story
+      that is being told there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked at him, as if puzzled, for a second. &ldquo;If you mean the story of
+      Madonna Paoia's end, I heard it yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what story was that?&rdquo; quoth he in some surprise, his beetling brows
+      coming together in one broad line of fur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shrugged my shoulders. &ldquo;Men said that she had been poisoned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that,&rdquo; he cried indifferently. &ldquo;But men say to-day that her body was
+      stolen from the Church of San Domenico where it lay. An odd happening, is
+      it not?&rdquo; And his eyes covered me in a fierce scrutiny that again suggested
+      to me those suspicions of his that I might be the man who had anticipated
+      him. I was soon to learn that he had more grounds than at first I thought
+      for those same suspicions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Odd, indeed,&rdquo; I answered calmly, for all that I felt my pulses quickening
+      with apprehension. &ldquo;But is it true?&rdquo; I added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shrugged his shoulders. &ldquo;Rumour's habit is to lie,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;Yet
+      for such a lie as that, so monstrous an imagination would be needed that,
+      rather, am I inclined to account it truth. There are no more poets in
+      Pesaro since you left. But at what hour was it that you quitted the city?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To hesitate again were to betray myself; it were to suggest that I was
+      seeking an answer that should sort well with the rest of my story.
+      Besides, what could the hour signify?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be about the first hour of night,&rdquo; I said. He looked at me with
+      increasing strangeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must indeed have wandered from your road to have got no farther than
+      this in all that time. Perhaps you were hampered by some heavy burden?&rdquo; He
+      leered evilly, and I turned cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was burdened with nothing heavier than this body of mine and a rather
+      uneasy conscience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where, then, have you tarried?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this I thought it time to rebel. Were I too meekly to submit to this
+      examination, my very meekness might afford him fresh grounds for doubts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once have I told you,&rdquo; I answered wearily, &ldquo;that I lost my way. And,
+      however much it may flatter me to have your Excellency evincing such an
+      interest in my concerns, I am at a loss to find a reason for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He leered prodigiously once more, and his eyebrows shot up to the level of
+      his cap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell you, brute beast,&rdquo; he answered me. &ldquo;I question you because I
+      suspect that you are hiding something from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What should I hide from your Excellency?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He dared not enlighten me on that point, for should his suspicions prove
+      unfounded he would have uselessly betrayed himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are honest, why do you lie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I?&rdquo; I ejaculated. &ldquo;In what have I lied?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that you have told me that you left Pesaro at the first hour of night.
+      At the third hour you were still in the Church of San Domenico, whither
+      you followed Madonna Paola's bier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was my turn to knit my brows. &ldquo;Was I indeed?&rdquo; quoth I. &ldquo;Why, yes, it
+      may well be. But what of that? Is the hour in which I quitted Pesaro a
+      matter of such moment as to be worth lying over? If I said that I left
+      about the first hour, it is because I was under the impression that it was
+      so. But I was so distraught by grief at Madonna's death that I may have
+      been careless in my account of time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More lies,&rdquo; he blazed with sudden passion. &ldquo;It may have been the third
+      hour, you say. Fool, the gates of Pesaro close at the second hour of
+      night. Where are your wits?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Outwardly calm, but inwardly in a panic&mdash;more for Madonna's sake than
+      for my own&mdash;I promptly held out the hand on which I wore the Borgia
+      ring. In a flash of inspiration did that counter suggest itself to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a key that will open any gate in Romagna at any hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at the ring, and of what passed in his mind I can but offer a
+      surmise. He may have remembered that once before I had fooled him with the
+      help of that gold circlet; or he may have thought that I was secretly in
+      the service of the Borgias, and that, acting in their interests, I had
+      carried off Madonna Paola. Be that as it may, the sight of the ring threw
+      him into a fury. He turned on his horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucagnolo!&rdquo; he called, and a man of officer's rank detached himself from
+      the score of men-at-arms and rode forward. &ldquo;Let six men escort me home to
+      Cesena. Take you the remainder and beat up the country for three leagues
+      about this spot. Do not leave a house outside Cattolica unsearched. You
+      know what we are seeking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man inclined his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it,&rdquo; he
+      answered confidently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Set about it,&rdquo; was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me. &ldquo;You
+      have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro,&rdquo; he sneered. &ldquo;We shall
+      soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe betide you, should it
+      be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it then,&rdquo; I answered as calmly as I might. &ldquo;Meanwhile, perhaps you
+      will now suffer me to go my ways.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The readier since your way must lie with ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so, animal,&rdquo; he mimicked me with elephantine grace, &ldquo;you are for
+      Cesena, and you had best go with a good will. Our manner of constraining
+      men is reputed rude.&rdquo; He turned again. &ldquo;Ercole, take you this man behind
+      you. Assist him, Stefano.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to the
+      steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride. Thus at every stride
+      the anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they must find
+      her rose ever higher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI. IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were
+      mine as we sped northward towards Cesena. If you are a person of some
+      imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to
+      surmise them; if you are not&mdash;why then, my tale is not for you, and
+      it is more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it
+      aside long before you reach this page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had
+      fallen we were within the walls of the citadel. It was when we had
+      dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of the
+      soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Animal,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures and
+      rough ways. You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am maligned.
+      For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your lying tongue
+      with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until my men return
+      with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me. But if I then discover
+      that you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter from Ramiro del' Orca's
+      flagstaff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He pointed up to the tower of the Castle, from which a beam protruded,
+      laden at that moment with a ghastly burden just discernible in the
+      thickening gloom. He named it well when he called it his &ldquo;flagstaff,&rdquo; and
+      the miserable banner of carrion that hung from it was a fitting pennon for
+      the ruthless Governor of Cesena. Worthy was he to have worn the silver
+      hauberk of Werner von Urslingen with its motto, &ldquo;The enemy of God, of pity
+      and of mercy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Forbidding, black-browed men caught me with rough hands and dragged me off
+      to a dank, unlighted prison, as empty of furniture as it was full of
+      noisome smells. And there they left me to my ugly thoughts and my deeply
+      despondent mood what time the Governor of Cesena supped with his officers
+      in the hall of the Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro drank deep that night as was his habit, and being overladen with
+      wine it entered his mind that in one of his dungeons lay Lazzaro
+      Biancomonte, who, at one time, had been known as Boccadoro, the merriest
+      Fool in Italy. In his drunkenness he grew merry, and when Ramiro del' Orca
+      grew merry men crossed themselves and betook them to their prayers. He
+      would fain be amused, and to serve that end he summoned one of his sbirri
+      and bade the fellow drag Boccadoro from his dungeon and fetch him into his
+      presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they came for me I turned cold with fear that Madonna was already
+      taken, and, by contrast with such a fear as that, the reflection that he
+      might carry out his threat to hang me from that black beam of his, faded
+      into insignificant proportions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They ushered me into a great hall, not ill-furnished, the floor strewed
+      plentifully with rushes, and warmed by an enormous fire of blazing oak. By
+      the door stood two pikemen in armour, like a pair of statues; in the
+      centre of the floor was a heavy oaken board, laden now with flagons and
+      beakers, at which sat Ramiro with a pair of gossips so villainous to look
+      at, that the sight of them reminded me of the adage &ldquo;God makes a man and
+      then accompanies him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Governor made a hideous noise at sight of me, which I was constrained
+      to accept as an expression of horrid glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boccadoro,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;do you recall that when last I had the honour of
+      being entertained by your pert tongue, I promised you that did you ever
+      cross my path again I would raise you to the dignity of Fool of my Court
+      of Cesena?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Into what magniloquence does vanity betray us! His Court of Cesena! As
+      well might you describe a pig-sty as a bower of roses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But his words, despite the unsavoury thing of which they seemed to hold a
+      promise, fell sweetly on my ear, inasmuch as for the time they relieved my
+      fears touching Madonna. It was not to advise me of her capture that he had
+      had me haled into his odious presence. I gathered courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you not fools enough already at Cesena?&rdquo; I asked him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment he looked as if he were inclining to anger. Then he burst into a
+      coarse laugh, and turned to one of his gossips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not tell you, Lampugnani, that his wit was quick and penetrating?
+      Hear him, rogue. Already has he discerned your quality.&rdquo; He laughed
+      consumedly at his own jest, and turning to me he pointed to a crimson
+      bundle on a chair beside me. &ldquo;Take those garments,&rdquo; he roughly bade me.
+      &ldquo;Go dress yourself in them, then come you back and entertain us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without answering him, and already anticipating the nature of the clothes
+      he bade me don, I lifted one of the garments from the heap. It was a
+      foliated jester's cap, with a bell hanging from every point, which gave
+      out a tinkling sound as I picked it up. I let it fall again as though it
+      had scorched me, the memory of what stood between Madonna Paola and me
+      rising like a warning spectre in my mind. I would not again defile myself
+      by the garb of folly; not again would I incur the shame of playing the
+      Fool for the amusement of others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May it please your Excellency to excuse me,&rdquo; I answered in a firm tone.
+      &ldquo;I have made a vow never again to put on motley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed me sardonically for a moment, as if enjoying in anticipation the
+      pleasure of compelling me against my will. He sat back in his chair and
+      threw one heavily-booted leg across the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the Citadel of Cesena,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;we fear neither God nor Devil, and
+      vows are as water to us&mdash;things we cannot stomach. It does not please
+      me to excuse you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he
+      accompanied his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;a question of what a vow may be to you and yours,
+      but of what a vow is to me. It is a thing I cannot break.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sangue di Cristo!&rdquo; he snarled, &ldquo;we will break it for you, then&mdash;that
+      or your bones. Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the rack&mdash;or
+      yet, if you prefer it, there is the cord yonder.&rdquo; And he pointed to the
+      far end of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a pulley, the
+      implements of the ghastly torture of the cord. Of such a nature was this
+      monster that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let the rogue make acquaintance with it,&rdquo; laughed Lampugnani, showing a
+      mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
+      &ldquo;I'll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his quips.
+      Swing him up, Illustrious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have five minutes in which to decide,&rdquo; he informed me
+      presently. &ldquo;They say that I am cruel. Behold how patient is my clemency.
+      Five minutes shall you have where many another would hang you out of hand
+      for bearding him as you have done me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may begin at once,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;neither five minutes nor five years will
+      alter my determination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His brow grew black with anger. &ldquo;We shall see,&rdquo; was all he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence now in which we waited, a storm of thoughts battling
+      in my mind. Presently Ramiro caught up one of the flagons and applied it
+      to his cup. It proved empty, and in a gust of passion he hurled it against
+      the wall where it burst into a thousand pieces. Clearly he was very angry,
+      and it taxed my wits to account for the little measure of patience he was
+      showing me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beppo!&rdquo; he called. A page lounging by the buffet sprang to attention. He
+      was a slender, rather delicate lad, fair of hair and blue of eyes, not
+      more than twelve years of age. An elderly man who stood beside him&mdash;one
+      Mariani, the seneschal of Cesena&mdash;stepped forward also, solicitude in
+      his glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring me wine,&rdquo; bawled the ogre. &ldquo;Must I tell you what I need? If you do
+      not put those eyes of yours to better service, I'll have them plucked from
+      your empty head. Bestir, animal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man caught up a beaker from the buffet and handed it to the boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, my son,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Hasten to his Excellency.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad took the beaker from his father's hands, and trembling in his fear
+      of Ramiro's anger, he sprang forward to serve him. In his haste the poor
+      youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes. In seeking to
+      recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the halberdiers that
+      guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at Ramiro's feet,
+      flooding the Governor's legs with the wine he carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes
+      glowing like a madman's. Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one hand
+      to the boy's belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin. Feeling himself
+      lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him, poor Beppo
+      uttered a single scream of terror. Then Ramiro swung him round with an
+      ease that displayed the man's prodigious strength. For just a second he
+      seemed to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle that he held. Then,
+      as if suddenly taking his resolve, that devil hurled the lad across the
+      little intervening space, straight into the heart of the blazing fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beppo hurtled against the logs with a sickening crash, and a thousand
+      sparks leapt up and vanished in the cavern of the chimney. Ramiro wheeled
+      sharply about, and snatching the pike from the hands of one of my guards,
+      he pinned down the poor body of the boy to make sure of his victim's
+      entire destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Away by the buffet old Mariani looked on with a face as grey as ashes, his
+      eyes protruding in horror at the thing they witnessed. One glimpse I had
+      of him, and I scarce know which was the sight that sickened me more, the
+      fathers anguish or the twitching limbs of the burning child. Two legs and
+      two arms protruded from the blaze and writhed and wriggled horribly what
+      time the flames peeled the garments from them and licked the flesh from
+      the bones. At length they fell still and sank down into the white heat of
+      the logs, a hideous, pungent odour spreading through the chamber. From the
+      old man by the buffet, who had stood spellbound during this ghastly scene,
+      there broke at last an anguished cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy, my lord, mercy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Governor of Cesena straightened himself from his task, pulled the pike
+      from the flames, and restored it to the man-at-arms. Then turning to
+      Mariani:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fetch me wine,&rdquo; he bade him curtly, as he seated himself once more upon
+      the chair from which he had risen to perform that deed of ghastly
+      ruthlessness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A torch spluttered suddenly in its sconce, and the fierce hissing of the
+      fire&mdash;like some monster licking its chops over a bloody meal&mdash;were
+      the only sounds that disturbed the stillness that ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every man there, including Ramiro's table companions, was white to the
+      lips; for accustomed though they might be to horrors in that brigand's
+      nest, this was a horror that surpassed anything they had ever witnessed.
+      The silence irked Messer Ramiro. He looked round from under his shaggy
+      brows, and he spluttered out an oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you bring me this wine, pig?&rdquo; he growled at the almost senseless
+      Mariani, and in his air and voice there was a promise of such terrific
+      things that the old man put aside his horror to make room for his fears,
+      and mechanically seizing another flagon he hurried forward to minister to
+      the wants of his fearful lord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro eyed him with cynical amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your hand shakes, Mariani,&rdquo; he derided him. &ldquo;Are you cold? Go warm
+      yourself,&rdquo; he added, with a brutal laugh and a jerk of his thumb towards
+      the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My eyes have looked upon some gruesome sights, and I have heard such tales
+      of ruthless cruelty as you would deem almost passing possibility. I have
+      read of the awful doings of the Lord Bernabo Visconti at Milan in the
+      olden time, but I believe that compared with this monster of Cesena that
+      same Bernabo was no worse than a sucking dove. How it befell that men
+      permitted him to live, how it was that none bethought him to put poison in
+      his wine or a knife in his back, is something that I shall never wholly
+      understand. Could it be that these robbers of whom he made a hedge for his
+      protection were no better than himself, or was it that the man's terrific
+      brutality was on such a scale that it filled them with an almost
+      supernatural awe of him? To men better versed than am I in the mysterious
+      ways of human nature do I leave the answering of these questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ogre turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, as with his hand he caressed
+      his tawny beard. He seemed to have cooled a little now, and to have
+      regained some mastery of his drunken self. Old Mariani tottered back to
+      his buffet, and stood leaning against it, his eyes wandering, with the
+      look of a man demented, to the fire that had devoured his child. There,
+      indeed, if he escaped the madness with which the poignancy of his grief
+      was threatening him, was a tool that might turn its edge against this
+      inhuman monster, this devil, this bloody carnifex of a Governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chance,&rdquo; said Ramiro, &ldquo;has designed that you should see something of how
+      we deal with clumsy knaves at Cesena, Boccadoro. To disobedient ones I can
+      assure you that we are not half so merciful. There is no such short shrift
+      for them. You have had more than the time I promised you for reflection.
+      The garments await you yonder. Let us know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened suddenly, and a servant entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A courier from the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli, Tyrant of Città di Castello,&rdquo;
+       he announced, unwittingly breaking in upon Ramiro's words, &ldquo;with urgent
+      messages for the high and Mighty Governor of Cesena.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On the instant Ramiro rose, the expression of his face changing from
+      cynical amusement to sober concern, the task upon which he was engaged
+      forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admit him instantly,&rdquo; he commanded. And whilst he waited he paced the
+      chamber in long strides, his chin thrust slightly forward, suggestive of
+      deep thought. And during that pause, I, too, was thinking. Not indeed of
+      him, nor vainly speculating upon such matters as might be involved in the
+      message, the announcement of which seemed so deeply to engage his mind,
+      but chiefly of my own and Madonna Paola's concerns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not fear of what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new
+      channel and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del' Orca's
+      behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his
+      diversion. It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what the
+      consequences of my death might be to Paola di Santafior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However desperate a position may seem, unlooked-for loopholes often
+      present themselves, and so long as we live and have sound limbs to aid us
+      to seize such opportunities as may offer, it is a weak thing utterly to
+      abandon hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it, then, not better to submit to the shame of the motley once again
+      for a little time, when by so doing I might perhaps live to work my own
+      salvation, and Madonna's should she suffer capture, rather than stubbornly
+      to invite him to put me to death out of a feeling of false pride?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The very resolve seemed to lend me strength and to revive the hope that
+      lay moribund in my breast. And then, scarce was it taken, when the door
+      again opened, and a man, who was splashed from head to foot with mud, in
+      earnest of how hard he had ridden, was ushered in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He advanced to Meser Ramiro, bowed and presented a package. Ramiro broke
+      the seal, and standing with his back to the fire, immediately in the light
+      shed by one of the wax torches, he read the letter. Then his eyes wandered
+      to the man who had brought it, and to me it seemed that they dwelt
+      particularly upon the hat the courier was holding in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take this good fellow to the kitchen,&rdquo; he bade the servant that had
+      introduced him, &ldquo;let him be fed and rested.&rdquo; Then, turning to the man,
+      himself, &ldquo;I shall require you to set out at daybreak with my answer,&rdquo; he
+      said; and so, with a wave of the hand, he dismissed him. As the messenger
+      departed Ramiro returned to the table, filled himself a cup of wine and
+      drank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What says the Lord Vitelli?&rdquo; Lampugnani ventured to ask him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he knew you,&rdquo; answered Ramiro, with a scowl, &ldquo;he would counsel me to
+      strangle some of the over-inquisitive rascals that surround me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Over-inquisitive?&rdquo; echoed Lampugnani boldly. &ldquo;Body of God! It were enough
+      to wake the curiosity of an ecstatic hermit to have a mud-splashed courier
+      from Citta di Castello at Cesena three times within one little week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro looked at him, and by his glance it was plain to see that the words
+      had jarred his temper. Whatever it was that Vitelli wrote to Ramiro, this
+      gentleman was not minded to divulge it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you have supped, Lampugnani,&rdquo; said the Governor slowly, his eyes upon
+      his offending officer, &ldquo;perhaps you will find some duty to perform ere you
+      seek your bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lampugnani turned crimson, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. Then he
+      rose. He was a man of choleric aspect, and that he served under Ramiro
+      del' Orca was as much a danger to the Governor as to himself. He had not
+      the air of one whom it was wise to threaten in however veiled a manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I fetch you this fellow's hat ere I sleep?&rdquo; he inquired, with
+      contemptuous insolence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word did Ramiro answer him, but his glance fastened upon Lampugnani
+      with an expression before which that impudent ruffian lowered his own bold
+      eyes. Thus for a moment; then with an awkward laugh to cover the
+      intimidation that he felt, Lampugnani walked heavily from the room and
+      banged the door after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was about it all a strangeness that set my wits to work in a mighty
+      busy fashion. That work suffered interruption by the harsh voice of
+      Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you resolved, Boccadoro?&rdquo; he growled at me. &ldquo;Have you decided for the
+      motley or the cord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly I fell into the part I was to play.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I choose the latter,&rdquo; said I, with an assumption of sudden airiness
+      and such a grimace as was part and parcel of my old-time trade, &ldquo;then were
+      I truly worthy of the former, for I should have proved myself, indeed, a
+      fool. Yet if I choose the former, I pray that you'll not follow the same
+      course of reasoning, and hold me worthy of the latter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had understood its subtleties; for his wits were of a quality that
+      would have disgraced a calf, he roared at the conceit, and seemingly
+      thrown into a better humour by the promise of more such entertainment, he
+      bade my guards release me, and urged me to assume the motley without more
+      delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What time I was obeying him my mind was returning to that matter of
+      Lampugnani's words, and it is not difficult to understand how I should
+      arrive at the only possible conclusion they suggested. The hats of the
+      other messengers from Vitelli, that the officer had mentioned, had been
+      brought to Ramiro. The reason for this that at once arose in my mind was
+      that within the messenger's hat there was a second and more secret
+      communication for the Governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This secrecy and Ramiro's display of anger at seeing a hint of it betrayed
+      by Lampugnani struck me, not unnaturally, as suspicious. What were these
+      hidden communications that passed between Vitellozzo Vitelli and the
+      Governor of Cesena? It was a matter of which I could not pretend to offer
+      a solution, but, nevertheless, it was one, I thought, that promised to
+      repay investigation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro grew impatient, and my reflections suffered interruption by his
+      rough command that I should hasten. One of the men-at-arms helped me to
+      truss my points, and when that was done I stepped forward&mdash;Boccadoro
+      the Fool once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII. THE SENESCHAL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For an hour or so that night I played the Fool for Messer Ramiro's
+      entertainment in a manner which did high justice to the fame that at
+      Pesaro I had earned for the name of Boccadoro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beginning with quip and jest and paradox, aimed now at him, now at the
+      officer who had remained to keep him company in his cups, now at the
+      servants who ministered to him, now at the guards standing at attention, I
+      passed on later to play the part of narrator, and I delighted his foul and
+      prurient mind with the story of Andreuccio da Perugia and another of the
+      more licentious tales of Messer Giovanni Boccacci. I crimson now with
+      shame at the manner in which I set myself to pander to his mood that with
+      my wit I might defend my life and limbs, and preserve them for the service
+      of my Holy Flower of the Quince in the hour of her need.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One man alone of all those present did I spare my banter. This was the old
+      seneschal, Miriani. He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever and anon
+      he would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro's cup in obedience to the
+      monsters imperious orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so
+      calm? His face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and
+      rigid, its colour ashen. But his step was tolerably firm, and his hand
+      seemed to have lost the trembling that had assailed it under the first
+      shock of the horror he had witnessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I watched him furtively I thought that were I Ramiro I should beware of
+      him. That frozen calm argued to me some terrible labour of the mind
+      beneath that livid mask. But the Governor of Cesena appeared insensible,
+      or else he was contemptuous of danger from that quarter. It may even have
+      delighted his outrageous nature to behold a man whose son he had done to
+      death with such brutality continue obedient and submissive to his will,
+      for it may have flattered his vanity by the concession that bearing seemed
+      to make to his grim power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour went by, my second tale was done, and I was now entrancing Messer
+      Ramiro with some impromptu verses upon the divorce of Giovanni Sforza, a
+      theme set me by himself, when I was interrupted by the arrival of a
+      soldier, who entered unannounced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I paled and turned cold at the cry with which Ramiro rose to greet him,
+      and the words he dropped, which told me that here was one of the riders of
+      the party that, under Lucagnolo, had been ordered to search the country
+      about Cattolica. Had they found Madonna?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messer Lucagnolo,&rdquo; the fellow announced, &ldquo;has sent me to report to you
+      the failure of his search to the west and north of Cattolica. He has
+      beaten the country thoroughly for three leagues of the town on those two
+      sides, as you desired him, but unfortunately without result. He is now
+      spreading his search to the south, and not a house is being left
+      unvisited. By morning he hopes to report again to your Excellency.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A wild wave of joy swept through my soul. They had ransacked the country
+      west and north of Cattolica without result. Why then, assuredly, they had
+      missed the peasant's hut that sheltered her, and where she waited yet for
+      my return. Their search to the south I knew would prove equally futile. I
+      could have fallen on my knees in a prayer of thanksgiving had my
+      surroundings been other than they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro's eye wandered round to me and settled on me in a lowering glance.
+      By his face it was plain that the message disappointed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;whether we could make you talk?&rdquo; And from me his
+      eyes roamed on to the instrument of torture at the end of that long
+      chamber. I grew sick with fear, for if he were to do this thing, and maim
+      me by it, how should I avail myself or her hereafter?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excellency,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;since you met me you have hinted at something that
+      I am hiding from you, at something touching which I could give you
+      information did I choose. What it may be passes all thought of mine. But
+      this I do assure you: no torture could make me tell you what I do not
+      know, nor is any torture needed to extract from me such information as I
+      may be possessed of. I do but beg that you wilt frankly question me upon
+      this matter, whatever it may be, and your Excellency shall be answered to
+      the best of my knowledge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the
+      seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that he
+      believed me. A moment he hesitated yet; then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior,&rdquo; he said
+      presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table. &ldquo;As I told you, the
+      body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from San
+      Domenico. Know you aught of this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to
+      fight this brigand? Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and a
+      lie become a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely
+      justify such an exception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know nothing,&rdquo; I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with a ring
+      of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, &ldquo;nor can I even
+      believe this rumour. It is a wild story. That the body has been stolen may
+      be true enough. Such things occur; though he was a bold man who laid hands
+      upon the body of a person of such importance. But that she lives&mdash;Gesu!
+      that is an old wife's tale. I had, myself, the word of the Lord Filippo's
+      physician that she was dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, this old wife's tale, as you dub it, is one of which I have
+      had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall not regret
+      it. Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have abstracted the
+      body from the church. In seeking this information I am acting in the
+      interests of the noble House of Borgia which I serve and to which she was
+      to have been allied, as you well know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
+      convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover
+      the true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied to
+      me of his service to the House of Borgia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will gladly lend you these wits,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;to disprove to you the
+      rumour of which you say that you have confirmation. Let us accept the
+      statement that the body has been stolen. That much, no doubt, is true, for
+      even rumours require some slight foundation. But who in all this world
+      could say that when the body was taken it was not dead? Clearly but one
+      man&mdash;he that administered the poison. And, I ask your Excellency,
+      would he be likely to tell the world what he had done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He might have answered me: &ldquo;I am that man.&rdquo; But he did not. Instead, he
+      hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had uttered&mdash;words
+      meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter; and this they
+      achieved, at least in part. He flashed me a look of sudden suspicion, it
+      is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his brooding eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of what
+      you say,&rdquo; he grumbled. &ldquo;But I incline to believe you, and you are a merry
+      rogue. You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as you amuse
+      me. But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive me. You
+      shall have the cord first and other things after, and your death shall be
+      the thing you'll pray for long before it takes you from my vengeance. If
+      you know aught, speak now and you shall find me merciful. Your life and
+      liberty shall be the recompense of your honesty towards me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I repeat, Excellency,&rdquo; I answered, without changing colour, &ldquo;that all
+      that I know have I already told you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was convinced, I think, for the time being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get you gone, then,&rdquo; he bade me. &ldquo;I have other business to deal with ere
+      I sleep. Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently
+      motioned me to go with him. I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance, and
+      withdrew in the wake of the seneschal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a
+      gallery that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted
+      presently, and, opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his
+      hollow eyes rested on me for a second. I thought that he was on the point
+      of saying something, and I waited returning his glance with one that
+      quailed before the anguish of his own. I feared to speak, to offer an
+      expression of the sympathy that filled my heart; for in that strange place
+      I could not tell how far a man was to be trusted&mdash;even a man so
+      wronged as this one. On his own part it may be that a like doubt beset him
+      concerning me, for in the end he departed as he had come, no word having
+      passed his ashen lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had
+      left in the iron sconce on the wall. The single window overlooked the
+      courtyard, so that even had I been disposed and able to cut through the
+      iron that barred it, I should but succeed in falling into the hands of the
+      guards who abounded in that nest of infamy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So that, for the night at least, the notion of flight must be abandoned.
+      What the morrow would bring forth we must wait and see. Perhaps some way
+      of escape would offer itself. Then my thoughts returned to Paola, and I
+      was tortured by surmises as to her fate, and chiefly as to how she could
+      have eluded the search that must have been made for her in the hut where I
+      had left her. Had the peasant befriended her, I wondered; and what did she
+      think of my protracted absence? I sat on the edge of the bed and gave rein
+      to my conjectures. The noises in the castle had all ceased, and still I
+      sat on, unconscious of time, my taper burning low.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may have been midnight when I was startled by the sound of a stealthy
+      step in the corridor near my door. A heavy footfall I should have left
+      unheeded, but this soft tread aroused me on the instant, and I sat
+      listening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It halted at my door, and was succeeded by a soft, scratching sound.
+      Noiselessly I rose, and with ready hands I waited, prepared, in the
+      instinct of self-preservation, to fall upon the intruder, however futile
+      the act might be. But the door did not open as I expected. Instead, the
+      scratching sound continued, growing slightly louder. Then it occurred to
+      me, at last, that whoever came might be a friend craving admittance, and
+      proceeding stealthily that others in the castle might not overhear him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Swiftly I crossed to the door, and opened. On the threshold a dark figure
+      straightened itself from a stooping posture, and the light of the taper
+      behind me fell on a face of a pallor that seemed to glisten in its
+      intensity. It was the face of Mariani, the seneschal of the Castle of
+      Cessna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One glance we exchanged, and intuitively I seemed to apprehend the motive
+      of this midnight visit. He came either to bring me aid or to seek mine,
+      with vengeance for his guerdon. I stood aside, and silently he entered my
+      room and closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quench your taper,&rdquo; he bade me in a husky whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without hesitation I obeyed him, a strange excitement thrilling me. For a
+      second we stood in the dark, then another light gleamed as he plucked away
+      the cloak that masked a lanthorn which he had brought with him. He set the
+      lanthorn on the floor, and held the cloak in his hand, ready at a moment's
+      notice to conceal the light in its folds. Then pulling me down beside him
+      on the bed, where he had perched himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it may be that I bring you assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak, then,&rdquo; I bade him. &ldquo;You shall not find me slow to act if there is
+      the need or the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I had surmised,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Are you not that same Boccadoro, Fool of
+      the Court of Pesaro, who donned the Lord Giovanni's armour and rode out to
+      do battle in his stead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered him that I was that man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard the tale,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Indeed, all Italy has heard it, and
+      knows you for a man of steel, as strong and audacious as you are cunning
+      and resourceful. I know against what desperate odds you fought that day,
+      and how you overcame this terrible Ramiro. This it is that leads me to
+      hope that in the service of your own ends you may become the instrument of
+      my vengeance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfold your project, man,&rdquo; I muttered, fiercely almost, in my burning
+      eagerness. &ldquo;Let me hear what you would have me do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer me until a sob had shaken his old frame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That boy,&rdquo; he muttered brokenly, &ldquo;that golden-haired angel sent me for
+      the consolation of my decaying years, that lad whom Ramiro destroyed so
+      foully and wantonly, was my son. Futile though the attempt had proved, I
+      had certainly set my hands at the tyrants neck, but that I founded hopes
+      on you of a surer and more terrible revenge. That thought has manned me
+      and upheld me when anguish was near to slaying me outright. To see the boy
+      burn so under my very eyes! God of mercy and pity! That I should have
+      lived so long!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your child burned but a moment, suffered but an instant; for the deed,
+      Ramiro will burn in Hell through countless generations, through
+      interminable ages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a paltry consolation, perhaps, but it was the best that then
+      occurred to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meanwhile,&rdquo; I begged him, &ldquo;do you tell me what you would have me do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I urged him to it that he might, thereby, suffer his mind to rest a moment
+      from pondering that ghastly thing that he had witnessed, that scene that
+      would live before his eyes until they closed in their last sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You heard Lampugnani quip Ramiro with the fact that three messengers have
+      ridden desperately within the week from Citta di Castello to Cesena, and
+      you heard, perhaps, his obscure reference to the hat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard both, and both I weighed,&rdquo; said I. The old man looked at me as if
+      surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;was the conclusion you arrived at?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, simply this: that whilst the messenger bore some letter from Vitelli
+      to Ramiro that should serve to lull the suspicions of any who, wondering
+      at so much traffic between these two, should be moved to take a peep into
+      those missives, the true letter with which the courier rides is concealed
+      within the lining of his hat&mdash;probably unknown even to himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared at me as though I had been a wizard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messer Boccadoro&mdash;&rdquo; he began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name,&rdquo; I corrected him, &ldquo;is Biancomonte&mdash;Lazzaro Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever be your name,&rdquo; he returned, &ldquo;of the quality of your wits there
+      can be no question. You have guessed for yourself the half of what I was
+      come to tell you. Has your shrewdness borne you any further? Have you
+      concluded aught concerning the nature of those letters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have concluded that it might repay some trouble to discover what is
+      contained in letters that are sent with so much secrecy. I can conceive
+      nothing that might lie between the Lord of Citta di Castello and this
+      ruffian of Cesena, and yet&mdash;treason lurks often where least it is
+      expected, and treason makes stranger bed-fellows than misfortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lampugnani was no fool, and yet a great fool,&rdquo; the old man murmured. He
+      surmised what you have surmised. With each of the messengers Ramiro has
+      dealt in the same manner. He has sent each to be fed and refreshed whilst
+      waiting to return with the answer he was penning. For their refreshment he
+      has ordered a very full, stout wine&mdash;not drugged, for that they might
+      discover upon awaking; but a wine that of itself would do the work of
+      setting them to sleep very soundly. Then, when all slept, and only he
+      remained at table, like the drunkard that he is, it has been his habit to
+      descend himself to the kitchen and possess himself of the messenger's hat.
+      With this he has returned to the hall, opened the lining and withdrawn a
+      letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, as I suppose, he has penned his answer, thrust it into the lining,
+      where the other one had been, and secured it, as it was before, with his
+      own hands. He has returned the hat to the place from whence he took it,
+      and when the courier awakens in the morning there is another letter put
+      into his hand, and he is bidden to bear it to Vitelli.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a moment; then continued: &ldquo;Lampugnani must have suspected
+      something and watched Ramiro to make sure that his suspicions were well
+      founded. In that he was wise, but he was a fool to allow Ramiro to see
+      what lie he had discovered. Already he has paid the penalty. He is lying
+      with a dagger in his throat, for an hour ago Ramiro stabbed him while he
+      slept.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I shuddered. What a place of blood was this! Could it be that Cesare
+      Borgia had no knowledge of what things were being performed by his
+      Governor of Cesena?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Lampugnani!&rdquo; I sighed. &ldquo;God rest his soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt but he is in Hell,&rdquo; answered Mariani, without emotion. &ldquo;He was as
+      great a villain as his master, and he has gone to answer for his villainy
+      even as this ugly monster of a Ramiro shall. But let Lampugnani be. I am
+      not come to talk of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Returning from his bloody act, Ramiro ordered me to bed. I went, and as I
+      passed Lampugnani's room I saw the door standing wide. It was thus that I
+      learnt what had befallen. I remembered his words concerning the hat and I
+      remembered old suspicions of my own aroused by the thought of the potent
+      wine which Ramiro had ordered me to see given to the couriers. I sped back
+      to the gallery that overlooks the hall. Ramiro was absent, and I surmised
+      at once that he was gone to the kitchen. Then was it that I thought of you
+      and of what service you might render if things were indeed as I now more
+      than suspected. Like an inspiration it came to me how I might prepare your
+      way. I ran down to the hall, sweating in my terror that he should return
+      ere I had performed the task I went on. From the buffet I drew a flagon of
+      that same stout wine that Ramiro used upon his messengers. I ripped away
+      the seal and crimson cord by which it is distinguished, and placing it on
+      the table I removed the flagon I had set for him before I had first
+      departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I fled back to the gallery, and from the shadows I watched for his
+      return. Soon he came, bearing a hat in his hand; and from that hat he took
+      a letter, all as you have surmised. He read it, and I saw his face lighten
+      with a fierce excitement. Then he helped himself freely to wine, and drank
+      thirstily, for all that he was overladen with it. One of the qualities of
+      this wine is that in quenching thirst it produces yet a greater. Ramiro
+      drank again, then sat with the letter before him in the light of the
+      single taper I had left burning. Presently he grew sleepy. He shook
+      himself and drank again. Then again he sat conning his epistle, and thus I
+      left him and came hither in quest of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There followed a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; I asked at length. &ldquo;What is it you would have me do? Stab him as
+      he sleeps?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head. &ldquo;That were too sweet and sudden a death for him. If it
+      had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent me
+      strength enough. But think you it would repay me for having seen my boy
+      pinned by that monster's pike to the burning logs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, then, you ask of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if its
+      treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia&mdash;it could scarce be aimed at
+      another&mdash;would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone&mdash;what then? You
+      know this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would
+      ransack the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive
+      were forthcoming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That,&rdquo; he groaned, &ldquo;is what deterred me. If I had the means of getting
+      the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from
+      Cesena, I should not have hesitated. Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza, and
+      I could ride there in a day. But it would be impossible for me to leave
+      the place before morning. I have duties to perform in the town, and I
+      might get away whilst I am about them, but before then the letter will
+      have been missed, and no one will be allowed to leave the citadel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why then,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;the only hope lies in abstracting that letter in such
+      a manner that he shall not suspect the loss; and that seems a very
+      desperate hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We sat in silence for some moments, during which I thought intently to
+      little purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does he sleep yet, think you?&rdquo; I asked presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly he must.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I were to go to the gallery, is there any fear that I should be
+      discovered by others?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None. All at Cesena are asleep by now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said I, rising, &ldquo;let us take a look at him. Who knows what may
+      suggest itself? Come.&rdquo; I moved towards the door, and he took up his
+      lanthorn and followed me, enjoining me to tread lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII. THE LETTER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On tiptoe I crept down that corridor to the gallery above the
+      banqueting-hall, secure from sight in the enveloping darkness, and intent
+      upon allowing no sound to betray my presence, lest Ramiro should have
+      awakened. Behind me, treading as lightly, came Messer Mariani.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we gained the gallery. I leaned against the stout oaken balustrade,
+      and looked down into the black pit of the hall, broken in the centre by
+      the circle of light from the two tapers that burnt upon the table. The
+      other torches had all been quenched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the table sat Messer Ramiro, his head fallen forward and sideways upon
+      his right arm which was outstretched and limp along the board. Before him
+      lay a paper which I inferred to be the letter whose possession might mean
+      so much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could hear the old man breathing heavily beside me as I leaned there in
+      the dark, and sought to devise a means by which that paper might be
+      obtained. No doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to snatch it
+      away without disturbing him. But there was always to be considered that
+      when he waked and missed the letter we should have to reckon with his
+      measures to regain possession of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It became necessary, therefore, to go about it in a manner that should
+      leave him unsuspicious of the theft. A little while I pondered this,
+      deeming the thing desperate at first. Then an idea came to me on a sudden,
+      and turning to Mariani I asked him could he find me a sheet of paper of
+      about the size of that letter held by Ramiro. He answered me that he
+      could, and bade me wait there until he should return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I waited, watching the sleeper below, my excitement waxing with every
+      second of the delay. Ramiro was snoring now&mdash;a loud, sonorous snore
+      that rang like a trumpet-blast through that vast empty hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Mariani returned, bringing the sheet of paper I had asked for, and
+      he was full of questions of what I intended. But neither the place nor the
+      time was one in which to stand unfolding plans. Every moment wasted
+      increased the uncertainty of the success of my design. Someone might come,
+      or Ramiro might awaken despite the potency of the wine he had been given&mdash;for
+      on so well-seasoned a toper the most potent of wines could have but a
+      transient effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So I left Mariani, and moved swiftly and silently to the head of the
+      staircase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had gone down two steps, when, in the dark, I missed the third, the
+      bells in my cap jangling at the shock. I brought my teeth together and
+      stood breathless in apprehension, fearing that the noise might awaken him,
+      and cursing myself for a careless fool to have forgotten those infernal
+      bells. Above me I heard a warning hiss from old Mariani, which, if
+      anything, increased my dread. But Ramiro snored on, and I was reassured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment I stood debating whether I should go on, or first return to
+      divest myself of that cap of mine. In the end I decided to pursue the
+      latter course. The need for swift and sudden movement might come ere I was
+      done with this adventure, and those bells might easily be the undoing of
+      me. So back I went to the surprise and infinite dismay of Mariani until I
+      had whispered in his ear the reason. We retreated together to the
+      corridor, and there, with his help, I removed my jangling headgear, which
+      I left him to restore to my chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this
+      time I gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the
+      hall. Ramiro's back was towards me. On my right stood the tall buffet from
+      which the boy had fetched him wine that evening; this I marked out as the
+      cover to which I must fly in case of need.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A second I stood hesitating, still considering my course; then I went
+      softly forward, my feet making no sound in the rushes of the floor. I had
+      covered half the distance, and, growing bolder, I was advancing more
+      swiftly and with less caution, when suddenly my knee came in contact with
+      a three-legged stool that had been carelessly left where none would have
+      suspected it. The blow may have hurt afterwards, indeed, I was conscious
+      of a soreness at the knee; but at the moment I had no thought or care for
+      physical pain. The bench went over with a crash, and for all that the
+      rushes may have deadened in part the sound of its fall, to my nervous ear
+      it boomed like the report of a cannon through the stillness of the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned cold as ice, and the sweat of fear sprang out to moisten me from
+      head to foot. Instantly I dropped on all fours, lest Ramiro, awaking
+      suddenly, should turn; and I waited for the least sign that should render
+      advisable my seeking the cover of the buffet. In the gallery above I could
+      picture old Mariani clenching his teeth at the noise, his knees knocking
+      together, and his face white with horror; for Ramiro's snoring had
+      abruptly ceased. It came to an end with a choking catch of the breath, and
+      I looked to see him raise his head and start up to ascertain what it was
+      that had aroused him. But he never stirred, and for all that he no longer
+      snored, his breathing continued heavy and regular, so that I was cheered
+      by the assurance that I had but disturbed his slumber, not dispelled it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, since I had disturbed and lightened it, a greater precaution was now
+      necessary, and I waited there for some ten minutes maybe, a period that
+      must have proved a very eternity to the old man upstairs. At last I had
+      the reward of hearing the snoring recommence; lightly at first, but soon
+      with all its former fullness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rose and proceeded now with a caution that must guard me from any more
+      unlooked-for obstacles. Moreover, as I approached, the darkness was
+      dispelled more and more at every stride in the direction of the light. At
+      last I reached the table, and stood silent as a spectre at Ramiro's side,
+      looking down upon the features of the sleeping man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face was flushed, and his tawny hair tumbled about his damp brow; his
+      lips quivered as he breathed. For a moment, as I stood gazing on him,
+      there was murder in my mind. His dagger hung temptingly in his girdle. To
+      have drawn it and rid the world of this monster might have been a worthy
+      deed, acceptable in the eyes of Heaven. But how should it profit me?
+      Rather must it prove my destruction at the hands of his followers, and to
+      be destroyed just then, with Paola depending upon me, and life full of
+      promise once I regained my liberty, was something I had no mind to risk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My eyes wandered to the letter lying on the table. If this were of the
+      nature we suspected, it should prove a safer tool for his destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To read it as it lay was an easy matter, and it came to me then that ere I
+      decided upon my course it might be well that I should do so. If by chance
+      it were innocent of treason, why, then, I might resort to the risk of that
+      other and more desperate weapon&mdash;his own dagger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the foot of the short flight of steps that led from the hall to the
+      courtyard I could hear the slow pacing of the sentry placed there by
+      Ramiro. But unless he were summoned, it was extremely unlikely that the
+      fellow would leave his post, so that, I concluded, I had little to fear
+      from that quarter. I drew back and taking up a position behind Ramiro's
+      chair&mdash;a position more favourable to escape in the untoward event of
+      his awaking&mdash;I craned forward to read the letter over his shoulder. I
+      thanked God in that hour for two things: that my sight was keen, and that
+      Vitellozzo Vitelli wrote a large, bold hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely breathing, and distracted the while by the mad racing of my
+      pulses, I read; and this, as nearly as I can remember, is what the letter
+      contained:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;ILLUSTRIOUS RAMIRO&mdash;Your answer to my last letter reached me safely,
+      and it rejoiced me to learn that you had found a man for our undertaking.
+      See that you have him in readiness, for the hour of action is at hand.
+      Cesare goes south on the second or third day of the New Year, and he has
+      announced to me his intention of passing through Cesena on his way, there
+      to investigate certain charges of maladministration which have been
+      preferred against you. These concern, in particular, certain
+      misappropriation of grain and stores, and an excessive severity of rule,
+      of which complaints have reached him. From this you will gather that out
+      of a spirit of self-defence, if not to earn the reward which we have bound
+      ourselves to pay you, it is expedient that you should not fail us. The
+      occasion of the Duke's visit to Cesena will be, of all, the most
+      propitious for our purpose. Have your arbalister posed, and may God
+      strengthen his arm and render true his aim to the end that Italy may be
+      rid of a tyrant. I commend myself to your Excellency, and I shall
+      anxiously await your news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;VITELLOZZO VITELLI.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here indeed were my hopes realised. A plot there was, and it aimed at
+      nothing less than the Duca Valentino's life. Let that letter be borne to
+      Cesare Borgia at Faenza, and I would warrant that within a dozen hours of
+      his receipt of it he would so dispose that all who had suffered by the
+      cruel tyranny of Ramiro del' Orca would be avenged, and those who were
+      still suffering would be relieved. In this letter lay my own freedom and
+      the salvation of Madonna Paula, and this letter it behoved me at once to
+      become possessed. It was a safer far alternative than that dagger of his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment I stood pondering the matter for the last time, then stepping
+      sideways and forward, so that I was again beside him, I put out my hand
+      and swiftly whipped the letter from the table. Then standing very still,
+      to prevent the slightest rustle, I remained a second or two observing him.
+      He snored on, undisturbed by my light-fingered action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I drew away a pace or two, as lightly as I might, and folding the letter I
+      thrust it into my girdle. Then from my open doublet I drew the sheet that
+      Mariani had supplied me, and, advancing again, I placed it on the table in
+      a position almost identical with that which the original had occupied,
+      saving that it was removed a half-finger's breadth from his hand, for I
+      feared to allow it actually to touch him lest it should arouse him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Holding my breath, for now was I come to the most desperate part of my
+      undertaking, I caught up one of the tapers and set fire to a corner of the
+      sheet. That done, I left the candle lying on its side against the paper,
+      so as to convey the impression to him, when presently he awakened, that it
+      had fallen from it sconce. Then, without waiting for more, I backed
+      swiftly away, watching the progress of the flames as they devoured the
+      paper and presently reached his hand and scorched it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that I dropped again on all fours, and having gained the corner of the
+      buffet, I crouched there, even as with a sudden scream of pain he woke and
+      sprang upright, shaking his blistered hand. As a matter of instinct he
+      looked about to see what it was had hurt him. Then his eyes fell upon the
+      charred paper on the table, and the fallen candle, which was still burning
+      across one end of it, and even to the dull wits of Ramiro del' Orca the
+      only possible conclusion was suggested. He stared at it a moment, then
+      swept that flimsy sheet of ashes from the table with an oath, and sank
+      back once more into his great leathern chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Body of God!&rdquo; he swore aloud, &ldquo;it is well that I had read it a dozen
+      times. Better that it should have been burnt than that someone should have
+      read it whilst I slept.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea of such a possibility seemed to rouse him to fresh action, for
+      seizing the fallen candle and replacing it in its socket, he rose once
+      more, and holding it high above his head he looked about the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light it shed may have been feeble, and the shadows about my buffet
+      thick; but, as I have said, my doublet was open, and some ray of that weak
+      candlelight must have found out the white shirt that was showing at my
+      breast, for with a sudden cry he pushed back his chair and took a step
+      towards me, no doubt intent upon investigating that white something that
+      he saw gleaming there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I waited for no more. I had no fancy to be caught in that corner, utterly
+      at his mercy. I stood up suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Magnificent, it is I,&rdquo; I announced, with a calm and boundless effrontery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boldness of it may have staggered him a little, for he paused,
+      although his eyes were glowing horribly with the frenzy that possessed
+      him, the half of which was drunkenness, the other fear and wrath lest I
+      should have seen his treacherous communication from Vitelli.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What make you here?&rdquo; he questioned threateningly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thirsted, Excellency,&rdquo; I answered glibly. &ldquo;I thirsted, and I bethought
+      me of this buffet where you keep your wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to eye me, some six paces off, his half-drunken wits no doubt
+      weighing the plausibility of my answer. At last&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that be all, what cause had you to hide?&rdquo; he asked me shrewdly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of your candles fell over and awakened you,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;I feared you
+      might resent my presence, and so I hid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came not near the table?&rdquo; he inquired. &ldquo;You saw nothing of the paper
+      that I held? Nay, by the Host! I'll take no risks. You were born 'neath an
+      unlucky star, fool; for be your reason for your presence here no more than
+      you assert, you have come in a season that must be fatal to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He set the candle on the table, then carrying his hand to his girdle he
+      withdrew it sharply, and I caught the gleam of a dagger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that instant I thought of Mariani waiting above, and like a flash it
+      came to me that if I could outpace this drunken brigand, and, gaining the
+      gallery well ahead of him, transfer that letter to the old man's hands, I
+      should not die in vain. Cesare Borgia would avenge me, and Madonna Paola,
+      at least, would be safe from this villain. If Mariani could reach
+      Valentino at Faenza, I would answer for it that within four-and-twenty
+      hours Messer Ramiro del' Orca would be the banner on that ghastly beam
+      that he facetiously dubbed his flagstaff; and he would be the blackest,
+      dirtiest banner that ever yet had fluttered there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thought conceived in the twinkling of an eye, I acted upon without a
+      second's hesitation. Ere Ramiro had taken his first step towards me, I had
+      sprung to the stairs and I was leaping up them with the frantic speed of
+      one upon whose heels death is treading closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A singular, fierce joy was blent with my measure of fear; a joy at the
+      thought that even now, in this extremity, I was outwitting him, for never
+      a doubt had he that the burnt paper he had found on the table was all that
+      was left of Vitelli's letter. His fears were that I might have read it,
+      but never a suspicion crossed his mind of such a trick as I had played
+      upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So I sped on, the gigantic Ramiro blundering after me, panting and
+      blaspheming, for although powerful, his bulk and the wine he had taken
+      left him no nimbleness. The distance between us widened, and if only
+      Mariani would have the presence of mind to wait for me at the mouth of the
+      passage, all would be as I could wish it before his dagger found my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was assuring myself of this when in the dark I stumbled, and striking my
+      legs against a stair I hurtled forward. I recovered almost immediately,
+      but, in my frenzy of haste to make up for the instant lost, I stumbled a
+      second time ere I was well upon my feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a roar Ramiro must have hurled himself forward, for I felt my ankle
+      caught in a grip from which there was no escaping, and I was roughly and
+      brutally dragged back and down those stairs; now my head, now my breast
+      beating against the steps as I descended them one by one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in that hour the letter was my first thought, and I found a way
+      to thrust it farther under my girdle so that it should not be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last I reached the hall, half-stunned, and with all the misery of
+      defeat and the certainty of the futility of my death to further torture my
+      last moments. Over me stood Ramiro, his dagger upheld, ready to strike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dog!&rdquo; he taunted me, &ldquo;your sands are run.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy, Magnificent,&rdquo; I gasped. &ldquo;I have done nothing to deserve your
+      poniard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed brutally, delaying his stroke that he might prolong my agony
+      for his drunken entertainment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Address your prayers to Heaven,&rdquo; he mocked me, &ldquo;and let them concern your
+      soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, like a flash of inspiration came the words that should delay his
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare me,&rdquo; I cried &ldquo;for I am in mortal sin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Impious, abandoned villain, though he was, he said too much when he
+      boasted that he feared neither God nor Devil. He was prone to forget his
+      God, and the lessons that as a babe he had learnt at his mother's knee&mdash;for
+      I take it that even Ramiro del' Orca had once been a babe&mdash;but deep
+      down in his soul there had remained the fear of Hell and an almost
+      instinctive obedience to the laws of Mother Church. He could perform such
+      ruthless cruelties as that of hurling a page into the fire to punish his
+      clumsiness; he could rack and stab and hang men with the least shadow of
+      compunction or twinge of conscience, but to slay a man who professed
+      himself to be in mortal sin was a deed too appalling even for this
+      ruthless butcher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated a second, then he lowered his hand, his face telling me
+      clearly how deeply he grudged me the respite which, yet, he dared not do
+      other than accord me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I find me a priest?&rdquo; he grumbled. &ldquo;Think you the Citadel of
+      Cesena is a monastery? I will wait while you make an act of contrition for
+      your sins. It is all the shrift I can afford you. And get it done, for it
+      is time I was abed. You shall have five minutes in which to clear your
+      soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this it seemed to me&mdash;as it may well seem to you&mdash;that
+      matters were but little mended, and instead of employing the respite he
+      accorded me in the pious collecting of thoughts which he enjoined, I sat
+      up&mdash;very sore from my descent of the stairs&mdash;and employed those
+      precious moments in putting forward arguments to turn him from, his
+      murderous purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lived too ungodly a life,&rdquo; I protested, &ldquo;to be able to squeeze
+      into Paradise through so narrow a tate. As you would hope for your own
+      ultimate salvation, Excellency, I do beseech you not to imperil mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This disposed him, at least, to listen to me, and proceeded to assure him
+      of the harmless nature of my visit to the hall in quest of wine to quench
+      my thirst. I was running the grave risk of dying with lies on my lips, but
+      I was too desperate to give the matter thought just then. His mood seemed
+      to relent; the delay, perhaps, had calmed his first access of passion, and
+      he was grown more reasonable. But when Ramiro cooled he was, perhaps, more
+      malignant than ever, for it meant a return to natural condition, and
+      Ramiro's natural condition was one of cruelty unsurpassed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be as you say,&rdquo; he answered me at last, sheathing his dagger, &ldquo;and
+      at least you have my word that I will not slay you without first assuring
+      myself that you have lied. For to-night you shall remain in durance.
+      To-morrow we will apply the question to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hope that had been reviving in my breast fell dead once more, and I
+      turned cold at that threat. And yet, between now and to-morrow, much might
+      betide, and I had cause for thankfulness, perhaps, for this respite. Thus
+      I sought to cheer myself. But I fear I failed. To-morrow he would torture
+      me, not so much to ascertain whether I had spoken truly, but because to
+      his diseased mind it afforded diversion to witness a man's anguish. No
+      doubt it was that had urged him now to spare my life and accord me this
+      merciless piece of mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a loud voice he called the sentry who was pacing below; and in a moment
+      the man appeared in answer to that summons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will take this knave to the chamber set apart for him up there, and
+      you will leave him secure under lock and bar, bringing me the key of his
+      door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellow informed himself which was the chamber, then turning to me he
+      curtly bade me go with him. Thus was I haled back to my room, with the
+      promise of horrors on the morrow, but with the night before me in which to
+      scheme and pray for some miracle that might yet save me. But the days of
+      miracles were long past. I lay on my bed and deplored with many a sigh
+      that bitter fact. And if aught had been wanting to increase the weight of
+      fear and anguish on my already over-burdened mind, and to aid in what
+      almost seemed an infernal plot to utterly distract me, I had it in fresh,
+      wild conjectures touching Madonna Paola. Where indeed could she be that
+      Ramiro's men had failed to find her for all that they had scoured that
+      part of the country in which I had left her to wait for my return? What
+      if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture with which Ramiro's
+      lieutenant was charged?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter
+      inability to take a step in her service, I lay. There for an hour or so in
+      such agony of mind as is begotten only of suspense. In my girdle still
+      reposed the treasonable letter from Vitelli to Ramiro, a mighty weapon
+      with which to accomplish the butcher's overthrow. But how was I to wield
+      it imprisoned here?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wondered why Mariani had not returned, only to remember that the soldier
+      who had locked me in had carried the key of my prison-chamber to Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly the stillness was disturbed by a faint tap at my door. My
+      instincts and my reason told me it must be Mariani at last. In an instant
+      I had leapt from the bed and whispered through the keyhole:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is I&mdash;Mariani&mdash;the seneschal,&rdquo; came the old man's voice,
+      very softly, but nevertheless distinctly. &ldquo;They have taken the key.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I groaned, then in a gust of passion I fell to cursing Ramiro for that
+      precaution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have the letter?&rdquo; came Mariani's voice again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, I have it still,&rdquo; I answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen what it contains?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A plot to assassinate the Duke&mdash;no less. Enough to get this bloody
+      Ramiro broken on the wheel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was answered by a sound that was as a gasp of malicious joy. Then the
+      old man's voice added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you pass it under the door? There is a sufficient gap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I felt, and found that he was right; I could pass the half of my hand
+      underneath. I took the letter and thrust it through. His hands fastened on
+      it instantly, almost snatching it from my fingers before they were ready
+      to release it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have courage,&rdquo; he bade me. &ldquo;Listen. I shall endeavour to leave Cesena in
+      the morning, and I shall ride straight for Faenza. If I find the Duke
+      there when I arrive, he should be here within some twelve or fourteen
+      hours of my departure. Fence with Ramiro, temporise if you can till then,
+      and all will be well with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do what I can,&rdquo; I answered him. &ldquo;But if he slays me in the
+      meantime, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that he will
+      not be long in following me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May God shield you,&rdquo; he said fervently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May God speed you,&rdquo; I answered him, with a still greater fervour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, as you may well conceive, I slept but little, and that little
+      ill. The morning, instead of relieving the fears that in the darkness had
+      been with me, seemed to increase them. For now was the time for Mariani to
+      act, and I was fearful as to how he might succeed. I was full of doubts
+      lest some obstacle should have arisen to prevent his departure from
+      Cesena, and I spent my morning in wearisome speculation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took an almost childish satisfaction in the thought that since, being a
+      prisoner, I could no longer count myself the Fool of the Court of Cesena,
+      I was free to strip the motley and assume the more sober garments in which
+      I had been taken, and which&mdash;as you may recall&mdash;had been placed
+      in my chamber on the previous evening. It was the very plainest raiment.
+      For doublet I wore a buff brigandine, quilted and dagger-proof, and caught
+      at the waist by a girdle of hammered steel; my wine-coloured hose was
+      stout and serviceable, as were my long boots of untanned leather. Yet
+      prouder was I of this sober apparel than ever king of his ermine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may have been an hour or so past noon when, at last, my solitude was
+      invaded by a soldier who came to order me into the presence of the
+      Governor. I had been sitting at the window, leaning against the bars and
+      looking out at the desolate white landscape, for there had been a heavy
+      fall of snow in the night, which reminded me&mdash;as snow ever did&mdash;of
+      my first meeting with Madonna Paola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rose upon the instant, and my fears rose with me. But I kept a bold
+      front as I went down into the hall, where Ramiro and the blackguards of
+      his Court were sitting, with three or four men-at-arms at attention by the
+      door. Close to the pulleys appertaining to the torture of the cord stood
+      two leather-clad ruffians&mdash;Ramiro's executioners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the head of the board, which was still strewn with fragments of
+      food-for they had but dined&mdash;sat Ramiro del' Orca. With him were half
+      a dozen of his officers, whose villainous appearance pronounced them
+      worthy of their brutal leader. The air was heavy with the pungent odour of
+      viands. I looked round for Mariani, and I took some comfort from the fact
+      that he was absent. Might heaven please that he was even then on his way
+      to Faenza.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro watched my advance with a smile in which mockery was blent with
+      satisfaction, for all that of the resumption of my proper raiment he
+      seemed to take no heed. No doubt he had dined well, and he was now
+      disposing himself to be amused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messer Bocadaro,&rdquo; said he, when I had come to a standstill, &ldquo;there was
+      last night a matter that was not cleared up between us and concerning
+      which I expressed an intention of questioning you to-day. I should proceed
+      to do so at once, were it not that there is yet another matter on which I
+      am, if possible, still more desirous you should tell us all you know. Once
+      already have you evaded my questions with answers which at the time I half
+      believed. Even now I do not say that I utterly disbelieve them, but I wish
+      to assure myself that you told the truth; for if you lied, why then we may
+      still be assisted by such information the cord shall squeeze from you. I
+      am referring to the mysterious disappearance of Madonna Paola di Santafior&mdash;a
+      disappearance of which you have assured me that you knew nothing, being
+      even in ignorance of the fact that the lady was not really dead. I had
+      confidently expected that the party searching for Madonna Paola would have
+      succeeded ere this in finding her. But this morning my hopes suffered
+      disappointment. My men have returned empty-handed once more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For which mercy may Heaven be praised!&rdquo; I burst out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He scowled at me; then he laughed evilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My men have returned&mdash;all save three. Captain Lucagnolo with two of
+      his followers, has undertaken to go beyond the area I appointed for the
+      search, and to proceed to the village of Cattolica. While he is pursuing
+      his inquiries there, I have resolved to pursue my own here. I now call
+      upon you, Boccadoro, to tell us what you know of Madonna Paola's
+      whereabouts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know nothing,&rdquo; I answered stoutly. &ldquo;I am prepared to take oath that I
+      know nothing of her whereabouts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, then, at least,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;where you bestowed her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that I would tell you if I had the knowledge?&rdquo; was the
+      scornful question with which I answered him. &ldquo;You may pursue your
+      inquiries as you will and where you will, but I pray God they may all
+      prove as futile as must those that you would pursue here and upon my own
+      person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was how I fenced with him, this was the manner in which I followed
+      Mariani's sound advice that I should temporise! Oh! I know that my words
+      were the words of a fool, yet no fear that Ramiro would inspire me could
+      have restrained them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a murmur at the table, and his fellows turned their eyes on
+      Ramiro to see how he would receive this bearding. He smiled quietly, and
+      raising his hand he made a sign to the executioners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rude hands seized me from behind, and the doublet was torn from my back by
+      fingers that never paused to untruss my points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They turned me about, and hurried me along until I stood under the pulleys
+      of the torture, and one of the men held me securely whilst the other
+      passed the cords about my wrists. Then both the executioners stepped back,
+      to be ready to hoist me at the Governor's signal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He delayed it, much as an epicure delays the consumption of a delectable
+      morsel, heightening by suspense the keen desire of his palate. He watched
+      me closely, and had my lips quivered or my eyelids fluttered, he would
+      have hailed with joy such signs of weakness. But I take pride in
+      truthfully writing that I stood bold and impassively before him, and if I
+      was pale I thank Heaven that pallor was the habit of my countenance, so
+      that from that he could gather no satisfaction. And standing there, I gave
+      him back look for look, and waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the last time, Boccadoro,&rdquo; he said slowly, attempting by words to
+      shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of the cord,
+      &ldquo;I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this stubbornness.
+      If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the third, the
+      torture will compel you to disclose what you may know. Would you not be
+      better advised to speak at once, while your limbs are soundly planted in
+      their sockets, rather than let yourself be maimed, perhaps for life, ere
+      you will do so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a stir of hoofs without. They thundered on the planks of the
+      drawbridge and clattered on the stones of the courtyard. The thought of
+      Cesare Borgia rose to my mind. But never did drowning man clutch at a more
+      illusory straw. Cold reason quenched my hope at once. If the greatest
+      imaginable success attended Mariani's journey, the Duke could not reach
+      Cesena before midnight, and to that it wanted some ten hours at least.
+      Moreover, the company that came was small to judge by the sound&mdash;a
+      half-dozen horses at the most.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Ramiro's attention had been diverted from me by the noise.
+      Half-turning in his chair, he called to one of the men-at-arms to
+      ascertain who came. Before the fellow could do his bidding, the door was
+      thrust open and Lucagnolo appeared on the threshold, jaded and worn with
+      hard riding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A certain excitement arose in me at sight of him, despite my confidence
+      that he must be returning empty-handed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro rose, pushed back his chair and advanced towards the new-comer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; he demanded. &ldquo;What news?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excellency, the girl is here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That answer seemed to turn me into stone, so great was the shock of this
+      sudden shattering of the confidence that had sustained me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My search in the country failing,&rdquo; pursued the captain, as he came
+      forward, &ldquo;I made bold to exceed your orders by pushing my inquiries as far
+      as the village of Cattolica. There I found her after some little labour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely I dreamt. Surely, I told myself, this was not possible. There was
+      some mistake. Lucagnolo had drought some wench whom he believed to be
+      Madonna Paola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even as I was assuring myself of this, the door opened again, and
+      between two men-at-arms, white as death, her garments stained with mud and
+      all but reduced to rags, and her eyes wild with a great fear, came my
+      beloved Paola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a sound that was as a grunt of satisfaction, Ramiro strode forward to
+      meet her. But her eyes travelled past him and rested upon me, standing
+      there between the leather-clad executioners with the cords of the torture
+      pinioning my wrists, and I saw the anguish deepen in their blue depths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX. DOOMED
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Across the length of that hall our eyes met&mdash;hers and mine&mdash;and
+      held each other's glances. To me the room and all within it formed an
+      indistinct and misty picture, from out of which there clearly gleamed my
+      Paola's sweet, white face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All at the table had risen with Ramiro, and now, copying their leader,
+      they bared their heads in outward token of such respect as certainly would
+      have been felt by any men less abandoned than were they before so much
+      saintly beauty and distress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucagnolo had stepped aside, and Ramiro was now bowing low and
+      ceremoniously before Madonna. His face I could not see, since his back was
+      towards me, but his tones, as they floated across the hall to where I
+      stood, came laden with subservience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, I give praise and thanks to Heaven for this,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I was
+      afflicted by the gravest misgivings for your safety, and I am more than
+      thankful to behold you safe and sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a hypocritical flavour of courtliness about his words, and a
+      mincing of his tones that suggested the efforts of a bull-calf to imitate
+      the warbling of a throstle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna paid him no heed; indeed, she appeared not to have heard him, for
+      her eyes continued to look past him and at me. At last her lips parted,
+      and although she scarcely seemed to raise her voice above a whisper, the
+      word uttered reached my ears across the stillness of the great room, and
+      the word was &ldquo;Lazzaro!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At mention of my name, and at the tone in which it was uttered&mdash;a
+      tone that betrayed same measure of what was in her heart&mdash;Ramiro
+      wheeled sharply in my direction, his brows wrinkling. A certain craftiness
+      he had, for all that I ever accounted him the dullest-witted clod that
+      ever rose to his degree of honour. He must have realised how expedient it
+      was that in all he did he should present himself to Madonna in a favourite
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Release him,&rdquo; he bade the executioners that held me, and in an instant I
+      was set free. The order given, he turned again to Madonna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been torturing him,&rdquo; she cried, and her words were hard and
+      fierce, her eyes blazing. &ldquo;You shall repent it, Ser Ramiro. The Lord
+      Cesare Borgia shall hear of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have been
+      to her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my
+      destruction. Ramiro laughed easily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, you are at fault. We have not been torturing him, though I
+      confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question. But your
+      timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were asking him
+      concerned your whereabouts!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some
+      premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind. But realising
+      the futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited agonisedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had tortured him in vain then,&rdquo; she answered scornfully. &ldquo;For Lazzaro
+      Biancomonte would never have betrayed me. Nor could he have betrayed me if
+      he would, for after your men had searched the hut in which I was hidden, I
+      walked to Cattolica thinking foolishly that I should be safer there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lackaday! She had told him the very thing he had sought to know. Yet to
+      make doubly sure he pursued the scent a little farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed it seems to me that had I tortured him I had given him no more
+      than he deserved for having abandoned you in that hut. Madonna, I tremble
+      to think of the harm that might have come to you through that knave's
+      desertion.&rdquo; And he scowled across at me, much as the Pharisee might have
+      scowled upon the publican.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is no knave,&rdquo; she answered, and I could have groaned to hear her
+      working my undoing, though not by so much as a sign might I inspire her
+      with caution, for that sign must have been seen by others. &ldquo;Nor did he
+      abandon me. He left me only to go in quest of the necessaries for our
+      journey. If harm has come to me the blame of it must not rest on him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what harm do you speak, Madonna?&rdquo; he cried, in a voice laden with
+      concern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what harm,&rdquo; she echoed, eyeing him with a scorn that would have slain
+      him had he any manhood left. &ldquo;Of what harm? Mother of Mercy, defend me! Do
+      you ask the question? What greater harm could have come to me than to have
+      fallen into the hands of Ramiro del' Orca and his brigands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood looking at her, and I doubt not that his face was a very picture
+      of simulated consternation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, Madonna, you do not understand that we are your friends, that you
+      can so abuse us. But you will be faint, Madonna,&rdquo; he cried, with a fresh
+      and deep solicitude. &ldquo;A cup of wine.&rdquo; And he waved his hand towards the
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would poison me, I think,&rdquo; she answered coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are cruel, and&mdash;alas!&mdash;mistrustful,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Can you
+      guess nothing of the anxiety that has been mine these two days, of the
+      fears that have haunted me as I thought of you and your wanderings?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her lip curled, and her face took on some slight vestige of colour. Her
+      spirit was a thing for which I might then have come to love her had it not
+      been that already I loved her to distraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I can guess something of your dismay when you found your
+      schemes frustrated; when you found that you had come too late to San
+      Domenico.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you not forgive me that shift to which my adoration drove me?&rdquo; he
+      implored, in a honeyed voice&mdash;and a more fearful thing than Ramiro
+      the butcher was Ramiro the lover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that scarcely covert avowal of his passion she recoiled a step as she
+      might before a thing unclean. The little colour faded from her cheek, the
+      scorn departed from her lip, and a sickly, deadly fear overspread her
+      lovely face. God! that I should stand there and witness this insult to the
+      woman I adored and worshipped with a fervour that the Church seeks to
+      instil into us for those about the throne of Heaven. It might not be. A
+      blind access of fury took me. Of the consequences I thought nothing.
+      Reason left me utterly, and the slight hope that might lie in temporising
+      was disregarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before those about me could guess my purpose, or those others, too
+      engrossed in the scene at the far end of the hall, could intervene, I had
+      sprung from between the executioners and dashed across the space that
+      separated me from the Governor of Cesena. One well-aimed blow, and there
+      should be an end to Messer Ramiro. That was the only thought that found
+      room in my disordered mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One or two there were who cried out as I sped past them, swift as the
+      hound when it speeds after the fleeing hare. But I was upon Ramiro ere any
+      could have sufficiently mastered his surprise to interfere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the nape of his great neck I caught him from behind, and setting my
+      knee at his spine I wrenched him backward, and so flung him over on the
+      floor. Down I went with him, my hand reaching for the dagger at his
+      jewelled girdle, and I had found and drawn it in that swift action of mine
+      ere he had bethought him of his hands. Up it flashed and down. I sank it
+      through the crimson velvet of his rich doublets straight at the spot where
+      his heart should be&mdash;if he were so human as to have a heart. The next
+      instant I turned cold and sick. My desperate effort had been all for
+      nothing. In my hand I was left with the bronze hilt of his great poniard;
+      the blade had broken off against the mesh of steel the coward wore beneath
+      his finery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a rush of feet about us, a piercing scream from Madonna Paola,
+      and it was to her that I owed my life in that grim moment. A dozen blades
+      were naked and would have transfixed me as I lay, but that she covered my
+      body with her own and bade them strike at me through her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment later and the powerful hands of the Governor of Cesena were at my
+      throat. I was lifted and tossed aside, as though I had been a hound and he
+      the bull I had beset. And as he swung me over and crushed me to the
+      ground, he knelt above me and grinned horribly into my purpling face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A second we stayed so, and I thought indeed that my hour was come, when
+      suddenly I felt the blood in my head released once more. He had taken his
+      hands from my throat. He seized me now by the collar and dragged me rudely
+      to my feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take this knave and lock him in his chamber,&rdquo; he bade a couple of his
+      bravi. &ldquo;I may have need of him ere he dies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messer Ramiro,&rdquo; came the interceding voice of Madonna Paola, &ldquo;what he
+      did, he did for me. You will not let him die for it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause during which he looked at her, whilst the men were
+      roughly dragging me across the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows, Madonna?&rdquo; he said, with a bow and an infernal smile. &ldquo;If you
+      were to beg his life, it might even come to pass that I might spare it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not wait for her answer, but stepping after me he called to the men
+      that led me. In obedience they halted, and he came forward. We were now at
+      the foot of the staircase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boccadoro,&rdquo; said he, planting himself before me, and eyeing me with eyes
+      that were very full of malice, &ldquo;you will recall the punishment I promised
+      you if I came to discover it was you had thwarted me in Pesaro. It is the
+      second time you have fooled Ramiro del' Orca. There does not live the man
+      who can boast that he did it thrice, nor will I risk it that you be that
+      man. Make your peace with Heaven, for at sunset&mdash;in an hour's time&mdash;you
+      hang. There is one little thing that might save you even yet, and if you
+      find life sweet, you would do well to pray that that little thing may come
+      to pass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered him nothing, but I bowed my head in token that I had heard and
+      he signed to the men to proceed with me, whilst turning on his heel he
+      stepped down the hall again to where Madonna Paola, overcome with
+      weakness, had sunk upon a stool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I was leaving the gallery I had a last glimpse of her, sitting there
+      with drawn face and haggard eyes that followed me as I passed from her
+      sight, whilst Ramiro del' Orca stood beside her murmuring words that did
+      not reach me. His so-called courtiers and his men-at-arms were trooping
+      out of the room, no doubt in obedience to his dismissal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX. THE SUNSET
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I have heard tell of the calm that comes upon brave men when hope is dead
+      and their doom has been pronounced. Uncertainty may have tortured and made
+      cowards of them; but once that uncertainty is dissolved and suspense is at
+      an end, resignation enters their soul, and, possessing it, gives to their
+      bearing a noble and dignified peace. By the mercy of Heaven they are made,
+      maybe, to see how poor and evanescent a thing is life; and they come to
+      realise that since to die is a necessity there is no avoiding, as well
+      might it betide to-day as ten years hence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a mood, however, came not to soothe that last hour of mine, and yet I
+      account myself no coward. It was an hour of such torture and anguish as
+      never before I had experienced&mdash;much though I had undergone&mdash;and
+      the source of all my suffering lay in the fact that Madonna Paola was in
+      the hands of the ogre of Cesena. Had it not been for that most untoward
+      circumstance I almost believe that while I waited for the sun to set on
+      that December afternoon, my mood had not only been calm but even in some
+      measure joyous, for it must have comforted my last moments to reflect that
+      for all that Messer Ramiro was about to hang me, yet had I sown the seeds
+      of his own destruction ere he had brought me to this pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did, indeed, reflect upon it, and it may even be that, in spite of all,
+      I culled some grain of comfort from the reflection. But let that be. My
+      narrative would drag wearily were I to digress that I might tell you at
+      length the ugly course of my thoughts whilst the sands of my last hour
+      were running swiftly out. For, after all, my concern and yours is with the
+      story of Lazzaro Biancomonte, sometime known as Boccadoro the Fool, and
+      not with his philosophies&mdash;philosophies so unprofitable that it can
+      benefit no man that I should set them down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My windows faced west, and so I was able to watch the fall of the sun, and
+      measure by its shortening distance from the horizon the ebbing of my poor
+      life. At last the nether rim of that round, fiery orb was on the point of
+      touching the line of distant hills, and it was casting a crimson glow
+      along the white, snow-sheeted landscape that was singularly suggestive of
+      a tide of blood&mdash;a very fitting tide to flow and ebb about the walls
+      of the Castle of Cesena.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One little thing there was might save me, Ramiro had said. But I had shut
+      the thought out of my mind to keep me from utter distraction. The only
+      little thing in which I held that my salvation could lie would be in the
+      miraculous arrival of Cesare Borgia, and of that not the faintest hope
+      existed. If the greatest luck attended Mariani's errand and the greatest
+      speed were made by the Duke once he received the letter, he could not
+      reach Cesena in less than another eight hours. And another eight minutes,
+      to reckon by the swift sinking of the sun would see the time appointed for
+      my hanging. I thought of Joshua in that grim hour, and in a mood that
+      approached the whimsical I envied him his gift. If I could have stayed the
+      setting of the sun, and held it where it was till midnight, all might yet
+      be well if Mariani had been diligent and Cesare swift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The key grating in the lock put an end to my vague musings, and reminded
+      me of the fact that I had neglected to employ that last hour as would have
+      become a good son of Mother Church. For an instant I believe that my heart
+      turned me to thoughts of God, and sent up a prayer for mercy for my poor
+      sinful soul. Then the door swung wide. Two halberdiers and a carnifex in
+      his odious leathern apron stood before me. Clearly Ramiro sought to be
+      exact, and to have me hanging the instant the sun should vanish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is time,&rdquo; said one of the soldiers, whilst the executioner, stepping
+      into my chamber, pinioned my wrists behind me, and retaining hold of the
+      cord bade me march. He followed, holding that slender cord, and so, like a
+      beast to the shambles, went I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more they led me into the hall, where the shadows were lengthening in
+      dark contrast to the splashes of sunlight that lingered on the floor, and
+      whose blood-red hue was deepened by the gules of the windows through which
+      it was filtered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro was waiting for me, and six of his officers were in attendance.
+      But, for once, there were no men-at-arms at hand. On a chair, the one
+      usually occupied by Ramiro, himself, sat Madonna Paola, still in her torn
+      and bedraggled raiment, her face white, her eyes wild as they had been
+      when first she had been haled into Ramiro's presence, some two hours ago,
+      and her features so rigidly composed that it told the tale of the awful
+      self-control she must be exerting&mdash;a self-control that might end with
+      a sudden snap that would plunge her into madness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wild rage possessed me at sight of her. Let Ramiro be ruthless and cruel
+      where men were concerned; that was a thing for which forgiveness might be
+      found him. But that he should submit a lady, delicately nurtured as was
+      Madonna, to such horrors as she had undergone since she had awakened from
+      his sleeping-potion in the Church of San Domenico, was something for which
+      no Hell could punish him condignly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro met me with a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I
+      could espy his wicked, infernal mockery peeping forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I deplore your end, Lazzaro Biancomonte,&rdquo; said he slowly, &ldquo;for you are a
+      brave man, and brave men are rare. You were worthy of better things, but
+      you chose to cross swords with Ramiro del' Orca, and you have got your
+      death-blow. May God have mercy on your soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am praying,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;for just so much mercy as you shall have justice.
+      If my prayer is heard, I should be well-content.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He changed countenance a little. So, too, I thought, did Madonna Paola. My
+      firmness may have yielded her some grain of comfort. Ramiro set his hands
+      on his hips, and eyed me squarely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a dauntless rogue,&rdquo; he confessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I laughed for answer, and in that moment it entered my mind that I might
+      yet enjoy some measure of revenge in this life. More than that, I might
+      benefit Madonna. For were the seed I was about to sow to take root in the
+      craven heart of Ramiro del' Orca, it would so fully occupy his mind that
+      he would have little time to bestow on Paola in the few hours that were
+      left him. But before I could bethink me of words, he was speaking again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I held out to you a slender hope,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I told you that there was
+      one little thing might save you. That hope has borne no fruit; the little
+      thing, I spoke of has not come to pass. It rested with Madonna Paola,
+      here. She had it in her hands to effect your salvation, but she has
+      refused. Your blood rests on her head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She shuddered at the words, and a low moan escaped her. She covered her
+      face with her hands. A moment I stood looking at her; then I shifted my
+      glance to Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it please you, Illustrious, to allow me a few moments' conversation
+      with Madonna Paola di Santafior?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I invested my tones with a weight of meaning that did not escape him. His
+      face suddenly lightened; whilst one of his officers&mdash;a fellow very
+      fitly named Lupone&mdash;laughed outright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your hero seems none so heroic after all,&rdquo; he said derisively to the
+      Governor. &ldquo;The imminence of death makes him amenable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro scowled on him for answer. Then, turning to me&mdash;&ldquo;Do you think
+      you could bend her stubbornness?&rdquo; quoth he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might attempt it,&rdquo; answered I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes flashed with evil hope; his lips parted in a smile. He shot a
+      glance at Madonna, who had withdrawn her hands from her face and was
+      regarding me now with a strange expression of horror and incredulity&mdash;marvelling,
+      no doubt, to find me such a craven as I must have seemed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro looked at the diminishing sunlight on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In some five minutes the sun will have completely set,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Those
+      five minutes you shall have to seek to enlist Madonna's aid on your
+      behalf. If you succeed&mdash;and she may tell you on what terms you are to
+      have your life&mdash;you shall depart from Cesena to-night a free man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a moment, and his eyes, lighted by an odious smile, rested once
+      more on Madonna Paula. Then he bade all withdraw, and went with them into
+      an adjoining chamber, fondly nurturing the hopes that were begotten of his
+      belief that Lazzaro Biancomonte was a villain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we were alone, she and I, I stood a moment where they had left me, my
+      hands pinioned behind me, and the cord which the executioner had held
+      trailing the ground like a lambent tail. Then I went slowly forward until
+      I stood close before her. Her eyes were on my face, still with that same
+      look of unbelief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna mia,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;do not for an instant think that it is my purpose
+      to ask of you any sacrifice that might save my worthless life. Rather was
+      my purpose in seeking these few moments with you, to strengthen and
+      encourage you by such news as it is mine to bring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked now as if she scarcely understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I will wed him to-night, he has promised that you shall go free,&rdquo; she
+      said in a whisper. &ldquo;He says that he can bring a priest from the
+      neighbourhood at a moment's notice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not heed him,&rdquo; I cried sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not heed him,&rdquo; said she, more composedly. &ldquo;If he seeks to force me,
+      I shall find a way of setting myself free. Dear Mother of Heaven! death
+      were a sweet and restful thing after all that I have suffered in these
+      days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she fell suddenly to weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think me not an utter coward, Lazzaro. Willingly would I do this thing to
+      save so noble a life as yours, did I not think that you must hate me for
+      it. I was stout and firm in my refusal, confident that you would have had
+      me so. Was I not right, my poor, poor Lazzaro?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madonna, you were right,&rdquo; I answered firmly and calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are to die, amor mio,&rdquo; she murmured passionately. &ldquo;You are to die
+      when the promise of happiness seemed held out to us. And yet, were you to
+      live at the price at which life is offered you, would your life be
+      endurable? Tell me the truth, Lazzaro; swear it to me. For if life is the
+      dearer thing to you, why then, you shall have your life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Need you ask me, Paola?&rdquo; questioned I. &ldquo;Does not your heart tell you how
+      much easier is death than would be such life as I must lead hereafter,
+      even if we could trust Ramiro, which we cannot. Be brave, Madonna, and
+      help me to be brave and to bear thyself with a becoming fortitude. Now
+      listen to what I have to tell you. Ramiro del' Orca is a traitor who is
+      plotting the death of his overlord. Proofs of it are by now in the hands
+      of Cesare Borgia, and in some seven or eight hours the Duke himself should
+      be here to put this monster to the question touching these matters. I will
+      say a word in his ear ere I depart that will fill his mind with a very
+      wholesome fear, and you will find that during the few hours left him he
+      will have little leisure to think of you and afflict you with his odious
+      wooing. Be strong, then, for a little while, for Cesare is coming to set
+      you free.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at me now with eyes that were wide open. Suddenly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could we not gain time?&rdquo; she cried, and in her eagerness she rose and set
+      her hands upon my shoulders. &ldquo;Could I not pretend to acquiesce to his
+      wishes, and so delay your end?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have thought of it,&rdquo; I answered gloomily, &ldquo;but the thought has brought
+      me no hope. Ramiro is not to be trusted. He might tell you that he sets me
+      free, but he dare not do so; he fears that I may have knowledge of his
+      dealings with Vitelli, and assuredly he would break faith with us. Again
+      the coming of the Duke might be delayed. Alas!&rdquo; I ended in despair, &ldquo;there
+      is nothing to be done but to let things run their course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was even more in my mind than I expressed. My mistrust of Ramiro
+      went further than I had explained, and concerning Madonna more closely
+      than it did me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Lazzaro mine,&rdquo; she still protested, &ldquo;I will attempt it. It is, at
+      least, well worth the risk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that even when Cesare comes we cannot say how he
+      will bear himself towards you. You were to have been betrothed to his
+      cousin, Ignacio. It is a matter upon which he may insist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at me for a moment with anguish in her eyes that turned my
+      misery into torture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro,&rdquo; she moaned, &ldquo;was ever woman so beset! I think that Heaven must
+      have laid some curse upon me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face was close to mine. I stooped forward and kissed her on her brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May God have you in His keeping, Madonna mia,&rdquo; I murmured. &ldquo;The sun is
+      gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazzaro!&rdquo; It was the cry of a breaking heart. Her arms went round my
+      neck, and in a passion of grief her kisses burned on my lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the door of the anteroom opened&mdash;and I thanked God for the mercy
+      of that interruption. I whispered a word to her, and in obedience she
+      sprang back, and sank limp and broken on the chair once again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro entered, his men behind him, his face alit with eagerness. There
+      and then I swamped his hopes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun is gone, Magnificent,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;You had best get me hanged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His brow darkened, for there was a note of mockery and triumph in my
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fooled me, animal,&rdquo; he cried. His jaw set, and his eyes
+      continued to regard me with an evil glow. Then he laughed terribly,
+      shrugged his shoulders, and spoke again. &ldquo;After all, it shall avail you
+      little.&rdquo; He turned to the carnifex. &ldquo;Federigo, do your work,&rdquo; said he,
+      whereupon the fellow stepped behind me, and the halberdiers ranged
+      themselves one on either side of me again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A word ere I go, Messer del' Orca,&rdquo; I demanded insolently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at me sharply, wondering, maybe, at the fresh tone I took.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say it and begone,&rdquo; he sullenly permitted me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I paused a moment to choose fitting words for that portentous death-song
+      of mine. At length&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You boasted to me a little while ago,&rdquo; said I, smiling grimly, &ldquo;that the
+      man did not live who had thrice fooled you. That man does live, for that
+      man am I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bah!&rdquo; he returned contemptuously, thinking, no doubt, that I referred to
+      my interview with Madonna Paola. &ldquo;You may take what pride you will from
+      such a thought. You are upon the threshold of death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, but the thought is one that affords me more comfort and joy than
+      pride. As much comfort and joy as you shall take horror when I tell you in
+      what manner I have fooled you.&rdquo; I paused to heighten the sensation of my
+      words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To such good purpose have I used my wits that ere another sun shall rise
+      and set you will have followed me along the black road that I am now
+      treading&mdash;the road whose bourne is the gallows. Bethink you of the
+      charred paper that last night you brushed from this table when you awoke
+      to find a candle fallen on the treacherous letter Vitellozzo Vitelli sent
+      you in the lining of a hat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His jaw fell, his face flamed redder than ever for a second, then it went
+      grey as ashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what do you prate, fool?&rdquo; he questioned huskily, seeking to bluster it
+      before the startled glances of his officers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I speak,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;of that charred paper. It was I who laid the candle
+      across it; but it was a virgin sheet I burned. Vitelli's letter I had
+      first abstracted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You lie!&rdquo; he almost screamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To prove that I do not, I will tell you what it contained. It held proof
+      that bribed by the Tyrant of Citta di Castello you had undertaken to pose
+      an arbalister to slay the Duke on the occasion of his coming visit to
+      Cesena.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He glared at me a moment in furious amazement. Then he turned to his
+      officers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not heed him,&rdquo; he bade them. &ldquo;The dog lies to sow doubts in your minds
+      ere he goes out to hang. It is a puerile revenge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I laughed with amused confidence. There was one among them had heard
+      Lampugnani's words touching the messenger's hat&mdash;words that had cost
+      the fellow his life. But my concern was little with the effect my words
+      might produce upon his followers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By to-morrow you will know whether I have lied or not. Nay, before then
+      shall you know it, for by midnight Cesare Borgia should be at Cesena.
+      Vitellozzo Vitelli's letter is in his hands by now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that Ramiro burst into a laugh. So convinced was he of the
+      impossibility of my having got the letter to the Duke, even if what I had
+      said of its abstraction were true, that he gathered assurance from what
+      seemed to him so monstrous an exaggeration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By your own words are you confounded,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Out of your own mouth
+      have you proven your lies. Assuming that all you say were true, how could
+      you, who since last night have been a prisoner, have got a messenger to
+      bear anything from you to Cesare Borgia?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked at him with a contemptuous amusement that daunted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Mariani?&rdquo; I asked quietly. &ldquo;Where is the father of the lad you
+      so brutally and wantonly slew yesternight? Seek him throughout Cesena, and
+      when you find him not, perhaps you will realise that one who had seen his
+      own son suffer such an outrageous and cruel death at your brigand's hands
+      would be a willing and ready instrument in an act that should avenge him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vergine santa! What a consternation was his. He must have missed Mariani
+      early in the day, for he took no measure, asked no questions that might
+      confirm or refute the thing I announced. His face grew livid, and his
+      knees loosened. He sank on to a chair and mopped the cold sweat from his
+      brow with his great brown hand. No thought had he now for the eyes of his
+      officers or their opinions. Fear, icy and horrid, such fear as in his time
+      he had inspired in a thousand hearts was now possessed of his. Sweet
+      indeed was the flavour of my vengeance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His officers instinctively drew away from him before the guilt so clearly
+      written on his face, and their eyes were full of doubt as to how they
+      should proceed and of some fear&mdash;for it must have been passing
+      through their minds that they stood, themselves, in danger of being
+      involved with him in the Duke's punishment of his disloyalty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was more than had ever entered into my calculations or found room in
+      my hopes. By a brisk appeal to them, it almost seemed that I might work my
+      salvation in this eleventh hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna watched the scene with eyes that suggested to me that the same
+      hope had arisen in her own mind. My halberdiers and the carnifex alone
+      stood stolidly indifferent. Ramiro was to them the man that hired them;
+      with his intriguing they had no concern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment or two there was a silence, and Ramiro sat staring before
+      him, his white face glistening with the sweat of fear. A very coward at
+      heart was this overbearing ogre of Cesena, who for years had been the
+      terror and scourge of the countryside. At last he mastered his emotion and
+      sprang to his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have had the laugh of me,&rdquo; he snarled, fury now ringing in his voice.
+      &ldquo;But ere you die you may regret it that you mocked me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to the executioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strip him,&rdquo; he commanded fiercely. &ldquo;He shall not hang as I intended&mdash;at
+      least not before we have torn every bone of his body from its socket. To
+      the cord with him!&rdquo; And he pointed to the torture at the end of the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola leapt
+      to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there none here,&rdquo; he cried, appealing to Ramiro's officers, &ldquo;that will
+      draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the Duca Valentino? There
+      stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his loyalty to Cesare
+      Borgia. The Duke is likely to demand a heavy price for the life of that
+      faithful one to whose warning he owes his escape of assassination. Will
+      none of you side now with the right that anon you may stand well with
+      Cesare Borgia when he comes? Or, by idly allowing this traitor to have his
+      way, will you participate in the punishment that must be his?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the very spur they needed. And scarce was that final question of
+      hers flung at those knaves, when the answer came from one of them. It was
+      that same sturdy Lupone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, for one, am for the Duke,&rdquo; said he, and his sword leapt from its
+      scabbard. &ldquo;I draw my iron for Valentino. Let every loyal man do likewise
+      and seize this traitor.&rdquo; And with his sword he pointed at Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant three others bared their weapons and ranged themselves
+      beside him. The remaining two&mdash;of whom was Lucagnolo&mdash;folded
+      their hands, manifesting by that impassivity that they were minded to take
+      neither one side nor the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carnifex paused in his labours of undressing me, and the affair
+      promised to grow interesting. But Ramiro did not stand his ground. Fury
+      swelling his veins and crimsoning his huge face, he sprang to the door and
+      bellowed to his guards. Six men trooped in almost at once, and reinforced
+      by the halberdiers that had been guarding me, they made short work of the
+      resistance of those four officers. In as little time as it takes me to
+      record it, they were disarmed and ranged against the wall behind those
+      guards and others that had come to their support&mdash;to be dealt with by
+      Ramiro after he had dealt with me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His fear of Cesare's coming was put by for the moment in his fierce lust
+      to be avenged upon me who had betrayed him and the officers who had turned
+      against him. Madonna sank back once more in her despair. The little spark
+      that she had so bravely fanned to life had been quenched almost as soon as
+      it had shown itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Federigo,&rdquo; said Ramiro grimly, &ldquo;I am waiting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The executioner resumed his work, and in an instant I stood stripped of my
+      brigandine. As the fellow led me, unresisting, to the torture&mdash;for
+      what resistance could have availed me now?&mdash;I tried to pray for
+      strength to endure what was to come. I was done with life; for some
+      portion of an hour I must go through the cruellest of agonies; and then,
+      when it pleased God in His mercy that I should swoon, it would be to wake
+      no more in this world. For they would bear out my unconscious body, and
+      hang it by the neck from that black beam they called Ramiro del' Orca's
+      flagstaff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cast a last glance at Madonna. She had fallen on her knees, and with
+      folded hands was praying intently, none heeding her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Federigo halted me beneath the pulleys, and his horrid hands grew busy
+      adjusting the ropes to my wrists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, when the last ray of hope had faded, but before the executioner
+      had completed his hideous task, a trumpet-blast, winding a challenge to
+      the gates of the Castle of Cesena, suddenly rang out upon the evening air,
+      and startled us all by its sudden and imperious note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI. AVE CAESAR!
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a
+      miracle had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight hours
+      before it was possible for Mariani to have fetched him from Faenza. The
+      same doubt may have crossed Ramiro's mind, for he changed colour and
+      sprang to the door to bawl an order forbidding his men to lower the
+      bridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he was too late. Before he was answered by his followers, we heard the
+      creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending in a
+      thud that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat. Then came
+      the loud continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers. Paralysed by
+      fear Ramiro stood where he had halted, turning his eyes wildly in this
+      direction and in that, but never moving one way or the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be Cesare, I swore to myself. Who else could ride to Cessna with
+      such numbers? But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he had seen
+      Mariani, for he could not have ridden from Faenza. Madonna had risen too,
+      and with a white face and straining eyes she was looking towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then our doubts were at last ended. There was a jangle of spurs and
+      the fall of feet, and through the open door stepped a straight, martial
+      figure in a doublet of deep crimson velvet, trimmed with costly lynx furs
+      and slashed with satin in the sleeves and shoulder-puffs; jewels gleamed
+      in the massive chain across his breast and at the marroquin girdle that
+      carried his bronze-hilted sword; his hose was of red silk, and his great
+      black boots were armed with golden spurs. But to crown all this very regal
+      splendour was the beautiful, pale, cold face of Cesare Borgia, from out of
+      which two black eyes flashed and played like sword-points on the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind him surged a press of mercenaries, in steel, their weapons naked in
+      their hands, so that no doubt was left of the character of this visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Collecting himself, and bethinking him that after all, he had best
+      dissemble a good countenance; Ramiro advanced respectfully to meet his
+      overlord. But ere he had taken three steps the Duke stayed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand where you are, traitor,&rdquo; was the imperious command. &ldquo;I'll trust you
+      no nearer to my person.&rdquo; And to emphasise his words he raised his gloved
+      left hand, which had been resting on his sword-hilt, and in which I now
+      observed that he held a paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Ramiro recognised it, or whether it was that the mere sight of a
+      paper reminded him of the letter which on my testimony should be in
+      Cesare's keeping, or whether again the word &ldquo;traitor&rdquo; with which Cesare
+      branded him drove the iron deeper into his soul, I cannot say; but to this
+      I can testify: that he turned a livid green, and stood there before his
+      formidable master in an attitude so stricken as to have aroused pity for
+      any man less a villain than was he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Cesare's eye, travelling round, alighted on Madonna Paola,
+      standing back in the shadows to which she had instinctively withdrawn at
+      his coming. At sight of her he recoiled a pace, deeming, no doubt, that it
+      was an apparition stood before him. Then he looked again, and being a man
+      whose mind was above puerile superstitions, he assured himself that by
+      what miracle the thing was wrought, the figure before him was the living
+      body of Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior. He swept the velvet cap with
+      its jewelled plume from off his auburn locks, and bowed low before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In God's name, Madonna, how are you come to life again, and how do I find
+      you here of all places?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no ado about enlightening him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That villain,&rdquo; said she, and her finger pointed straight and firmly at
+      Ramiro, &ldquo;put a sleeping-potion in my wine on the last night he dined with
+      us at Pesaro, and when all thought me dead he came to the Church of San
+      Domenico with his men to carry off my sleeping body. He would have
+      succeeded in his fell design but that Lazzaro Biancomonte there, whom you
+      have stayed him in the act of torturing to death, was beforehand and saved
+      me from his clutches for a time. This morning at Cattolica his searching
+      sbirri discovered me and brought me hither, where I have been for the past
+      three hours, and where, but for your Excellency's timely arrival, I
+      shudder to think of the indignities I might have suffered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Madonna, for this clear succinctness,&rdquo; answered Cesare
+      coldly, as was his habit. They say he was a passionate man, and such
+      indeed I do believe him to have been; but even in the hottest frenzy of
+      rage, outwardly he was ever the same&mdash;icily cold and tranquil. And
+      this, no doubt, was the thing that made him terrible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently, Madonna,&rdquo; he pursued, &ldquo;I shall ask you to tell me how it
+      chanced that, having saved you, Messer Biancomonte did not bear you to
+      your brother's house. But first I have business with my Governor of Cesena&mdash;a
+      score which is rendered, if possible, heavier than it already stood by
+      this thing that you have told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; cried out Ramiro, finding his tongue at last, &ldquo;Madonna has
+      misinformed you. I know nothing of who administered the sleeping-potion.
+      Certainly it was not I. I heard a rumour that her body had been stolen,
+      and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo; Cesare commanded sternly. &ldquo;Did I question you, dog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His beautiful, terrible eyes fastened upon Ramiro in a glance that defied
+      the man to answer him. Cowed, like a hound at sight of the whip, Ramiro
+      whimpered into silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cesare waved his hand in his direction, half-turning to the men-at-arms
+      behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take and disarm him,&rdquo; was his passionless command. And while they were
+      doing his bidding, he turned to me and ordered the executioner beside me
+      to unbind my hands and set me at liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I owe you a heavy debt, Messer Biancomonte,&rdquo; he said, without any warmth,
+      even now that his voice was laden with a message of gratitude. &ldquo;It shall
+      be discharged. It is thanks to your daring and resource that the seneschal
+      Mariani was able to bring me this letter, this piece of culminating proof
+      against Ramiro del' Orca. It is fortunate for you that Mariani was not put
+      to it to ride to Faenza to find me, or else I am afraid we had not reached
+      Cesena in time to save your life. I met him some leagues this side of
+      Faenza, as I was on my way to Sinigaglia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned abruptly to Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In this letter which Vitelli wrote you,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it is suggested that
+      there are others in the conspiracy. Tell me now, who are those others? See
+      that you answer me with truth, for I shall compel proofs from you of such
+      accusations as you may make.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro looked at him with eyes rendered dull by agony. He moistened his
+      lips with his tongue, and turning his head towards his men&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wine,&rdquo; he gasped, from very force of habit. &ldquo;A cup of wine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be supplied him,&rdquo; said Cesare coldly, and we all stood waiting
+      while a servant filled him a cup. Ramiro gulped the wine avidly, never
+      pausing until the goblet was empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Cesare, who had been watching him, &ldquo;will it please you to
+      answer my question?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Ramiro, revived and strengthened in spirit by the draught,
+      &ldquo;I must ask your Excellency to be a little plainer with me. To what
+      conspiracy is it that you refer? I know of none. What is this letter which
+      you say Vitelli wrote me? I take it you refer to the Lord of Citta di
+      Castello. But I can recall no letters passing between us. My acquaintance
+      with him is of the slightest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cesare looked at him a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Approach,&rdquo; he curtly bade him, and Ramiro came forward, one of the Borgia
+      halberdiers on either side of him, each holding him by an arm. The Duke
+      thrust the letter under his eyes. &ldquo;Have you never seen that before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ramiro looked at it a moment, and his attempt at dissembling bewilderment
+      was a ludicrous thing to witness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; he said brazenly at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cesare folded the letter and slipped it into the breast of his doublet.
+      From his girdle he took a second paper. He turned from Ramiro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Miguel,&rdquo; he called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From behind his men-at-arms a tall man, all dressed in black, stood
+      forward. It was Cesare's Spanish captain, one whose name was as well known
+      and as well-dreaded in Italy as Cesare's own. The Duke held out to him the
+      paper that he had produced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You heard the question that I asked Messer del' Orca?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard, Illustrious,&rdquo; answered Miguel, with a bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See that you obtain me an answer to it, as well as an account of the
+      other matters that I have noted on this list&mdash;concerning the
+      misappropriation of stores, the retention of taxes illicitly levied, and
+      the wanton cruelty towards my good citizens of Cesena. Put him to the
+      question without delay, and record me his replies. The implements are
+      yonder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with the same calm indifference which characterised his every word and
+      action Cesare pointed to the torture, and turned to Madonna Paola, as
+      though he gave the matter of Ramiro del' Orca and his misdeeds not another
+      thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy, my lord,&rdquo; rang now the voice of Ramiro, laden with horrid fear. &ldquo;I
+      will speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do so&mdash;to Don Miguel. He will question you in my name.&rdquo; Again
+      he turned to Madonna. &ldquo;Madonna Paola, may I conduct you hence? Things may
+      perhaps occur which it is not seemly your gentle eyes should witness.
+      Messer Biancomonte, attend us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, in spite of all that Ramiro had made me suffer, I should have been
+      loath to have remained and witnessed his examination. That they would
+      torture him was now inevitable. His chance of answering freely was gone.
+      Even if he returned meek replies to Don Miguel's questions, that gentleman
+      would, no doubt, still submit him to the cord by way of assuring himself
+      that such replies were true ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gladly, then, did I turn to follow the Duke and Madonna Paola into the
+      adjoining chamber to which Cesare led the way, even as Don Miguel's voice
+      was raised to command his men to clear the hall, to the end that he might
+      conduct his examination in private.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three of us stood in the anteroom. A servant had lighted the tapers
+      and closed the doors, and the Duke turned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First, Messer Biancomonte, to discharge my debt. You are, if I am not
+      misinformed, the lord by right of birth of certain lands that bear your
+      name, which suffered sequestration during the reign of the late Costanzo,
+      Tyrant of Pesaro, whose son Giovanni upheld that confiscation. Am I
+      right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Excellency is very well informed. The Lord of Pesaro did make me
+      tardy restitution&mdash;so tardy, indeed, that the lands which he restored
+      to me had already virtually passed from his possession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cesare smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In recompense for the service you have rendered me this day,&rdquo; said he,
+      and my heart thrilled at the words and at the thought of the joy which I
+      was about to bear to my old mother, &ldquo;I reinvest you in your lands of
+      Biancomonte for so long as you are content to recognise in me your
+      overlord, and to be loyal, true and faithful to my rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I bowed, murmuring something of the joy I felt and the devotion I should
+      entertain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then that is done with. You shall have the deed from my hand by morning.
+      And now, Madonna, will you grant me some explanation of your conduct in
+      leaving Pesaro in this man's company, instead of repairing to your
+      brother's house, when you awakened from the effects of the potion Ramiro
+      gave you, or must I seek the explanation from Messer Biancomonte?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyes fell before the scrutiny of his, and when they were raised again
+      it was to meet my glance, and if Cesare could not, for himself, read the
+      message of those eyes, why then, his penetration was by no means what the
+      world accounted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;let me explain. I love Madonna Paola. It was love of
+      her that led me to the church and kept me there that night. It was love of
+      her and the overmastering passion of my grief at her so sudden death that
+      led me, in a madness, to desire once more to look upon her face ere they
+      delivered it to earth's keeping. Thus was it that I came to discover that
+      she lived; thus was it that I anticipated Ramiro del' Orca. He came upon
+      us almost before I had raised her from the coffin, yet love lent me
+      strength and craft to delude him. We hid awhile in the sacristy, and it
+      was there, after Madonna had revived, that the pent-up passion of years
+      burst the bond with which reason had bidden me restrain it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the Host!&rdquo; cried Cesare, his brows drawn down in a frown. &ldquo;You are a
+      bold man to tell me this. And you, Madonna,&rdquo; he cried, turning suddenly to
+      her, &ldquo;what have you to say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only, my lord, that I have suffered more I think in these past few days
+      than has ever fallen to the life-time's share of another woman. I think,
+      my lord, that I have suffered enough to have earned me a little peace and
+      a little happiness for the remainder of my days. All my life have men
+      plagued me with marriages that were hateful to me, and this has culminated
+      in the brutal act of Ramiro del' Orca. Do you not think that I have
+      endured enough?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared at her for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you love this fellow?&rdquo; he gasped. &ldquo;You, Madonna Paola Sforza di
+      Santafior, one of the noblest ladies in all Italy, confess to love this
+      lordling of a few barren acres?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I loved him, Illustrious, when he was less, much less, than that. I loved
+      him when he was little better than the Fool of the Court of Pesaro, and
+      not even the shame of the motley that disgraced him could stay the impulse
+      of my affections.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I have gone through life complaining of the want
+      of frankness in the men and women I have met. But you two seem to deal in
+      it liberally enough to satisfy the most ardent seeker after truth. I would
+      that Pontius Pilate could have known you.&rdquo; Then he grew sterner. &ldquo;But what
+      account of this evening's adventure am I to bear to my cousin Ignacio?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She hung her head in silence, whilst my own spirit trembled. Then suddenly
+      I spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;if you take her back to Pesaro, you may keep the deed
+      of Biancomonte. For unless Madonna Paola goes thither with me, your gift
+      is a barren one, your reward of no account or value to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not have it so,&rdquo; said he, his head on one side and his fingers
+      toying with his auburn beard. &ldquo;You saved my life, and you must be rewarded
+      fittingly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, Illustrious, in payment for my preservation of your life, do you
+      render happy mine, and we shall thus be quits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; cried Paola, putting forth her hands in supplication, &ldquo;if you
+      have ever loved, befriend us now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A shadow darkened his face for an instant, then it was gone, and his
+      expression was as inscrutable as ever. Yet he took her hands in his and
+      looked down into her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say that I am hard, bloodthirsty and unfeeling,&rdquo; he said in tones
+      that were almost of complaint. &ldquo;But I am not proof against so much appeal.
+      Ignacio must find him a bride in Spain; and if he is wise and would taste
+      the sweets of life, he will see to it that he finds him a willing one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for you two, Cesare Borgia shalt stand your friend. He owes you no
+      less. I will be godfather to your nuptials. Thus shall the blame and
+      consequences rest on me. Paola Sforza di Santafior is dead, men think. We
+      will leave them thinking it. Filippo must know the truth. But you can
+      trust me to make your brother take a reasonable view of what has come to
+      pass. After all, there may be a disparity in your ranks. But it is purely
+      adventitious, for noble though you may be, Madonna Paola, you are wedding
+      one who seems no less noble at heart, whatever the parts he may have
+      played in life.&rdquo; He smiled inscrutably, as he added: &ldquo;I have in mind that
+      you once sought service with me Messer Biancomonte, and if a martial life
+      allures you still, I'll make you lord of something better far than
+      Biancomonte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I thanked him, and Madonna joined me in that expression of gratitude&mdash;an
+      expression that fell very short of all that was in our hearts. But
+      touching that offer of his that I should follow his fortunes, I begged him
+      not to insist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The possession of Biancomonte has from my cradle been the goal of all my
+      hopes. It is patrimony enough for me, and there, with Madonna Paola, I'll
+      take a long farewell of ambition, which is but the seed of discontent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, as you will,&rdquo; he sighed. And then, before more could be said, there
+      came from the adjoining room a piercing scream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cesare raised his head, and his lips parted in the faintest vestige of a
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are exacting the truth from the Governor of Cesena,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I
+      think, Madonna, that we had better move a little farther off. Ramiro's
+      voice makes indifferent music for a lady's ear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was white as death at the horrid noise and all the things of which it
+      may have reminded her, and so we passed from the antechamber and sought
+      the more distant places of the castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here let me pause. We were married on the morrow which was Christmas eve,
+      and in the grey dawn of the Christmas morning we set out for Biancomonte
+      with the escort which Cesare Borgia placed at our disposal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we rode out from the Citadel of Cesena, we saw the last of Ramiro del'
+      Orca. Beyond the gates, in the centre of the public square, a block stood
+      planted in the snow. On the side nearer the castle there was a dark mass
+      over which a rich mantle had been thrown; it was of purple colour, and in
+      the uncertain light it was not easy to tell where the cloak ended, and the
+      stain that embrued the snow began. On the other side of the block a
+      decapitated head stood mounted on an upright pike, and the sightless eyes
+      of Ramiro del' Orca looked from his grinning face upon the town of Cesena,
+      which he had so wantonly misruled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madonna shuddered and turned her head aside as we rode past that dread
+      emblem of the Borgia justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To efface from her mind the memory of such a thing on such a day, I talked
+      to her, as we cantered out into the country, of the life to come, of the
+      mother that waited to welcome us, and of the glad tidings with which we
+      were to rejoice her on that Christmas day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no moral to my story. I may not end with one of those graceful
+      admonitions beloved of Messer Boccacci to whom in my jester's days I owed
+      so much. Not mine is it to say with him &ldquo;Wherefore, gentle ladies&rdquo;&mdash;or
+      &ldquo;noble sirs&mdash;beware of this, avoid that other thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mine is a plain tale, written in the belief that some account of those old
+      happenings that befell me may offer you some measure of entertainment, and
+      written, too, in the support of certain truths which my contemporaries
+      have been shamefully inclined and simoniacally induced to suppress. Many
+      chroniclers set forth how the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli and his associates
+      were barbarously strangled by Cesare's orders at Sinigaglia, and wilfully&mdash;for
+      I cannot believe that it results from ignorance&mdash;are they silent
+      touching the reason, leaving you to imagine that it was done in obedience
+      to a ruthlessness of character beyond parallel, so that you may come to
+      consider Cesare Borgia as black as they were paid to paint him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To confute them do I set down these facts of which my knowledge cannot be
+      called in question, and also that you may know the true story of Paola di
+      Santafior&mdash;and more particularly that part of it which lies beyond
+      the death she did not die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun of that Christmas day was setting as we drew near to Biancomonte
+      and the humble dwelling of my old mother. We fell into talk of her once
+      more. Suddenly Paola turned in her saddle to confront me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, Lord of Biancomonte, will she love me a little, think you?&rdquo; she
+      asked, to plague me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who would not love you, Lady of Biancomonte?&rdquo; counter-questioned I.
+    </p>
+
+<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 3408-h.htm or 3408-h.zip</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/3408/</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Updated editions will replace the previous one&#8212;the old editions will
+be renamed.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG&#8482;
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br />
+<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br />
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+To protect the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
+or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.B. &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&#8220;the
+Foundation&#8221; or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg&#8482; work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work (any work
+on which the phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; appears, or with which the
+phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+</div>
+
+<blockquote>
+  <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+    other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+    whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+    of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+    at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+    are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
+    of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
+  </div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221; associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg&#8482; License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg&#8482;.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; License.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work in a format
+other than &#8220;Plain Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg&#8482; website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original &#8220;Plain
+Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg&#8482; works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+provided that:
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'>
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &bull; You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+        the use of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works calculated using the method
+        you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+        to the owner of the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, but he has
+        agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+        within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+        legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+        payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+        Section 4, &#8220;Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+        Literary Archive Foundation.&#8221;
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &bull; You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+        you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+        does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+        copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+        all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        works.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &bull; You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+        any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+        electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+        receipt of the work.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &bull; You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+        distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works.
+    </div>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain &#8220;Defects,&#8221; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &#8220;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&#8221; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you &#8216;AS-IS&#8217;, WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg&#8482;&#8217;s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg&#8482; collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg&#8482; and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation&#8217;s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state&#8217;s laws.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation&#8217;s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation&#8217;s website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
+visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg&#8482;,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+</div>
+
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/3408.txt b/old/3408.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..73eff69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3408.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9202 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shame of Motley, by Raphael Sabatini
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Shame of Motley
+
+Author: Raphael Sabatini
+
+Posting Date: February 25, 2009 [EBook #3408]
+Release Date: September, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Stuart Middleton
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SHAME OF MOTLEY
+
+Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions in the Life of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro.
+
+
+By Rafael Sabatini
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     PART I
+
+     FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+     CHAPTER
+
+         I.  THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+        II.  THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+       III.  MADONNA PAOLA
+
+        IV.  THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+         V.  MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+
+        VI.  FOOL'S LUCK
+
+       VII.  THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+      VIII.  "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
+
+        IX.  THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+         X.  THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+
+     PART II
+
+     THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+
+        XI.  MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+
+       XII.  THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+      XIII.  POISON
+
+       XIV.  REQUIESCAT!
+
+        XV.  AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+       XVI.  IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+      XVII.  THE SENESCHAL
+
+     XVIII.  THE LETTER
+
+       XIX.  DOOMED
+
+        XX.  THE SUNSET
+
+       XXI.  AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+
+
+PART I. FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+
+For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by
+suspense. It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with
+after I had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from
+Pesaro, and I wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious
+Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia might see fit to offer me the
+honourable employment with which Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that
+he would reward the service I had rendered the House of Borgia by my
+journey.
+
+Three days were sped, yet nought had happened to signify that things
+would shape the course by me so ardently desired; that the means would
+be afforded me of mending my miserable ways, and repairing the wreck
+my life had suffered on the shoals of Fate. True, I had been housed and
+fed, and the comforts of indolence had been mine; but, for the rest, I
+was still clothed in the livery of folly which I had worn on my arrival,
+and, wherever I might roam, there followed ever at my heels a crowd of
+underlings, seeking to have their tedium lightened by jests and capers,
+and voting me--when their hopes proved barren--the sorriest Fool that
+had ever worn the motley.
+
+On that third day I speak of, my patience tried to its last strand, I
+had beaten a lacquey with my hands, and fled from the cursed gibes his
+fellows aimed at me, out into the misty gardens and the chill January
+air, whose sting I could, perhaps, the better disregard by virtue of
+the heat of indignation that consumed me. Was it ever to be so with me?
+Could nothing lift the curse of folly from me, that I must ever be a
+Fool, and worse, the sport of other fools?
+
+It was there on one of the terraces crowning the splendid heights above
+immortal Rome that Messer Gianluca found me. He greeted me courteously;
+I answered with a snarl, deeming him come to pursue the plaguing from
+which I had fled.
+
+"His Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia is asking for
+you, Messer Boccadoro," he announced. And so despairing had been my mood
+of ever hearing such a summons that, for a moment, I accounted it some
+fresh jest of theirs. But the gravity of his fat countenance reassured
+me.
+
+"Let us go, then," I answered with alacrity, and so confident was I that
+the interview to which he bade me was the first step along the road to
+better fortune, that I permitted myself a momentary return to the Fool's
+estate from which I thought myself on the point of being for ever freed.
+
+"I shall use the interview to induce his Excellency to submit a tenth
+beatitude to the approval of our Holy Father: Blessed are the bearers of
+good tidings. Come on, Messer the seneschal."
+
+I led the way, in my impatience forgetful of his great paunch and little
+legs, so that he was sorely tried to keep pace with me. Yet who would
+not have been in haste, urged by such a spur as had I? Here, then, was
+the end of my shameful travesty. To-morrow a soldier's harness should
+replace the motley of a jester; the name by which I should be known
+again to men would be that of Lazzaro Biancomonte, and no longer
+Boccadoro--the Fool of the golden mouth.
+
+Thus much had Madonna Lucrezia's promises led me to expect, and it was
+with a soul full of joyous expectation that I entered the great man's
+closet.
+
+He received me in a manner calculated to set me at my ease, and yet
+there was about him a something that overawed me. Cesare Borgia,
+Cardinal of Valencia, was then in his twenty-third year, for all
+that there hung about him the semblance of a greater age, just as his
+cardinalitial robes lent him the appearance of a height far above the
+middle stature that was his own. His face was pale and framed in a silky
+auburn beard; his nose was aquiline and strong; his eyes the keenest
+that I have ever seen; his forehead lofty and intelligent. He seemed
+pervaded by an air of feverish restlessness, something surpassing the
+vivida vis animi, something that marked him to discerning eyes for a man
+of incessant action of body and of mind.
+
+"My sister tells me," he said in greeting, "that you are willing to take
+service under me, Messer Biancomonte."
+
+"Such was the hope that guided me to Rome, Most Excellent," I answered
+him.
+
+Surprise flashed into his eyes, and was gone as quickly as it had come.
+His thin lips parted in a smile, whose meaning was inscrutable.
+
+"As some reward for the safe delivery of the letter you brought me from
+her?" he questioned mildly.
+
+"Precisely, Illustrious," I answered in all frankness.
+
+His open hand smote the table of wood-mosaics at which he sat.
+
+"Praised be Heaven!" he cried. "You seem to promise that I shall have in
+you a follower who deals in truth."
+
+"Could your Excellency, to whom my real name is known, expect ought else
+of one who bears it--however unworthily?"
+
+There was amusement in his glance.
+
+"Can you still swagger it, after having worn that livery for three
+years?" he asked, and his lean forefinger pointed at my hideous motley
+of red and black and yellow.
+
+I flushed and hung my head, and--as if to mock that very expression
+of my shame--the bells on my cap gave forth a silvery tinkle at the
+movement.
+
+"Excellency, spare me," I murmured. "Did you know all my miserable story
+you would be merciful. Did you know with what joy I turned my back on
+the Court of Pesaro--"
+
+"Aye," he broke in mockingly, "when Giovanni Sforza threatened to have
+you hanged for the overboldness of your tongue. Not until then did it
+occur to you to turn from the shameful life in which the best years
+of your manhood were being wasted. There! Just now I commended your
+truthfulness; but the truth that dwells in you is no more, it seems,
+than the truth we may look for in the mouth of Folly. At heart, I fear,
+you are a hypocrite, Messer Biancomonte; the worst form of hypocrite--a
+hypocrite to your own self."
+
+"Did your Excellency know all!" I cried.
+
+"I know enough," he answered, with stern sorrow; "enough to make me
+marvel that the son of Ettore Biancomonte of Biancomonte should play the
+Fool to Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Oh you will tell me that you
+went there for revenge, to seek to right the wrong his father did your
+father."
+
+"It was, it was!" I cried, with heated vehemence. "Be flames everlasting
+the dwelling of my soul if any other motive drove me to this shameful
+trade."
+
+There was a pause. His beautiful eyes flamed with a sudden light as they
+rested on me. Then the lids drooped demurely, and he drew a deep breath.
+But when he spoke there was scorn in his voice.
+
+"And, no doubt, it was that same motive kept you there, at peace for
+three whole years, in slothful ease, the motleyed Fool, jesting and
+capering for his enemy's delectation--you, a man with the knightly
+memory of your foully-wronged parent to cry hourly shame upon you. No
+doubt you lacked the opportunity to bring the tyrant to account. Or was
+it that you were content to let him make a mock of you so long as he
+housed and fed you and clothed you in your garish livery of shame?
+
+"Spare me, Excellency," I cried again. "Of your charity let my past be
+done with. When he drove me forth with threats of hanging, from which
+your gracious sister saved me, I turned my steps to Rome at her bidding
+to--"
+
+"To find honourable employment at my hands," he interrupted quietly.
+Then suddenly rising, and speaking in a voice of thunder--"And what,
+then, of your revenge?" he cried.
+
+"It has been frustrated," I answered lamely. "Sufficient do I account
+the ruin that already I have wrought in my life by the pursuit of that
+phantom. I was trained to arms, my lord. Let me discard for good these
+tawdry rags, and strap a soldier's harness to my back."
+
+"How came you to journey hither thus?" he asked, suddenly turning the
+subject.
+
+"It was Madonna Lucrezia's wish. She held that my errand would be safer
+so, for a Fool may travel unmolested."
+
+He nodded that he understood, and paced the chamber with bowed head. For
+a spell there was silence, broken only by the soft fall of his slippered
+feet and the swish of his silken purple. At last he paused before me and
+looked up into my face--for I was a good head taller than he was. His
+fingers combed his auburn beard, and his beautiful eyes were full on
+mine.
+
+"That was a wise precaution of my sister's," he approved. "I will take
+a lesson from her in the matter. I have employment for you, Messer
+Biancomonte."
+
+I bowed my head in token of my gratitude.
+
+"You shall find me diligent and faithful, my lord," I promised him.
+
+"I know it," he sniffed, "else should I not employ you."
+
+He turned from me, and stepped back to his table. He took up a package,
+fingered it a moment, then dropped it again, and shot me one of his
+quiet glances.
+
+"That is my answer to Madonna Lucrezia's letter," he said slowly, his
+voice as smooth as silk, "and I desire that you shall carry it to Pesaro
+for me, and deliver it safely and secretly into her hands."
+
+I could do no more than stare at him. It seemed as if my mind were
+stricken numb.
+
+"Well?" he asked at last; and in his voice there was now a suggestion of
+steel beneath the silk. "Do you hesitate?"
+
+"And if I do," I answered, suddenly finding my voice, "I do no more than
+might a bolder man. How can I, who am banned by punishment of death,
+contrive to penetrate again into the Court of Pesaro and reach the Lady
+Lucrezia?"
+
+"That is a matter that I shall leave to the shrewd wit which all Italy
+says is the heritage of Boccadoro, the Prince of Fools. Does the task
+daunt you?" His glance and voice were alike harsh.
+
+In very truth it did, and I told him so, but in the terms which the
+shrewd wit he said was mine dictated.
+
+"I hesitate, my lord, indeed; but more because I fear the frustration
+of your own ends--whatever they may be--than because I dread to earn
+a broken neck by again adventuring into Pesaro. Would not some other
+messenger--unknown at the Court of Giovanni Sforza--be in better case to
+acquit himself of such a task?
+
+"Yes, if I had one I could trust," he answered frankly.
+
+"I will be open with you, Biancomonte. There are such grave matters at
+issue, there are such secrets confided to that paper, that I would not
+for a kingdom, not for our Holy Father's triple crown, that they should
+fall into alien hands."
+
+He approached me again, and his slender hand, upon which the sacred
+amethyst was glowing, fell lightly on my shoulder. He lowered his voice
+"You are the man, the one man in Italy, whose interests are bound up
+with mine in this; therefore are you the one man to whom I can entrust
+that package."
+
+"I?" I gasped in amazement--as well I might, for what interests had
+Boccadoro, the Fool, in common with Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia?
+
+"You," he answered vehemently, "you, Lazzaro Biancomonte of Biancomonte,
+whose father Costanzo of Pesaro stripped of his domains. The matters in
+those papers mean the ruin of the Lord of Pesaro. We are all but ripe to
+strike at him from Rome and when we strike he shall be so disfigured
+by the blow that all Italy shall hold its sides to laugh at the sorry
+figure he will cut. I would not say so much to any other living man but
+you and if I tell it you it is because I need your aid."
+
+"The lion and mouse," I murmured.
+
+"Why yes, if you will."
+
+"And this man is the husband of your sister!" I exclaimed, almost
+involuntarily.
+
+"Does that imply a doubt of what I have said?" he flashed, his head
+thrown back, his brows drawn suddenly together.
+
+"No, no," I hastened to assure him. He smiled softly.
+
+"Maddonna Lucrezia knows all--or nearly all. Of what else she may need
+to learn, that letter will inform her. It is the last thread, the last
+knot needed, before we can complete the net in which we are to hold that
+tyrant? Now, will you bear the letter?"
+
+Would I bear it? Dear God! To achieve the end in view I would have
+spent my remaining days in motley, making sport for grooms and
+kitchen wenches. Some such answer did I make him, and he smiled his
+satisfaction.
+
+"You shall journey as you are," he bade me. "I am guided by my sister,
+assured that the coat of a Fool is stouter protection than the best
+hauberk ever tempered. When you have done your errand come you back to
+me, and you shall have employment better suited to one who bears the
+name of Biancomonte."
+
+"You may depend upon me in this, my lord," I promised gravely. "I shall
+not fail you."
+
+"It is well" said he; and those wondrous eyes of his rested again upon
+my face. "How soon can you set out?"
+
+"At once, my lord. Does not the by-word say that a fool makes little
+preparation for a journey?"
+
+He nodded, and moved to a coffer, a beautiful piece of Venetian work in
+ultramarine and gold. From this he took a heavy bag.
+
+"There," said he, "you will find the best of all travelling companions."
+I thanked him, and set the bag on the crook of my left arm, and by its
+weight I knew how true he was to the notorious splendour of his race.
+"And this," said he, "is a talisman that may serve to help you out of
+any evil plight, and open many a door that you may find locked." And he
+handed me a signet ring on which was graven the steer that is the emblem
+of the House of Borgia.
+
+He raised aloft the hand on which was glistening the sacred
+amethyst--two fingers crooked and two erect. Wondering what this should
+mean, I stared inquiry.
+
+"Kneel," he bade me. And realising what he would be about, I sank on
+to my knees whilst he murmured the Apostolic benediction over my bowed
+head. The rushes of the floor were the only witnesses of the smile that
+crept to my lips at this sudden assumption of his churchly office by
+that most worldly prince.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+
+Such preparations as I had to make were soon complete.
+
+Although it was agreed that I was to travel in the motley, yet, in my
+lately-born shame of that apparel, I decided that I would conceal it as
+best might be, revealing it only should the need arise. Moreover, it
+was incumbent that I should afford myself more protection against the
+inclement January night than that of my foliated cape, my crested cap
+and silken hose. So, a black cloak, heavy and ample, a broad-brimmed
+hat, and a pair of riding boots of untanned leather were my further
+equipment. In the lining of one of those boots I concealed the Lord
+Cesare's package; his money--some twenty ducats--I carried in a belt
+about my waist, and his ring I set boldly on my finger.
+
+Few moments did it need me to make ready, yet fewer, it seems, would
+the Borgia impatience have had me employ; for scarce was I booted when
+someone knocked at my door. I opened, and there entered a very mountain
+of a man, whose corselet flashed back the yellow light of my tapers, as
+might have done a mirror, and whose harsh voice barked out to ask if I
+was ready.
+
+I had had some former acquaintance with this fellow, having first met
+him during the previous year, on the occasion of the Court of Pesaro's
+sojourn at Rome. His name was Ramiro del' Orca, and throughout the Papal
+army it stood synonymous for masterfulness and grim brutality. He was,
+as I have said, an enormous man, of prodigious bodily strength, heavy,
+yet of good proportions. Of his face one gathered the impression of a
+blazing furnace. His cheeks and nose were of a vivid red, and still more
+fiery was the hair, now hidden 'neath his morion, and the beard that
+tapered to a dagger's point. His very eyes kept tune with the red
+harmony of his ferocious countenance, for the whites were ever bloodshot
+as a drunkard's--which, with no want of truth, men said he was.
+
+"Come," grunted that fiery, self-sufficient vassal, "be stirring, sir
+Fool. I have orders to see you to the gates. There is a horse ready
+saddled for you. It is the Lord Cardinal's parting gift. Resolve me now,
+which will be the greater ass--the one that rides, or the one that is
+ridden?"
+
+"O monstrous riddle!" I exclaimed, as I took up my cloak and hat. "Who
+am I that I should solve it?"
+
+"It baffles you, sir Fool?" quoth he.
+
+"In very truth it does." I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells set
+up a jangle. "For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse. But," I
+pursued, in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of the
+jester's wit, "were you to make a trio of us, including Messer Ramiro
+del' Orca, Captain in the army of his Holiness, no doubt would then
+afflict me. I should never hesitate which of the three to pronounce the
+ass."
+
+"What shall that mean?" he asked, with darkening brows.
+
+"That its meaning proves obscure to you confirms the verdict I
+was hinting at," I taunted him. "For asses are notoriously of dull
+perceptions." Then stepping forward briskly: "Come, sir," I sharply
+urged him, "whilst we engage upon this pretty play of wit, his
+Excellency's business waits, which is an ill thing. Where is this horse
+you spoke of?"
+
+He showed me his strong, white teeth in a very evil smile.
+
+"Were it not for that same business--" he began.
+
+"You would do fine things, I am assured," I interrupted him.
+
+"Would I not?" he snarled. "By the Host! I should be wringing your pert
+neck, or laying bare your bones with a thong of bullock-hide, you ill
+conditioned Fool!"
+
+I looked at him with pleasant, smiling eyes.
+
+"You confirm the opinion that is popularly held of you," said I.
+
+"What may that be?" quoth he, his eyes very evil. "In Rome, I'm told,
+they call you hangman."
+
+He growled in his throat like an angered cur, and his hands were jerked
+to the level of his breast, the fingers bending talon-wise.
+
+"Body of God!" he muttered fiercely, "I'll teach one fool, at least--"
+
+"Let us cease these pleasantries, I entreat you," I laughed. "Saints
+defend me! If your mood incline to raillery you'll find your match in
+some lad of the stables. As for me, I have not the time, had I the will,
+to engage you further. Let me remind you that I would be gone."
+
+The reminder was well-timed. He bethought him of the journey I must go,
+on which he was charged to see me safely started.
+
+"Come on, then," he growled, in a white heat of passion that was only
+curbed by the consideration of that slender, pale young cardinal, his
+master.
+
+Still, some of his rage he vented in roughly taking me by the collar
+of my doublet, and dragging the almost headlong from the room, and so
+a-down a flight of steps out into the courtyard. Meet treatment for a
+Fool--a treatment to which time might have inured me; for had I not
+for three years already been exposed to rough usage of this kind at the
+hands of every man above the rank of groom? And had I once rebelled in
+act as I did in soul, and used the strength wherewith God endowed me
+to punish my ill-users, a whip would have reminded me into what sorry
+slavery had I sold myself when I put on the motley.
+
+It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the
+courtyard when we descended.
+
+At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of
+hoofs, muffled by the snow. Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare
+upon the all-encompassing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward the
+horse that was destined to bear me. I donned my broad-brimmed hat, and
+wrapped my cloak about me. Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears,
+from those minions with whom I had herded during my three days at the
+Vatican. Then Messer del' Orca thrust me forward.
+
+"Mount, Fool, and be off," he rasped.
+
+I mounted, and turned to him. He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog
+wore human shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain
+Ramiro.
+
+"Brother, farewell," I simpered.
+
+"No brother of yours, Fool," snarled he.
+
+"True--my cousin only. The fool of art is no brother to the fool of
+nature."
+
+"A whip!" he roared to his grooms. "Fetch me a whip."
+
+I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and
+over the narrow drawbridge. Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my
+shoulder. They stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men,
+looking black against the whiteness of the ground. Behind them rose the
+brown walls of the rocca illumined by the flare of torches, from which
+the smell of rosin reached my nostrils as I paused. I waved my hat to
+them in token of farewell, and digging my spurless heels into the flanks
+of my horse, I ambled down through the biting wind and drifting snow,
+into the town.
+
+The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell from
+a window, and there stole through the chink of a door to glow upon the
+snow in earnest of the snug warmth within. Silence reigned, broken only
+by the moan of the wind under the eaves, for although it was no more
+than approaching the second hour of night, yet who but the wight whom
+necessity compelled would be abroad in such weather?
+
+All night I rode despite that weather's foulness--a foulness that might
+have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less attuned to
+his own supreme desires.
+
+Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to
+Magliano, and there I broke my fast and took some rest. My horse had
+suffered by the journey more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh
+one at Magliano, but there was none to be had--so they told me--this
+side of Narni, wherefore I was forced to set out once more upon that
+poor jaded beast that had carried me all night.
+
+It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the
+journey accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster. Here I
+paused to dine, but here, again, they told me that no horses might be
+had. And so, leading by the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride,
+lest I should kill it outright, I entered the territory of Urbino on
+foot, and trudged wearily amain through the snow that was some inches
+deep by now. In this miserable fashion I covered the seven leagues, or
+so, to Spoleto, where I arrived exhausted as night was falling.
+
+There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay. I found a company of
+gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley--when I had
+thrown off my sodden cloak and hat--pressed me, willy-nilly, into
+amusing them. And so I spent the night at my Fool's trade, giving them
+drolleries from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti--the horn-books of
+all jesters.
+
+I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending
+to travel with a better speed. The snow was thick and soft at first, but
+as I approached the hills it grew more crisp. Overhead the sky was of
+an unbroken blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was warmth
+in the sunshine. All day I rode hard, and never rested until towards
+nightfall I found myself on the spurs of the Apennines in the
+neighborhood of Gualdo, the better half of my journey well-accomplished.
+The weather had changed again at sunset. It was snowing anew, and the
+north wind was howling like a choir of the damned.
+
+Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it
+might suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I
+drew rein before that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse.
+Despite the early hour the door was already barred, for the bedding of
+travellers formed no part of the traffic of so lowly a house as this
+nameless, wayside wine-shop. Theirs was a trade that ended with the
+daylight. Nevertheless I was assured they could be made to find me a rag
+of straw to lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
+
+The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the
+light of the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not
+over-clean. Behind him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman
+as you might look to find the mate of such a man: broad and tall of
+frame and most scurvily cross-grained of face. It may well be that had
+he bidden me welcome, she had driven me back into the night; but since
+he made some demur when I asked for lodging, and protested that in his
+house was but accommodation too rude to offer my magnificence, the woman
+thrust him aside, and loudly bade me enter.
+
+I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests
+should suffer were my trade disclosed. I bade the man see to my horse,
+and then escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room
+above, which, in obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my
+convenience.
+
+It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner, and
+in the centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy chair
+beside it. The floor was black with age and filth, and broken everywhere
+by rat-holes. She set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the table, and
+with some apology for the rudeness of the chamber she asked in tones
+almost defiant if my excellency would be content.
+
+"Perforce," said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key to
+the respect of such a creature; "a king might thank Heaven for a kennel
+on such a night as this."
+
+She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered
+had I supped. I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have
+been poisoned by such foulnesses as they might have set before me. So I
+answered her that all I needed was a cup of wine.
+
+When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the
+door. It had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three
+legged stool against it that it might give me warning of intrusion. Next
+I threw off my cloak and hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I flung
+myself upon my miserable couch. But jaded though I might be, it was
+not yet my intent to sleep. Now that the half of my journey was
+accomplished, I found myself beset by doubts which had not before
+assailed me, touching the manner in which this mission of mine was to be
+accomplished. It would prove no easy thing for me to penetrate unnoticed
+into the town of Pesaro, much less into the Sforza Court, where for
+three years I had pursued my Fool's trade. There was scarce a man,
+a woman or a child in the entire domains of Giovanni Sforza to whom
+Boccadoro, the Fool, was not known; and many a villano, who had never
+noticed the features of the Lord of Pesaro, could have told you the
+very colour of his jester's eyes; which, after all, is no strange thing,
+for--sad reflection!--in a world in which Wisdom may be overlooked,
+Folly goes never disregarded.
+
+The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would
+gain the presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in
+others. And then my thoughts wandered into speculation. What might
+be this momentous letter that I carried? What was this secret traffic
+'twixt Cesare Borgia and his sister? Since Cesare had said that it
+meant the ruin of Giovanni Sforza--a ruin so utter, so complete and
+humiliating that it must provoke the scornful mirth of all Italy--the
+knowledge of it must soon be mine. Meanwhile I was an agent of that
+ruin. Dear God! how that reflection warmed me! What joy I took in
+the thought that, though he knew it not, nor could come to know it,
+I Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he had abused and whose spirit he had
+broken--was become a tool to expedite the work of abasement and
+destruction that was ripening for him. And realizing all this, that
+letter I vowed to Heaven I would carry, suffering no obstacle to daunt
+me, suffering nothing to turn me from my path.
+
+And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out
+impatiently: "Yes, yes; but how?"
+
+I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured
+myself a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive
+rat that had thrust its head above the boards. Then I quenched the
+light, and flung myself once more upon my bed, in the hope that darkness
+would prove a stimulant to thought and bring me to the solution I was
+seeking. It brought me sleep instead. Unconsciously I sank to it, my
+riddle all unsolved.
+
+I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing
+the pattern of my lattice on the ceiling. The stormy night had been
+succeeded by a calm and sunlit day. And by its light the place wore a
+more loathsome look than it had done last night, so that at the very
+sight of it I leapt from my couch and grew eager to be gone. I set
+a ducat on the table, and going to the door I called my hostess. The
+stairs creaked presently 'neath her portentous weight, and, panting
+slightly, she stood before me.
+
+At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed
+in the cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then
+in rage--deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the
+garb of folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some
+scurvy tumbling or some witless jests.
+
+"Ossa di Cristo!" was her cry. "Have I housed a Fool?"
+
+"If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has
+been a singularly choice resort. Woman--"
+
+"Would you 'woman' me?" she stormed.
+
+"Why, no," said I politely. "I was at fault. I'll keep the title for
+your husband--God help him!"
+
+She smiled grimly.
+
+"And are these," she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, "the jests with
+which you pay the score?"
+
+"Jests?" quoth I. "Score? Pish! More eyes, less tongue would more befit
+a hostess who has never housed a fool." And with a splendid gesture I
+pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table. At sight of the gold her
+eyes grew big with greed.
+
+"My master--" she began, and coming forward took the piece in her hand,
+to assure herself that she was not the dupe of magic. "A fool with
+gold!" she marvelled.
+
+"Is a shame to his calling," I acknowledged. Then--"Get me a needle and
+a length of thread," said I. She scuttled off to do my bidding, like
+nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty. She
+was back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a
+rent about me she might make bold to stitch. What a key to courtesy is
+gold, my masters! I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went
+at once.
+
+With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which it
+stood in need. Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my way
+below, calling for my horse as I descended.
+
+I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed. That last night's
+draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was
+theirs to tender. I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and
+stood waiting in the squalid common-room, my mind divided 'twixt
+impatience to resume the road to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the
+means I was to adopt to enter it and yet save my neck--for this was now
+become an obsessing problem.
+
+As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an approaching
+cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs upon the thick
+snow carpet. The company halted at the door, and a loud, gruff voice was
+raised to cry:
+
+"Locandiere! Afoot, sluggard!"
+
+I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four
+mounted men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn so
+that nothing might be seen of him or her that rode within. Grooms were
+those four, as all the world might see at the first glance, and the
+livery they wore was that of the noble House of Santafior--the holy
+white flower of the quince being embroidered on the breast of their
+gabardines.
+
+They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was
+soon guessed they had spent the night in the saddle. Their horses were
+in a foam of sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from
+foot to cap.
+
+Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared,
+leading my horse by the bridle. Now at an inn the traveller that arrives
+is ever of more importance than he that departs. At sight of those
+horsemen, the taverner forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow in
+welcome to the one that seemed the leader.
+
+"Most Magnificent," said he to that liveried hind, "command me."
+
+"We need a guide," the fellow answered with an ill grace.
+
+"A guide, Illustrious?" quoth the host. "A guide?"
+
+"I said a guide, fool," answered him the groom. "Heard you never of such
+animals? We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the shortest
+road to Cagli."
+
+The taverner shook his grey head stupidly. He bowed again until I
+fancied I could hear the creak of his old joints.
+
+"Here be no guides, Magnificent," he deplored. "Perhaps at Gualdo--"
+
+"Animal," was the retort--for true courtesy commend me to a
+lacquey!--"it is not our wish to pursue the road as far as Gualdo, else
+had we not stopped at this kennel of yours."
+
+I scarce know what it can have been that moved me to act as I then
+did, for, in the truth, the manner of that rascal of a groom was little
+prepossessing, and his master, I doubted, could be little better that he
+left the fellow to hector it thus over that wretched tavern oaf. But I
+stepped forward.
+
+"Did you say that you were journeying to Cagli?" questioned I.
+
+He eyed me sourly, suspicion writ athwart his round, ill-favoured face,
+But my motley was hidden from his sight. My cloak, my hat and boots
+allowed naught of my true condition to appear, and might as well have
+covered a lordling as a jester. Yet his inveterate surliness the rascal
+could not wholly conquer.
+
+"What may be the purpose of your question?" he growled.
+
+"To serve your master, whoever he may be," I answered him serenely,
+"although it is a service I do not press upon him. I, too, am journeying
+to Cagli, and like yourselves, I am in haste and go the shorter way
+across the hills, with which I am well acquainted. If it so please you
+to follow me your need of a guide may thus be satisfied."
+
+It was the tone to take if I would be respected. Had I proposed that we
+should journey in company I should not have earned me the half of the
+deference which was accorded to my haughtily granted leave that they
+might follow me if they so chose.
+
+With marked submission did he give me thanks in his master's name.
+
+I mounted and set out, and at my heels came now the litter and its
+escort. Thus did we quit the plain and breast the slopes, where the snow
+grew deeper and firmer underfoot as we advanced. And as I went, still
+plaguing my mind to devise a means by which I might penetrate to the
+Court of Pesaro, little did I dream that the matter was being solved for
+me--the solution having begun with my offer to guide that company across
+the hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. MADONNA PAOLA
+
+
+We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted and
+paused awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was to
+lead us down to Cagli. The air was sharp and cold, for all that overhead
+was spread a cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured down
+its light upon the wide expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness so
+dazzling as to be hurtful to the sight.
+
+Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that following
+company as if I had been unconscious of its existence. But now that
+we paused, their fat, white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo,
+approached me and sought to draw me into conversation. I yielded readily
+enough, for I scented a mystery about that closely-curtained litter,
+and mysteries are ever provoking to such a mind as mine. For all that
+it might profit me naught to learn who rode there, and why with all
+this haste, yet these were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity was
+aroused.
+
+"Are you journeying beyond Cagli?" I asked him presently, in an idle
+tone.
+
+He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes
+confirming the existence of the mystery I scented.
+
+"Yes," he answered, after a pause. "We hope to reach Urbino before
+night. And you? Are you journeying far?"
+
+"That far, at least," I answered him, emulating the caution he had
+shown.
+
+And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the
+litter were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and so
+far was the vision different from that which--for no reason that I can
+give--I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. A
+lady--a very child, indeed--had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any of
+those grooms could offer her assistance.
+
+She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and
+to one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine
+beauty it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that
+writer's catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shape
+and stature, despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicately
+featured and of an ivory pallor. Her eyes--blue as the heavens
+overhead--were not of the colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was
+her hair of the golden brown which that arbiter commends. Had Firenzuola
+seen her, it may well be that he had altered or modified his views. She
+was sumptuously arrayed in a loose-sleeved camorra of grey velvet that
+was heavy with costly furs; above the lenza of fine linen on her head
+gleamed the gold thread of a jewelled net, and at her waist a girdle of
+surpassing richness, all set with gems, glowed like a thing of fire in
+the bright sunshine.
+
+She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked
+about her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached us
+across the gleaming snow.
+
+"Is this," she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfect
+match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, "the traveller who so
+kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?"
+
+Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
+
+"I am in your debt, sir," she protested, with an odd earnestness. "You
+do not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any time
+Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, you
+shall find me very willing."
+
+White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of her
+identity.
+
+I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I hated
+the very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
+
+"Madonna, you overrate my service. It so chanced that I was travelling
+this way."
+
+She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reason
+of my churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not see
+the motley worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her. No doubt
+she accounted me a clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and so she
+turned away, telling Giacopo that as soon as the horses were breathed
+they might push on.
+
+"We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna," answered he, "if they are to
+carry us as far as Cagli. Heaven send that we may obtain fresh cattle
+there, else is all lost."
+
+Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
+
+"You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there any
+for those others." And she waved her hand towards the valley below
+and the road by which we had come. From this and from what was said
+I gathered that they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at their
+heels.
+
+"They have a warrant which we have not," was Giacopo's answer, gloomily
+delivered, "and they will seize cattle where they can find it."
+
+With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the peril
+that aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
+
+"Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir stranger,"
+said Giacopo to me.
+
+I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Better the horse should die of cold than I," I answered gruffly, and
+turning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood that
+was chilling in my veins.
+
+There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me that
+compelled my glance. To some it might compare but ill with the luxuriant
+splendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a wondrously
+impressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse of snow,
+expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by virtue of
+that very lack of expression. From Fabriano, at our feet, was spread to
+the east, the broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the Masone, as
+far as Mount Comero, which, in the distance, lifted its round shoulder
+from the haze of sea. To the west the country lay under the same
+winding-sheet of snow as far as eye might range, to the towers of
+distant Perugia, to the Lake Trasimeno--a silver sheen that broke
+the white monotony--to Etruscan Cortona, perched like an eyrie on its
+mountain top, and to the line of Tuscan hills, like heavy, low-lying
+clouds upon the blue horizon.
+
+Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded by
+a volley of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to my
+companions. They stood grouped together, and their eyes were on the road
+by which we had scaled those heights. Their first expression of loud
+astonishment had been succeeded by an utter silence. I stepped forward
+to command a better view of what they contemplated, and in the plain
+below, midway between Narni and the slopes, a mile or so behind us, I
+caught a glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the sunshine. A company of
+some dozen men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the tracks we had
+left behind us in the snow. Could these be the pursuers?
+
+Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady's silvery voice,
+behind me, put it into words. She had drawn aside the curtains of her
+litter and she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points of
+brilliance.
+
+"Madonna," cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, "they are
+Borgia soldiers."
+
+"Your fear is father to that opinion," she answered scornfully. "How can
+you descry it at this distance?"
+
+Now, either God had given that knave an eagle's sight, or else, as she
+suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what
+he thought he saw.
+
+"The leader's bannerol bears the device of a red bull," he answered
+promptly.
+
+I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
+
+"In God's name, let us get forward, then!" cried Giacopo. "Orsu! To
+horse, knaves!"
+
+No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were in
+the saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule of
+the litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no more
+ceremony than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no ado. A
+chase is an interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if a
+greater safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener excitement with
+the hunted.
+
+Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at
+a pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace
+us from any party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to the
+unreasoning minds of those poltroons, and so from the danger behind us
+we fled, and courted a more deadly and certain peril in the fleeing.
+At first I sought to remonstrate with Giacopo; but he was deaf to the
+wisdom that I spoke. He turned upon me a face which terror had rendered
+whiter than its natural habit, white as the egg of a duck, with a hint
+of blue or green behind it. I had, besides, an ugly impression of teeth
+and eyeballs.
+
+"Death is behind us, sir," he snarled. "Let us get on."
+
+"Death is more assuredly before you," I answered grimly. "If you will
+court it, go your way. As for me, I am over-young to break my neck
+and be left on the mountain-side to fatten crows. I shall follow at my
+leisure."
+
+"Gesu!" he cried, through chattering teeth. "Are you a coward, then?"
+
+The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it
+was; but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no
+more than provoke my mirth.
+
+"Come on, then, valiant runagate," I laughed at him.
+
+And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yard
+of moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than these
+rational animals that bestrode them. Twice did it chance that a man was
+flung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have been
+uttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching the
+plain with never so much as a broken bone.
+
+Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.
+The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the
+descent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than an
+amble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
+
+At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo. His head was ever
+turned to look behind--unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyes
+were ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to behold
+the flash of the pursuers' steel. The end soon followed. He drew rein
+and called a halt, sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived of
+wit--which is to pay him the compliment of supposing that he ever had
+wit to be deprived of.
+
+Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola's head appeared,
+her voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
+
+Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
+
+"Madonna, our horses are done. It is useless to go farther."
+
+"Useless?" she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could ring
+the voice that I had heard so gentle. "Of what do you talk, you knave?
+Ride on at once."
+
+"It is vain to ride on," he answered obdurately, insolence rising in his
+voice. "Another half-league--another league at most, and we are taken."
+
+"Cagli is less than a league distant," she reminded him. "Once there, we
+can obtain fresh horses. You will not fail me now, Giacopo!"
+
+"There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli," he reminded her, "and,
+meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri." And he pointed
+to the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
+
+She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
+
+"You will stand by me, my friends," she cried. "Giacopo, here, is a
+coward; but you are better men." They stirred, and one of them was
+momentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
+
+"We will go with you, Madonna," he exclaimed. "Let Giacopo remain
+behind, if so he will."
+
+But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nor
+tolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
+
+"You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!" he exclaimed,
+"as caught you will be, and within the hour. If you would save your
+necks, stay here and make surrender."
+
+His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonna
+leapt from the litter, the better to confront them. The corners of
+her sensitive little mouth were quivering now with the emotion that
+possessed her, and on her eyes there was a film of tears.
+
+"You cowards!" she blazed at them, "you hinds, that lack the spirit even
+to run! Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you could
+not show yourselves more palsied. I was a fool," she sobbed, stamping
+her foot so that the snow squelched under it. "I was a fool to entrust
+myself to you."
+
+"Madonna," answered one of them, "if flight could still avail us, you
+should not find us stubborn. But it were useless. I tell you again,
+Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were but
+a half-league behind. Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and we
+shall be seen."
+
+"Fool!" she cried, "a half-league behind, you say; and you forget that
+we were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it. If you but press
+on we shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.
+Besides, Giacopo," she added, turning again to the leader, "you may be
+at fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting
+them our pursuers."
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
+
+"Arnaldo, there, made no mistake. He told us what he saw."
+
+"Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!" she
+exclaimed, between grief and anger.
+
+I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved. I
+have said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tender
+child to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compass
+of that hatred? I had inferred that her pursuers were of the House of
+Borgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I might
+prove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to serve
+her in this extremity. And to be of service to her, her winsome beauty
+had already inflamed me. For there was I know not what about this child
+that seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me that there
+and then I would have risked my life in her good service. Oh, you may
+laugh who read. Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed myself, I
+think, at the heroics to which I was yielding--I, the Fool, most base of
+lacqueys--over a damsel of the noble House of Santafior. It was shame of
+my motley, maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about me
+as I urged forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
+
+"Lady," said I bluntly and without preamble, "can I assist you? I have
+inferred your case from what I have overheard."
+
+All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise--hers no less than her
+grooms'.
+
+"What can you do alone, sir?" she asked, her gentle glance upraised to
+mine.
+
+"If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I
+may do something."
+
+"They are," she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,
+investing her tones.
+
+It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a
+stranger into her confidence. Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in
+which she found herself. Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies
+hot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, or
+to despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem. With both
+hands she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of her
+despair.
+
+"Sir," she cried, "if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you could
+not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but know
+the details of my sorry circumstance."
+
+"That power, Madonna, it may be that I have," said I, and at those words
+of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest. They
+leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a sudden
+hopeful. "And," I continued, "if you will have utter faith in me, I see
+a way to render doubly certain your escape."
+
+She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured
+her that I promised no more than I could accomplish. For the rest she
+had to choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
+
+"Sir," said she, "I do not know you, nor why you should interest
+yourself in the concerns of a desolated woman. But, Heaven knows, I am
+in no case to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I doubt
+the good faith that moves you. Let me hear, sir, how you would propose
+to serve me."
+
+"Whence are you?" I inquired.
+
+"From Rome," she informed me without hesitation, "to seek at my cousin's
+Court of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the Borgia family is
+submitting me."
+
+At her cousin's Court of Pesaro! An odd coincidence, this--and while I
+was pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I might
+assist myself. Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serve
+her, I had it now.
+
+"Yet," said I, surprise investing my voice, "at Pesaro there is Madonna
+Lucrezia of that same House of Borgia."
+
+She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
+
+"Madonna Lucrezia is my friend," said she; "as sweet and gentle a
+friend as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her own
+family."
+
+Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned to
+what was of more immediate interest.
+
+"And you fled," said I, "with these?" And I indicated her attendants.
+"Not content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you in the snow, you
+have had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of Santafior.
+So that by asking a few questions any that were so inclined might follow
+you with ease."
+
+She opened wide her eyes at that. Oftentimes have I observed that it
+needs a fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of this
+world. I leapt from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, the
+bridle on my arm.
+
+"Listen now, Madonna. If you would make good your escape it first
+imports that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort. Separate
+from it for a little while. Take you my horse--it is a very gentle
+beast, and it wilt carry you with safety--and ride on, alone, to Cagli."
+
+"Alone?" quoth she, in some surprise.
+
+"Why, yes," I answered gruffly. "What of that? At the Inn of 'The Full
+Moon' ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escort
+there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection. She
+is a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend you
+readily. But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs."
+
+"And then?" she inquired eagerly.
+
+"Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning,
+for these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your
+journey."
+
+"But we--" began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him short.
+
+"You four," said I, "shall escort me--for I shall replace Madonna in
+the litter--you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus shall we draw the
+pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape."
+
+They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they
+would lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments to
+persuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us all
+from harm.
+
+"Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with
+you? Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sake
+of a lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?"
+
+It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have
+had with the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.
+
+"This escutcheon," said I, "is the shield that shall stand between us
+and danger from any of the house that bears these arms."
+
+Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey
+me--the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to
+their present situation. In danger they already stood from those that
+followed as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying
+one who was armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape
+that danger. But even as I was convincing them, by the same arguments
+was I sowing doubts in the lady's subtler mind.
+
+"You are attached to that house?" quoth she, in accents of mistrust.
+She wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering was
+there treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to
+justify suspicion.
+
+"Madonna," said I, "if you would save yourself I implore that you will
+trust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights,
+and then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you but
+this: Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done
+better than to have left you with your grooms?"
+
+Her face lighted. A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
+
+"I should have thought of that," said she. And what more she would have
+added I put off by urging her to mount.
+
+Sitting the man's saddle as best she might--well enough, indeed, to
+fill us all with surprise and admiration--she took her leave of me with
+pretty words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
+
+"You have but to follow the road," said I, "and it will bring you
+straight to Cagli. The distance is a short league, and you should come
+there safely. Farewell, Madonna!"
+
+"May I not know," she asked at parting, "the name of him that has so
+generously befriended me?"
+
+I hesitated a second. Then--"They call me Boccadoro," answered I.
+
+"If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are you
+well-named," said she. Then, gathering her mantle about her, and waving
+me farewell, she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardly
+hinds who had failed her in the hour of her need.
+
+A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine; then
+stepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
+
+"Now, rogues," said I to the escort, "strike me that road to Fabriano."
+
+"I know you not, sir," protested Giacopo. "But this I know--that if
+you intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for your
+pains."
+
+"Fool!" I scorned him, "since when has it been worth the while of any
+man to betray such creatures as are you? Plague me no more! Be moving,
+else I leave you to your coward's fate."
+
+It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality.
+It quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of those
+knaves had caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter moved
+forward, whilst Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a pace
+as their weary horses would yield. In this guise we took the road south,
+in the direction opposite to that travelled by the lady. As we rode, I
+summoned Giacopo to my side.
+
+"Take your daggers," I bade him, "and rip me that blazon from your
+coats. See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the House
+of Santafior, or all is lost. It is a precaution you would have taken
+earlier if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper."
+
+He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of my
+comment on his wit. For the rest, they did my bidding there and then.
+
+Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, I
+drew the curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up to
+pondering the manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when they
+overtook me. From that I passed on to the contemplation of the position
+in which I found myself, and the thing that I had done. And the
+proportions of the jest that I was perpetrating afforded me no little
+amusement. It was a burla not unworthy the peerless gifts of Boccadoro,
+and a fitting one on which to close his wild career of folly. For had I
+not vowed that Boccadoro I would be no more once the errand on which I
+travelled was accomplished? By Cesare Borgia's grace I looked to--
+
+A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and the
+realisation that in the last few moments we had increased our pace. I
+put out my head.
+
+"Giacopo!" I shouted. He was at my side in an instant. "Why are we
+galloping?"
+
+"They are behind," he answered, and fear was again overspreading his fat
+face. "We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last hill."
+
+"You caught a glimpse of whom?" quoth I.
+
+"Why, of the Borgia soldiers."
+
+"Animal," I answered him, "what have we to do with them? They may have
+mistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit. But since we
+are not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonable
+speed. We do not wish to have the air of fugitives."
+
+He understood me, and I was obeyed. For a half-hour we rode at a more
+gentle pace. That was about the time they took to come up with us, still
+a league or so from Fabriano. We heard their cantering hoofs crushing
+the snow, and then a loud imperious voice shouting to us a command
+to stay. Instantly we brought up in unconcerned obedience, and they
+thundered alongside with cries of triumph at having run their prey to
+earth.
+
+I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtains
+with a jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt. Whom my
+appearance astounded the more--whether the lacqueys of Santafior, or
+the Borgia men-at-arms that now encircled us--I cannot guess. But in the
+crowd of faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look of
+deep amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+
+The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twenty
+men-at-arms, whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del'
+Orca--that same mountain of a man who had attended my departure from
+the Vatican three nights ago. From the circumstance that so important
+a personage should have been charged with the pursuit of the Lady of
+Santafior, I inferred that great issues were at stake.
+
+He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered the
+bannerol bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality to
+Madonna's servants.
+
+At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for a
+little season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
+
+"Sainted Host!" he roared at last. "What trickery may this be?" And
+sidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my litter.
+
+Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold me
+reclining there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots,
+and my motley garb of red and black and yellow all revealed. I believe
+their astonishment by far surpassed the Captain's own.
+
+"You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro," I greeted him. Then, seeing that
+he only stared, and made no shift to speak: "Maybe," quoth I, "you'll
+explain why you detain me. I am in haste."
+
+"Explain?" he thundered. "Sangue di Cristo! The burden of explaining
+lies with you. What make you here?"
+
+"Why," answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, "I am about the
+business of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master."
+
+"Davvero?" he jeered. He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by the
+collar of my doublet. "Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there will
+be a fool the less in the world."
+
+"Indeed, the world might spare more."
+
+He scowled at my pleasantry. To him, apparently, the situation afforded
+no scope for philosophical reflections.
+
+"Where is the girl?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"Girl?" quoth I. "What girl? Am I a mother-abbess, that you should set
+me such a question?"
+
+Two dark lines showed between his brows. His voice quivered with
+passion.
+
+"I ask you again--where is the girl?"
+
+I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment provided
+for him.
+
+"Here be no girls, Messer del' Orca," I answered him in the same tone.
+"Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends."
+
+My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained the
+expression of it, whispered a doubt into his mind. He released me, and
+turned upon his men, a baffled look in his eyes.
+
+"Was not this the party?" he inquired ferociously. "Have you misled me,
+beasts?
+
+"It seemed the party, Illustrious," answered one of them.
+
+"Do you dare tell me that 'it seemed'?" he roared, seeking to father
+upon them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had made.
+"But--What is the livery of these knaves?
+
+"They wear none," someone answered him, and at that answer he seemed to
+turn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
+
+Then he bridled afresh.
+
+"Yet the party, I'll swear, is this!" he insisted; and turning once more
+to me: "Explain, animal!" he bade me in terrifying tones. "Explain, or,
+by the Host! be you ignorant or not, I'll have you hanged."
+
+I accounted it high time to take another tone with him. Hanging was a
+discomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
+
+"Draw nearer, fool," said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, so
+greatly did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
+
+"I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir captain,"
+I pursued. "But this I know--that if you persist in hindering me, or
+commit the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will answer for
+it, hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
+
+"I am going upon a secret mission"--and here I sank my voice to a
+whisper for his ears alone--"in the service of the house that hires you,
+as for yourself you might easily have inferred. Behold." And I revealed
+my ring. "Detain me longer at your peril."
+
+He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in Cesare
+Borgia's service, and this coupled with the sight of that talisman
+effected in his manner a swift and wholesome change. Had I, arrayed in
+the panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory could not
+have been more complete.
+
+He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenly
+to the four winds of Heaven.
+
+"But this litter," he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me, "and
+these four knaves--?"
+
+"Tell me," I questioned, with sudden earnestness, "are you in quest of
+just such a party?"
+
+"Aye that I am," he answered sharply, intelligence returning to his
+glance, inquiry burning in it.
+
+"And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House of
+Santafior?"
+
+His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
+
+"Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time. Such a
+party passed us at the gallop about an hour ago. It would be an hour,
+would it not, Giacopo?"
+
+"I should say an hour," answered the lacquey dully.
+
+"In what direction?" came Ramiro's frenzied question. He doubted me no
+longer.
+
+"In the direction of Fabriano I should say," I answered. "Although it
+may well be that they were making for Sinigaglia. The road branches
+farther on."
+
+He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the priceless
+information I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse
+command to his followers. A moment later and they were cantering past
+us, the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last of
+them had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only indication
+of the halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown where their
+horses had crushed the snow.
+
+I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozening
+of Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so much
+relief and relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on the cushions
+of my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughter
+which was interrupted ere it was half done by Giacopo, who had
+dismounted and approached me.
+
+"You have fooled us finely," said he, with venom.
+
+I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he, and
+were his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the man
+who had saved them?
+
+"You have fooled us finely," he insisted in a louder voice.
+
+"That, knave, is my trade," said I. "But it rather seems to me that it
+was Messer Ramiro del' Orca whom I fooled."
+
+"Aye," he answered querulously. "But what when he discerns how you have
+played upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you have
+thrown him off the scent? What when he returns?"
+
+"Spare me," I begged, "I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture."
+
+"Nay, but you shall answer me," he cried, livid with a passion that my
+bantering tone had quickened.
+
+"Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
+returns?" I questioned meekly.
+
+"I am," he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
+
+"It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that
+actuates you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn."
+
+"That will not I," he vowed.
+
+"Nor I, nor I, nor I!" chorused his followers.
+
+"Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it of
+ours how Messer del' Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.
+Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for Cagli. Seek her
+at the sign of 'The Full Moon,' and then away for Pesaro. If you are
+brisk you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza's fortress
+long before Messer del' Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, he
+ever does so."
+
+Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornful
+mirth of him.
+
+"By my faith, I'm done with the business," he cried, and the other three
+expressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
+
+"How done with it?" I asked.
+
+"I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps to
+Rome. I'll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool."
+
+"If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself," said I, with
+unmeasured scorn, "you'll risk it for the greatest fool and the
+cowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man. And your mistress?
+Is she to wait at Cagli until doomsday? If anywhere within the bulk of
+that elephant's body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you'll get you
+to horse and ride to the help of that poor lady."
+
+They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly. Messer
+Giacopo went the length of raising his hand to me. But I am a man of
+amazing strength--amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do not
+have the air of it. Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught that
+miserable vassal by the breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice,
+then tossed him headlong into a drift of snow by the roadside.
+
+At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me. But I flung
+myself on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the stout
+Pistoja dagger that I carried, I presented with it a bold and truculent
+front, no whit intimidated by their numbers. Four to one though they
+were, they thought better of it. A moment they stood off, consulting
+among themselves; then Giacopo mounted, and with some mocking counsel as
+to how I should dispose of the litter and the mules, they made off, no
+doubt, to find their way back to Rome. Giacopo, as I was afterwards to
+discover, was Madonna Paola's purse-bearer, so that they would not lack
+for means.
+
+Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens that
+they were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli,
+and who would await them in vain. There, on the mule, I sat in the
+noontide sunlight, and pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as to
+have grown forgetful of my own. At last I resolved to ride on to Cagli
+alone, and inform her that her men were fled.
+
+There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramiro
+del' Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, and
+return hot-foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means as
+I had no stomach for enduring.
+
+First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving
+no sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I
+had tricked him. Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.
+Slowly, then, did I consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way back
+to Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser
+Ramiro would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up the
+trail. I remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my mule
+back to that as fast as it would travel with the litter and the other
+mule attached to it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on the
+very edge of that shallow precipice. Then exerting all my strength, I
+contrived to roll the litter over. Down that steep incline it went, over
+and over, gathering more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinking
+at last into the drift at the bottom. There were signs enough to show
+its presence, but those signs would hardly be read by any but the
+sharpest eyes, or by such as might be looking for it in precisely such
+a position. I must trust to luck that it escaped the notice of Messer
+Ramiro. But even if he did discover it, I did not think that it would
+tell him overmuch.
+
+That done I resumed my hat and cloak--which I had retained--mounted once
+more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as might
+be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That distance
+covered, again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I stripped one
+of the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind a
+hedge, then I drove the beast loose into a field. The peasant-owner of
+that land might conclude upon the morrow that it had rained asses in the
+night.
+
+And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I
+had passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of
+the four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.
+Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at
+their cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on towards
+Cagli. It was a short league farther, and in little more than half an
+hour, my mule half-dead, I halted at the door of "The Full Moon."
+
+Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my
+cloak, and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed all
+Cagli had seemed when I rode up. She came forward--a woman with a brown,
+full face, and large kindly eyes--and I asked her whether a lady had
+arrived there in safety that morning. At first she seemed mistrustful,
+but when I had assured her that I was in that lady's service, she
+frankly owned that Madonna was safe in her own room. Thither I allowed
+her to lead me, at once eager and reluctant. Eager with my own eyes to
+assure myself of her perfect safety; reluctant that, since a man may not
+penetrate to a lady's chamber hat on head, by uncovering I must disclose
+my shameful trade. Yet there was nothing for it but a bold face, and
+as I mounted the stairs in the woman's wake, I told myself that I was
+doubly a fool to be tormented by qualms of such a nature.
+
+Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna's room. The lady rose
+from the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyes
+wearing an anxious look. At sight of my head crowned with the crested,
+horned hood of folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together,
+and she looked more closely to see whether I was indeed the man who had
+befriended her that morning in her extremity. In the eyes of the hostess
+I caught a gleam of recognition. She knew me for the merry loon who had
+entertained her guests one night a fortnight since, when on my way from
+Pesaro to Rome. But before she could give expression to this discovery
+of hers, the lady spoke.
+
+"Leave us awhile, my woman," she commanded. But I stayed the hostess as
+she was withdrawing.
+
+"This lady," said I, "will need an escort of three or four stout knaves
+upon a journey that she is going. She will be setting out as soon as may
+be."
+
+"But what of my grooms?" cried the lady.
+
+"Madonna," I informed her, "they have deserted you. That is the
+reason of my presence here. You shall hear the story of it presently.
+Meanwhile, we must arrange to replace them." And I turned again to the
+hostess.
+
+She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face. But as I
+looked at her she shook her head.
+
+"There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli," she made answer.
+"The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on the
+pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for the
+Feast of the Epiphany."
+
+It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surely
+be found. She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there because
+they would not be elsewhere.
+
+The lady's face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence she
+shrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
+
+"There is your ostler," quoth I at last. "He will do for one."
+
+"He is the only man I have. My husband and my sons are gone to Pesaro."
+
+"Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services."
+
+But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she was
+well-advised, for she contended that there was work to be done such as
+was beyond her years and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off,
+as well might she close her inn--a thing that was impossible.
+
+Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned. It was
+impossible to send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of some
+ten leagues, and the most of it by night--for if she would make sure of
+escaping, she must journey now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
+
+And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, ready
+to my hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despite
+my banishment, and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia. For, surely,
+considering the mission on which ostensibly I should be returning--as
+the saviour and protector of his kinswoman--Giovanni Sforza could not
+enforce that ban against me. Next I bethought me of the other aspect
+that the business wore. In fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgia
+ends; in rescuing Madonna Paola I had perhaps set at naught the Cardinal
+of Valencia's aims. If so, what then? It would seem that because the
+lady's eyes were mild and sweet, and because her beauty had so deeply
+wrought upon me, I had indeed fooled away my chance of salvation from
+the life and trade that were grown hateful to me. For back to Rome and
+Cesare Borgia I should dare go no more. Clearly I had burned my boats,
+and I had done it almost unthinkingly, acting upon the good impulse to
+befriend this lady, and never reckoning the cost down to its total. For
+all that the thing I had done, and what I might yet do, should offer me
+the means I needed to enter Pesaro without danger to my neck, I did not
+see that I was to derive great profit in the end--unless my profit lay
+in knowing that I had advanced the ruin of Giovanni Sforza by delivering
+my letter to Lucrezia. That at any rate was enough incentive clearly to
+define for me the line that I should take through this tangle into which
+the ever-jesting Fates had thrust me.
+
+I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexing
+situation, the hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenly
+Madonna Paola spoke.
+
+"Sir," said she, in faltering accents, "I--I have not the right to ask
+you, and I stand already so deeply in your debt. Not a doubt of it, but
+it will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to inform
+me of the flight of my grooms. Yet if you could--" She paused, timid of
+proceeding, and her glance fell.
+
+The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which this
+very evidently noble lady addressed a Fool. I opened the door for her.
+
+"You may leave us now," said I. "I will come to you presently."
+
+When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolved
+upon. My hate had conquered my last doubt. What first imported was that
+I should get to Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
+
+"You were about to ask me," said I, "that I should accompany you to
+Pesaro."
+
+"I hesitated, sir," she murmured. I bowed respectfully.
+
+"There was not the need, Madonna," I assured her. "I am at your
+service."
+
+"But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you."
+
+"Surely," said I, "the claim that every distressed lady has upon a man
+of heart. Let us say no more. It were best not to delay in setting out,
+although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger from
+Ramiro del' Orca now."
+
+"Who is he?" she inquired.
+
+"I told her, whereupon--"
+
+"Did they come up with you?" she asked. "What passed between you?"
+
+Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on a
+fool's errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, and
+of how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule. She heard me,
+her eyes sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee that
+was almost childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was brave. I
+allayed what little fears remained her by pointing out how effectively
+we had effaced our tracks, and how vainly now Messer del' Orca might
+beat the country in quest of a lady in a litter, escorted by four
+grooms.
+
+And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonder
+at my generous readiness to befriend her--a wonder all devoid of
+suspicion touching the single-mindedness of my purpose. But I reminded
+her that we had little leisure to stand talking, and left her to make
+her preparations for the journey, whilst I went below to see that my
+mule and her horse were saddled. I made bold to pay the reckoning, and
+when presently she spoke of it, with flaming cheeks, and would have
+pledged me a jewel, I bade her look upon it as a loan which anon she
+might repay me when I had brought her safely to her kinsman's Court at
+Pesaro.
+
+Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side by
+side and talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of her
+flight and of her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest to
+her heart, found readiest expression. I went wrapped in my cloak once
+more, my head-dress hidden 'neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that the few
+wayfarers we chanced on need not marvel to see a lady in such friendly
+intercourse with a Fool. And so dull was I that day as not to marvel,
+myself, at such a state of things.
+
+The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on our
+left, casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere encompassed
+us, as we cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
+
+In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping that
+Messer Ramiro del' Orca might not chance upon the discovery of how
+egregiously I had fooled him. He was dull-witted and slow at inference,
+and upon that I built the hope that he might fail to associate me with
+Madonna Paola's elusion of his pursuit. Thus the chance might yet be
+mine of returning to Rome and the honourable employment Cesare Borgia
+had promised me. If only that were so to fall out, I might yet contrive
+to mend the wreckage of my life. I was returned, it seems, to the
+ways of early youth, when we build our hopes of future greatness upon
+untenable foundations!
+
+Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that January
+evening, fired by the gentle child that rode beside me. Fate had sent
+me to her aid that day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of that
+circumstance, a certain right in her. Had Fate no other favours for me
+in her lap! I bethought me of the very House of Sforza, to which I had
+been so shamefully attached, and of its humble source in that peasant,
+Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for his abnormal strength of body,
+who rose to great and princely heights.
+
+Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance but
+given me--
+
+I went no further. Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wild
+musings. Cesare Borgia would come to know--he must, whether Ramiro told
+him, or whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro must
+give him of our meeting--how I had thwarted him in one thing, whilst I
+had served him in another. Fate was against me. I had fallen too low to
+ever rise again, and no dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and inspired,
+perhaps, by a child who was beautiful as one of the saints of God, would
+ever come to be realised by poor Boccadoro.
+
+Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets of
+Fossombrone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+
+
+We stayed in Fossombrone little more than a half-hour, and having made a
+hasty supper we resumed our way, giving out that we wished to reach Fano
+ere we slept. And so by the first hour of night Fossombrone was a league
+or so behind us, and we were advancing briskly towards the sea. Overhead
+a moon rode at the full in a clear sky, and its light was reflected by
+the snow, so that we were not discomforted by any darkness. We fell,
+presently, into a gentler pace, for, after all, there could be no
+advantage in reaching Pesaro before morning, and as we rode we talked,
+and I made bold to ask her the cause of her flight from Rome.
+
+She told me then that she was Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, and
+that Pope Alexander, in his nepotism and his desire to make rich and
+powerful alliances for his family, had settled upon her as the wife for
+his nephew, Ignacio Borgia. He had been emboldened to this step by the
+fact that her only protector was her brother, Filippo di Santafior, whom
+they had sought to coerce. It was her brother, who, seeing himself in a
+dangerous and unenviable position, had secretly suggested flight to
+her, urging her to repair to her kinsman Giovanni Sforza at Pesaro. Her
+flight, however, must have been speedily discovered and the Borgias, who
+saw in that act a defiance of their supreme authority, had ordered her
+pursuit.
+
+But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her
+capture, and once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they
+would have driven her into the alliance by means of which they sought
+to bring her fortune into their own house. This drew her into fresh
+protestations of the undying gratitude she entertained towards me,
+protestations which I would have stemmed, but that she persisted in
+them.
+
+"It is a good and noble thing that you have done," said she, "and I
+think that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is scarce
+likely that in all Italy I should have found another man who would have
+done so much."
+
+"Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done?" I cried. "It is
+no less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would have
+done seeing you so beset."
+
+"Nay, that is more than I can ever think," she answered. "Who for the
+sake of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have
+you? Who would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the
+defection of my grooms? Who, when other escort failed, would have gone
+the length of journeying all this way to render a service that is beyond
+repayment? And, above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid would
+have submitted to this travesty of yours?"
+
+"Travesty?" quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last.
+"What travesty, Madonna?"
+
+"Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my pursuers
+and that you still wear in my poor service."
+
+I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly
+saw her eyes meet mine. So! that was the reason of her kindness and
+of the easy familiarity of her speech with me! She deemed me some
+knight-errant who caracoled through Italy in quest of imperilled maidens
+needing aid. Of a certainty she had gathered her knowledge of the world
+from the works of Messer Bojardo, or perhaps from the "Amadis of Gaul"
+of Messer Bernardo Tasso. And, no doubt, she thought that suits of
+motley grew on bushes by the roadside, whence those who had a fancy for
+disguise might cull them.
+
+Well, well, it were better she should know the truth at once, and choose
+such a demeanour as she considered fitting towards a Fool. I had no
+stomach for the courtesies that were meant for such a man as I was not.
+
+"Madonna, you are in error," I informed her, speaking slowly. "This garb
+is no travesty. It is my usual raiment."
+
+There was a pause and I saw the slackening of her reins. No doubt, had
+we been afoot she would have halted, the better to confront me.
+
+"How?" she asked, and a new note, imperious and chill, was sounding
+already in her voice. "You would not have me understand that you are by
+trade a Fool?
+
+"Allowing that I am not a fool by birth, under what other circumstances,
+think you, I should be likely to wear the garments of a Fool?"
+
+"But this morning," she protested, after a brief pause, "when first I
+met you, you were not so arrayed."
+
+"I was arrayed even as I am now, in a cloak and hat and boots that
+hid my motley from such undiscerning eyes as were yours and your
+grooms'--all taken up with your own fears as you then were."
+
+There was in the tail of that a sting, as I meant there should be,
+for the sudden haughtiness of her tone was cutting into me. Was I less
+worthy of thanks because I was a Fool? Had I on that account done less
+to serve and save her? Or was it that the action which, in a spurred and
+armoured knight, had been accounted noble was deemed unworthy of
+thanks in a crested, motleyed jester? It seemed, indeed, that some such
+reasoning she followed, for after that we spoke no more until we were
+approaching Fano.
+
+A many times before had I felt the shame of my ignoble trade, but never
+so acutely as at that moment. It had seared my soul when Giovanni Sforza
+had told my story to his Court, ere he had driven me from Pesaro with
+threats of hanging, and it had burned even deeper when later, Madonna
+Lucrezia, upon entrusting me with her letter to her brother, had
+upbraided me with the supineness that so long had held me in that vile
+bondage. But deepest of all went now the burning iron of that disgrace.
+For my companion's silence seemed to argue that had she known my quality
+she would have scorned the aid of which she had availed herself to such
+good purpose. If any doubt of this had mercifully remained me, her next
+words would have served to have resolved it. It was when the lights of
+Fano gleamed ahead; we were coming to a cross-roads, and I urged the
+turning to the left.
+
+"But Fano is in front," she remonstrated coldly.
+
+"This way we can avoid the town and gain the Pesaro road beyond it,"
+answered I, my tone as cool as hers.
+
+"Yet may it not be that at Fano I might find an escort?"
+
+I could have cried out at her cruelty, for in her words I could but read
+my dismissal from her service. There had been no more talk of an escort
+other than that which I afforded, and with which at first she had been
+well content.
+
+I sat my mule in silence for a moment. She had been very justly served
+had I been the vassal that she deemed me, and had I borne myself in that
+character without consideration of her sex, her station or her years.
+She had been very justly served had I wheeled about and left her there
+to make her way to Fano, and thence to Pesaro, as best she might. She
+was without money, as I knew, and she would have found in Fano such a
+reception as would have brought the bitter tears of late repentance to
+her pretty eyes.
+
+But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner
+that was to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and
+the need to use me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might
+yet do, if she lacked the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake
+of that which I had done already.
+
+"Madonna," said I. "It were wiser to choose the by-road and forego the
+escort, since we have dispensed with it so far. There are many reasons
+why a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night."
+
+"I know of none," she interrupted me.
+
+"That may well be. Nevertheless they exist."
+
+"This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste," she
+told me sullenly. "I am for Fano."
+
+She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as
+plainly as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as
+I should choose. In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule's head
+once more towards the lights of the town.
+
+"Since you are resolved, so be it," was all my answer; and we proceeded.
+
+No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she
+curtly asked me which was the best inn.
+
+"'The Golden Fish,'" said I, as curtly, and to "The Golden Fish" we
+went.
+
+Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands. She
+dismounted, leaving the reins with a groom, and entering the common-room
+she proclaimed her needs to those that occupied it by loudly calling
+upon the landlord to find her an escort of three or four knaves to
+accompany her at once to Pesaro, where they should be well rewarded by
+the Lord Giovanni, her cousin.
+
+I had followed her in, and I ground my teeth at such an egregious piece
+of folly. Her hood was thrown back, displaying the lenza of fine linen
+on her sable hair, and over this a net of purest gold all set with
+jewels. Her camorra, too, was open, and in her girdle there were gems
+for all to see. There were but a half-dozen men in the room. Two of
+these had a venerable air--they may have been traders journeying to
+Milan--whilst a third, who sat apart, was a slender, effeminate-looking
+youth. The remaining three were fellows of rough aspect, and when one of
+them--a black-browed ruffian--raised his eyes and fastened them upon the
+riches that Madonna Paola with such indifference displayed, I knew what
+was to follow.
+
+He rose upon the instant, and stepping forward, he made her a low bow.
+
+"Illustrious lady," said he, "if these two friends of mine and I find
+favour with you, here is an escort ready found. We are stout fellows,
+and very faithful."
+
+Faithful to their cut-throat trade, I made no doubt he meant.
+
+His fellows now rose also, and she looked them over, giving herself the
+airs of having spent her virgin life in judging men by their appearance.
+It was in vain I tugged her cloak, in vain I murmured the word "wait"
+under cover of my hand. She there and then engaged them, and bade them
+make ready to set out at once. One more attempt I made to induce her to
+alter her resolve.
+
+"Madonna," said I, "it is an unwise thing to go a-journeying by night
+with three unknown men, and of such villainous appearance. To me they
+seem no better than bandits."
+
+We were standing apart from the others, and she was sipping a cup of
+spiced wine that the host had mulled for her. She looked at me with a
+tolerant smile.
+
+"They are poor men," said she. "Would you have them robed in velvet?"
+
+"My quarrel is with their looks, Madonna, not their garments," I
+answered patiently. She laughed lightly, carelessly; even, I thought, a
+trifle scornfully.
+
+"You are very fanciful," said she, then added--"but if so be that you
+are afraid to trust yourself in their company, why then, sir, I need
+bring you no farther out of the road that you were following when first
+we met."
+
+Did the child think that some jealousy actuated me, and prompted me to
+inspire her with mistrust of my supplanters? She angered me. Yet now,
+more than ever was I resolved to journey with her. Leave her at the
+mercy of those ruffians, whom in her ignorance she was mad enough to
+trust, I could not--not even had she whipped me. She was so young, so
+frail and slight, that none but a craven could have found it in his
+heart to have deserted her just then.
+
+"If it please you Madonna," I answered smoothly, "I will make bold to
+travel on with you."
+
+It may be that my even accents stung her; perhaps she read in them some
+measure of reproof of the ingratitude that lay in her altered bearing
+towards me. Her eyes met mine across the table, and seemed to harden as
+she looked. Her answer came in a vastly altered tone.
+
+"Why, if you are bent that way, I shall be glad to have you avail
+yourself of my escort, Boccadoro."
+
+I had suffered the scorn now of her speech, now of her silence, for
+some hours, but never was I so near to turning on her as at that moment;
+never so near to consigning her to the fate to which her headstrong
+folly was compelling her. That she should take that tone with me!
+
+The violence of the sudden choler I suppressed turned me pale under her
+steady glance. So that, seeing it, her own cheeks flamed crimson, and
+her eyes fell, as if in token that she realised the meanness of her
+bearing. To some natures there can be nothing more odious than such a
+realisation, and of those, I think, was she; for she stamped her foot
+in a sudden pet, and curtly asked the host why there was such delay with
+the horses.
+
+"They are at the door, Madonna," he protested, bowing as he spoke. "And
+your escort is already waiting in the saddle."
+
+She turned and strode abruptly towards the threshold. Over her shoulder
+she called to me:
+
+"If you come with us, Boccadoro, you had best be brisk."
+
+"I follow, Madonna," said I, with a grim relish, "so soon as I have paid
+the reckoning."
+
+She halted and half turned, and I thought I saw a slight droop at the
+corners of her mouth.
+
+"You are keeping count of what I owe you?" she muttered.
+
+"Aye, Madonna," I answered, more grimly still, "I am keeping count." And
+I thought that my wits were vastly at fault if that account were not to
+be greatly swelled ere Pesaro was reached. Haply, indeed, my own life
+might go to swell it. I almost took a relish in that thought. Perhaps
+then, when I was stiff and cold--done to death in her service--this
+handsome, ungrateful child would come to see how much discomfort I had
+suffered for her sake.
+
+My thoughts still ran in that channel as we rode out of Pesaro, for I
+misliked the way in which those knaves disposed themselves about us.
+In front went Madonna Paola; and immediately behind her, so that their
+horses' heads were on a level with her saddle-bow, one on each side,
+went two of those ruffians. The third, whom I had heard them call
+Stefano, and who was the one who had made her the offer of their
+services, ambled at my side, a few paces in the rear, and sought to draw
+me into conversation, haply by way of throwing me off my guard.
+
+Mistrust is a fine thing at times. "Forewarned is forearmed," says the
+proverb, and of all forewarnings there is none we are more likely
+to heed than our own mistrust; for whereas we may leave unheeded the
+warnings of a friend, we seldom leave unheeded the warnings of our
+spirit.
+
+And so, while my amiable and garrulous Ser Stefano engaged me in
+pleasant conversation--addressing me ever as Messer the Fool, since he
+knew me not by name--I wrapped my cloak about me, and under cover of it
+kept my fingers on the hilt of my stout Pistoja dagger, ready to draw
+and use it at the first sign of mischief. For that sign I was all
+eyes, and had I been Argus himself I could have kept no better watch.
+Meanwhile I plied my tongue and maintained as merry a conversation with
+Ser Stefano as you could wish to hear, for he seemed a ready-witted
+knave of a most humorous turn of fancy--God rest his rascally soul! And
+so it came to pass that I did by him the very thing he sought to do by
+me; I lulled him into a careless confidence.
+
+At last the sign I had been waiting for was given. I saw it as plainly
+as if it had been meant for me; I believe I saw it before the man for
+whom it was intended, and but for my fears concerning Madonna Paola, I
+could have laughed outright at their clumsy assurance. The man who rode
+on Madonna's right turned in his saddle and put up his hand as if to
+beckon Stefano. I was regaling him with one of the choicest of Messer
+Sacchetti's paradoxes, gurgling, myself, at the humour of the thing I
+told. I paid no heed to the sign. I continued to expound my quip, as
+though we had the night before us in which to make its elusive humour
+clear. But out of the tail of my eye I watched my good friend Stefano,
+and I saw his right hand steal round to the region of his back where
+I knew his dagger to be slung. Yet was I patient. There should be no
+blundering through an excessive precipitancy. I talked on until I saw
+that my suspicions were amply realised. I caught the cold gleam of steel
+in the hand that he brought back as stealthily as he had carried it to
+his poniard. Sant' Iddio! What a coward he was for all his bulk, to go
+so slyly about the business of stabbing a poor, helpless, defenceless
+Fool.
+
+"But Sacchetti makes his point clear," I babbled on, most blandly;
+"almost as clear, as comprehensive and as penetrating as should be to
+you the point of this." And with a swift movement I swung half-round in
+my saddle, and sank my dagger to the hilt in his side even as he was in
+the act of raising his.
+
+He made no sound beyond the faintest gurgle--the first vowel of a
+suddenly choked word of wonder and surprise. He rocked a second in his
+saddle, then crashed over, and lay with arms flung wide, like a huge
+black crucifix, upon the white ground. At the same moment a piercing
+scream broke from Madonna Paola.
+
+I tremble still to think what might have been her fate had not those
+ruffians who had laid hands on her fallen into the sorry error of
+holding their single adversary too lightly. They heard the thud of the
+gallant Stefano's fall, and they never doubted that mine was the body
+that had gone down. They heard the rapid hoof-beats of my approach, yet,
+they never turned their heads to ascertain whether they might not be
+mistaken in their firm conviction that it was Messer Stefano who was
+joining them.
+
+I kissed my blade for luck, and drove it straight and full into the back
+of the fellow on Madonna Paola's right. He cried out, essayed to turn
+in his saddle that he might deal with this unlooked-for assailant, then,
+overcome, he lurched forward on to the withers of his horse and thence
+rolled over, and was dragged away at the gallop, his foot caught in a
+stirrup, by the suddenly startled brute he rode.
+
+So far things had gone with an amazing and delightful ease. If only the
+last of them had had the amiability to be intimidated by my prowess and
+to have taken to his heels, I might have issued from that contest with
+the unscathed glory of a very Mars. But from his throat there came, in
+answer to his comrade's cry, a roar of rage. He fell back from Madonna,
+and wheeled his horse to come at me, drawing his sword as he advanced.
+
+"Ride on, Madonna," I shouted. "I will rejoin you presently."
+
+The fellow laughed, a mighty ugly and discomposing laugh, which may or
+may not have shaken her faith in my promise to rejoin her. It certainly
+went near to shaking mine. However, she displayed a presence of mind
+full worthy of the haughtiness and ingratitude of which she had showed
+herself capable. She urged her mule forward, and, so, left him a clear
+road to attack me. I made a mistake then that went mighty near to
+costing me my life. I paused to twist my cloak about my left arm
+intending to use it as a buckler. Had I but risked the arm itself, all
+unprotected, in that task, it may well be that it had served me better.
+As it was, my preparations were far from complete when already he was
+upon me, with the result that the waving slack of my cloak was in my way
+to hamper and retard the movements of my arm.
+
+His sword leapt at me, a murderous blue-white flash of moonlit steel.
+I put up my half-swaddled arm to divert the thrust, holding my dagger
+ready in my right, and gripping my mule with all the strength of my
+two knees. I caught the blade, it is true, and turned aside the stroke
+intended for my heart. But the slack of the cloak clung to the neck of
+my mule, so that I could not carry my arm far enough to send his point
+clear of my body. It took me in the shoulder, stinging me, first icy
+cold then burning hot, as it went tearing its way through. For just a
+second was I daunted, more at knowing myself touched than by the actual
+pain. Then I flung my whole body forward to reach him at the close
+quarters to which he had come, and I buried my dagger in his breast,
+high up at the base of his dirty throat.
+
+The force of the blow carried me forward, even as it bore him backward;
+and so, with his sword-blade in my shoulder, and my dagger where I had
+planted it, we hurtled over together and lay a second amidst what seemed
+a forest of equine legs. Then something smote me across the head, and I
+was knocked senseless.
+
+Conceive me, if you can, a sorrier, or more useless thing. A senseless
+Fool!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. FOOL'S LUCK
+
+
+My return to consciousness seemed to afford me such sensations as a
+diver may experience as he rises up and up through the depth of water
+he has plumbed--or as a disembodied soul may know in its gentle ascent
+towards Heaven. Indeed the latter parallel may be more apt. For through
+the mist that suffused my senses there penetrated from overhead a voice
+that seemed to invoke every saint in the calendar on the behalf of some
+poor mortal. A very litany of intercession was it, not quite, it would
+appear, devoid of self-seeking.
+
+"Sainted Virgin, restore him! Good St. Paul, who wert done to death with
+a sword, let him not perish, else am I lost indeed!" came the voice.
+
+I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes, whereat the voice cried out
+gladly that its intercessions had been heard, and I knew that it was on
+my behalf that the saints of Heaven had been disturbed in their beatific
+peace. My head was pillowed in a woman's lap, and it took me a moment or
+two to realise that that lap was Madonna Paula's, as was hers the voice
+that had reached my awakening senses, the voice that now welcomed me
+back to life in terms that were very different from the last that I
+could remember her having used towards me.
+
+"Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!" she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
+
+Her face was black with shadow, but in her voice I caught a hint of
+tears, and I wondered whether they were shed on my behalf or on her own.
+
+"I do!" I answered fervently. "Have you any notion of what hour it is?"
+
+"None," she sighed. "You have been so long unconscious that I was losing
+hope of ever hearing your voice again."
+
+I became aware of a dull ache on the right side of my head. I put up my
+hand, and withdrew it moist. She saw the action.
+
+"One of the horses must have struck you with its hoof after you fell,"
+she explained. "But I was more concerned for your other wound. I
+withdrew the sword with my own hands."
+
+That other wound she spoke of was now making itself felt as well. It was
+a gnawing, stinging pain in the region of my left shoulder, which
+seemed to turn me numb to the waist on that side of my body, and render
+powerless my arm. I questioned her touching my three adversaries, and
+she silently pointed to three black masses that lay some little distance
+from us in the snow.
+
+"Not all dead?" I cried.
+
+"I do not know," she answered, with a sob. "I have not dared go near
+them. They frighten me. Mother of Heaven, what a night of horror it
+has been! Oh, that I had taken your advice, Messer Boccacloro!" she
+exclaimed in a passion of self-reproach.
+
+I laughed, seeking to soften her distress.
+
+"To me it seems, that whether you would or not, you have been compelled
+to take it, after all. Those fellows lie there harmless enough, and I am
+still--as I urged that I should be--your only escort."
+
+"A nobler protector never woman had," she assured me, and I felt a hot
+pearl of moisture fail upon my brow.
+
+"You were wise, at least, to journey with a Fool," I answered her. "For
+fools are proverbially lucky folk, and to-night has proven me of all
+fools the luckiest. But, Madonna," I suggested, in a different tone,
+"should we not be better advised to attempt to resume, this interesting
+journey of ours? We do not seem to lack horses?"
+
+A couple of nags were standing by the road-side, together with our
+mules, and I was afterwards to learn that she, herself, it was had
+tethered them.
+
+"It must be yet some three leagues to Pesaro," I added, "and if we
+journey slowly, as I fear me that we must, we should arrive there soon
+after daybreak."
+
+"Do you think that you can stand?" she asked, a hopeful ring in her
+voice.
+
+"I might essay it," answered I, and I would have done so, there and
+then, but that she detained me.
+
+"First let me see to this hurt in your head," said she. "I have been
+bathing it with snow while you were unconscious."
+
+She gathered a fresh handful as she spoke, and, very tenderly she wiped
+away the blood. Then from her own head she took the fine linen lanza
+that she wore, and made a bandage--a bandage sweet with the faint
+fragrance of marsh-mallow--and bound it about my battered skull. When
+that was done she turned her attention to my shoulder. This was a more
+difficult matter, and all that we could do was to attempt to stanch the
+blood, which already had drenched my doublet on that side. To this end
+she passed a long scarf under my arm, and wound it several times about
+my shoulder.
+
+At last her gentle ministrations ended, I sought to rise. A dizziness
+assailed me scarce was I on my feet, and it is odds I had fallen back,
+but that she caught and steadied me.
+
+"Mother in Heaven! You are too weak to ride," she exclaimed. "You must
+not attempt it."
+
+"Nay, but I will," I answered, with more stoutness of tone than I felt
+of body, and notwithstanding that my knees were loosening under my
+weight. "It is a faintness that will pass."
+
+If ever man willed himself to conquer weakness, that did I then, and
+with some measure of success--or else it was that my faintness passed
+of itself. I drew away from her support, and straightening myself, I
+crossed to where the animals were tethered, staggering at first, but
+presently with a surer foot. She followed me, watching my steps with
+as much apprehension as a mother may feel when her first-born makes his
+earliest attempts at walking, and as ready to spring to my aid did I
+show signs of stumbling. But I kept up, and presently my senses seemed
+to clear, and I stepped out more surely.
+
+Awhile we stood discussing which of the animals we should take. It was
+my suggestion that we should ride the horses but she wisely contended
+that the mules would prove the more convenient if the slower. I agreed
+with her, and then, ere we set out, I went to see to my late opponents.
+One of them--Ser Stefano--was cold and stiff; the other two still lived,
+and from the nature of their wounds seemed likely to survive, if only
+they were not frozen to death before some good Samaritan came upon them.
+
+I knelt a moment to offer up a prayer for the repose of the soul of him
+that was dead, and I bound up the wounds of the living as best I could,
+to save them greater loss of blood. Indeed, had it lain in my power, I
+would have done more for them. But in what case was I to render further
+aid? After all, they had brought their fate upon themselves, and I doubt
+not they were paying a score that they had heaped up heavily in the
+past.
+
+I went back to the mules, and, despite my remonstrances, Madonna Paola
+insisted upon aiding me to mount, urging me to have a care of my wound,
+and to make no violent movement that should set it bleeding again. Then
+she mounted too, nimble as any boy that ever robbed an orchard, and we
+set out once more. And now it was a very contrite and humbled lady that
+rode with me, and one that was at no pains to dissemble her contrition,
+but, rather, could speak of nothing else.
+
+It moved me strangely to have her suing pardon from me, as though I had
+been her equal instead of the sometime jester of the Court of Pesaro,
+dismissed for an excessive pertness towards one with whom his master
+curried favour.
+
+And presently, as was perhaps but natural after all that she had
+witnessed, she fell to questioning me as to how it came to pass that
+one of such wit, resource and courage should follow the mean calling
+to which I had owned. In answer I told her without reservation the full
+story of my shame. It was a thing that I had ever most zealously kept
+hidden, as already I have shown.
+
+To be a Fool was evil enough in all truth; but to let men know that
+under my motley was buried the identity of a man patrician-born was
+something infinitely worse. For, however vile the trade of a Fool may
+be, it is not half so vile for a low-born clod who is too indolent or
+too sickly to do honest work as for one who has accepted it out of a
+half-cowardice and persevered in it through very sloth.
+
+Yet on that night and after all that had chanced, no matter how my
+cheeks might burn in the gloom as I rode beside her, I was glad for once
+to tell that ignominious story, glad that she should know what weight of
+circumstance had driven me to wear my hideous livery.
+
+But since my story dealt oddly with that Lord of Pesaro, the kinsman
+whose shelter she was now upon her way to seek, I must first assure
+myself that the candour to which I was disposed would not offend.
+
+"Does it happen, Madonna," I inquired, "that you are well acquainted
+with the Lord of Pesaro?"
+
+"Nay; I have never seen him," answered she. "When he was at Rome, a year
+ago in the service of the Pope, I was at my studies in the convent. His
+father was my father's cousin, so that my kinship is none so near. Why
+do you ask?"
+
+"Because my story deals with him, Madonna, and it is no pretty tale. Not
+such a narrative as I should choose wherewith to entertain you. Still,
+since you have asked for it, you shall hear it.
+
+"It was in the year that Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, celebrated his
+nuptials with the Lady Lucrezia Borgia--three years ago, therefore--that
+one morning there rode into the courtyard of his castle of Pesazo a
+tall and lean young man on a tall and lean old horse. He was garbed and
+harnessed after a fashion that proclaimed him half-knight, half-peasant,
+and caused the castle lacqueys to eye him with amusement and greet him
+with derision. Lacqueys are great arbiters of fashion.
+
+"In a loud, imperious voice this cockerel called for Giovanni, Lord
+of Pesaro, whereupon, resenting the insolence of his manner, the
+men-at-arms would have driven him out without more ado. But it chanced
+that from one of the windows of his stronghold the tyrant espied his
+odd visitor. He was in a mood that craved amusement, and marvelling what
+madman might be this, he made his way below and bade them stand back and
+let me speak--for I, Madonna, was that lean young man.
+
+"'Are you,' quoth I, 'the Lord of Pesaro?'
+
+"He answered me courteously that he was, whereupon I did my errand to
+him. I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.
+
+"'Your father,' said I, 'Costanzo of Pesaro, was a foul brigand, who
+robbed my father of his castle and lands of Biancomonte, leaving him
+to a needy and poverty-stricken old age. I am here to avenge upon your
+father's son my father's wrongs; I am here to redeem my castle and
+my lands. If so be that you are a true knight, you will take up the
+challenge that I fling you, and you will do battle with me, on horse or
+foot, and with whatsoever arms you shall decree, God defending him that
+has justice on his side.'
+
+"Knowing the world as I know it now, Madonna," I interpolated, "I
+realise the folly of that act of mine. But in those days my views
+belonged to a long departed age of chivalry, of which I had learnt from
+such books as came my way at Biancomonte, and which I believed was the
+life of to-day in the world of men. It was a thing which some tyrants
+would have had me broken on the wheel. But Giovanni Sforza never so much
+as manifested anger. There was a complacent smile on his white face and
+his fingers toyed carelessly with his beard.
+
+"I waited patiently, very haughty of mien and very fierce at heart, and
+when the amusement began to fade from his eyes, I begged that he would
+deliver me his answer.
+
+"'My answer,' quoth he, 'is that you get you back to the place from
+whence you came, and render thanks to God on your knees every morning of
+the life I am sparing you that Giovanni Sforza is more entertained than
+affronted by your frenzy.'
+
+"At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.
+
+"'Do you disdain me?' I questioned, choking with rage. He turned, with
+a shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his
+glove, and conduct him from the castle. Several that had stood at hand
+made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning
+fury that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me. They were
+many, I was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and
+dragging me from my horse.
+
+"They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then
+get me hanged without delay. Had he done that, the world being as it is,
+perhaps none could blame him. But he elected to spare my life, yet
+on such terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the
+consideration of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of
+Biancomonte whilst I went forth to seek my fortune--such was the tale
+I had told her. I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my
+death must have been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very
+want. The thought of that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in
+durance waiting for my end, and when the priest came, whom they had sent
+to shrive me, he found me weeping, which he took to argue a contrite
+heart. He bore the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of Pesaro came
+to visit me in consequence, and found me sorely changed from my furious
+mood of some hours earlier.
+
+"I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother's sake. If I
+feared death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to
+her."
+
+"At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my
+eyes and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had
+been my erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him. I told him the
+truth--that for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother
+in the hills who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus
+cut off.
+
+"He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.
+Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious
+depth I was far indeed from suspecting. He asked me would I take solemn
+oath that if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand against
+him. That oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the death
+that was impending.
+
+"'You have been wise,' said he,' and you shall have your life on one
+condition--that you devote it to my service.'
+
+"'Even that will I do,' I answered readily. He turned to an attendant,
+and ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley. No word passed between us
+until that man returned with those garish garments. Then Giovanni smiled
+on me in his mocking, infernal way.
+
+"'Not that,' I cried, guessing his purpose.
+
+"'Aye, that,' he answered me; 'that or the hangman's noose. A man who
+could devise so monstrous a jest as was your challenge to the Tyrant of
+Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would. I need such a one. There
+are two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers, deformed vermin
+that excite as much disgust as mirth. I need a sprightlier man, a man of
+some learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would seem
+to be.'
+
+"I recoiled in horror and disgust. Was this his clemency--this sparing
+of my life that he might submit it to an eternal shame? For a moment my
+mother was forgotten. I thought only of myself, and I grew resolved to
+hang.
+
+"'When you spoke of service,' said I 'I thought of service of an
+honourable sort.'
+
+"'The service that I offer you is honourable,' he said, with cold
+amusement. 'Indeed, remembering that your life was forfeit, you should
+account yourself most fortunate. You shall be well housed and well fed,
+you shall wear silk and lie in fine linen, on condition that you are
+merry. If you prove dull our castellan shall have you whipped--for such
+a one as you could not be dull save out of sullenness, of which we shall
+seek to cure you if you show signs of it.'
+
+"'I will not do it,' I cried, 'it were too base.'
+
+"'My friend,' he answered me, 'the choice is yours. You shall have an
+hour in which to resolve what you will do. When they open this door for
+you at sunset, come forth clad as you are, and you shall hang. If
+you prefer to live, then don me that robe and cap of motley, and, on
+condition that you are merry, life is yours.'"
+
+I paused a moment. Our horses were moving slowly, for the tale engrossed
+us both, me in the telling, her in the hearing. Presently--
+
+"I need not harass you with the reflections that were mine during that
+hour, Madonna. Rather let me ask you: how should a man so placed make
+choice to be full worthy of the office proffered him?"
+
+There was a moment's silence while she pondered.
+
+"Why," she answered me, at last, "a fool I take it would have chosen
+death: the wise man life, since it must hold the hope of better days."
+
+"And since it asked a man of wit to play the fool to such a tune as the
+Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly. But was
+that choice indeed so wise? The story ends not there. That young men
+whose early life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed,
+well-housed and fed as the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he
+fell into a slothful spirit, and was content to play the Fool for bed
+and board.
+
+"There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
+tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of
+all, from prince to scullion. But in the three years that I had dwelt at
+Pesaro my identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been aware
+of it. Moreover, a court is a place of changes, and in three years there
+had been such comings and goings at the Court of Giovanni Sforza, that
+not more than one or two remained of those that had inhabited it when
+first I entered on my existence there. Thus had my position grown
+steadily more bearable. I was just a jester and no more, and so, in
+a measure--though I blush to say it--I grew content. I gathered
+consolation from the fact that there were not any who now remembered the
+story of my coming to Pesaro, or who knew of the cowardliness I had been
+guilty of when I consented to mask myself in the motley and assume the
+name of Boccadoro. I counted on the Lord Giovanni's generosity to let
+things continue thus, and, meanwhile, I provided for my mother out of
+the vails that were earned me by my shame. But there came a day when
+Giovanni in evil wantonness of spirit chose to make merry at the Fool's
+expense.
+
+"To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such
+as I, and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the
+derision of his Court, haply I had been his jester still. But such sport
+as that would have satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of his soul.
+The man whom his cruel mockery crucified for their entertainment was
+Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he revealed to them, relating in his own
+fashion the tale I have told you.
+
+"At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
+all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live. Passion surged
+up in him, and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the bone--in
+short, to slay me with a whip.
+
+"From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
+Lucrezia. But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it
+happens that I am a wanderer now."
+
+At that I left it. I had no mind to tell her what motives had impelled
+Lucrezia Borgia to rescue me, nor on what errand I had gone to Rome and
+was from Rome returning.
+
+She had heard me in silence, and now that I had done, she heaved a sigh,
+for which gentle expression of pity out of my heart I thanked her. We
+were silent, thereafter, for a little while. At length she turned her
+head to regard me in the light of the now declining moon.
+
+"Messer Biancomonte," said she, and the sound of the old name, falling
+from her lips, thrilled me with a joy unspeakable, and seemed already to
+reinvest me in my old estate, "Messer Biancomonte, you have done me in
+these four-and-twenty hours such service as never did knight of old for
+any lady--and you did it, too, out of the most disinterested and noble
+of motives, proving thereby how truly knightly is that heart of yours,
+which, for my sake, has all but beat its last to-night. You must journey
+on to Pesaro with me despite this banishment of which you have told me.
+I will be surety that no harm shall come to you. I could not do less,
+and I shall hope to do far more. Such influence as I may prove to have
+with my cousin of Pesaro shall be exerted all on your behalf, my
+friend; and if in the nature of Giovanni Sforza there be a tithe of the
+gratitude with which you have inspired me, you shall, at least, have
+justice, and Biancomonte shall be yours again."
+
+I was silent for a spell, so touched was I by the kindness she
+manifested me--so touched, indeed, and so unused to it that I forgot how
+amply I had earned it, and how rudely she had used me ere that was done.
+
+"Alas!" I sighed. "God knows I am no longer fit to sit in the house of
+the Biancomonte. I am come too low, Madonna."
+
+"That Lazzaro, after whom you are named," she answered, "had come yet
+lower. But he lived again, and resumed his former station. Take your
+courage from that."
+
+"He lived not at the mercy of Giovanni of Pesaro," said I.
+
+There was a fresh pause at that. Then--"At least," she urged me, "you'll
+come to Pesaro with me?"
+
+"Why yes," said I. "I could not let you go alone." And in my heart I
+felt a pang of shame, and called myself a cur for making use of her as I
+was doing to reach the Court of Giovanni Sforza.
+
+"You need fear no consequences," she promised me. "I can be surety for
+that at least."
+
+In the east a brighter, yellower light than the moon's began to show.
+It was the dawn, from which I gathered that it must be approaching
+the thirteenth hour. Pesaro could not be more than a couple of leagues
+farther, and, presently, when we had gained the summit of the slight
+hill we were ascending, we beheld in the distance a blurred mass looming
+on the edge of the glittering sea. A silver ribbon that uncoiled itself
+from the western hills disappeared behind it. That silvery streak was
+the River Foglia; that heap of buildings against the landscape's virgin
+white, the town of Pesaro.
+
+Madonna pointed to it with a sudden cry of gladness. "See Messer
+Biancomonte, how near we are. Courage, my friend; a little farther, and
+yonder we have rest and comfort for you."
+
+She had need, in truth, to cry me "Courage!" for I was weakening fast
+once more. It may have been the much that I had talked, or the infernal
+jolting of my mule, but I was losing blood again, and as we were on the
+point of riding forward my senses swam, so that I cried out; and but for
+her prompt assistance I might have rolled headlong from my saddle.
+
+As it was, she caught me about the waist as any mother might have
+done her son. "What ails you?" she inquired, her newly-aroused anxiety
+contrasting sharply with her joyous cry of a moment earlier. "Are you
+faint, my friend?" It needed no confession on my part. My condition was
+all too plain as I leaned against her frail body for support.
+
+"It is my wound," I gasped. Then I set my teeth in anguish. So near the
+haven, and to fail now! It could not be; it must not be. I summoned all
+my resolution, all my fortitude; but in vain. Nature demanded payment
+for the abuses she had suffered.
+
+"If we proceed thus," she ventured fearfully, "you leaning against me,
+and going at a slow pace--no faster than a walk--think you, you can bear
+it? Try, good Messer 'Biancomonte."
+
+"I will try, Madonna," I replied. "Perhaps thus, and if I am silent, we
+may yet reach Pesaro together. If not--if my strength gives out--the
+town is yonder and the day is coming. You will find your way without
+me."
+
+"I will not leave you, sir," she vowed; and it was good to hear her.
+
+"Indeed, I hope you may not know the need," I answered wearily. And thus
+we started on once more.
+
+Sant' Iddio! What agonies I suffered ere the sun rose up out of the sea
+to flood us with his winter glory! What agonies were mine during those
+two hours or so of that last stage of our eventful journey! "I must bear
+up until we are at the gates of Pesaro," I kept murmuring to myself,
+and, as if my spirit were inclined to become the servant of my will and
+hold my battered flesh alive until we got that far, Pesaro's gates I had
+the joy of entering ere I was constrained to give way.
+
+Dimly I remember--for very dim were my perceptions growing--that as we
+crossed the bridge and passed beneath the archway of the Porta Romana,
+the officer turned out to see who came. At sight of me be gaped a moment
+in astonishment.
+
+"Boccadoro?" he exclaimed, at last. "So soon returned?"
+
+"Like Perseus from the rescue of Andromeda," answered I, in a feeble
+voice, "saving that Perseus was less bloody than am I. Behold the
+Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, the noble cousin of our High and
+Mighty Lord."
+
+And then as if my task being done, I were free to set my weary brain
+to rest, my senses grew confused, the officer's voice became a hum that
+gradually waxed fainter as I sank into what seemed the most luxurious
+and delicious sleep that ever mortal knew.
+
+Two days later, when I was conscious once more, I learned what
+excitement those words of mine had sown, with what honours Madonna Paola
+was escorted to the Castle, and how the citizens of Pesaro turned out
+upon hearing the news which ran like fire before us. And Madonna, it
+seems, had loudly proclaimed how gallantly I had served her, for as they
+bore me along in a cloak carried by four men-at-arms, the cry that was
+heard in the streets of Pesaro that morning was "Boccadoro!" They
+had loved me, had those good citizens of Pesaro, and the news of my
+departure had cast a gloom upon the town. To have their hero return in
+a manner so truly heroic provoked that brave display of their affection,
+and I deeply doubt if ever in the days of greatest loyalty the name of
+Sforza was as loudly cried in Pesaro as, they tell me, was the name of
+Sforza's Fool that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+
+If Madonna Paola did not achieve quite all that she had promised me so
+readily, yet she achieved more than from my acquaintance with the nature
+of Giovanni Sforza--and my knowledge of the deep malice he entertained
+for me--I should have dared to hope.
+
+The Tyrant of Pesaro, as I was soon to learn, was greatly taken with
+this fair cousin of his, whom that morning he had beheld for the first
+time. And being taken with her, it may be that Giovanni listened the
+more readily to her intercessions on my poor behalf. Since it was she
+who begged this thing, he could not wholly refuse. But since he was
+Giovanni Sforza, he could not wholly grant. He promised her that my
+life, at least, should be secure, and that not only would he pardon me,
+but that he would have his own physician see to it that I was made sound
+again. For the time, that was enough, he thought. First let them bring
+me back to life. When that was achieved, it would be early enough to
+consider what course this life should take thereafter.
+
+And she, knowing him not and finding him so kind and gracious, trusted
+that he would perform that which he tricked her into believing that he
+promised.
+
+For some ten days I lay abed, feverish at first and later very weak from
+the great loss of blood I had sustained. But after the second day, when
+my fever had abated, I had some visitors, among whom was Madonna Paola,
+who bore me the news that her intercessions for me with the Lord
+of Pesaro were likely to bear fruit, and that I might look for my
+reinstatement. Yet, if I permitted myself to hope as she bade me; I did
+so none too fully.
+
+My situation, bearing in mind how at once I had served and thwarted the
+ends of Cesare Borgia, was perplexing.
+
+Another visitor I had was Messer Magistri--the pompous seneschal of
+Pesaro--who, after his own fashion, seemed to have a liking for me, and
+a certain pity. Here was my chance of discharging the true errand on
+which I was returned.
+
+"I owe thanks," said I, "to many circumstances for the sparing of
+my life; but above all people and all things do I owe thanks to our
+gracious Lady Lucrezia. Do you think, Messer Magistri, that she would
+consent to see me and permit me again to express the gratitude that
+fills my heart?"
+
+Mosser Magistri thought that he could promise this, and consented
+to bear my message to her. Within the hour she was at my bedside and
+divining that, haply, I had news to give her of the letter I had born
+her brother, she dismissed Magistri who was in attendance.
+
+Once we were alone her first words were of kindly concern for my
+condition, delivered in that sweet, musical voice that was by no means
+the least charm of a princess to whom Nature had been prodigal of gifts.
+For without going to that length of exaggerated praise which some have
+bestowed--for her own ear, and with an eye to profit--upon Madonna
+Lucrezia, yet were I less than truthful if I sought to belittle her
+ample claims to beauty. Some six years later than the time of which I
+write she was met on the occasion of her entry into Ferrara by a certain
+clown dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd Paris, who proffered
+her the apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that since
+beholding her he had been forced to alter his old-time judgment in
+favour of Venus.
+
+He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for
+which he should have been soundly whipped. Her nose was a shade too
+long, her chin a shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such
+comparisons. Still, that she had a certain gracious beauty, as I have
+said, it is not mine to deny. There was an almost childish freshness in
+her face, an almost childish innocence in her fine gray eyes, and, above
+all, a golden and resplendent hair as brought to mind the tresses of
+God's angels.
+
+That fair child--for no more than a child was she--drew a chair to my
+bedside.
+
+There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my
+behalf, and answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad
+again in a day or two.
+
+"Brave lad," she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the coverlet,
+as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool, "count me
+ever your friend hereafter, for what you have done for Madonna Paola.
+For although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you did so to serve
+one who is more to me than any family, more than any sister could be."
+
+"What I did, Madonna," I answered, "I did with the better heart since it
+opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my Lord,
+your Illustrious brother, set me--one that otherwise might well have
+overtaxed my wits."
+
+"Ah?" Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a glance
+that revealed to the full their matchless beauty. Care seemed of
+a sudden to have aged her face. The question of her eyes needed no
+translation into words.
+
+"The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
+answer to your own," I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I
+drew the package, which during Magistri's absence I had abstracted from
+my boot that I might have it in readiness when she came.
+
+She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of
+her mouth.
+
+"I had hoped he would have found better employment for you," she said.
+
+"His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the
+future did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch. But by
+aiding Madonna Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim
+the redemption of that promise; though had it not been for Madonna Paola
+and what I did, I scarce know how I should have penetrated here to you."
+
+She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood
+reading the letter, her back toward me. Presently I heard a stifled
+sob. The letter was crushed in her hand. Then moments passed ere she
+confronted me once more. But her manner as all changed; she was agitated
+and preoccupied, and for all that she forced herself to talk of me and
+my affairs, her mind was clearly elsewhere. At last she left me, nor did
+I see her again during the time I was confined to my bed.
+
+On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like,
+I was permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on the
+terrace that overlooks the sea. I found no garments but some suits of
+motley, and so, in despite of my repugnance now to reassume that garb, I
+had no choice but to array myself in one of these. I selected the least
+garish one--a suit of black and yellow stripes, with hose that was half
+black, half yellow, too; and so, leaning upon the crutch they had left
+me, I crept forth into the sunlight, the very ghost of the man that I
+had been a fortnight ago.
+
+I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards
+Ancona, and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air
+of the Adriatic. The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some
+twenty paces off--there was a stretch of soft, green turf.
+
+I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I
+was yet abed. It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with
+the proverbs of one Domenico Lopez--all very proper nourishment for
+a jester's mind. The odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and
+among the proverbs there were many that were new to me in framing and
+in substance. Moreover, I was glad of this means of improving my
+acquaintance with the tongue of Spain, and I was soon absorbed. So
+absorbed, indeed, as never to hear the footsteps of the Lord Giovanni,
+when presently he approached me unattended, nor to guess at his presence
+until his shadow fell athwart my page. I raised my eyes, and seeing who
+it was I made shift to get on my feet; but he commanded me to remain
+seated, commenting sympathetically upon my weak condition.
+
+He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile fluttered
+across his white face.
+
+"You choose your reading with rare judgment," said he. "Read on, and
+prime your mind with fresh humour, prepare yourself with new conceits
+for our amusement against the time when health shall be more fully
+restored you."
+
+It was in such words as these that he intimated to me that I was
+pardoned, and reinstated--as the Fool of the Court of Pesaro. That was
+to be the sum of his clemency. We were precisely where we had been. Once
+before had he granted me my life on condition that I should amuse him;
+he did no more than repeat that mercy now. I stared at him in wonder,
+open-mouthed, whereit he laughed.
+
+"You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro?" said he, his fingers
+straying to his beard as was his custom. "My clemency is no more than
+you deserve in return for the service you have rendered to the House of
+Sforza." And he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs that
+had borne itself bravely in the chase.
+
+I answered nothing. I sat there as if I had been a part of the stone
+from which my seat was hewn, for I lacked the strength to rise and
+strangle him as he deserved--moreover, I was bound by an oath, which it
+would have damned my soul to break, never to raise my hand against him.
+
+And then, before he could say more, two ladies issued from the doorway
+on my right. They were Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Paola. Upon espying
+me they hastened forward with expressions of pleased surprise at seeing
+me risen and out, and when I would have got to my feet they stayed me
+as Giovanni had done. Madonna Paola's words seemed addressed to heaven
+rather than to me, for they were words of thanksgiving for this recovery
+of my strength.
+
+"I have no thanks," she ended warmly, "that can match the deeds by which
+you earned them, Messer Biancomonte."
+
+My eyes drifting to Giovanni's face surprised its sudden darkening.
+
+"Madonna Paola," said he, in an icy voice, "you have uttered a name that
+must not be heard within my walls of Pesaro, if you would prove yourself
+the friend of Boccadoro. To remind me of his true identity is to remind
+me of that which counts not in his favour."
+
+She turned to regard him, a mild surprise in her blue eyes.
+
+"But, my lord, you promised--" she began.
+
+"I promised," he interposed, with an easy smile and manner never so
+deprecatory, "that I would pardon him, grant him his life and restore
+him to my favour."
+
+"But did you not say that if he survived and was restored to strength
+you would then determine the course his life should take?"
+
+Still smiling, he produced his comfit-box, and raised the lid.
+
+"That is a thing he seems to have determined for himself," he answered
+smoothly--he could be smooth as a cat upon occasion, could this bastard
+of Costanzo Sforza. "I came upon him here, arrayed as you behold
+him, and reading a book of Spanish quips. Is it not clear that he has
+chosen?"
+
+Between thumb and forefinger he balanced a sugar-crusted comfit of
+coriander seed steeped in marjoram vinegar, and having put his question
+he bore the sweet-meat to his mouth. The ladies looked at him, and from
+him to me. Then Madonna Paola spoke, and there seemed a reproachful
+wonder in her voice.
+
+"Is this indeed your choice?" she asked me.
+
+"It is the choice that was forced on me," said I, in heat. "They left me
+no garment save these of folly. That I was reading this book it pleases
+my lord to interpret into a further sign of my intentions."
+
+She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of
+Madonna Lucrezia. He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of
+rare loftiness.
+
+"I am more clement than you think," said he, "in having done so much.
+For the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving
+political issues you little dream of. What is this?"
+
+He had turned abruptly. A servant was approaching, leading a
+mud-splashed courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
+
+"Whence are you?" Giovanni questioned him.
+
+"From the Holy See," answered the courier, bowing, "with letters for the
+High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his noble
+spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia."
+
+He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown
+overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant. Then bidding the
+servant see to the courier's refreshment, he dismissed them both.
+
+A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he
+would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro
+were, there and then, forgotten by us all. For the thought that rose
+uppermost in our minds--saving always that of Madonna Lucrezia--was that
+these communications concerned the sheltering of Madonna Paola, and were
+a command for her immediate return to Rome. At last Giovanni handed his
+wife the letter intended for her, and, in silence, broke the seal of his
+own.
+
+He unfolded it with a grim smile, but scarce had he begun to read when
+his expression softened into one of terror, and his face grew ashen.
+Next it flared crimson, the veins on his brow stood out like ropes, and
+his eyes flashed furiously upon Madonna Lucrezia. She was reading, her
+bosom rising and falling in token of the excitement that possessed her.
+
+"Madonna," he cried in an awful voice, "I have here a command from the
+Holy See to repair at once to Rome, to answer certain charges that are
+preferred against me relating to my marriage. Madonna, know you aught of
+this?"
+
+"I know, sir," she answered steadily, "that I, too, have here a letter
+calling me to Rome. But there is no reason given for the summons."
+
+Intuitively it flashed across my mind that whatever the matter might
+be, Madonna Lucrezia had full knowledge of it through the letter I had
+brought her from her brother.
+
+"Can you conjecture, Madonna, what are these charges to which my letter
+vaguely alludes?" Giovanni was inquiring.
+
+"Your pardon, but the subject is scarcely of a nature to permit
+discussion in the castle courtyard. Its character is intimate."
+
+He looked at her very searchingly, but for all that he was a man of
+almost twice her years, her wits were more than a match for his, and
+his scrutiny can have told him nothing. She preserved a calm, unruffled
+front.
+
+"In five minutes, Madonna," said he, very sternly, "I shall be honoured
+if you will receive me in your closet."
+
+She inclined her head, murmuring an unhesitating assent. Satisfied, he
+bowed to her and to Madonna Paola--who had been looking on with eyes
+that wonder had set wide open--and turning on his heel he strode briskly
+away. As he passed into the castle, Madonna Lucrezia heaved a sigh and
+rose.
+
+"My poor Boccadoro," she cried, "I fear me your affairs must wait a
+while. But think of me always as your friend, and believe that if I can
+prevail upon my brother to overlook the ill-turn you did him when you
+entered the service of this child"--and she pointed to Madonna Paola--"I
+shall send for you from Rome, for in Pesaro I fear you have little to
+hope for. But let this be a secret between us."
+
+From those words of hers I inferred, as perhaps she meant I should, that
+once she left Pesaro to obey her father's summons, our little northern
+state was to know her no more. Once again, only, did I see her, on the
+occasion of her departure, some four days later, and then but for a
+moment. Back to Pesaro she came no more, as you shall learn anon; but
+behind her she left a sweet and fragrant memory, which still endures
+though many years are sped and much calumny has been heaped upon her
+name.
+
+I might pause here to make some attempt at refuting the base falsehoods
+that had been bruited by that time-serving vassal Guicciardini,
+and others of his kidney, whom the upstart Cardinal Giuliano della
+Rovere--sometime pedlar--in his jealous fury at seeing the coveted
+pontificate pass into the family of Borgia, bought and hired to do his
+loathsome work of calumny and besmirch the fame of as sweet a lady as
+Italy has known. But this poor chronicle of mine is rather concerned
+with the history of Madonna Paola di Santafior, and it were a divergence
+well-nigh unpardonable to set my pen at present to that other task.
+Moreover, there is scarce the need. If any there be who doubt me, or if
+future generations should fall into the error of lending credence to the
+lies of that villain Guicciardini, of that arch-villain Giuliano della
+Rovere, or of other smaller fry who have lent their helot's pens to
+weave mendacious records of her life, dubbing her murderess, adulteress,
+and Heaven knows what besides--I will but refer them to the archives
+of Ferrara, whose Duchess she became at the age of one-and-twenty, and
+where she reigned for eighteen years. There shall it be found recorded
+that she was an exemplary, God-fearing woman; a faithful and honoured
+wife; a wise, devoted mother; and a princess, beloved and esteemed by
+her people for her piety, her charity and her wisdom. If such records as
+are there to be read by earnest seekers after truth be not sufficient to
+convince, and to reveal those others whom I have named in the light of
+their true baseness, then were it idle for me to set up in these pages a
+passing refutation of the falsehoods which it has grieved me so often to
+hear repeated.
+
+It was two days later that the Lord Giovanni set out for Rome, obedient
+to the command he had received. But before his departure--on the eve of
+it, to be precise--there arrived at Pesaro a very wonderful and handsome
+gentleman. This was the brother of Madonna Paola, the High and Mighty
+Lord Filippo di Santafior. He had had a hint in Rome that his connivance
+at his sister's defiant escape was suspected at the Vatican, and he
+had wisely determined that his health would thrive better in a northern
+climate for a while.
+
+A very splendid creature was this Lord Filippo, all shimmering
+velvet, gleaming jewels, costly furs and glittering gold. His face
+was effeminate, though finely featured, and resembled, in much, his
+sister's. He rode a cream-coloured horse, which seemed to have been
+steeped in musk, so strongly was it scented. But of all his affectations
+the one with which I as taken most was to see one of his grooms approach
+him when he dismounted, to dust his wondrous clothes down to his shoes,
+which he wore in the splayed fashion set by the late King of France who
+was blessed with twelve toes on each of his deformed feet.
+
+The Lord Giovanni, himself not lacking in effeminacy, was greatly taken
+by the wondrous raiment, the studied lisp and the hundred affectations
+of this peerless gallant. Had he not been overburdened at the time by
+the Papal business that impended, he might there and then have cemented
+the intimacy which was later to spring up between them. As it was, he
+made him very welcome, and placed at his and his sister's disposal
+the beautiful palace that his father had begun, and he, himself, had
+completed, which was known as the Palazza Sforza. On the morrow Giovanni
+left Pesaro with but a small retinue, in which I was thankful not to be
+included.
+
+Two days later Madonna Lucrezia followed her husband, the fact that they
+journeyed not together, seeming to wear an ominous significance. Her
+eyes had a swollen look, such as attends much weeping, which afterwards
+I took as proof that she knew for what purpose she was going, and was
+moved to bitter grief at the act to which her ambitious family was
+constraining her.
+
+After their departure things moved sluggishly at Pesaro. The nobles
+of the Lord Giovanni's Court repaired to their several houses in the
+neighboring country, and save for the officers of the household the
+place became deserted.
+
+Madonna Paola remained at the Sforza Palace, and I saw her only once
+during the two mouths that followed, and then it was about the streets,
+and she had little more than a greeting for me as she passed. At her
+side rode her brother, a splendid blaze of finery, falcon on wrist.
+
+My days were spent in reading and reflection, for there was naught else
+to do. I might have gone my ways, had I so wished it, but something kept
+me there at Pesaro, curious to see the events with which the time was
+growing big.
+
+We grew sadly stagnant during Lent, and what with the uneventful course
+of things, and the lean fare proscribed by Mother Church, it was a very
+dispirited Boccadoro that wandered aimlessly whither his dulling fancy
+took him. But in Holy Week, at last, we received an abrupt stir which
+set a whirlpool of excitement in the Dead Sea of our lives. It was the
+sudden reappearance of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+He came alone, dust-stained and haggard, on a horse that dropped dead
+from exhaustion the moment Pesaro was reached, and in his pallid cheek
+and hollow eye we read the tale of some great fear and some disaster.
+
+That night we heard the story of how he had performed the feat of riding
+all the way from Rome in four-and-twenty hours, fleeing for his life
+from the peril of assassination, of which Madonna Lucrezia had warned
+him.
+
+He went off to his Castle of Gradara, where he shut himself up with the
+trouble we could but guess at, and so in Pesaro, that brief excitement
+spent, we stagnated once again.
+
+I seemed an anomaly in so gloomy a place, and more than once did I think
+of departing and seeking out my poor old mother in her mountain home,
+contenting myself hereafter with labouring like any honest villano born
+to the soil. But there ever seemed to be a voice that bade me stay
+and wait, and the voice bore a suggestion of Madonna Paola. But why
+dissemble here? Why cast out hints of voices heard, supernatural in
+their flavour? The voice, I doubt not, was just my own inclination,
+which bade me hope that once again it might be mine to serve that lady.
+
+An eventful year in the history of the families of Sforza and Borgia was
+that year of grace 1497.
+
+Spring came, and ere it had quite grown to summer we had news of the
+assassination of the Duke of Gandia, and the tale that he was done to
+death by his elder brother, Cesare Borgia; a tale which seemed to lack
+for reasonable substantiation, and which, despite the many voices that
+make bold to noise it broadcast, may or may not be true.
+
+In that same month of June messages passed between Rome and Pesaro, and
+gradually the burden of the messages leaked out in rumours that Pope
+Alexander and his family were pressing the Lord Giovanni to consent to a
+divorce. At last he left Pesaro again; this time to journey to Milan and
+seek counsel with his powerful cousin, Lodovico, whom they called "The
+Moor." When he returned he was more sulky and downcast than ever, and at
+Gradara he lived in an isolation that had been worthy of a hermit.
+
+And thus that miserable year wore itself out, and, at last, in December,
+we heard that the divorce was announced, and that Lucrezia Borgia was
+the Tyrant of Pesaro's wife no more. The news of it and the reasons
+that were put forward as having led to it were roared across Italy in
+a great, derisive burst of laughter, of which the Lord Giovanni was the
+unfortunate and contemptible butt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
+
+
+And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine,
+it may be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of
+the next three years of the history of Pesaro.
+
+Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he
+seemed again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been
+before shame overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding.
+Madonna Paola and her brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in Pesaro,
+where they now appeared to have taken up their permanent abode. Madonna
+Paola--following her inclinations--withdrew to the Convent of Santa
+Caterina, there to pursue in peace the studies for which she had a
+taste, whilst her splendid, profligate brother became the ornament--the
+arbiter elegantiarum--of our court.
+
+Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics
+a stew was simmering that demanded all that family's attention, and of
+whose import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had
+flung aside his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer rein
+to the boundless ambition that consumed him.
+
+With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never
+been. Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce left
+discernible any semblance of reality, for I was once again Boccadoro,
+the golden-mouthed Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every jester
+throughout Italy. My shame that for a brief season had risen up in arms
+seemed to be laid to rest once more, and I was content with the burden
+that was mine. Money I had in plenty, for when I pleased him the Lord
+Giovanni's vails were often handsome, and much of my earnings went to
+my poor mother, who would sooner have died starving than have bought
+herself bread with those ducats could she have guessed at what manner of
+trade Lazzaro Biancomonte had earned them.
+
+The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa
+Caterina, whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to pay
+his duty to his fair cousin. In the summer of 1500, she being then come
+to the age of eighteen, and as divinely beautiful a lady as you could
+find in Italy, she allowed herself to be persuaded by her brother--who,
+I make no doubt had been, in his turn, persuaded by the Lord of
+Pesaro--to leave her convent and her studies, and to take up her life
+at the Sforza Palace, where Filippo held by now a sort of petty court of
+his own.
+
+And now it fell out that the Lord Giovanni was oftener at the Palace
+than at the Castle, and during that summer Pesaro was given over to
+such merrymaking as it had never known before. There was endless
+lute-thrumming and recitation of verses by a score of parasite poets
+whom the Lord Giovanni encouraged, posing now as a patron of letters;
+there were balls and masques and comedies beyond number, and we were as
+gay as though Italy held no Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who was
+sweeping northward with his all-conquering flood of mercenaries.
+
+But one there was who, though the very centre of all these merry doings,
+the very one in whose honour and for whose delectation they were set
+afoot, seemed listless and dispirited in that boisterous crowd. This
+was Madonna Paola, to whom, rumour had it, that her kinsman, the Lord
+Giovanni, was paying a most ardent suit.
+
+I saw her daily now, and often would she choose me for her sole
+companion; often, sitting apart with me, would she unburden her heart
+and tell me much that I am assured she would have told no other. A
+strange thing may it have seemed, this confidence between the Fool and
+the noble Lady of Santafior--my Holy Flower of the Quince, as in my
+thoughts I grew to name her. Perhaps it may have been because she found
+me ever ready to be sober at her bidding, when she needed sober company
+as those other fools--the greater fools since they accounted themselves
+wise--could not afford her.
+
+That winter adventure betwixt Cagli and Pesaro was a link that bound us
+together, and caused her to see under my motley and my masking smile
+the true Lazzaro Biancomonte whom for a little season she had known. And
+when we were alone it had become her wont to call me Lazzaro, leaving
+that other name that they had given me for use when others were at hand.
+Yet never did she refer to my condition, or wound me by seeking to spur
+me to the ambition to become myself again. Haply she was content that I
+should be as I sas, since had I sought to become different it must have
+entailed my quitting Pesaro, and this poor lady was so bereft of friends
+that she could not afford to lose even the sympathy of the despised
+jester.
+
+It was in those days that I first came to love her with as pure a flame
+as ever burned within the heart of man, for the very hopelessness of it
+preserved its holy whiteness. What could I do, if I would love her,
+but love her as the dog may love his mistress? More was surely not for
+me--and to seek more were surely a madness that must earn me less. And
+so, I was content to let things be, and keep my heart in check,
+thanking God for the mercy of her company at times, and for the precious
+confidences she made me, and praying Heaven--for of my love was I grown
+devout--that her life might run a smooth and happy course, and ready,
+in the furtherance of such an object, to lay down my own should the need
+arise. Indeed there were times when it seemed to me that it was a good
+thing to be a Fool to know a love of so rare a purity as that--such a
+love as I might never have known had I been of her station, and in such
+case as to have hoped to win her some day for my own.
+
+One evening of late August, when the vines were heavy with ripe fruit,
+and the scent of roses was permeating the tepid air, she drew me from
+the throng of courtiers that made merry in the Palace, and led me out
+into the noble gardens to seek counsel with me, she said, upon a matter
+of gravest moment. There, under the sky of deepest blue, crimsoning to
+saffron where the sun had set, we paced awhile in silence, my own senses
+held in thrall by the beauty of the eventide, the ambient perfumes
+of the air and the strains of music that faintly reached us from the
+Palace. Madonna's head was bent, and her eyes were set upon the ground
+and burdened, so my furtive glance assured me, with a gentle sorrow.
+At length she spoke, and at the words she uttered my heart seemed for a
+moment to stand still.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, "they would have me marry."
+
+For a little spell there was a silence, my wits seeming to have grown
+too numbed to attempt to seek an answer. I might be content, indeed, to
+love her from a distance, as the cloistered monk may love and worship
+some particular saint in Heaven; yet it seems that I was not proof
+against jealousy for all the abstract quality of my worship.
+
+"Lazzaro," she repeated presently, "did you hear me? They would have me
+marry."
+
+"I have heard some such talk," I answered, rousing myself at last; "and
+they say that it is the Lord Giovanni who would prove worthy of your
+hand."
+
+"They say rightly, then," she acknowledged. "The Lord Giovanni it is."
+
+Again there was a silence, and again it was she who broke it.
+
+"Well, Lazzaro?" she asked. "Have you naught to say?"
+
+"What would you have me say, Madonna? If this wedding accords with your
+own wishes, then am I glad."
+
+"Lazzaro, Lazzaro! you know that it does not."
+
+"How should I know it, Madonna?"
+
+"Because your wits are shrewd, and because you know me. Think you this
+petty tyrant is such a man as I should find it in my heart to conceive
+affection for? Grateful to him am I for the shelter he has afforded us
+here; but my love--that is a thing I keep, or fain would keep, for some
+very different man. When I love, I think it will be a valorous knight, a
+gentleman of lofty mind, of noble virtues and ready address."
+
+"An excellent principle on which to go in quest of a husband, Madonna
+mia. But where in this degenerate world do you look to find him?"
+
+"Are there, then, no such men?"
+
+"In the pages of Bojardo and those other poets whom you have read too
+earnestly there may be."
+
+"Nay, there speaks your cynicism," she chided me. "But even if my
+ideals be too lofty, would you have me descend from the height of such
+a pinnacle to the level of the Lord Giovanni--a weak-spirited craven, as
+witnesses the manner in which he permitted the Borgias to mishandle him;
+a cruel and unjust tyrant, as witnesses his dealing with you, to seek no
+further instances; a weak, ignorant, pleasure-loving fool, devoid of wit
+and barren of ambition? Such is the man they would have me wed. Do
+not tell me, Lazzaro, that it were difficult to find a better one than
+this."
+
+"I do not mean to tell you that. After all, though it be my trade to
+jest, it is not my way to deal in falsehood. I think, Madonna, that if
+we were to have you write for us such an appreciation of the High and
+Mighty Giovanni Sforza, you would leave a very faithful portrait for the
+enlightenment of posterity."
+
+"Lazzaro, do not jest!" she cried. "It is your help I need. That is the
+reason why I am come to you with the tale of what they seek to force me
+into doing."
+
+"To force you?" I cried. "Would they dare so much?"
+
+"Aye, if I resist them further."
+
+"Why, then," I answered, with a ready laugh, "do not resist them
+further."
+
+"Lazzaro!" she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by what
+she accounted a flippancy.
+
+"Mistake me not," I hastened to elucidate. "It is lest they should
+employ force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I
+counsel you to offer no resistance. Beg for a little time, vaguely
+suggesting that you are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni's suit."
+
+"That were deceit," she protested.
+
+"A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny," said I.
+
+"Well? And then?" she questioned. "Such a state of things cannot endure
+for ever. It must end some day."
+
+I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full
+of confidence.
+
+"That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni's impatience
+transcends all bounds."
+
+She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression
+knitting her fine brows.
+
+"I do not take your meaning, my friend," she complained.
+
+"Then mark the enucleation. I will expound this meaning of mine through
+the medium of a parable. In Babylon of old, there dwelt a king whose
+name was Belshazzar, who, having fallen into habits of voluptuousness
+and luxury, was so enslaved by them as to feast and make merry whilst
+a certain Darius, King of the Medes, was marching in arms against his
+capital. At a feast one night the fingers of a man's hand were seen to
+write upon the wall, and the words they wrote were a belated warning:
+'Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.'"
+
+She looked at me, her eyes round with inquiry, and a faint smile of
+uncertainty on her lips.
+
+"Let me confess that your elucidation helps me but little."
+
+"Ponder it, Madonna," I urged her. "Substitute Giovanni Sforza for
+Belshazzar, Cesare Borgia for King Darius, and you have the key to my
+parable."
+
+"But is it indeed so? Does danger threaten Pesaro from that quarter?"
+
+"Aye, does it," I answered, almost impatiently. "The tide of war is
+surging up, and presently will whelm us utterly. Yet here sits the Lord
+Giovanni making merry with balls and masques and burle and banquets,
+wholly unprepared, wholly unconscious of his peril. There may be no hand
+to write a warning on his walls--or else, as in the case of Babylon, the
+hand will write when it is too late to avert the evil--yet there are not
+wanting other signs for those that have the wit to read them; nor is a
+wondrous penetration needed."
+
+"And you think then--" she began.
+
+"I think that if you are obdurate with him, he and your brother
+may hurry you by force into this union. But if you temporise with
+half-promises, with suggestions that before Christmas you may grow
+reconciled to his wishes, he will be patient."
+
+"But what if Christmas comes and finds us still in this position?"
+
+"It will need a miracle for that; or, at least, the death of Cesare
+Borgia--an unlikely event, for they say he uses great precautions.
+Saving the miracle, and providing Cesare lives, I will give the Lord
+Giovanni's reign in Pesaro at most two months."
+
+We had halted now, and were confronting each other in the descending
+gloom.
+
+"Lazzaro, dear friend," she cried, almost with gaiety, "I was wise to
+take counsel with you. You have planted in my heart a very vigorous
+growth of hope."
+
+We turned soon after, and started to retrace our steps, for she might be
+ill-advised to remain absent overlong.
+
+I left her on the terrace in a very different spirit from that in which
+she had come to me, bearing with me her promise that she would act as I
+had advised her. No doubt I had taken a load from her gentle soul, and
+oddly enough I had taken, too, a load from mine.
+
+Things fell out as I said they would in far as Giovanni Sforza and
+Filippo were concerned. Madonna's seeming amenability to their wishes
+stayed their insistence, and they could but respect her wishes to let
+the betrothal be delayed yet a little while. And during the weeks that
+followed, it was I scarce know whether more pitiable or more amusing
+to see the efforts that Giovanni made to win her ardently desired
+affection.
+
+Love has sharp eyes at times, and a dullard under the influence of the
+baby god will turn shrewd and exert rare wiles in the conduct of his
+wooing. Giovanni, by some intuition usually foreign to his dull nature,
+seemed to divine what manner of man would be Madonna Paola's ideal, and
+strove to pass himself off as possessed of the attributes of that ideal,
+with an ardour that was pitiably comical. He became an actor by the side
+of whom those comedians that played impromptus for his delectation were
+the merest bunglers with the art. He gathered that Madonna Paola loved
+the poets and their stately diction, and so, to please her better, he
+became a poet for the season.
+
+"Poeta nascitur" the proverb runs, and that proverb's truth was
+doubtless forced home upon the Lord Giovanni at an early stage of his
+excursions into the flowery meads of prosody. Fortunately he lacked the
+supreme vanity that is the attribute of most poetasters, and he was able
+to see that such things as after hours of midnight-labour he contrived
+to pen, would evoke nothing but her amusement--unless, indeed, it were
+her scorn--and render him the laughing-stock of all his Court.
+
+So, in the wisdom of despair, he came to me, and with a gentleness that
+in the past he had rarely manifested for me, he asked me was I skilled
+in writing verse. There were not wanting others to whom he might have
+gone, for there was no lack of rhymsters about his Court; but perhaps he
+thought he could be more certain of my silence than of theirs.
+
+I answered him that were the subject to my taste, I might succeed in
+throwing off some passable lines upon it. He pressed gold upon me, and
+bade me there and then set about fashioning an ode to Madonna Paola, and
+to forget, when they were done, under pain of a whipping to the bone,
+that I had written them.
+
+I obeyed him with a right good-will. For what subject of all subjects
+possible was there that made so powerful an appeal to my inclinations?
+Within an hour he had the ode--not perhaps such a poem as might stand
+comparison with the verses of Messer Petrarca, yet a very passable
+effusion, chaste of conceit and palpitating with sincerity and
+adoration. It was in that that I addressed her as the "Holy Flower of
+the Quince," which was the symbol of the House of Santafior.
+
+So great an impression made that ode that on the morrow the Lord
+Giovanni came to me with a second bribe and a second threat of torture.
+I gave him a sonnet of Petrarchian manner which went near to outshining
+the merits of the ode. And now, these requests of the Lord Giovanni's
+assumed an almost daily regularity, until it came to seem that did
+affairs continue in this manner for yet a little while, I should have
+earned me enough to have repurchased Biancomonte, and, so, ended my
+troubles. And good was the value that I gave him for his gold. How good,
+he never knew; for how was he, the clod, to guess that this despised
+jester of his Court was pouring out his very soul into the lines he
+wrote to the tyrant's orders?
+
+It is scant wonder that, at last, Madonna Paola who had begun by
+smiling, was touched and moved by the ardent worship that sighed from
+those perfervid verses. So touched, indeed, was she as to believe the
+Lord Giovanni's love to be the pure and holy thing those lines presented
+it, and to conclude that his love had wrought in him a wondrous and
+ennobling transformation. That so she thought I have the best of all
+reasons to affirm, for I had it from her very lips one day.
+
+"Lazzaro," she sighed, "it is occurring to me that I have done the Lord
+Giovanni an injustice. I have misgauged his character. I held him to
+be a shallow, unlettered clown, devoid of any finer feelings. Yet his
+verses have a merit that is far above the common note of these writings,
+and they breathe such fine and lofty sentiments as could never spring
+from any but a fine and lofty soul."
+
+How I came to keep my tongue from wagging out the truth I scarcely know.
+It may be that I was frightened of the punishment that might overtake
+me did I betray my master; but I rather think that it was the fear of
+betraying myself, and so being flung into the outer darkness where there
+was no such radiant presence as Madonna Paola's. For had I told her it
+was I had penned those poems that were the marvel of the Court, she must
+of necessity have guessed my secret, for to such quick wits as hers it
+must have been plain at once that they were no vapourings of artistry,
+but the hot expressions of a burning truth. It was in that--in their
+supreme sincerity--that their chief virtue lay.
+
+Thus weeks wore on. The vintage season came and went; the roses faded
+in the gardens of the Palazzo Sforza, and the trees put on their autumn
+garb of gold. October was upon us, and with it came, at last, the fear
+that long ago should have spurred us into activity. And now that it
+came it did not come to stimulate, but to palsy. Terror-stricken at the
+conquering advance of Valentino--which was the name they now gave Cesare
+Borgia; a name derived from his Duchy of Valentinois--Giovanni Sforza
+abruptly ceased his revelling, and made a hurried appeal for help to
+Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua--his brother-in-law, through the
+Lord of Pesaro's first marriage. The Mantuan Marquis sent him a hundred
+mercenaries under the command of an Albanian named Giacomo. As well
+might he have sent him a hundred figs wherewith to pelt the army of
+Valentino!
+
+Disaster swooped down swiftly upon the Lord of Pesaro. His very people,
+seeing in what case they were, and how unprepared was their tyrant to
+defend them, wisely resolved that they would run no risks of fire and
+pillage by aiding to oppose the irresistible force that was being hurled
+against us.
+
+It was on the second Sunday in October that the storm burst over the
+Lord Giovanni's head. He was on the point of leaving the Castle to
+attend Mass at San Domenico, and in his company were Filippo Sforza of
+Santafior and Madonna Paola, besides courtiers and attendants, amounting
+in all to perhaps a score of gallant cavaliers and ladies. The cavalcade
+was drawn up in the quadrangle, and Giovanni was on the point of
+mounting, when, of a sudden, a rumbling noise, as of distant thunder,
+but too continuous for that, arrested him, his foot already in the
+stirrup.
+
+"What is that?" he asked, an ashen pallor overspreading his effeminate
+face, as, doubtless, the thought of the enemy came uppermost in his
+mind.
+
+Men looked at one another with fear in their eyes and some of the ladies
+raised their voices in querulous beseeching for reassurance. They had
+their answer even as they asked. The Albanian Giacomo, who was now
+virtually the provost of the Castle, appeared suddenly at the gates with
+half a score of men. He raised a warning hand, which compelled the Lord
+Giovanni to pause; then he rasped out a brisk command to his followers.
+The winches creaked, and the drawbridge swung up even as with a clank
+and rattle of chains the portcullis fell.
+
+That done, he came forward to impart the ominous news which one of his
+riders had brought him at the gallop from the Porta Romana.
+
+A party of some fifty men, commanded by one of Cesare's captains, had
+ridden on in advance of the main army to call upon Pesaro to yield
+to the forces of the Church. And the people, without hesitation, had
+butchered the guard and thrown wide the gates, inviting the enemy to
+enter the town and seize the Castle. And to the end that this might be
+the better achieved, a hundred or so had traitorously taken up arms, and
+were pressing forward to support the little company that came, with
+such contemptuous daring, to storm our fortress and prepare the way for
+Valentino.
+
+It was a pretty situation this for the Lord Giovanni, and here were fine
+opportunities for some brave acting under the eyes of his adored Madonna
+Paola. How would he bear himself now? I wondered.
+
+He promised mighty well once the first shock of the news was overcome.
+
+"By God and His saints!" he roared, "though it may be all that it is
+given me to do, I'll strike a blow to punish these dastards who have
+betrayed me, and to crush the presumption of this captain who attacks us
+with fifty men. It is a contempt which he shall bitterly repent him."
+
+Then he thundered to Giacomo to marshal his men, and he called upon
+those of his courtiers who were knights to put on their armour that they
+might support him. Lastly he bade a page go help him to arm, that he
+might lead his little force in person.
+
+I saw Madonna Paola's eyes gleam with a sudden light of admiration,
+and I guessed that in the matter of Giovanni's valour her opinions were
+undergoing the same change as the verses had caused them to undergo in
+the matter of his intellect.
+
+Myself, I was amazed. For here was a Lord Giovanni I seemed never to
+have known, and I was eager to behold the sequel to so fine a prologue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+
+That valorous bearing that the Lord Giovanni showed whilst, with Madonna
+Paola's glance upon him, his fear of seeming afraid was greater than his
+actual fear of our assailants, he cast aside like a mantle once he was
+within the walls of his Castle, and under the eyes of none save the page
+and myself, for I followed idly at a respectful distance.
+
+He stood irresolute and livid of countenance, his eagerness to arm and
+to lead his mercenaries and his knights all departed out of him. It was
+that curiosity of mine to see the sequel to his stout words that had led
+me to follow him, and what I saw was, after all, no more than I might
+have looked for--the proof that his big talk of sallying forth to battle
+was but so much acting. Yet it must have been acting of such a quality
+as to have deceived even his very self.
+
+Now, however, by the main steps, he halted in the cool gloom of the
+gallery, and I saw that fear had caught his heart in an icy grip and was
+squeezing it empty. In his irresolution he turned about, and his gloomy
+eye fell upon me loitering in the porch. At that he turned to the page
+who followed in obedience to his command.
+
+"Begone!" he growled at the lad, "I will have Boccadoro, there, to help
+me arm." And with a poor attempt at mirth--"The act is a madness," he
+muttered, "and so it is fitting that folly should put on my armour for
+it. Come with me, you," he bade me, and I, obediently, gladly, went
+forward and up the wide stone staircase after him, leaving the page to
+speculate as he listed on the matter of his abrupt dismissal.
+
+I read the Lord Giovanni's motives, as clearly as if they had been
+written for me by his own hand. The opinion in which I might hold him
+was to him a matter of so small account that he little cared that I
+should be the witness of the weakness which he feared was about to
+overcome him--nay, which had overcome him already. Was I not the one man
+in Pesaro who already knew his true nature, as revealed by that matter
+of the verses which I had written, and of which he had assumed the
+authorship? He had no shame before me, for I already knew the very
+worst of him, and he was confident that I would not talk lest he should
+destroy me at my first word. And yet, there was more than that in his
+motive for choosing me to go with him in that hour, as I was to learn
+once we were closeted in his chamber.
+
+"Boccadoro," he cried, "can you not find me some way out of this?" Under
+his beard I saw the quiver of his lips as he put the question.
+
+"Out of this?" I echoed, scarce understanding him at first.
+
+"Aye, man--out of this Castle, out of Pesaro. Bestir those wits of
+yours. Is there no way in which it might be done, no disguise under
+which I might escape?"
+
+"Escape?" quoth I, looking at him, and endeavouring to keep from my
+eyes the contempt that was in my heart. Dear God! Had revenge been all I
+sought of him, how I might have gloated over his miserable downfall!
+
+"Do not stand there staring with those hollow eyes," he cried, anger
+and fear blending horridly in his voice and rendering shrill its pitch.
+"Find me a way. Come, knave, find me a way, or I'll have you broken on
+the wheel. Set your wits to save that long, lean body from destruction.
+Think, I bid you."
+
+He was moving restlessly as he spoke, swayed by the agitation of terror
+that possessed him like a devil. I looked at him now without dissembling
+my scorn. Even in such an hour as this the habit of hectoring cruelty
+remained him.
+
+"What shall it avail me to think?" I asked him in a voice that was as
+cold and steady as his was hot and quavering. "Were you a bird I might
+suggest flight across the sea to you. But you are a man, a very human, a
+very mortal man, although your father made you Lord of Pesaro."
+
+Even as I was speaking, the thunder of the besiegers reached our
+ears--such a dull roar it was as that of a stormy sea in winter time.
+Maddened by his terror he stood over me now, his eyes flashing wildly in
+his white face.
+
+"Another word in such a tone," he rasped, his fingers on his dagger,
+"and I'll make an end of you. I need your help, animal!"
+
+I shook my head, my glance meeting his without fear. I was of twice his
+strength, we were alone, and the hour was one that levelled ranks. Had
+he made the least attempt to carry out his threat, had he but drawn an
+inch of the steel he fingered, I think I should have slain him with my
+hands without fear or thought of consequences.
+
+"I have no help for you such as you need," I answered him. "I am but the
+Fool of Pesaro. Whoever looked to a Fool for miracles?"
+
+"But here is death," he almost moaned.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro," I reminded him, "your mercenaries are under arms
+by your command, and your knights are joining them. They wait for the
+fulfilment of your promise to lead them out against the enemy. Shall you
+fail them in such an hour as this?"
+
+He sank, limp as an empty scabbard, to a chair.
+
+"I dare not go. It is death," he answered miserably.
+
+"And what but death is it to remain here?" I asked, torturing him with
+more zest than ever he had experienced over the agonies of some poor
+victim on the rack. "In bearing yourself gallantly there lies a slender
+chance for you. Your people seeing you in arms and ready to defend them
+may yet be moved to a return of loyalty."
+
+"A fig for their loyalty," was his peevish, craven answer. "What shall
+it avail me when I'm slain!"
+
+God! was there ever such a coward as this, such a weak-souled,
+water-hearted dastard?
+
+"But you may not be slain," I urged him. And then I sounded a fresh
+note. "Bethink you of Madonna Paola and of the brave things you promised
+her."
+
+He flushed a little, then paled again, then sat very still. Shame had
+touched him at last, yet its grip was not enough to make a man of him.
+A moment he remained irresolute, whilst that shame fought a hard battle
+with his fears.
+
+But those fears proved stronger in the end, and his shame was overthrown
+by them.
+
+"I dare not," he gasped, his slender, delicate hands clutching at the
+arms of his chair. "Heaven knows I am not skilled in the use of arms."
+
+"It asks no skill," I assured him. "Put on your armour, take a sword and
+lay about you. The most ignorant scullion in your kitchens could perform
+it given that he had the spirit."
+
+He moistened his lips with his tongue, and his eyes looked dead as a
+snake's. Suddenly he rose and took a step towards the armour that was
+piled about a great leathern chair. Then he paused and turned to me once
+more.
+
+"Help me to put it on," he said in a voice that he strove to
+render steady. Yet scarcely had I reached the pile and taken up the
+breast-plate, when he recoiled again from the task. He broke into a
+torrent of blasphemy.
+
+"I will not sacrifice myself," he almost screamed. "Jesus! not I. I will
+find a way out of this. I will live to return with an army and regain my
+throne."
+
+"A most wise purpose. But, meanwhile, your men are waiting for you;
+Madonna Paola di Santafior is waiting for you, and--hark!--the bellowing
+crowd is waiting for you."
+
+"They wait in vain," he snarled. "Who cares for them? The Lord of Pesaro
+am I."
+
+"Care you, then, nothing for them? Will you have your name written in
+history as that of a coward who would not lift his sword to strike one
+blow for honour's sake ere he was driven out like a beast by the mere
+sound of voices?"
+
+That touched him. His vanity rose in arms.
+
+"Take up that corselet," he commanded hoarsely. I did his bidding, and,
+without a word, he raised his arms that I might fit it to his breast.
+Yet in the instant that I turned me to pick up the back-piece, a crash
+resounded through the chamber. He had hurled the breastplate to the
+ground in a fresh access of terror-rage. He strode towards me, his eyes
+glittering like a madman's.
+
+"Go you!" he cried, and with outstretched arms he pointed wildly across
+the courtyard. "You are very ready with your counsels. Let me behold
+your deeds, Do you put on the armour and go out to fight those animals."
+
+He raved, he ranted, he scarce knew what he said or did, and yet the
+words he uttered sank deep into my heart, and a sudden, wild ambition
+swelled my bosom.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro," I cried, in a voice so compelling that it sobered him,
+"if I do this thing what shall be my reward?"
+
+He stared at me stupidly for a moment. Then he laughed in a silly,
+crackling fashion.
+
+"Eh?" he queried. "Gesu!" And he passed a hand over his damp brow, and
+threw back the hair that cumbered it. "What is the thing that you would
+do, Fool?"
+
+"Why, the thing you bade me," I answered firmly. "Put on your armour,
+and shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord Giovanni,
+Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides. If I do this thing, and put to rout the
+rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my
+reward?"
+
+He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint
+colour kindling in his face. He saw how easy the thing might be. Perhaps
+he recalled that he had heard that I was skilled in arms--having spent
+my youth in the exercise of them, against the time when I might fling
+the challenge that had brought me to my Fool's estate. Maybe he recalled
+how I had borne myself against long odds on that adventure with Madonna
+Paola, years ago. Just such a vanity as had spurred him to have me write
+him verses that he might pretend were of his own making, moved him now
+to grasp at my proposal. They would all think that Giovanni's armour
+contained Giovanni himself. None would ever suspect Boccadoro the Fool
+within that shell of steel. His honour would be vindicated, and he would
+not lose the esteem of Madonna Paola. Indeed, if I returned covered with
+glory, that glory would be his; and if he elected to fly thereafter,
+he might do so without hurt to his fair name, for he would have amply
+proved his mettle and his courage.
+
+In some such fashion I doubt not that the High and Mighty Giovanni
+Sforza reasoned during the seconds that we stood, face to face and
+eye to eye, in that room, the cries of the impatient ones below almost
+drowned in the roar of the multitude beyond.
+
+At last he put out his hands to seize mine, and drawing me to the light
+he scanned my face, Heaven alone knowing what it was he sought there.
+
+"If you do this," said he, "Biancomonte shall be yours again, if it
+remains in my power to bestow it upon you now or at any future time. I
+swear it by my honour."
+
+"Swear it by your fear of Hell or by your hope of Heaven and the compact
+is made," I answered, and so palsied was he and so fallen in spirit that
+he showed no resentment at the scorn of his honour my words implied, but
+there and then took the oath I that demanded.
+
+"And now," I urged, "help me to put on this armour of yours."
+
+Hurriedly I cast off my jester's doublet and my head-dress with its
+jangling bells, and with a wild exultation, a joy so fierce as almost
+to bring tears to my eyes, I held my arms aloft whilst that poor craven
+strapped about my body the back and breast plates of his corselet. I,
+the Fool, stood there as arrogant as any knight, whilst with his noble
+hands the Lord of Pesaro, kneeling, made secure the greaves upon
+my legs, the sollerets with golden spurs, the cuissarts and the
+genouilleres. Then he rose up, and with hands that trembled in his
+eagerness, he put on my brassarts and shoulder-plates, whilst I, myself,
+drew on my gauntlets. Next he adjusted the gorget, and handed me, last
+of all, the helm, a splendid head-piece of black and gold, surmounted by
+the Sforza lion.
+
+I took it from him and passed it over my head. Then ere I snapped down
+the visor and hid the face of Boccadoro, I bade him, unless he would
+render futile all this masquerade, to lock the door of his closet, and
+lie there concealed till my return. At that a sudden doubt assailed him.
+
+"And what," quoth he, "if you do not return?"
+
+In the fever that had possessed me this was a thing that had not entered
+into my calculations, nor should it now. I laughed, and from the hollow
+of my helmet not a doubt but the sound must have seemed charged with
+mockery. I pointed to the cap and doublet I had shed.
+
+"Why, then, Illustrious, it will but remain for you to complete the
+change."
+
+"Dog!" he cried; "beast, do you deride me?"
+
+My answer was to point out towards the yard.
+
+"They are clamouring," said I. "They wax impatient. I had better go
+before they come for you." As I spoke I selected a heavy mace for only
+weapon, and swinging it to my shoulder I stepped to the door. On the
+threshold he would have stayed me, purged by his fear of what might
+befall him did I not return. But I heeded him not.
+
+"Fare you well, my Lord of Pesaro," said I. "See that none penetrates to
+your closet. Make fast the door."
+
+"Stay!" he called after me. "Do you hear me? Stay!"
+
+"Others will hear you if you commit this folly," I called back to him.
+"Get you to cover." And so I left him.
+
+Below, in the courtyard, my coming was hailed by a great, enthusiastic
+clamour. They had all but abandoned hope of seeing the Lord Giovanni, so
+long had he been about his arming. As they brought forward my charger, I
+sought with my eyes Madonna Paola. I beheld her by her brother--who, it
+seemed, was not going with us--in the front rank of the spectators.
+Her cheeks were tinged with a slight flush of excitement, and her eyes
+glowed at the brave sight of armed men.
+
+I mounted, and as I rode past her to take my place at the head of that
+company, I lowered my mace and bowed. She detained me a moment, setting
+her hand upon the glossy neck of my black charger.
+
+"My Lord," she said, in a low voice, intended for my ear alone, "this is
+a brave and gallant thing you do, and however slight may be your hope
+of prevailing, yet your honour will be safe-guarded by this act, and
+men will remember you with respect should it come to pass that a usurper
+shall possess anon your throne. Bear you that in mind to lend you a glad
+courage. I shall pray for you, my Lord, till you return."
+
+I bowed, answering never a word lest my voice should betray me; and
+musing on the matter of the strange roads that lead to a woman's heart,
+I passed on, to gain the van.
+
+Two months ago, knowing Giovanni as he was, he had been detestable to
+her, and she contemplated with loathing the danger in which she stood
+of being allied to him by marriage. Since then he had made good use of a
+poor jester's mental gifts to incline her by the fervour of some verses
+to a kindlier frame of mind, and now, making good use of that same
+jester's courage, he completed her subjection by the display of it.
+She was prepared to wed the Lord Giovanni with a glad heart and a proud
+willingness whensoever he should desire it.
+
+But Giacomo was beside me now, and in the quadrangle a silence reigned,
+all waiting for my command. From without there came such a din as seemed
+to argue that all hell was at the Castle gates. There were shouts of
+defiance and screams of abuse, whilst a constant rain of stones beat
+against the raised drawbridge.
+
+They thought, no doubt, that Giovanni and his followers were at their
+prayers, cowering with terror. No notion had they of the armed force,
+some six score strong, that waited to pour down upon them. I briskly
+issued my command, and four men detached themselves and let down the
+bridge. It fell with a crash, and ere those without had well grasped the
+situation we had hurled ourselves across and into them with the force of
+a wedge, flinging them to right and to left as we crashed through with
+hideous slaughter. The bridge swung up again when the last of Giacomo's
+mercenaries was across, and we were shut out, in the midst of that
+fierce human maelstrom.
+
+For some five minutes there raged such a brief, hot fight as will be
+remembered as long as Pesaro stands. No longer than that did it take for
+the crowd of citizens to realise that war was not their trade, and that
+they had better leave the fighting to Cesare Borgia's men; and so they
+fell away and left us a clear road to come at the men-at-arms. But
+already some forty of our saddles were empty, and the fight, though
+brief, had proved exhausting to many of us.
+
+Before us, like an array of mirrors in the October sun, shone the
+serried ranks of the steel-cased Borgia soldiers, their lances in rest,
+waiting to receive us. Their leader, a gigantic man whose head was armed
+by no more than a pot of burnished steel, from which escaped the
+long red ringlets of his hair, was that same Ramiro del' Orca who had
+commanded the party pursuing Madonna Paola three years ago. He was,
+since, become the most redoubtable of Cesare's captains, and his name
+was, perhaps, the best hated in Italy for the grim stories that were
+connected with it.
+
+As we rode on he backed to join the foremost rank of his soldiers, and
+his voice--a voice that Stentor might have envied--trumpeted a laugh at
+sight of us.
+
+"Gesu!" he roared, so that I heard him above the thunder of our hoofs.
+"What has come to Giovanni Sforza. Has he, perchance, become a man since
+Madonna Lucrezia divorced him? I will bear her the news of it, my good
+Giovanni--my living thunderbolt of Jove!"
+
+His men echoed his boisterous mood, infected by it, and this, I argued,
+boded ill for the courage of those that followed me. Another moment and
+we had swept into them, and many there were who laughed no more, or went
+to laugh with those in Hell.
+
+For myself I singled out the blustering Ramiro, and I let him know it
+by a swinging blow of my mace upon his morion. It was a most
+finely-tempered piece of steel, for my stroke made no impression on
+it, though Ramiro winced and raised his stout sword to return the
+compliment.
+
+"Body of God!" he croaked, "you become a very god of war, Giovanni. To
+me, then, my lusty Mars! We'll make a fight of it that poets shall sing
+of over winter fires. Look to yourself!"
+
+His sword caught me a cunning, well-aimed blow on the side of my helm,
+and thence, glanced to my shoulder. But for the quality of Giovanni's
+head-piece of a truth there had been an end to the warring of a Fool.
+I smote him back, a mighty blow upon his epauliere that shore the steel
+plate from his shoulder, and left him a vulnerable spot. At that he
+swore ferociously, and his bloodshot eyes grew wicked as the fiend's. A
+second time he essayed that side-long blow upon my helm, and with such
+force and ready address that he burst the fastening of my visor on the
+left, so that it swung down and left my beaver open.
+
+With a cry of triumph he closed with me, and shortened his sword to stab
+me in the face. And then a second cry escaped him, for the countenance
+he beheld was not the countenance he had looked to see. Instead of
+the fair skin, the handsome features and the bearded mouth of the
+Lord Giovanni, he beheld a shaven face, a hooked nose and a complexion
+swarthy as the devil's.
+
+"I know you, rogue," he roared. "By the Host! your valour seemed too
+fierce for Giovanni Sforza. You are Bocca--"
+
+Exerting all the strength that I had been gradually collecting, I hurled
+him back with a force that almost drove him from the saddle, and rising
+in my stirrups I rained blow after blow upon his morion ere he could
+recover.
+
+"Dog!" I muttered softly, "your knowledge shall be the death of you."
+
+He drew away from me at last, and during the moments that I spent in
+readjusting my visor he sallied, and charged me again. His blustering
+was gone and his face grown pale, for such blows as mine could not have
+been without effect. Not a doubt of it but he was taken with amazement
+to find such fighting qualities in a Fool--an amazement that must
+have eclipsed even that of finding Boccadoro in the armour of Giovanni
+Sforza.
+
+Again he swung his sword in that favourite stroke of his; but this time
+I caught the edge upon my mace, and ere he could recover I aimed a blow
+straight at his face. He lowered his head, like a bull on the point of
+charging, and so my blow descended again upon his morion, but with a
+force that rolled him, senseless, from the saddle.
+
+Before I could take a breathing space I was beset by, at least, a dozen
+of his followers who had stood at hand during the encounter, never
+doubting that victory must be ultimately with their invincible captain.
+They drove me back foot by foot, fighting lustily, and performing--it
+was said afterwards by the anxious ones that watched us from the Castle,
+among whom was Madonna Paola--such deeds of strength and prowess as
+never romancer sang of in his wildest flight of fancy.
+
+My men had suffered sorely, but the brave Giacomo still held them
+together, fired by the example that I set him, until in the end the day
+was ours. Discouraged by the disabling of their captain, so soon as they
+had gathered him up our opponents thought of nothing but retreat; and
+retreat they did, hotly pursued by us, and never allowed to pause or
+slacken rein until we had hurled them out of the town of Pesaro, to
+get them back to Cesare Borgia with the tale of their ignominious
+discomfiture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+As we rode back through the town of Pesaro, some fifty men of the six
+score that had sallied from the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the
+streets well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citizens having fled back to
+the shelter of their homes, like rats to their burrows in time of peril.
+
+As we advanced through the shambles that we had left about the Castle
+gates, it occurred to me that within the courtyard a crowd would be
+waiting to receive and welcome me, and it became necessary to devise
+some means of avoiding this reception. I beckoned Giacomo to my side.
+
+"Let it be given out that I will speak to no man until I have
+rendered thanks to Heaven for this signal victory," I muttered to the
+unsuspecting Albanian. "Do you clear a way for me so soon a we are
+within."
+
+He obeyed me so well that when the bridge had been let down, he preceded
+me with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those
+that would have approached--among the first of whom were Madonna Paola
+and her brother.
+
+"Way!" he shouted. "Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of Pesaro!"
+
+Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed still
+to conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the eastern
+wing and dismounted. Two or three attendants sprang forward, ready to
+go with me that they might assist me to disarm. But I waved them
+imperiously back, and mounted the stairs alone. Alone I crossed the
+ante-chamber, and tapped at the door of the Lord Giovanni's closet.
+Instantly it opened, for he had watched my return and been awaiting me.
+Hastily he drew me in and closed the door.
+
+He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf. Yet at the
+sight that I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to
+stare at my armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning stains,
+which loudly proclaimed the fray through which I had been.
+
+He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had
+rendered him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me,
+all in terms of a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more than
+ever his cruelties had done. I took off my helmet whilst he spoke, and
+let it fall with a crash. The face I revealed to him was livid with
+fatigue, and blackened with the dust that had caked upon my sweat. He
+came forward again and helped hastily to strip off my harness, and when
+that was done he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer of embossed
+gold from which he poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash.
+Macerated sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better
+that I might cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by
+my ablutions, he poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that
+seemed to infuse fresh life into my veins. And all the time he spoke
+of the prowess I had shown, and lamented that all these years he should
+have had me at his Court and never guessed my worth.
+
+At length I turned to resume my clothes. And since it must excite
+comment and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my
+jester's garish livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap and
+bells.
+
+"Wear it yet for a little while," he said, "and thus complete the
+service you have done me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and
+resume your true estate. Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours
+again. The Lord of Pesaro does not betray his word."
+
+I smiled grimly at the pride of his utterance.
+
+"It is an easy thing," said I, "freely to give that which is no longer
+ours."
+
+He coloured with the anger that was ever ready.
+
+"What shall that mean?" he asked.
+
+"Why, that in a few days you will have Cesare Borgia here, and you will
+be Lord of Pesaro no more. I have saved your honour for you. More than
+that it were idle to attempt."
+
+"Think not that I shall submit," he cried. "I shall find in Italy the
+help I need to return and drive the usurper out. You must have faith in
+that, yourself, else had you never bargained with me as you have done
+for the return of your Estates."
+
+To that I answered nothing, but urged him to go below and show himself;
+and the better that he might bear himself among his courtiers, I
+detailed to him the most salient features of that fight.
+
+He went, not without a certain uneasiness which, however, was soon
+dispelled by the thunder of acclamation with which he was received; not
+only by his courtiers, but by the soldiers who had fought in that hot
+skirmish, and who believed that it was he had led them.
+
+Meanwhile I sat above, in the closet he had vacated, and thence I
+watched him, with such mingling feelings in my heart as baffle now my
+halting pen. Scorn there was in my mood and a hot contempt of him
+that he could stand there and accept their acclamation with an air of
+humility that I am persuaded was assumed: a certain envious anger was
+there, too, to think that such a weak-kneed, lily-livered craven should
+receive the plaudits of the deeds that I, his buffoon, had performed for
+him. Those acclamations were not for him, although those who acclaimed
+him thought so. They were for the man who had routed Ramiro del' Orca
+and his followers, and that man assuredly was I. Yet there I crouched
+above, behind the velvet curtains where none might see me, whilst he
+stood smiling and toying with his brown beard and listening to the fine
+words of praise that, I could imagine, were falling from the lips of
+Madonna Paola, who had drawn near and was speaking to him.
+
+There is in my nature a certain love of effectiveness, a certain taste
+for theatrical parade and the contriving of odd situations. This bent of
+mine was whispering to me then to throw wide the window, and, stemming
+their noisy plaudits, announce to them the truth of what had passed. Yet
+what if I had done so? They would have accounted it but a new jest of
+Boccadoro, the Fool, and one so ill-conceived that they might urge the
+Lord Giovanni to have him whipped for it.
+
+Aye, it would have been a folly, a futile act that would have earned me
+unbelief, contempt and anger. And yet there was a moment when jealousy
+urged me almost headlong to that rashness. For in Madonna Paola's
+eyes there was a new expression as they rested on the face of Giovanni
+Sforza--an expression that told me she had come to love this man whom a
+little while ago she had despised.
+
+God! was there ever such an irony? Was there ever such a paradox? She
+loved him, and yet it was not him she loved. The man she loved was the
+man who had shown the qualities of his mind in the verses with which the
+Court was ringing; the man who had that morning given proof of his high
+mettle and knightly prowess by the deeds of arms he had performed. I was
+that man--not he at whom so adoringly she looked. And so--I argued, in
+my warped way and with the philosophy worthy of a Fool--it was I
+whom she loved, and Giovanni was but the symbol that stood for me. He
+represented the songs and the deeds that were mine.
+
+But if I did not throw wide that window and proclaim the fact to ears
+that would have been deaf to the truth of them, what think you that I
+did? I took a subtler vengeance. I repaired to my own chamber, procured
+me pen and ink, and, there, with a heart that was brimming over with
+gall, I penned an epic modelled upon the stately lines of Virgil,
+wherein I sang the prowess of the Lord Giovanni Sforza, describing that
+morning's mighty feat of arms, and detailing each particular of the
+combat 'twixt Giovanni and Ramiro del' Orca.
+
+It was a brave thing when it was done; a finer and worthier poetical
+achievement than any that I had yet encompassed, and that night, after
+they had supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been
+heard of, and whilst they were still sitting at their wine, I got me a
+lute and stole down to the banqueting hall.
+
+I announced myself by leaping on a table and loudly twanging the strings
+of my instrument. There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of acclamation.
+They were in a high good-humour, and the Fool with a new song was the
+very thing they craved.
+
+When silence was restored I began, and whilst my fingers moved
+sluggishly across the strings, striking here and there a chord,
+I recited the epic I had penned. My voice swelled with a feverish
+enthusiasm whose colossal irony none there save one could guess. He, at
+first surprised, grew angry presently, as I could see by the cloud that
+had settled on his brow. Yet he restrained himself, and the rest of
+the company were too enthralled by the breathless quality of my poem to
+bestow their glances on any countenance save mine.
+
+Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro's right, and her blue eyes
+were round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded. And when
+presently I came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro
+del' Orca, when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni's visor,
+was on the point of driving his sword into his adversary's face, I saw
+her shrink in a repetition of the morning's alarm, and her bosom heaved
+more swiftly, as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines
+and she were made anxious again for the life of the man whom she had
+learnt to love.
+
+I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling
+softly, after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety
+that had succeeded the Lord of Pesaro's brave exploits, and how upon his
+return from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his closet,
+his battered and bloody harness on his back, that he might kneel ere he
+disarmed and render thanks to God for the victory vouchsafed him.
+
+On that "Te Deum" I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
+vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my
+reward.
+
+Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the
+table on which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one
+noble woman kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth
+was indeed a mouth of gold.
+
+Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining
+with excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance,
+and I knew that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by
+causing her to realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure
+that I sang. The sight of it almost turned me faint, and I would have
+eluded them and got away as I had come but that they lifted me up and
+bore me so to the table at which the Lord Giovanni sat. He smiled, but
+his face was very pale. Could it be that I had touched him? Could it be
+that I had driven the iron into his soul, and that he could not bear to
+confront me, knowing what a dastard I must deem him?
+
+The splendid Filippo of Santafior had risen to his feet, and was waving
+a white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence. When at
+last it came he spoke, his voice silvery and his accents mincing.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro; I demand a boon. He who for years has suffered the
+ignominy of the motley is at last revealed to us as a poet of such
+magnitude of soul and richness of expression that he would not suffer
+by comparison with the great Bojardo or tim greater Virgil. Let him be
+stripped for ever of that hideous garb he wears, and let him be treated,
+hereafter, with the dignity his high gifts deserve. Thus shall the day
+come when Pesaro will take honour in calling him her son."
+
+Loud and long was the applause that succeeded his words, and when at
+last it had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved equal to the occasion,
+like the consummate actor that he was.
+
+"I would," said he, "that these high gifts, of which to-night he has
+afforded proof, could have been employed upon a worthier subject. I fear
+me that since you have heard his epic you will be prone to overestimate
+the deed of which it tells the story. I would, too, my friends," he
+continued, with a sigh, "that it were still mine to offer him such
+encouragement as he deserves. But I am sorely afraid that my days in
+Pesaro are numbered, that my sands are all but run--at least, for a
+little while. The conqueror is at our gates, and it would be vain to
+set against the overwhelming force of his numbers the handful of
+valiant knights and brave soldiers that to-day opposed and scattered his
+forerunners. It is my intention to withdraw, now that my honour is safe
+by what has passed, and that none will dare to say that it was through
+fear that I fled. Yet my absence, I trust, may be but brief. I go to
+collect the necessary resources, for I have powerful friends in this
+Italy whose interests touching the Duca Valentino go hand in hand with
+mine, and who will, thus, be the readier to lend me assistance. Once I
+have this, I shall return and then--woe to the vanquished!"
+
+The tide of enthusiasm that had been rising as he spoke, now overflowed.
+Swords leapt from their scabbards--mere toy weapons were they, meant
+more for ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest of the stouter
+arms those gentlemen were ready to wield when the time came. He quieted
+their clamours with a dignified wave of the hand.
+
+"When that day comes I shall see to it that Boccadoro has his deserts.
+Meanwhile let the suggestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon, and
+let this gifted poet be arrayed in a manner that shall sort better with
+the nobility of his mind that to-night he has revealed to us."
+
+Thus was it that I came, at last, to shed the motley and move among men
+garbed as themselves. And with my outward trappings I cast off, too,
+the name of Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte.
+
+But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon
+which I was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that
+followed that first Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the Lord
+Giovanni's Court passed out of being.
+
+It came about with his flight to Bologna, accompanied by the Albanian
+captain and his men, as well as by several of the knights who had joined
+in Sunday's fray. Ardently, as I came afterwards to learn, did he urge
+Madonna Paola and her brother to go with them, and I believe that the
+lady would have done his will in this had not the Lord Filippo opposed
+the step. He was no warrior himself, he swore--for it was a thing he
+made open boast of, affecting to despise all who followed the coarse
+trade of arms--and, as for his sister, it was not fitting that she
+should go with a fugitive party made up of a handful of knights and some
+fifty rough mercenaries, and be exposed to the hardships and perils
+that must be theirs. Not even when he was reminded that the advancing
+conqueror was Cesare Borgia did it affect him, for despite his shallow,
+mincing ways, and his paraded scorn of war and warriors, the Lord
+Filippo was stout enough at heart. He did not fear the Borgia, he
+answered serenely, and if he came, he would offer him such hospitality
+as lay within his power.
+
+He came at last, did the mighty Cesare, although between his coming and
+Giovanni's flight a full fortnight sped. As for myself, I spent the time
+at the Sforza Palace, whither the Lord Filippo had carried me as his
+guest, he being greatly taken with me and determined to become my
+patron. We had news of Giovanni, first from Bologna and later from
+Ravenna, whither he was fled. At first he talked of returning to Pesaro
+with three hundred men he hoped to have from the Marquis of Mantua. But
+probably this was no more than another piece of that big talk of his,
+meant to impress the sorrowing and repining Madonna Paola, who suffered
+more for him, maybe, than he suffered himself.
+
+She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his
+mental gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and
+for all that my gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this
+injustice to myself, I held my peace. Indeed, indeed, it was better
+so. For all that I was no longer Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, the poet, I was not so much better that I could indulge
+any mad aspirations of my own such as might have led me to betray the
+dastard who had arrayed his craven self in the peacock feathers of my
+achievements.
+
+In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me
+I made bold, on the eve of Cesare's arrival, to suggest to him that he
+should remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of
+Santa Caterina whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of
+her should remind Cesare of the old-time marriage plans which his family
+had centred round this lady, and lead to their revival. Filippo heard
+me kindly, and thanked me freely for the solicitude which my counsel
+argued. For the rest, however, it was a counsel that he frankly admitted
+he saw no need to follow.
+
+"In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained such
+plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the fortunes
+of the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable
+match for one of its members is now scarcely worthy of their attention.
+I do not think," he concluded, "that we have the least reason to fear a
+renewal of that suit."
+
+It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble
+motives in men's actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord
+Filippo would not be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to
+reopen negotiations for the bestowing of Madonna Paola's hand upon the
+Pope's nephew Ignacio. That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in the
+three years had taken place and which, he contended, would render
+them more ambitious than to seek alliance with the House of Santafior,
+rendered them, nevertheless, in his eyes a more desirable family to be
+allied with than in the days when he had counselled his sister's flight
+from Rome. And so, I thought, despite what stood between her and the
+Lord Giovanni, Filippo would know no scruple now in urging her into an
+alliance with the House of Borgia, should they manifest a willingness to
+have that old affair reopened.
+
+On the 29th of that same month of October, Cesare arrived in Pesaro. His
+entry was a triumphant procession, and the orderliness that prevailed
+among the two thousand men-at-arms that he brought with him was a thing
+that spoke eloquently for the wondrous discipline enforced by this great
+condottiero.
+
+The Lord Filippo was among those that met him, and like the time-server
+that he was, he placed the Sforza Palace at his disposal.
+
+The Duca Valentino came with his retinue and the gentlemen of his
+household, among whom was ever conspicuous by his great size and red
+ugliness the Captain Ramiro del' Orca, who now seemed to act in many
+ways as Cesare's factotum. This captain, for reasons which it is
+unnecessary to detail, I most sedulously avoided.
+
+On the evening of his arrival Cesare supped in private with Filippo and
+the members of Filippo's household--that is to say, with Madonna Paola
+and two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of
+the Lord Filippo. Cesare's only attendants were two cavaliers of his
+retinue, Bartolomeo da Capranica, his Field-Marshal, and Dorio Savelli,
+a nobleman of Rome.
+
+Cesare Borgia, this man whose name had so terrible a sound in the ears
+of Italy's little princelings, this man whose power and whose great
+gifts of mind had made him the subject of such bitter envy and fear,
+until he was the best-hated gentleman in Italy--and, therefore, the most
+calumniated--was little changed from that Cardinal of Valencia, in
+whose service I had been for a brief season. The pallor of his face was
+accentuated by the ill-health in which he found himself just then, and
+the air of feverish restlessness that had always pervaded him was grown
+more marked in the years that were sped, as was, after all, but natural,
+considering the nature of the work that had claimed him since he had
+deposed his priestly vestments. He was splendidly arrayed, and he bore
+himself with an imperial dignity, a dignity, nevertheless, tempered with
+graciousness and charm, and as I regarded him then, it was borne in upon
+me that no fitter name could his godfathers have bestowed on him than
+that of Cesare.
+
+The Lord Filippo exerted all his powers worthily to entertain his noble
+and illustrious guest, and by his extreme, almost servile affability it
+not only would seem that he had forgotten the favour and shelter he
+had received at the hands of the Lord Giovanni, but it confirmed my
+suspicions of his willingness to advance his own fortunes by breaking
+with the fallen tyrant in so far as his sister was concerned.
+
+Short of actually making the proposal itself, it would seem that Filippo
+did all in his power to urge his sister upon the attention of Cesare.
+But Duke Valentino's mind at that time was too full of the concerns of
+conquest and administration to find room for a matter to him so trifling
+as the enriching of his cousin Ignacio by a wealthy alliance. To this
+alone, I thought, was it due that Madonna Paola escaped the persecution
+that might then have been hers.
+
+On the morrow Cesare moved on to Rimini, leaving his administrators
+behind him to set right the affairs of Pesaro, and ensure its proper
+governing, in his name, hereafter.
+
+And now that, for the present, my hopes of ever seeing my own wrongs
+redressed and my estates returned to me were too slender to justify my
+remaining longer in Pesaro, I craved of the Lord Filippo permission to
+withdraw, telling him frankly that my tardily aroused duty called me to
+my widowed mother, whom for some six years I had not seen. He threw no
+difficulty in the way of my going; and I was free to depart. And now
+came the hidden pain of my leave-taking of Madonna Paola. She seemed to
+grieve at my departure.
+
+"Lazzaro," she cried, when I had told her of my intention, "do you, too,
+desert me? And I have ever held you my best of friends."
+
+I told her of the mother and of the duty that I owed her, whereupon she
+remonstrated no more, nor sought to do other than urge me to go to her.
+And then I spoke of Madonna's kindness to me, and of the friendship with
+which she had honoured one so lowly, and in the end I swore, with my
+hand on my heart and my soul on my lips, that if ever she had work for
+me, she would not need to call me twice.
+
+"This ring, Madonna," said I, "was given me by the Lord Cesare Borgia,
+and was to have proved a talisman to open wide for me the door to
+fortune. It did better service than that, Madonna. It was the talisman
+that saved you from your pursuers that day at Cagli, three years ago."
+
+"You remind me, Lazzaro," she cried, "of how much you have sacrificed
+in my service. Yours must be a very noble nature that will do so much to
+serve a helpless lady without any hope of guerdon."
+
+"Nay, nay," I answered lightly, "you must not make so much of it. It
+would never have sorted with my inclinations to have turned man-at-arms.
+This ring, Madonna, that once has served you, I beg that you will keep,
+for it may serve you again."
+
+"I could not, Lazzaro! I could not!" she exclaimed, recoiling, yet
+without any show of deeming presumptuous my words or of being offended
+by them.
+
+"If you would make me the reward that you say I have earned, you will
+do this for me. It will make me happier, Madonna. Take it"--I thrust it
+into her unwilling hand--"and if ever you should need me send it back to
+me. That ring and the name of the place where you abide by the lips of
+the messenger you choose, and with a glad heart, as fast as horse can
+bear me, shall I ride to serve you once again."
+
+"In such a spirit, yes," said she. "I take it willingly, to treasure it
+as a buckler against danger, since by means of it I can bring you to my
+aid in time of peril."
+
+"Madonna, do not overestimate my powers," I besought her. "I would have
+you see in me no more than I am. But it sometimes happens that the mouse
+may aid the lion."
+
+"And when I need the lion to aid the mouse, my good Lazzaro, I will send
+for you."
+
+There were tears in her voice, and her eyes were very bright.
+
+"Addio, Lazzaro," she murmured brokenly. "May God and His saints protect
+you. I will pray for you, and I shall hope to see you again some day, my
+friend."
+
+"Addio, Madonna!" was all that I could trust myself to say ere I fled
+from her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the
+sobs that were threatening to betray the anguish that was ravaging my
+soul.
+
+
+
+
+PART II. THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+CHAPTER XI. MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+
+However great the part that my mother--sainted woman that she was--may
+have played in my life, she nowise enters into the affairs of this
+chronicle, so that it would be an irrelevance and an impertinence to
+introduce her into these pages. Of the joy with which she welcomed me to
+the little home near Biancomonte, in which the earnings of Boccadoro the
+Fool had placed her, it could interest you but little to read in detail,
+nor could it interest you to know of the gentle patience with which
+she cheered and humoured me during the period that I sojourned there,
+tilling the little plot she owned, reaping and garnering like any born
+villano. With a woman's quick intuition she guessed perhaps the canker
+that was eating at my heart, and with a mother's blessed charity she
+sought to soothe and mitigate my pain.
+
+It was during this period of my existence that the poetic gifts I had
+discovered myself possessed of whilst at Pesaro, burst into full
+bloom; and not a little relief did I find in the penning of those
+love-songs--the true expression of what was in my heart--which have
+since been given to the world under the title of Le Rime di Boccadoro.
+And what time I tended my mother's land by day, and wrote by night of
+the feverish, despairing love that was consuming me, I waited for the
+call that, sooner or later, I knew must come. What prophetic instinct
+it was had rooted that certainty in my heart I do not pretend to say.
+Perhaps my hope was of such a strength that it assumed the form of
+certainty to solace the period of my hermitage. But that some day
+Madonna Paola's messenger would arrive bringing me the Borgia ring, I
+was as confident as that some day I must die.
+
+Two years went by, and we were in the Autumn of 1502, yet my faith
+knew no abating, my confidence was strong as ever. And, at last, that
+confidence was justified. One night of early October, as I sat at supper
+with my mother after the labours of the day, a sound of hoofs disturbed
+the peace of the silent night. It drew rapidly nearer, and long before
+the knock fell upon our door, I knew that it was the messenger from my
+lady.
+
+My mother looked at me across the board, an expression of alarm
+overspreading her old face. "Who," her eyes seemed to ask me, "was this
+horseman that rode so late?"
+
+My hound rose from the hearth with a growl, and stood bristling, his
+eyes upon the door. White-haired old Silvio, the last remaining retainer
+of the House of Biancomonte, came forth from the kitchen, with inquiry
+and fear blending on his wrinkled, weather-beaten countenance.
+
+And I, seeing all these signs of alarm, yet knowing what awaited me
+on the threshold, rose with a laugh, and in a bound had crossed the
+intervening space. I flung wide the door, and from the gloom without a
+man's voice greeted me with a question.
+
+"Is this the house of Messer Lazzaro Biancomonte?"
+
+"I am that Lazzaro Biancomonte," answered I. "What may your pleasure
+be?"
+
+The stranger advanced until he came within the light. He was plainly
+dressed, and wore a jerkin of leather and long boots. From his air I
+judged him a servant or a courier. He doffed his hat respectfully, and
+held out his right hand in which something was gleaming yellow. It was
+the Borgia ring.
+
+"Pesaro," was all he said.
+
+I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh himself
+ere he returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
+
+"I am not returning," the man informed me. "I am a courier riding to
+Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in passing."
+
+Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set
+before him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him
+to tell me what he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news
+there was of the Lord Giovanni. He had little enough to tell. Pesaro
+was flourishing and prospering under the Borgia dominion. Of the Lord
+Giovanni there was little news, saving that he was living under the
+protection of the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so long as he was content
+to abide there the Borgias seemed disposed to give him peace.
+
+Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and Madonna
+Paola. On this subject he was better informed. Madonna Paola was well
+and still lived with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro. The Lord
+Filippo was high in favour with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had been
+frequently his guest at Pesaro, whilst once, for a few days, the Lord
+Ignacio de Borgia had accompanied his illustrious cousin.
+
+I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her summons
+no longer asked conjecture. It was an easy thing for me, knowing what I
+knew, to fill in the details which the courier omitted in ignorance from
+the story.
+
+The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister
+upon the notice of the Borgia family--perhaps even approached Cesare--in
+such a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to
+Ignacio, who had, meanwhile, remained unmarried. I could read that
+opportunist's motives as easily as if he had written them down for my
+instruction. Giovanni Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I
+could imagine how he had plied his wits to aid his sister to forget
+him, or else to remember him no longer with affection. Whether he had
+succeeded or not I could not say until I had seen her; but meanwhile,
+deeming ripe the soil of her heart for the new attachment that should
+redound so much to his own credit--now that the House of Borgia had
+risen to such splendid heights--he was driving her into this alliance
+with Ignacio.
+
+Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out
+that same night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising
+to return as soon as might be. All night I rode, my soul now tortured
+with anxiety, now exalted at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which
+was so soon to be mine. I was at the gates of Pesaro before matins, and
+within the Palazzo Sforza ere its inmates had broken their fast.
+
+The Lord Filippo welcomed me with a certain effusion, chiding me for my
+long absence and the ingratitude it had seemed to indicate, and never
+dreaming by what summons I was brought back.
+
+"You are well-returned," he told me in conclusion. "We shall need you
+soon, to write an epithalamium."
+
+"You are to be wed, Magnificent?" quoth I at last, at which he laughed
+consumedly.
+
+"Nay, we shall need the song for my sister's nuptials. She is to wed the
+Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas."
+
+"A lofty theme," I answered with humility, "and one that may well demand
+resources nobler than those of my poor pen."
+
+"Then get you to work at once upon it. I will have your chamber
+prepared."
+
+He sent for his seneschal, a person--like most Of the servants at the
+Palace--strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be sumptuously
+lodged. He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity that
+seemed to surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had undergone
+such changes and been so enriched during the past two years as to go
+near defying recognition.
+
+When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for me,
+I made bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
+
+"She is in the garden, Illustrious," answered the seneschal, deeming
+me, no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had indicated
+should be shown me. "Madonna has the wisdom to seek the little sunshine
+the year still holds. Winter will be soon upon us."
+
+I agreed with the old man, and dismissed him. So soon as he was gone, I
+quitted my chamber, and all dust staineded as I was I made my way down
+to the garden. A turn in one of the boxwood-bordered alleys brought me
+suddenly face to face with Madonna Paola.
+
+A moment we stood looking at each other, my heart swelling within me
+until I thought that it must burst. Then I advanced a step and sank on
+one knee before her.
+
+"You sent for me, Madonna. I am here." There was a pause, and when
+presently I looked up into her blessed face I saw a smile of infinite
+sorrow on her lips, blending oddly with the gladness that shone from her
+sweet eyes.
+
+"You faithful one," she murmured at last. "Dear Lazzaro, I did not look
+for you so soon."
+
+"Within an hour of your messenger's arrival I was in the saddle, nor did
+I pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro. I am here to serve you
+to the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails me
+is that my power may be all too small for the service that you need."
+
+"Is its nature known to you?" she asked in wonder. Then, ere I had
+answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
+
+"I have guessed it," answered I, "guided by such scraps of information
+as from your messenger I gleaned. It concerns, unless I err, the Lord
+Ignacio Borgia."
+
+"Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness," she said, with a sad
+smile, "and I doubt me you know all."
+
+"The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me--that
+you are to be wed before Christmas. He has ordered me to write your
+epithalamium."
+
+She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by
+side, and, as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to
+make a carpet for our fret, she told me in her own way more or less
+what I have set down, even to her brother's self-seeking share in the
+transaction that she dubbed hideous and abhorrent.
+
+She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped. She
+was in her twenty-first year, but in reality she seemed to me no older
+than she had been on that day when first I saw her arguing with her
+grooms upon the road to Cagli. And from this I reassured myself that she
+had not been fretted overmuch by the absence of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+Presently she spoke of him and of her plighted word which her brother
+and those supple gentlemen of the House of Borgia were inducing her to
+dishonour.
+
+"Once before, in a case almost identical, when all seemed lost, you
+came--as if Heaven directed--to my rescue. This it is that gives me
+confidence in such aid as you might lend me now."
+
+"Alas! Madonna," I sighed, "but the times are sorely changed and the
+situations with them. What is there now that I can do?"
+
+"What you did then. Take me beyond their reach."
+
+"Ah! But whither?"
+
+"Whither but to the Lord Giovanni? Is it not to him that my troth is
+plighted?"
+
+I shook my head in sorrow, a thrust of jealousy cutting me the while.
+
+"That may not be," said I. "It were not seemly, unless the Lord Giovanni
+were here himself to take you hence."
+
+"Then I will write to the Lord Giovanni," she cried. "I will write, and
+you shall bear my letter."
+
+"What think you will the Lord Giovanni do?" I burst out, with a scorn
+that must have puzzled her. "Think you his safety does not give him care
+enough in the hiding-place to which he has crept, that he should draw
+upon himself the vengeance of the Borgias?"
+
+She stared at me in ineffable surprise. "But the Lord Giovanni is
+brave and valiant," she cried, and down in my heart I laughed in bitter
+mockery.
+
+"Do you love the Lord Giovanni, Madonna?" I asked bluntly.
+
+My question seemed to awaken fresh astonishment. It may well be that it
+awakened, too, reflection. She was silent for a little space. Then--
+
+"I honour and respect him for a noble, chivalrous and gifted gentleman,"
+she answered me, and her answer made me singularly content, spreading a
+balm upon the wounds my soul had taken. But to her fresh intercessions
+that I should carry a letter to him, I shook my head again. My mood was
+stubborn.
+
+"Believe me, Madonna, it were not only unwise, but futile."
+
+She protested.
+
+"I swear it would be," I insisted, with a convincing force that left her
+staring at me and wondering whence I derived so much assurance. "We
+must wait. From now till Christmas we have more than two months. In two
+months much may befall. As a last resource we may consider communication
+with the Lord Giovanni. But it is a forlorn hope, Madonna, and so we
+will leave it until all else has failed us."
+
+She brightened at my promise that at least if other measures proved
+unavailing, we should adopt that course, and her brightening flattered
+me, for it bore witness to the supreme confidence she had in me.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, "I know you will not fail me. I trust you more than
+any living mam; more, I think, than even the Lord Giovanni, whom, if God
+pleases, I shall some day wed."
+
+"Thanks, Madonna mia," I answered, gratefully indeed. "It is a trust
+that I shall ever strive to justify. Meanwhile have faith and hope, and
+wait."
+
+Once before, when, to escape the schemes of her brother who would have
+wed her to the Lord Giovanni, she had appealed to me, the counsel I had
+given her had been much the same as that which I gave her now. At the
+irony of it I could have laughed had any other been in question but
+Madonna Paola--this tender White Flower of the Quince that was like to
+be rudely wilted by the ruthless hands of scheming men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+
+That night I would have supped in my own quarters but that Filippo sent
+for me and bade me join him and swell the little court he kept. At times
+I believe he almost thought that he was the true Lord of Pesaro--an
+opinion that may have been shared by not a few of the citizens
+themselves. Certainly he kept a greater state and was better housed than
+the duke of Valentinois' governor.
+
+It was a jovial company of perhaps a dozen nobles and ladies that met
+about his board, and Filippo bade his servants lay for me beside him. As
+we ate he questioned me touching the occupation that I had found during
+my absence from Pesaro. I used the greatest frankness with him, and
+answered that my life had been partly a peasants, partly a poet's.
+
+"Tell me what you wrote," he bade me his eyes resting on my face with a
+new look of interest, for his love of letters was one of the few things
+about him that was not affected.
+
+"A few novelle, dealing with court-life; but chiefly verses," answered
+I.
+
+"And with these verses--what have you done?"
+
+"I have them by me, Illustrious," I answered. He smiled, seemingly well
+pleased.
+
+"You must read them to us," he cried. "If they rival that epic of yours,
+which I have never forgotten, they should be worth hearing."
+
+And presently, supper being done, I went at his bidding to my chamber
+for my precious manuscripts, and, returning, I entertained the company
+with the reading of a portion of what I had written. They heard me with
+an attention that might have rendered me vain had my ambition really
+lain in being accounted a great writer; and when I paused, now and
+again, there was a murmur of applause, and many a pat on the shoulder
+from Filippo whenever a line, a phrase or a stanza took his fancy.
+
+I was perhaps too absorbed to pay any great attention to the impression
+my verses were producing, but presently, in one of my pauses, the
+Lord Filippo startled me with words that awoke me to a sense of my
+imprudence.
+
+"Do you know, Lazzaro, of what your lines remind me in an extraordinary
+measure?"
+
+"Of what, Excellency?" I asked politely, raising my eyes from my
+manuscript. They chanced to meet the glance of Madonna Paola. It was
+riveted upon me, and its expression was one I could not understand.
+
+"Of the love-songs of the Lord Giovanni Sforza," answered he. "They
+resemble those poems infinitely more than they resemble the epic you
+wrote two years ago."
+
+I stammered something about the similarity being merely one of subject.
+But he shook his head at that, and took good note of my confusion.
+
+"No," said he, "the resemblance goes deeper. There is the same facile
+beauty of the rhymes the same freshness of the rhythm--remotely
+resembling that of Petrarca, yet very different. Conceits similar to
+those that were the beauty spots of the Lord Giovanni's verses
+are ubiquitous in yours, and above all there is the same fervent
+earnestness, the same burning tone of sincerity that rendered his
+strambotti so worthy of admiration."
+
+"It may be," I answered him, my confusion growing under the steady gaze
+of Madonna Paola, "it may be that having heard the verses of the Lord
+Giovanni, I may, unconsciously, have modelled my own lines upon those
+that made so deep an impression on me."
+
+He looked at me gravely for a moment.
+
+"That might be an explanation," he answered deliberately, "but frankly,
+if I were asked, I should give a very different one."
+
+"And that would be?" came, sharp and compelling, the voice of Madonna.
+
+He turned to her, shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Why, since you
+ask me," he said, "I should hazard the opinion that Lazzaro, here, was
+of considerable assistance to the Lord Giovanni in the penning of those
+verses with which he delighted us all--and you, Madonna, I believe,
+particularly."
+
+Madonna Paola crimsoned, and her eyes fell. The others looked at us
+with inquiring glances--at her, at Filippo and at me. With a fresh laugh
+Filippo turned to me.
+
+"Confess now, am I not right?" he asked good-humouredly.
+
+"Magnificent," I murmured in tones of protest, "ask yourself the
+question. Was it a likely thing that the Lord Giovanni would enlist the
+services of his jester in such a task?"
+
+"Give me a straightforward answer," he insisted. "Am I right or wrong?"
+
+"I am giving you more than a straightforward answer, my lord," I still
+evaded him, and more boldly now. "I am setting you on the high-road to
+solve the matter for yourself by an appeal to your own good sense and
+reason. Was it in the least likely, I repeat, that the Lord Giovanni
+would seek the services of his Fool to aid him write the verses in
+honour of the lady of his heart?"
+
+With a burst of mocking laughter, Filippo smote the table a blow of his
+clenched hand.
+
+"Your prevarications answer me," he cried. "You will not say that I am
+wrong."
+
+"But I do say that you are wrong!" I exclaimed, suddenly inspired. "I
+did not assist the Lord Giovanni with his verses. I swear it."
+
+His laughter faded; and his eyes surveyed me with a sudden solemnity.
+
+"Then why did you evade my question?" he demanded shrewdly. And then his
+countenance changed as swiftly again. It was illumined by the light of
+sudden understanding. "I have it," he cried. "The answer is plain. You
+did not assist the Lord Giovanni to write them. Why? Because you wrote
+them yourself, and you gave them to him that he might pass them off as
+his own."
+
+It was a merciful thing for me that the whole company fell into a burst
+of laughter and applauded Filippo's quick discernment, which they never
+doubted. All talked at once, and a hundred proofs were advanced in
+support of Filippo's opinion. The Lord Giovanni's celebrated dullness
+of mind, amounting almost to stupidity, was cited, and they reminded one
+another of the profound astonishment with which they had listened to the
+compositions that had suddenly burst from him.
+
+Filippo turned to his sister, on whose pale face I saw it written that
+she was as convinced as any there, and my feelings were those of a
+dastard who has broken faith with the man who trusted him.
+
+"Do you appreciate now, Madonna," he murmured, "the deceits and wiles by
+which that craven crept like a snake into your esteem?"
+
+I guessed at once that by that thrust he sought to incline her more to
+the union he had in view for her.
+
+"At least he was no craven," answered she. "His burning desire to please
+me may have betrayed him into this foolish duplicity. But he still
+must live in my memory as a brave and gallant gentleman; or have you
+forgotten, Filippo, that noble combat with the forces of Ramiro del'
+Orca?"
+
+To such a question Filippo had no answer, and presently his mood sobered
+a little. For myself, I was glad when the time came to withdraw from
+that company that twitted and pestered me and played upon my sense of
+shame at the imprudence I had committed.
+
+Now that I look back, I can scarce conceive why it should have so
+wrought upon me; for, in truth, the little love I bore the Lord Giovanni
+might rather have led me to rejoice that his imposture should be laid
+bare to the eyes of all the world. I think that really there was an
+element of fear in my feelings--fear that, upon reflection, Madonna
+Paola might ask herself how came that burning sincerity into the
+love-songs written in her honour which it was now disclosed that I had
+penned. The answer she might find to such a question was one that might
+arouse her pride and so outrage it as to lead her to cast me out of her
+friendship and never again suffer me to approach her.
+
+Such a conclusion, however, she fortunately did not arrive at. Haply she
+accounted the fervour of those lines assumed, for when on the morrow she
+met me, she did no more than gently chide me for the deceit that I had
+had a hand in practising upon her. She accepted my explanation that my
+share in that affair had been wrung from me with threats of torture, and
+putting it from her mind she returned to the matter of the approaching
+alliance she sought to elude, renewing her prayers that I should aid
+her.
+
+"I have," she told me then, "one other friend who might assist us, and
+who has the power perhaps if he but has the will. He is the Governor of
+Cesena, and for all that he holds service under Cesare Borgia, yet
+he seems much devoted to me, and I do not doubt that to further my
+interests he would even consent to pit his wits against those of the
+family he serves."
+
+"In which case, Madonna," answered I, spurred to it, perhaps, by an
+insensate pang of jealousy at the thought that there should be another
+beside myself to have her confidence, "he would be a traitor. And it
+is ever an ill thing to trust a traitor. Who once betrays may betray
+again."
+
+That she manifested no resentment, but, on the contrary, readily agreed
+with me, showed me how idle had been that jealousy of mine, and made me
+ashamed of it.
+
+"Why yes," she mused, "it is the very thought that had occurred to me,
+and caused me to spurn the aid he proffered when last he was here."
+
+"Ah!" I cried. "What aid was that?"
+
+"You must know, Lazzaro," said she, "that he comes often to Pesaro from
+Cesena, being a man in whom the Duke places great trust, and on whom he
+has bestowed considerable powers. He never fails to lie at the Palace
+when he comes, and he seems to--to have conceived a regard for me. He is
+a man of twice my years," she added hurriedly, "and haply looks upon me
+as he might upon a daughter."
+
+I sniffed the air. I had heard of such men.
+
+"A week ago, when last he came, I was cast down and grieved by the
+affair of this marriage, which Filippo had that day disclosed to me. The
+Governor of Cesena, observing my sadness, sought my confidence with a
+kindliness of which you would scarce believe him capable; for he is a
+fierce and blustering man of war. In the fulness of my heart there was
+nothing that seemed so desirable as a friendly ear into which I might
+pour the tale of my affliction. He heard me gravely, and when I had done
+he placed himself at my disposal, assuring me that if I would but trust
+myself to him, he would defeat the ends of the House of Borgia. Not
+until then did I seem to bethink me that he was the servant of that
+house, and his readiness to betray the hand that paid him sowed mistrust
+and a certain loathing of him in my mind. I let him see it, perhaps,
+which was unwise, and, may be, even ungrateful. He seemed deeply
+wounded, and the subject was abandoned. But I have since thought that
+perhaps I acted with a rashness that was--"
+
+"With a rashness that was eminently justifiable," I interrupted her.
+"You could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such a
+man."
+
+But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in
+store for me. At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion
+in the courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its
+cause, I was informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had
+arrived.
+
+Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he served,
+where Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to probe, I
+descended to the banqueting-hall at supper time.
+
+They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in
+the centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and
+crimson, brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of
+my own quarters but that his wolf's eye had already fastened on me.
+
+"Body of God!" he swore, and that was all. But his eyes were on me in a
+marvellous stare, as were now--impelled by that oath of his--the eyes
+of all the company. We looked at each other for a moment, then a great
+laugh burst from him, shaking his vast bulk and wrinkling his hideous
+face. He thrust the intervening men aside as if they had been a growth
+of sedges he would penetrate, and he advanced towards me; the Lord
+Filippo and his sister looking on with all the rest in interested
+surprise.
+
+In front of me he halted, and setting his hands on his hips he regarded
+me with a brutal mirth.
+
+"What may your trade be now?" he asked at last contemptuously.
+
+I had taken rapid stock of him in the seconds that were sped, and from
+the surpassing richness of his apparel, his gold-broidered doublet and
+crimson, fur-edged surcoat, I knew that Messer Ramiro del' Orca was
+grown to the high estate of Governor of Cesena.
+
+"A new trade even as yours," I answered him.
+
+"Nay, that is no answer," he cried, overlooking my offensiveness. "Do
+you still follow the trade of arms?"
+
+"I think," Filippo interposed, "that our Excellency is in some error.
+This gentleman is Lazzaro Biancomonte, a poet of whom Italy will one day
+be proud, despite the fact that for a time he acted as the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza's Fool."
+
+Ramiro looked at his interlocutor, as the mastiff may look at the lap
+dog. He grunted, and blew out his cheeks.
+
+"There is yet another part he played," said he, "as I have good cause
+to remember--for he is the only man that can boast of having unhorsed
+Ramiro del' Orca. He was for a brief season the Lord Giovanni Sforza
+himself."
+
+"How?" asked the profoundly amazed Filippo, whilst all present pressed
+closer to miss nothing of the disclosure that seemed to impend. Myself,
+I groaned. There was naught that I could say to stem the tide of
+revelation that was coming.
+
+"Do you then keep this paladin here arrayed like a clerk?" quoth Ramiro
+in his sardonic way. "And can it be that the secret of his feat of arms
+has been guarded so well that you are still in ignorance of it?"
+
+Filippo's wits worked swiftly, and swiftly they pieced together the
+hints that Ramiro had let fall.
+
+"You will tell us," said he, "that the fight in the streets of Pesaro,
+in which your Excellency's party suffered defeat, was led by Biancomonte
+in the armour of Giovanni Sforza?"
+
+Ramiro looked at him with that displeasure with which the jester visits
+the man who by anticipation robs his story of its points.
+
+"It was known to you?" growled he.
+
+"Not so. I have but learnt it from you. But it nowise astonishes me."
+
+And he looked at his sister, whose eyes devoured me, as if they would
+read in my soul whether this thing were indeed true. Under her eyes I
+dropped my glance like a man ashamed at hearing a disgraceful act of his
+paraded.
+
+"Had it indeed been the Lord Giovanni, he had been dead that day,"
+laughed Ramiro grimly. "Indeed it was nothing but my astonishment
+at sight of the face I was about to stab, after having broken the
+fastenings of his visor that stayed my hand for long enough to give him
+the advantage. But I bear you no grudge for that," he ended, turning on
+me with a ferocious smile, "nor yet for that other trick by which--as
+Boccadoro the Fool--you bested me. I am not a sweet man when thwarted,
+yet I can admire wit and respect courage. But see to it," he ended,
+with a sudden and most unreasonable ferocity, his visage empurpling if
+possible still more, "see to it that you pit neither that courage nor
+that wit against me again. I have heard the story of how you came to
+be Fool of the Court of Pesaro. Cesena is a dull place, and we might
+enliven it by the presence of a jester of such nimble wits as yours."
+
+He turned without awaiting my reply, and strode away to take his place
+at table, whilst I walked slowly to my accustomed seat, and took little
+part in the conversation that ensued, which, as you may imagine, had me
+and that exploit of mine for scope.
+
+Anon an elephantine trumpeting of laughter seemed to set the air
+a-quivering. Ramiro was lying back in his chair a prey to such a passion
+of mirth that it swelled the veins of his throat and brow until I
+thought that they must burst--and, from my soul, I hoped they would.
+Adown his rugged cheeks two tears were slowly trickling. The Lord
+Filippo, as presently transpired, had been telling him of the epic I
+had written in praise of the Lord Giovanni's prowess. Naught would now
+satisfy that ogre but he must have the epic read, and Filippo, who had
+retained a copy of it, went in quest of it, and himself read it aloud
+for the delight of all assembled and the torture of myself who saw in
+Madonna Paola's eyes that she accounted the deception I had practised on
+her a thing beyond pardon.
+
+Filippo had a taste for letters, as I think I have made clear, and he
+read those lines with the same fire and fervour that I, myself, had
+breathed into them two years ago. But instead of the rapt and breathless
+attention with which my reading had been attended, the present company
+listened with a smile, whilst ever and anon a short laugh or a quiet
+chuckle would mark how well they understood to-night the subtle ironies
+which had originally escaped them.
+
+I crept away, sick at heart, while they were still making sport over my
+work, cursing the Lord Giovanni, who had forced me to these things, and
+my own mad mood that had permitted me in an evil hour to be so forced.
+Yet my grief and bitterness were little things that night compared with
+what Madonna was to make them on the morrow.
+
+She sent for me betimes, and I went in fear and trembling of her wrath
+and scorn. How shall I speak of that interview? How shall I describe the
+immeasurable contempt with which she visited me, and which I felt was
+perhaps no more than I deserved.
+
+"Messer Biancomonte," said she coldly, "I have ever accounted you my
+friend, and disinterested the motives that inspired a heart seemingly
+noble to do service to a forlorn and helpless lady. It seems that I
+was wrong. That the indulging of a warped and malignant spirit was the
+inspiration you had to appear to befriend me."
+
+"Madonna, you are over-cruel," I cried out, wounded to the very soul of
+me.
+
+"Am I so?" she asked, with a cold smile upon her ivory face. "Is it not
+rather you who were cruel? Was it a fine thing to do to trick a lady
+into giving her affection to a man for gifts which he did not possess?
+You know in what manner of regard I held the Lord Giovanni Sforza so
+long as I saw him with the eyes of reason and in the light of truth. And
+you, who were my one professed friend, the one man who spoke so loudly
+of dying in my service, you falsified my vision, you masked him--either
+at his own and at my brother's bidding, or else out of the malignancy of
+your nature--in a garb that should render him agreeable in my eyes. Do
+you realise what you have done? Does not your conscience tell you? You
+have contrived that I have plighted my troth to a man such as I believed
+the Lord Giovanni to be. Mother of Mercy!" she ended, with a scorn
+ineffable; "when I dwell upon it now, it almost seems that it was to
+you I gave my heart, for yours were the deeds that earned my regard--not
+his."
+
+Such was the very argument that I had hugged to my starving soul, at
+the time the things she spoke of had befallen, and it had consoled me as
+naught in life could have consoled me. Yet now that she employed it with
+such a scornful emphasis as to make me realise how far beneath her I
+really was, how immeasurably beyond my reach was she, it was as much
+consolation to me as confession without absolution may be to the
+perishing sinner. I answered nothing. I could not trust myself to speak.
+Besides, what was there that I could say?
+
+"I summoned you back to Pesaro," she continued pitilessly, "trusting in
+your fine words and deeming honest the offer of services you made me.
+Now that I know you, you are free to depart from Pesaro when you will."
+
+Despite my shame, I dared, at last, to raise my eyes. But her face was
+averted, and she saw nothing of the entreaty, nothing of the grief that
+might have told her how false were her conclusions. One thing alone
+there was might have explained my actions, might have revealed them in a
+new light; but that one thing I could not speak of.
+
+I turned in silence, and in silence I quitted the room; for that, I
+thought, was, after all, the wisest answer I could make.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. POISON
+
+
+Despite Madonna Paola's dismissal, I remained in Pesaro. Indeed, had
+I attempted to leave, it is probable that the Lord Filippo would have
+deterred me, for I was much grown in his esteem since the disclosures
+that had earned me the disfavour of Madonna. But I had no thought of
+going. I hoped against hope that anon she might melt to a kinder mood,
+or else that by yet aiding her, despite herself, to elude the Borgia
+alliance, I might earn her forgiveness for those matters in which she
+held that I had so gravely sinned against her.
+
+The epithalamium, meanwhile, was forgotten utterly and I spent my days
+in conceiving wild plans to save her from the Lord Ignacio, only to
+abandon them when in more sober moments their impracticable quality was
+borne in upon me.
+
+In this fashion some six weeks went by, and during the time she never
+once addressed me. We saw much during those days of the Governor of
+Cesena. Indeed his time seemed mainly spent in coming and going 'twixt
+Cesena and Pesaro, and it needed no keen penetration to discern the
+attraction that brought him. He was ever all attention to Madonna, and
+there were times when I feared that perhaps she had been drawn into
+accepting the aid that once before he had proffered. But these fears
+were short-lived, for, as time sped, Madonna's aversion to the man grew
+plain for all to see. Yet he persisted until the very eve, almost, of
+her betrothal to Ignacio.
+
+One evening in early December I chanced, through the purest accident,
+to overhear her sharp repulsion of the suit that he had evidently been
+pressing.
+
+"Madonna," I heard him answer, with a snarl, "I may yet prove to you
+that you have been unwise so to use Ramiro del' Orca."
+
+"If you so much as venture to address me again upon the subject," she
+returned in the very chilliest accents, "I will lay this matter of your
+odious suit before your master Cesare Borgia."
+
+They must have caught the sound of my footsteps in the gallery in which
+they stood, and Ramiro moved away, his purple face pale for once, and
+his eyes malevolent as Satan's.
+
+I reflected with pleasure that perhaps we had now seen the last of him,
+and that before that threat of Madonna's he would see fit to ride home
+to Cesena and remain there. But I was wrong. With incredible effrontery
+and daring he lingered. The morrow was a Sunday, and, on the Tuesday or
+Wednesday following, Cesare Borgia and his cousin Ignacio were expected.
+Filippo was in the best of moods, and paid more heed to the Governor
+of Cesena's presence at Pesaro than he did to mine. It may be that he
+imagined Ramiro del' Orca to be acting under Cesare's instructions.
+
+That Sunday night we supped together, and we were all tolerably gay, the
+topic of our talk being the coming of the bridegroom. Madonna's was the
+only downcast face at the board. She was pale and worn, and there were
+dark circles round her eyes that did much to mar the beauty of her angel
+face, and inspired me with a deep and sorrowing pity.
+
+Ramiro announced his intention of leaving Pesaro on the morrow, and ere
+he went he begged leave to pledge the beautiful Lady of Santafior,
+who was so soon to become the bride of the valiant and mighty Ignacio
+Borgia. It was a toast that was eagerly received, so eager and
+uproariously that even that poor lady herself was forced to smile,
+for all that I saw it in her eyes that her heart was on the point of
+breaking.
+
+I remember how, when we had drunk, she raised her goblet--a beautiful
+chaste cup of solid gold--and drank, herself, in acknowledgment; and I
+remember, too, how, chancing to move my head, I caught a most singular,
+ill-omened smile upon the coarse lips of Messer Ramiro.
+
+At the time I thought of it no more, but in the morning when the
+horrible news that spread through the Palace gained my ears, that smile
+of Ramiro del' Orca recurred to me at once.
+
+It was from the seneschal of the Palace that I first heard that tragic
+news. I had but risen, and I was descending from my quarters, when I
+came upon him, his old face white as death, a palsy in his limbs.
+
+"Have you heard the news, Ser Lazzaro?" he cried in a quavering voice.
+
+"The news of what?" I asked, struck by the horror in his face.
+
+"Madonna Paola is dead," he told me, with a sob.
+
+I stared at him in speechless consternation, and for a moment I seemed
+forlorn of sense and understanding.
+
+"Dead?" I remember whispering. "What is it you say?" And I leaned
+forward towards him, peering into his face. "What is it you say?"
+
+"Well may you doubt your ears," he groaned. "But, Vergine Santissima!
+it is the truth. Madonna Paola, that sweet angel of God, lies cold and
+stiff. They found her so this morning."
+
+"God of Heaven!" I cried out, and leaving him abruptly I dashed down the
+steps.
+
+Scarce knowing what I did, acting upon an impulsive instinct that was as
+irresistible as it was unreasoning, I made for the apartments of Madonna
+Paola. In the antechamber I found a crowd assembled, and on every face
+was pallid consternation written. Of my own countenance I had a glimpse
+in a mirror as I passed; it was ashen, and my hollow eyes were wild as a
+madman's.
+
+Someone caught me by the arm. I turned. It was the Lord Filippo, pale
+as the rest, his affectations all fallen from him, and the man himself
+revealed by the hand of an overwhelming sorrow. With him was a grave,
+white-bearded gentleman, whose sober robe proclaimed the physician.
+
+"This is a black and monstrous affair, my friend," he murmured.
+
+"Is it true, is it really true, my lord?" I cried in such a voice that
+all eyes were turned upon me.
+
+"Your grief is a welcome homage to my own," he said. "Alas, Dio Santo!
+it is most hideously true. She lies there cold and white as marble, I
+have just seen her. Come hither, Lazzaro." He drew me aside, away from
+the crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been
+Madonna's oratory. With us came the physician.
+
+"This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned,
+Lazzaro."
+
+"Poisoned?" I echoed. "Body of God! but by whom? We all loved her. There
+was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid down his
+life in her service. Who was there, then, to poison that dear saint?"
+
+It was then that the memory of Ramiro del' Orca, and the look that in
+his eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my
+mind.
+
+"Where is the Governor of Cesena?" I cried suddenly. Filippo looked at
+me with quick surprise.
+
+"He departed betimes this morning for his castle. Why do you ask?"
+
+I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro's attentions to
+Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he had
+seemed to threaten. Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done he
+shook his head.
+
+"Why, all being as you say, should he work so wanton a destruction?" he
+asked stupidly, as if jealousy were not cause enough to drive an evil
+man to destroy that which he may not possess. "Nay, nay, your wits are
+disordered. You remember that he looked at Madonna whilst she drank, and
+you construe that into a proof that he had poisoned the cup she drank
+from. But then it is probable that we all looked at her in that same
+moment."
+
+"But not with such eyes as his," I insisted.
+
+"Could he have administered the poison with his own hands?" asked the
+doctor gravely.
+
+"No," said I, "that were a difficult matter. But he might have bribed a
+servant to drop a powder in her wine."
+
+"Why then," said he, "it should be an easy thing to find the servant. Do
+you chance to remember who served the wine?"
+
+"I remember," answered Filippo readily.
+
+"Let the man be questioned; let him be racked if necessary. Thus shall
+you probably arrive at a true knowledge; thus discover under whose
+directions he was working."
+
+It was the only thing to do, and Filippo sent me about it there and
+then, telling me the servant in question was a Venetian of the name of
+Zabatello. If confirmation had been needed that this fellow had been the
+tool of the poisoner--there was no reason to suppose that he would have
+done the thing to have served any ends of his own--that confirmation
+I had upon discovering that Zabatello was fled from Pesaro, leaving no
+trace behind him.
+
+Men were sent out by the Lord Filippo in every direction to endeavour
+to find the rogue and bring him back. Whether they caught him or not
+seemed, after all a little thing to me. She was dead; that was the
+one all-absorbing, all-effacing fact that took possession of my mind,
+blotting out all minor matters that might be concerned with it. Even
+the now assured fact that she had been poisoned was a thing that found
+little room in my consideration on that day of my burning grief.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead! The hideous phrase boomed again and again
+through my distracted mind. Compared with that overwhelming catastrophe,
+what signified to me the how or why or when she had died. She was dead,
+and the world was empty.
+
+For hours I sat on the rocks, alone by the sea, on that stormy day of
+December, and I indulged my grief where no prying eyes could witness it,
+amid the solitude of wild and angry Nature. And the moan and thud with
+which the great waves hurled themselves against the base of the black
+rock on which I was perched afforded but a feeble echo of the storm that
+raged and beat within my desolated soul.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead! The waves seemed to shout it as they leapt
+up and spattered me with brine; the wind now moaned it piteously, now
+shrieked it fiercely as it scudded by, wrapping its invisible coils
+about me, and seeming intent on tearing me from my resting-place.
+
+Towards evening, at last, I rose, and skirting the Castle, I entered the
+town, dishevelled and bedraggled, yet caring nothing what spectacle I
+might afford. And presently a grim procession overtook me, and at sight
+of the black, cowled and visored figures that advanced in the lurid
+light of their wax torches, I fell on my knees there in the street, and
+so remained, my knees deep in the mud, my head bowed, until her sainted
+body had been borne past. None heeded me. They bore her to San Domenico,
+and thither I followed presently, and in the shadow of one of the
+pillars of the aisle I crouched whilst the monks chanted their funereal
+psalms.
+
+The singing ended, the friars departed, and presently those of the Court
+and the sight-seers from the streets began to leave the church. In an
+hour I was alone--alone with the beloved dead, and there, on my knees,
+I stayed, and whether I prayed or blasphemed during that horrid hour, my
+memory will not let me say.
+
+It may have been towards the third hour of night when at last I
+staggered up--stiff and cramped from my long kneeling on the cold stone.
+Slowly, in a half-dazed condition, I move down the aisle and gained the
+door of the church. I essayed to open it. It resisted my efforts, and
+then I realised that it was locked for the night.
+
+The appreciation of my position afforded me not the slightest dismay. On
+the contrary, I think my feelings were rather of relief. I had not known
+whither I should repair--so distraught was my mood--and now chance had
+settled the matter for me by decreeing that I should remain.
+
+I turned and slowly I paced back until I stood beside the great black
+catafalque, at each corner of which a tall wax taper was burning. My
+footsteps rang with a hollow sound through the vast, gloomy spaces of
+that cold, empty church; my very breathing seemed to find an echo in it.
+But these were not things to occupy my mind in such a season, no more
+than was the icy cold by which I was half-numbed--yet of which I seemed
+to remain unconscious in the absorbing anguish that possessed me.
+
+Near the foot of the bier there was a bench, and there I sat me down,
+and resting my elbows on my knees I took my dishevelled head between my
+frozen hands. My thoughts were all of her whose poor murdered clay was
+there encased above me. I reviewed, I think, each scene of my life where
+it had touched on hers; I evoked every word she had addressed to me
+since first I had met her on the road to Cagli.
+
+And anon my mood changed, and, from cold and frozen that it had been
+by grief, it grew ablaze with the fire of anger and the lust to wreak
+vengeance upon him that had brought her to this condition. Let Filippo
+fear to move without proofs, let him doubt such proofs as I had set
+before him and deem them overslender to warrant action. Such scruples
+should not serve to restrain me. I was no lukewarm brother. Here in
+Pesaro I would remain until her poor body was delivered to the earth,
+and then I would set out upon a last emprise. Messer Ramiro del' Orca
+should account to me for this vile deed.
+
+There in the House of Peace I sat gnawing my hands and maturing my
+bloody plans whilst the night wore on. Later a still more frenzied mood
+obsessed me--a burning desire to look again upon the sweet face of her I
+had loved, the sainted visage of Madonna Paola. What was there to deter
+me? Who was there to gainsay me?
+
+I stood up and uttered that challenge aloud in my madness. My voice
+echoed mournfully up the aisles, and the sound of the echo chilled me,
+yet my purpose gathered strength.
+
+I advanced, and after a moment's pause, with the silver-broidered hem of
+the pall in my hands, I suddenly swept off that mantle of black cloth,
+setting up such a gust of wind as all but quenched the tapers. I caught
+up the bench on which I had been sitting, and, dragging it forward, I
+mounted it and stood now with my breast on a level with the coffin-lid.
+I laid hands on it and found it unfastened. Without thought or care of
+how I went about the thing, I raised it and let it crash over to the
+ground. It fell on the stone flags with a noise like that of thunder,
+which boomed and reverberated along the gloomy vault above.
+
+A figure, all in purest white, lay there under my eyes, the face covered
+by a veil. With deepest reverence, and a prayer to her sainted soul to
+forgive the desecration of my loving hands, I tremblingly drew that veil
+aside. How beautiful she was in the calm peace of death! She lay there
+like one gently sleeping, the faintest smile upon her lips, and as I
+looked it seemed hard to believe that she was truly dead. Why, her
+lips had lost nothing of their colour; they were as rosy red--or nearly
+so--as ever I had seen them in life. How could this be? The lips of the
+dead are wont to put on a livid hue. I stared a moment, my reverence and
+grief almost effaced by the intensity of my wonder. This face, so ivory
+pale, wore not the ashen aspect of one that would never wake again.
+There was a warmth about that pallor. And then I caught my nether lip
+in my teeth until it bled, and it is a miracle that I did not scream,
+seeing how overwrought was my condition.
+
+For it had seemed to me that the draperies on her bosom had slightly
+moved, a gentle, almost imperceptible heave as if she breathed. I
+looked, and there it came again.
+
+God! into what madness was I come that my eyes could so deceive me? It
+was the draught that stirred the air about the church and blew great
+shrouds of wax adown the taper's yellow sides. I manned myself to a more
+sober mood, and looked again.
+
+And now my doubts were all dispelled. I knew that I had mastered any
+errant fancy, and that my eyes were grown wise and discriminating, and I
+knew, too, that she lived. Her bosom slowly rose and fell; the colour
+of her lips, the hue of her cheeks confirmed the assurance that she
+breathed. The poison had failed in its work.
+
+I paused a second yet to ponder. That morning her appearance had been
+such that the physician had been deceived by it, and had pronounced her
+cold. Yet now there were these signs of life. What could it portend
+but that the effects of the poison were passing off and that she was
+recovering?
+
+In the wild madness of joy that sent the blood drumming and beating
+through my brain, my first impulse was to run for help. Then I bethought
+me of the closed doors, and I realised that no matter how I shouted none
+would hear me. I must succour her myself as best I could, and meanwhile
+she must be protected from the chill air of that December night in
+that church that was colder than the tomb. I had my cloak, a heavy,
+serviceable garment; and if more were needed, there was the pall which I
+had removed, and which lay in a heap about the legs of my bench.
+
+I leaned forward, and passing my hand under her head, I gently raised
+it. Then slipping it downwards, I thrust my arm after it until I had her
+round the waist in a firm grip. Thus I raised her from the coffin,
+and the warmth of her body on my arm, the ready, supple bending of her
+limbs, were so many added proofs that she was not dead.
+
+Gently and reverently I lifted her in my arms, an intoxication of holy
+joy pervading me, and the prayers falling faster from my lips than ever
+they had done since as a lad I had recited them at my mother's knee. A
+moment I laid her on the bench, whilst I divested myself of my cloak.
+Then suddenly I paused, and stood listening, holding my breath.
+
+Steps were advancing towards the door.
+
+My first impulse was to rush forward and call to those who came,
+shouting my news and imploring their help. Then a sudden, an almost
+instinctive suspicion caught and chilled me. Who was it came at such an
+hour? What could any man seek in the Church of San Domenico at dead of
+night? Was the church indeed their goal, or were they but passers-by?
+
+That last question went not long unanswered. The steps came nearer,
+whilst I stood appalled, my skin roughening like a dog's. They halted at
+the door. Something heavy hurtled against it.
+
+A voice, the voice of Ramiro del' Orca--I knew it upon the
+instant--reached my ears which concentration had rendered superacute.
+
+"It is locked, Baldassare. Get out those tools of yours and force it."
+
+My wits were working now at fever-pace. It may be that I am swift of
+thought beyond the ordinary man, or it may be that what then came to me
+was either a flash of inspiration or the conclusion to which I leapt by
+instinct. But in that moment the whole plot of Madonna's poisoning was
+revealed to me. Poisoned she had been--aye, but by some drug that did
+but produce for a little while the outward appearance of death so truly
+simulated as to deceive the most experienced of doctors. I had heard
+of such poisons, and here, in very truth, was one of them at work. His
+vengeance on her for her indifference to his suit was not so clumsy
+and primitive as that of simply slaying her. He had, by his infernal
+artifice, intended, secretly, to bear her off. To-morrow when men found
+a broken church-door and a violated bier, they would set the sacrilege
+down to some wizard who had need of the body for his dark practices of
+magic.
+
+I cursed myself in that hour that I had not earlier been moved to peer
+into her coffin whilst yet there might have been time to have saved her.
+Now? The sweat stood out in beads upon my brow. At that door there were,
+to judge by the sound of footsteps and of voices, some three or four men
+besides Messer Ramiro. For only weapon I had my dagger. What could I
+do with that to defend her? Ramiro's plan would suffer no frustration
+through my discovery; when to-morrow the sacrilege was discovered the
+cold body of Lazzaro Biancomonte lying beside the desecrated bier would
+be but an item in the work of profanation they would find--an item that
+nowise would modify the conclusion to which I anticipated they would
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. REQUIESCAT!
+
+
+A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human
+mind. Some it renders incapable of thought or action, paralysing their
+limbs and stagnating the blood in their veins; such creatures die in
+anticipating death. Others under the stress of that grim passion have
+their wits preternaturally sharpened. The instinct of self-preservation
+assumes command of all their senses, and urges them to swift and
+feverish action.
+
+I thank God with a full heart that to this latter class do I belong.
+After one gelid moment, spent with eyes and mouth agape, my hands fallen
+limp beside me and my hair bristling with affright, I became myself
+again and never calmer than in that dread moment. I went to work with
+superhuman swiftness. My cheeks may have been livid, my very lips
+bloodless; but my hands were steady and my wits under full control.
+
+Concealment--concealment for myself and her--was the thing that now
+imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were
+devised. Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case
+to be exacting, and since they were the best the place afforded I must
+trust to them without demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might
+lack the wit to search. And with that fresh hope it came to me that
+I must find a way so to dispose as to make him believe that to search
+would be a futile waste of energy.
+
+The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal. Yet a little
+time there was. The door was stout, and Messer Ramiro might take
+no violent means of bursting it, lest the noise should arouse the
+street--and I well could guess how little he would relish having lights
+to shine upon this deed of night of his.
+
+With what tools his sbirro was at work I could not say; but surely they
+must be such as would leave me a few moments. Already the fellow had
+begun. I could make out a soft crunching sound, as of steel biting into
+wood. To act, then!
+
+With movements swift as a cat's, and as silent, I went to work. Like
+a ghost I glided round the coffin to the other side, where the lid was
+lying. I took it up, and when for a moment I had deposited Madonna Paola
+on the ground, I mounted the bench and gently but quickly set back that
+lid as it had been. Next, I gathered up the cumbrous pall, and mounting
+the bench once more I spread it across the coffin. This way and that I
+pulled it, straightening it into the shape that it had worn when first I
+had entered, and casting its folds into regular lines that would lend it
+the appearance of having remained undisturbed.
+
+And what time I toiled, the half of my mind intent upon my task, the
+other half was as intent upon the progress of the worker at the door.
+
+At last it was done. I set the bench where first it had been, at the
+foot of the catafalque, and gathering up Madonna in my arms, as though
+her weight had been an infant's, I bore her swiftly out of the circle of
+light of those four tapers into the black, impenetrable gloom beyond.
+On I sped towards the high-altar, flying now as men fly in evil dreams,
+with the sensation of an enemy upon them and their progress a mere
+standing-still.
+
+Thus I gained the chancel, hurtling against the railing as I passed, and
+pausing for an instant, wondering whether those without could have heard
+the noise which in my clumsiness I had made. But the grinding sound
+continued uninterrupted, and I breathed more freely. I mounted the
+altar-steps, the distant light behind me still feebly guiding me; I ran
+round to the right, and heaved a great sigh of relief to find my hopes
+verified, and that the altar of San Domenico was as the altar of other
+churches I had known. It stood a pace or so from the wall, and behind it
+there was just such narrow hiding-room as I had looked to find.
+
+I paused at the mouth of that black opening, and even as I paused,
+something hard that gave out a metallic sound fell at the far end of the
+church. Instinct told me it was the lock which those miscreants had cut
+from the door. I waited for no more, but like a beast scudding to cover
+I plunged into that black space.
+
+Madonna, wrapped in my cloak as she was, I set down upon the ground, and
+then I crept forward on hands and knees and thrust out my head, trusting
+to the darkness to envelop me.
+
+I waited thus for some seconds, my heart beating now against my ribs as
+if it would hurl itself out of my bosom, my head and face on fire with
+the fever of reaction that succeeded my late cold pallor.
+
+From where I watched it was impossible to see the door hidden in the
+black gloom. Away in the centre of the church, an island of light in
+that vast sea of blackness, stood the catafalque with its four wax
+torches. Something creaked, and almost immediately I saw the flames of
+those tapers bend towards me, beaten over by the gust that smote them
+from the door. Thus I surmised that Ramiro and his men had entered. The
+soft fall of their feet; for they were treading lightly now, succeeded,
+and at last they came into view, shadowy at first, then sharply outlined
+as they approached the light.
+
+A moment they stood in half-whispered conversation, their voices a
+mere boom of sound in which no word was to be distinguished. Then I saw
+Ramiro suddenly step forward--I knew him by his great height--and drag
+away, even as I had done, the pall that hid the coffin. Next he seized
+the bench and gave a brisk order to his men in a less cautious voice, so
+that I caught his words.
+
+"Spread a cloak," said he, and, in obedience, the four that were with
+him took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. It was
+thus that he meant to bear her with him.
+
+He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind
+he put out his hands to remove the coffin-lid. As well as if his soul
+had been transformed into a book conceived for my amusement did I
+surmise the exultant mood that then possessed him. He had tricked
+Filippo; he had out-witted us all--Madonna herself, included--and he was
+leaving no trace behind him that should warrant any so much as to dare
+to think that this vile deed was the work of Messer Ramiro del' Orca,
+Governor of Cessna.
+
+But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the gods, delights in
+mighty contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and
+hollow lures on the very eve of working our discomfiture. From the soul
+that but a moment back had been aglow with evil satisfaction there burst
+a sudden blasphemous cry of rage that disregarded utterly the sanctity
+of that consecrated place.
+
+"By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!"
+
+It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy
+crash as he let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder sound
+awoke the night-echoes of that silent place. In a burst of maniacal
+frenzy he had caught the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty fist, and
+hurled it from its trestles.
+
+Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds in
+the excitement that possessed him.
+
+"It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo," he cried. "They have
+laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves."
+
+I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling
+veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror
+spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though
+he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
+
+"Out of this!" he growled at them. "See that your swords hang ready.
+Away!"
+
+One of them murmured something that I could not catch. Mother in
+Heaven! if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a
+suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it? But
+Ramiro's answer speedily relieved my fears.
+
+"I'll take no risks," he barked. "Come! Let us go separately. I first,
+and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can." His voice
+grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words, "Cesena"
+and "to-morrow night," from which I gathered that he was appointing that
+as their next meeting-place.
+
+Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere
+the others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that
+was here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by
+their still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
+
+Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it
+had lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those
+ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola. Her breathing was grown
+more heavy and more regular, so that in all respects she was as one
+sleeping healthily. Soon I hoped that she might awaken, for to seek to
+bear her thence and to the Palace in my arms would have been a madness.
+And now it occurred to me that I should have restoratives at hand
+against the time of her regaining consciousness. Inspiration suggested
+to me the wine that should be stored in the sacristy for altar purposes.
+It was unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in using it.
+
+I crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle-branch
+protruded, standing no higher than my head. It held some three or four
+tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at
+early Mass on dark winter mornings. I plucked one of the candles from
+its socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the
+burning tapers of the bier. Screening it with my hand, I retraced my
+steps and regained the chancel. Then turning to the left, I made for a
+door that I knew should give access to the sacristy. It yielded to my
+touch, and I passed down a short stone-flagged passage, and entered the
+spacious chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed against one wall, and
+above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix. Facing it against the
+other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard, half-buffet.
+On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a few
+vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere
+and white-washed chamber. Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one
+of the drawers. It was full of garments of different kinds, among which
+I noticed several monks' habits. I rummaged to the bottom only to find
+some odd pairs of sandals.
+
+Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better
+fortune. Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and
+fragrant with rosemary. I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to
+the cupboard above. It was locked, but the key was there. It opened,
+and my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated
+chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid
+gold, set with precious stones. But in a corner I espied a dark-brown,
+gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine, and, with a half-suppressed
+cry of joy, I seized it. In that instant a piercing scream rang through
+the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I stood there for
+some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping to my
+mind.
+
+Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned? Did the scream mean
+that Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
+
+A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that
+its first utterance had cast over me. Dropping the leather bottle,
+I sped back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the
+chancel.
+
+There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and
+ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays
+of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs
+were hung. She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very
+natural fear consequent upon awakening in such a place that had provoked
+the cry I had heard.
+
+"Madonna," I called, advancing swiftly towards her. "Madonna Paola!"
+There was a gasp, a moment's stillness, then--
+
+"Lazzaro?" She cried, questioningly. "What has happened? Why am I here?"
+
+I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
+
+"Something horrible has happened, Madonna," I answered. "But it is over
+now, and the evil is averted."
+
+"But how came I here?"
+
+"That you shall learn." I stooped to gather up the cloak which had
+slipped from her shoulders as she advanced. "Do you wrap this about
+you," I urged her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in
+that mantle. "Are you faint, Madonna?" I asked.
+
+"I scarce know," she answered in a frightened voice. "There is a black
+horror upon me. Tell me," she implored again, "what does it mean?"
+
+I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once
+she were out of these forbidding surroundings. I led her to the sacristy
+and seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once again.
+
+At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was
+insistent.
+
+"It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna," I told her. "The wine
+will warm and revive you. Come Madonna mia, drink."
+
+She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she
+drank a lusty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour
+to replace the ashen pallor of her cheeks.
+
+"I am so cold, Lazzaro," she complained.
+
+I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks' habits,
+and pulling one out I held it for her to don. She sat there now, in that
+garment of coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder,
+the fairest postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
+
+"You are good to me, Lazzaro," she murmured plaintively, "and I have
+used you very ill." She paused a second, passing her hand across her
+brow. Then--"What is the hour?" she asked.
+
+It was a question that I left unheeded. I bade her brace herself and
+have courage for the tale I was to tell. I assured her that the horror
+of it was all passed and that she had naught to fear. So soon as her
+natural curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to her
+brother at the Palace.
+
+"But how came I thence?" she cried. "I must have lain in a swoon, for
+I remember nothing." And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable
+conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered
+catafalque which she had seen--"Did they account me dead, Lazzaro?" she
+asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they
+were turned upon my own.
+
+"Yes, Madonna," answered I, "you were accounted dead." And, with that, I
+told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I left
+my own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune presence
+in the church. When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she
+shuddered and closed her eyes in very awe. At length, when I had done,
+she opened them again, and again she turned them full upon me. Their
+brightness seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that she was
+quietly weeping.
+
+"And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?" she murmured brokenly.
+"Lazzaro mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of
+you. You are indeed my one true friend--the one true friend that never
+fails me."
+
+"Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?" I asked abruptly, roughly almost.
+
+"Yes, I am stronger." She stood up as if to test her strength. "Indeed
+little ails me saving the horror of this thing. The thought of it seems
+to turn me sick and dizzy."
+
+"Sit then and rest," said I. "Presently, when you are more recovered, we
+will set out."
+
+"Whither shall we go?" she asked.
+
+"Why, to the Palace, to your brother."
+
+"Why, yes," she answered, as though it were the last suggestion that
+she had been expecting, "And to-morrow--it will be to-morrow, will it
+not?--comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride. He will owe you no mean
+thanks, Lazzaro."
+
+There was a pause. I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my
+mind, but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be from
+matins, and how soon we might be discovered by the monks. Presently she
+spoke again.
+
+"Lazzaro," she inquired very gently, "what was it brought you to the
+church?"
+
+"I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service," answered I,
+and fearing such questions as might follow--questions that I had been
+dreading ever since I had brought her to the sacristy--"If you are
+recovered we had best be going," I told her gruffly.
+
+"Nay, I am not yet enough recovered," answered she. "And before we go,
+there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have you
+make clear to me. Meanwhile, we are very well here. If the good fathers
+come upon us, what shall it signify?"
+
+I groaned inwardly, and I grew, I think, more afraid than when Ramiro
+and his men had broken into the church an hour ago.
+
+"What kept you here after all were gone?"
+
+"I remained to pray, Madonna," I answered brusquely. "Is aught else to
+be done in a church?"
+
+"To pray for me, Lazzaro?" she asked.
+
+"Assuredly, Madonna."
+
+"Faithful heart," she murmured. "And I had used you so cruelly for
+the deception you practised. But you merited my cruelty, did you not,
+Lazzaro? Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse."
+
+"Perhaps I deserved it, Madonna. But perhaps not so much as you
+bestowed, had you but understood my motives," I said unguardedly.
+
+"If I had understood your motives?" she mused. "Aye, there is much I do
+not understand. Even in this night's transactions there are not wanting
+things that remain mysterious despite the explanations you have supplied
+me. Tell me, Lazzaro, what was it led you to suppose that I still lived?
+
+"I did not suppose it," I blundered like a fool, never seeing whither
+her question led.
+
+"You did not?" she cried, in deep surprise; and now, when it was
+too late, I understood. "What was it, then, induced you to lift the
+coffin-lid?"
+
+"You ask me more than I can tell you," I answered, almost roughly. "Do
+you thank God, Madonna, that it was so, and never plague your mind to
+learn the 'why' of it."
+
+She looked at me with eyes that were singularly luminous.
+
+"But I must know," she insisted. "Have I not the right? Tell me now: Was
+it that you wished to see my face again before they gave me over to the
+grave?"
+
+"Perhaps it was that, Madonna," I answered in confusion, avoiding her
+glance. Then--"Shall we be going?" I suggested fiercely. But she never
+heeded that suggestion.
+
+She spoke as if she had not heard, and the words she uttered seemed to
+turn me into stone.
+
+"Did you love me then so much, dear Lazzaro?"
+
+I swung round to face her now, and I know that my face was white--whiter
+than hers had been when I had beheld her in her coffin. My eyes seemed
+to burn in their sockets as they met hers. A madness overtook me and
+whelmed my better judgment. I had undergone so much that day through
+grief, and that night through a hundred emotions, that I was no longer
+fully master of myself. Her words robbed me, I think, of my last
+lingering shred of reason.
+
+"Love you, Madonna?" I echoed, in a voice that was as unlike my own as
+was the mood that then possessed me. "You are the air I breathe, the
+sun that lights my miserable world. You are dearer to me than honour,
+sweeter than life. You are the guardian angel of my existence, the saint
+to whom I have turned morning and evening in my prayers for grace. Do I
+love you, Madonna--?"
+
+And there I paused. The thought of what I did and what the consequences
+must be rushed suddenly upon me. I shivered as a man shivers in awaking.
+I dropped on my knees before her, bowing my head and flinging wide my
+arms.
+
+"Forgive, Madonna," I cried entreatingly. "Forgive and forget. Never
+again will I offend."
+
+"Neither forgive nor forget will I," came her voice, charged with an
+ineffable sweetness, and her hands descended on my bowed bead, as if
+she would bless and soothe me. "I am conscious of no offence that craves
+forgiveness, and what you have said I would not forget if I could.
+Whence springs this fear of yours, dear Lazzaro? Am I more than woman,
+or you less than man that you should tremble for the confession that in
+a wild moment I have dragged from you? For that wild moment I shall be
+thankful to my life's end; for your words have been the sweetest ever
+my poor ears listened to. Once I thought that I loved the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza. But it was you I loved; for the deeds that earned him my
+affection were deeds of yours and not of his. Once I told you so in
+scorn. Yet since then I have come soberly to ponder it. I account you,
+Lazzaro, the noblest friend, the bravest gentleman and the truest lover
+that the world has known. Need it surprise you, then, that I love you
+and that mine would be a happy life if I might spend it in growing
+worthy of this noble love of yours?"
+
+There was a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes--a matter at which I
+take no shame. Air seemed to fail me for a moment, and I almost thought
+that I should swoon, so overcome was I. Transport the blackest soul from
+among the damned of Hell, wash it white of its sins and seat it on one
+of the glorious thrones of Heaven, then ponder its emotions, and you
+may learn something of what I felt. At last, when I had mastered the
+exquisite torture of my joy--
+
+"Madonna mia," I cried, "bethink you of what you say. You are the noble
+lady of Santafior, and I--"
+
+"No more of this," she interrupted me. "You are Lazzaro Biancomonte, of
+patrician birth, no matter to what odd shifts a cruel fortune may have
+driven you. Will you take me?"
+
+She had my face between her palms, and she forced my glance to meet her
+own saintly eyes.
+
+"Will you take me, Lazaro?" she repeated.
+
+"Holy Flower of the Quince!" was all that I could murmur, whereat she
+gently smiled. "Santo Fior di Cotogno!"
+
+And then a great sadness overwhelmed me. A tide that neaped the frail
+bark of happiness high and dry upon the shores of black despair.
+
+"To-morrow Madonna, comes the Lord Ignacio Borgia," I groaned.
+
+"I know, I know," said she. "But I have thought of that. Paula Sforza
+di Santafior is dead. Requiescat! We must dispose that they will let her
+rest in peace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+
+Speechless I stared at her a moment, so taken was I with the immensity
+of the thing that she suggested. Fear, amazement, and joy jostled one
+another for the possession of my mind.
+
+"Why do you look so, Lazzaro?" she exclaimed at last. "What is it daunts
+you?
+
+"How is the thing possible?" quoth I.
+
+"What difficulty does it present?" she questioned back. "The Governor
+of Cesena has rendered very possible what I propose. We may look on him
+to-morrow as our best friend."
+
+"But Ramiro knows," I reminded her.
+
+"True, but do you think that he will dare to tell the world what he
+knows? He might be asked to say how he comes by his knowledge, and that
+should prove a difficult question to answer. Tell me, Lazzaro," she
+continued, "if he had succeeded in carrying me away, what think you
+would have been said in Pesaro to-morrow when the coffin was found
+empty?"
+
+"They would assume that your body had been stolen by some wizard or some
+daring student of anatomy."
+
+"Ah! And if we were quietly to quit the church and be clear of Pesaro
+before morning, would not the same be said?"
+
+"Probably," answered I.
+
+"Then why hesitate? Is it that you do not love me enough, Lazzaro?"
+
+I smiled, and my eyes must have told her more than any protestation
+could. Then I sighed. "I hesitate, Madonna, because I would not have you
+do now what you might come, hereafter, bitterly to repent. I would
+not let you be misled by the impulse of a moment into an act whose
+consequences must endure as long as life itself."
+
+"Is that the reasoning of a lover?" she asked me, very quietly. "Is
+this cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the stormy
+passion you professed so lately?"
+
+"It is," I answered stoutly. "It is because I love you more than I love
+myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life upon
+such a broken raft as mine. You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and I--"
+
+"Enough of that," she interrupted me, rising. She swept towards me, and
+before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and
+her blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in her
+low tones, "moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me,
+and bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time. Will you wait
+until escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered, before you
+will decide to save me, and to grasp with both hands this happiness of
+ours that is not twice offered in a lifetime?"
+
+She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her
+heart. Some subtle perfume reaching me and combining with the
+dominion that her eyes seemed to have established over me completed
+my subjugation. I was as warm wax in her hands. Forgotten were all
+considerations of rank and station. We were just a man and a woman whose
+fates were linked irrevocably by love. I stooped suddenly, under the
+sway of an impulse, I could not resist, and kissed her upturned face,
+turning almost dizzy in the act. Then I broke from her clasp, and
+bracing myself for the task to which we stood committed by that kiss--
+
+"Paola," said I, "we must devise the means to get away. I will bear you
+to my mother's home near Biancomonte, that you may dwell there at least
+until we are wed. But the thing that exercises my mind is how to make
+our unobserved escape from Pesaro."
+
+"I have thought of it already," she informed me quietly.
+
+"You have thought of it?" I cried. "And of what have you thought?"
+
+For answer she stepped back a pace, and drew the cowl of the monk's
+habit over her head until her features were lost in the shadows of it.
+She stood before me now, a diminutive Dominican brother. Her meaning
+was clear to me at once. With a cry of gladness I turned to the drawer
+whence I had taken the habit in which she was arrayed, and selecting
+another one I hastily donned it above the garments that I wore.
+
+No sooner was it done than I caught her by the arm.
+
+"Come, Madonna," I bade her in an urgent voice. At the first step she
+stumbled. The habit was so long that it cumbered her feet. But that was
+a difficulty soon conquered. With my dagger I cut a piece from the skirt
+of it, enough to leave her freedom of movement; and, that accomplished,
+we set out.
+
+We crossed the church swiftly and silently, and a moment I left her
+in the porch whilst I surveyed the street. All was quiet. Pesaro still
+slept, and it must have wanted some two hours or more to the dawn.
+
+A fine rain was falling as we sallied out, and there was a sting in the
+December wind which made us draw our cowls the tighter about our face.
+Abandoning the main street, I led her down some narrow alleys, deserted
+like all the rest of the city, and not so much as a stray cat abroad in
+that foul weather. It was very dark, and a hundred times we stumbled,
+whilst in some places I almost carried her bodily to avoid the filth of
+the quarter we were traversing. At length we gained the space in front
+of the gates that open on to the northern road, known as Porta Venezia,
+and I would have blundered on and roused the guard to let us out, using
+the Borgia ring once more--that talisman whose power had grown during
+these years, so that it would now open me almost any door in Italy. But
+Paola stayed me. Wisely she counselled that we should do nothing that
+might draw too much attention upon ourselves, and she urged me to wait
+until the dawn, when the guard would be astir and the gates opened.
+
+So we fled to the shelter of a porch, and there we waited, huddling
+ourselves out of the reach of the icy rain. We talked little during the
+time we spent there. For my own part I had overmuch food for thought,
+and a very natural anxiety racked me. Soon the monks would be descending
+to the church, and they would discover the havoc there, and spread the
+alarm.
+
+Who could say but that they might even discover the abstraction of the
+two habits from the sacristy, and the hue and cry for two men in the
+sackcloth of Dominicans would be afoot--for they would infer that
+two men so disguised had made off with the body of Madonna Paola.
+The thought stirred me like a goad. I stood up. The night was growing
+thinner, and, suddenly, even as I rose, a light gleamed from one of the
+Windows of the guard-house.
+
+"God be thanked for that fellow's early rising," I cried out. "Come,
+Madonna, let us be moving."
+
+And I added my newly-conceived reasons for quitting the place without
+further delay.
+
+Cursing us for being so early abroad--a curse to which I responded with
+a sonorous "Pax Domini sit tecum" the still somnolent sentinel opened
+the post and let us pass. I was glad in the end that we had waited and
+thus avoided the necessity of showing my ring, for should inquiries be
+made concerning two monks, that ring of mine might have betrayed the
+identity of one of them. I gave thanks to Heaven that I knew the country
+well. A quarter of a league or so from Pesaro we quitted the high-road
+and took to the by-paths with which I was well acquainted.
+
+Day came, grey and forbidding at first, but presently the rain
+ceased and the sun flashed out a thousand diamonds from the drenched
+hedge-rows.
+
+We plodded on; and at length, towards noon, when we had gained the
+neighbourhood of the village of Cattolica, we halted at the hut of a
+peasant on a small campagna. I had divested myself of my monk's habit,
+and cut away the cowl from Madonna's. She had thereafter fashioned it
+by means that were mysterious to my dull man's mind into a more
+feminine-looking garb.
+
+Thus we now presented ourselves to the old man who was the sole tenant
+of that lonely and squalid house. A ducat opened his door as wide as it
+would go, and gave us free access to every cranny of his dwelling. Food
+he procured us--rough black bread, some pieces of roasted goat, and some
+goat's milk--and on this we regaled ourselves as though it had been a
+ducal banquet, for hunger had set us in the mood to account anything
+delicious. And when we had eaten we fell to talking, the old man having
+left us to go about such peasant duties as claimed his attention, and
+our talk concerned ourselves, our future first, and later on our past. I
+remember that Madonna returned to the matter of the deception that I had
+practised, seeking to learn what reasons had impelled me, and I answered
+her in all truth.
+
+"Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love. When Giovanni
+Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook
+the task with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out
+the tale of the passion that was consuming my poor heart. It occurred to
+me that if those verses were worthy, you might come to love their author
+for their beauty, and so I strove to render them beautiful. It was the
+same spirit urged me to don the Lord Giovanni's armour and fight in that
+splendid if futile skirmish. Even as you had come to love the author for
+his verses, so might you come to love the warrior for his valour. That
+you should account the one and the other the work of Giovanni Sforza
+was to me a little thing, since I was well content to think that you
+but loved him because you accounted his the things that I had performed.
+Therefore was I the one you truly loved, although you did not know it.
+Could you but conceive what consolation that reflection was to me, you
+would deal lightly with me for my deceit."
+
+"I can conceive it," she answered, very gently, her eyes downcast; "and
+now that I know the motives that impelled you, I almost love you for
+that deceit itself, for it seems to me that it holds some quality well
+worthy of devotion."
+
+Such was our talk, all of a nature to help us to a better understanding
+of each other, and all seeming to endear us more and more by showing us
+how close the past had already drawn us.
+
+Later I rose and announced my intention of adventuring into Cattolica,
+there to procure her garments more seemly than those she wore, in which
+she might journey on and come into the presence of my mother. Also,
+there was in Cattolica a man I knew, of whom I hoped for the loan of
+enough money to enable me to purchase mules, to the end that we might
+journey in more dignity and comfort. It was then about the twentieth
+hour, and I hoped to return by nightfall. I took my leave of Madonna,
+enjoining her to rest and to seek sleep whilst I was absent; and with
+that I set out.
+
+Cattolica was no more than a half-league distant, and I looked to reach
+it in a half-hour or so. I fell into thought as I trudged along, and I
+was building plans for the sunlit future that was to be ours. I was a
+man transformed that day, and I could have sung in spite of the chill
+December wind that buffeted me, so full of joy and gladness was my
+heart.
+
+At Biancomonte I was likely to spend my days as little better than a
+peasant, but surely a peasant's estate with such a companion as was to
+be mine was preferable to an emperor's throne without her.
+
+The bleak landscape seemed to me invested with a beauty that at no other
+time I should have noticed. God was good. I swore a thousand times, the
+world was a good world--so good that Heaven could scarce be better.
+
+I had come, perhaps, the better half of the distance I had to travel,
+and I was giving full rein to my joyous fancy, when suddenly I espied
+ahead a company of horsemen. They were approaching me at a brisk
+pace, but I took no thought of them, accounting myself secure from any
+molestation. If it so happened that it was a search party from Pesaro,
+seeking two men disguised as monks who had ravished the coffin
+of Madonna Paola di Santafior, what should they want of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte? And so, in my confidence, I advanced even as they trotted
+quickly towards me.
+
+Not until they were within a matter of a hundred paces did I raise my
+eyes to take their measure; and then I halted on my step, smitten of a
+sudden by an unreasoning and unreasonable fear, to see at their head
+the bulky form of the Governor of Cesena. He saw me, too, and, what
+was worse, he recognised me on the instant, for he clapped spurs to his
+horse and came at me as if he would ride me down. Within three paces of
+me he drew up his steed. Whether the memory of the other two occasions
+on which I had thwarted him arose now in his mind and made him wonder
+had not some fatality brought me across his path again to send awry his
+pretty schemes concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for certain; yet
+some suspicion of it occurred to me and filled me with apprehension.
+
+"Body of Bacchus!" he roared. "Is it truly you, Boccadoro?"
+
+"They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent," I answered him. But my tone
+was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
+
+"A fig for what they call you," he snapped contemptuously. "Whence are
+you?"
+
+"From Pesaro," I answered truthfully.
+
+"From Pesaro? But you are travelling towards it."
+
+"True. I was making for Cattolica, but I missed my way in seeking to
+shorten it. I am now returning by the high-road."
+
+The explanation satisfied him on that point, and being satisfied, he
+asked me when I had left Pesaro. A moment I hesitated.
+
+"Late last night," said I at last. He looked, at me, my foolish
+hesitation having perhaps unslipped a suspicion that was straining at
+its leash.
+
+"In that case," said he, "you can scarcely have heard the strange story
+that is being told there?"
+
+I looked at him, as if puzzled, for a second. "If you mean the story of
+Madonna Paoia's end, I heard it yesterday."
+
+"Why, what story was that?" quoth he in some surprise, his beetling
+brows coming together in one broad line of fur.
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. "Men said that she had been poisoned."
+
+"Oh, that," he cried indifferently. "But men say to-day that her
+body was stolen from the Church of San Domenico where it lay. An odd
+happening, is it not?" And his eyes covered me in a fierce scrutiny that
+again suggested to me those suspicions of his that I might be the man
+who had anticipated him. I was soon to learn that he had more grounds
+than at first I thought for those same suspicions.
+
+"Odd, indeed," I answered calmly, for all that I felt my pulses
+quickening with apprehension. "But is it true?" I added.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders. "Rumour's habit is to lie," he answered.
+"Yet for such a lie as that, so monstrous an imagination would be needed
+that, rather, am I inclined to account it truth. There are no more poets
+in Pesaro since you left. But at what hour was it that you quitted the
+city?"
+
+To hesitate again were to betray myself; it were to suggest that I
+was seeking an answer that should sort well with the rest of my story.
+Besides, what could the hour signify?
+
+"It would be about the first hour of night," I said. He looked at me
+with increasing strangeness.
+
+"You must indeed have wandered from your road to have got no farther
+than this in all that time. Perhaps you were hampered by some heavy
+burden?" He leered evilly, and I turned cold.
+
+"I was burdened with nothing heavier than this body of mine and a rather
+uneasy conscience."
+
+"Where, then, have you tarried?"
+
+At this I thought it time to rebel. Were I too meekly to submit to this
+examination, my very meekness might afford him fresh grounds for doubts.
+
+"Once have I told you," I answered wearily, "that I lost my way. And,
+however much it may flatter me to have your Excellency evincing such an
+interest in my concerns, I am at a loss to find a reason for it."
+
+He leered prodigiously once more, and his eyebrows shot up to the level
+of his cap.
+
+"I will tell you, brute beast," he answered me. "I question you because
+I suspect that you are hiding something from me."
+
+"What should I hide from your Excellency?"
+
+He dared not enlighten me on that point, for should his suspicions prove
+unfounded he would have uselessly betrayed himself.
+
+"If you are honest, why do you lie?"
+
+"I?" I ejaculated. "In what have I lied?"
+
+"In that you have told me that you left Pesaro at the first hour of
+night. At the third hour you were still in the Church of San Domenico,
+whither you followed Madonna Paola's bier."
+
+It was my turn to knit my brows. "Was I indeed?" quoth I. "Why, yes, it
+may well be. But what of that? Is the hour in which I quitted Pesaro a
+matter of such moment as to be worth lying over? If I said that I left
+about the first hour, it is because I was under the impression that it
+was so. But I was so distraught by grief at Madonna's death that I may
+have been careless in my account of time."
+
+"More lies," he blazed with sudden passion. "It may have been the third
+hour, you say. Fool, the gates of Pesaro close at the second hour of
+night. Where are your wits?"
+
+Outwardly calm, but inwardly in a panic--more for Madonna's sake than
+for my own--I promptly held out the hand on which I wore the Borgia
+ring. In a flash of inspiration did that counter suggest itself to me.
+
+"There is a key that will open any gate in Romagna at any hour."
+
+He looked at the ring, and of what passed in his mind I can but offer a
+surmise. He may have remembered that once before I had fooled him
+with the help of that gold circlet; or he may have thought that I
+was secretly in the service of the Borgias, and that, acting in their
+interests, I had carried off Madonna Paola. Be that as it may, the sight
+of the ring threw him into a fury. He turned on his horse.
+
+"Lucagnolo!" he called, and a man of officer's rank detached himself
+from the score of men-at-arms and rode forward. "Let six men escort me
+home to Cesena. Take you the remainder and beat up the country for
+three leagues about this spot. Do not leave a house outside Cattolica
+unsearched. You know what we are seeking?"
+
+The man inclined his head.
+
+"If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it," he
+answered confidently.
+
+"Set about it," was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me.
+"You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro," he sneered. "We
+shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe betide you,
+should it be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena."
+
+"So be it then," I answered as calmly as I might. "Meanwhile, perhaps
+you will now suffer me to go my ways."
+
+"The readier since your way must lie with ours."
+
+"Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica."
+
+"Not so, animal," he mimicked me with elephantine grace, "you are for
+Cesena, and you had best go with a good will. Our manner of constraining
+men is reputed rude." He turned again. "Ercole, take you this man behind
+you. Assist him, Stefano."
+
+And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to
+the steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride. Thus at every
+stride the anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they
+must find her rose ever higher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+
+I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were
+mine as we sped northward towards Cesena. If you are a person of some
+imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to
+surmise them; if you are not--why then, my tale is not for you, and
+it is more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it
+aside long before you reach this page.
+
+We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had
+fallen we were within the walls of the citadel. It was when we had
+dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of
+the soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.
+
+"Animal," said he, "they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures
+and rough ways. You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am
+maligned. For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your
+lying tongue with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until my
+men return with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me. But if
+I then discover that you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter from
+Ramiro del' Orca's flagstaff."
+
+He pointed up to the tower of the Castle, from which a beam protruded,
+laden at that moment with a ghastly burden just discernible in the
+thickening gloom. He named it well when he called it his "flagstaff,"
+and the miserable banner of carrion that hung from it was a fitting
+pennon for the ruthless Governor of Cesena. Worthy was he to have worn
+the silver hauberk of Werner von Urslingen with its motto, "The enemy of
+God, of pity and of mercy."
+
+Forbidding, black-browed men caught me with rough hands and dragged me
+off to a dank, unlighted prison, as empty of furniture as it was full of
+noisome smells. And there they left me to my ugly thoughts and my
+deeply despondent mood what time the Governor of Cesena supped with his
+officers in the hall of the Castle.
+
+Ramiro drank deep that night as was his habit, and being overladen
+with wine it entered his mind that in one of his dungeons lay Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, who, at one time, had been known as Boccadoro, the merriest
+Fool in Italy. In his drunkenness he grew merry, and when Ramiro del'
+Orca grew merry men crossed themselves and betook them to their prayers.
+He would fain be amused, and to serve that end he summoned one of his
+sbirri and bade the fellow drag Boccadoro from his dungeon and fetch him
+into his presence.
+
+When they came for me I turned cold with fear that Madonna was already
+taken, and, by contrast with such a fear as that, the reflection that he
+might carry out his threat to hang me from that black beam of his, faded
+into insignificant proportions.
+
+They ushered me into a great hall, not ill-furnished, the floor strewed
+plentifully with rushes, and warmed by an enormous fire of blazing oak.
+By the door stood two pikemen in armour, like a pair of statues; in the
+centre of the floor was a heavy oaken board, laden now with flagons and
+beakers, at which sat Ramiro with a pair of gossips so villainous to
+look at, that the sight of them reminded me of the adage "God makes a
+man and then accompanies him."
+
+The Governor made a hideous noise at sight of me, which I was
+constrained to accept as an expression of horrid glee.
+
+"Boccadoro," said he, "do you recall that when last I had the honour of
+being entertained by your pert tongue, I promised you that did you ever
+cross my path again I would raise you to the dignity of Fool of my Court
+of Cesena?"
+
+Into what magniloquence does vanity betray us! His Court of Cesena! As
+well might you describe a pig-sty as a bower of roses.
+
+But his words, despite the unsavoury thing of which they seemed to
+hold a promise, fell sweetly on my ear, inasmuch as for the time they
+relieved my fears touching Madonna. It was not to advise me of her
+capture that he had had me haled into his odious presence. I gathered
+courage.
+
+"Have you not fools enough already at Cesena?" I asked him.
+
+A moment he looked as if he were inclining to anger. Then he burst into
+a coarse laugh, and turned to one of his gossips.
+
+"Did I not tell you, Lampugnani, that his wit was quick and penetrating?
+Hear him, rogue. Already has he discerned your quality." He laughed
+consumedly at his own jest, and turning to me he pointed to a crimson
+bundle on a chair beside me. "Take those garments," he roughly bade me.
+"Go dress yourself in them, then come you back and entertain us."
+
+Without answering him, and already anticipating the nature of the
+clothes he bade me don, I lifted one of the garments from the heap. It
+was a foliated jester's cap, with a bell hanging from every point, which
+gave out a tinkling sound as I picked it up. I let it fall again as
+though it had scorched me, the memory of what stood between Madonna
+Paola and me rising like a warning spectre in my mind. I would not again
+defile myself by the garb of folly; not again would I incur the shame of
+playing the Fool for the amusement of others.
+
+"May it please your Excellency to excuse me," I answered in a firm tone.
+"I have made a vow never again to put on motley."
+
+He eyed me sardonically for a moment, as if enjoying in anticipation the
+pleasure of compelling me against my will. He sat back in his chair and
+threw one heavily-booted leg across the other.
+
+"In the Citadel of Cesena," said he, "we fear neither God nor Devil, and
+vows are as water to us--things we cannot stomach. It does not please me
+to excuse you."
+
+I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he
+accompanied his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
+
+"It is not," said I, "a question of what a vow may be to you and yours,
+but of what a vow is to me. It is a thing I cannot break."
+
+"Sangue di Cristo!" he snarled, "we will break it for you, then--that
+or your bones. Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the rack--or yet,
+if you prefer it, there is the cord yonder." And he pointed to the far
+end of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a pulley, the
+implements of the ghastly torture of the cord. Of such a nature was this
+monster that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
+
+"Let the rogue make acquaintance with it," laughed Lampugnani, showing
+a mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
+"I'll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his quips.
+Swing him up, Illustrious."
+
+But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
+
+"You shall have five minutes in which to decide," he informed me
+presently. "They say that I am cruel. Behold how patient is my clemency.
+Five minutes shall you have where many another would hang you out of
+hand for bearding him as you have done me."
+
+"You may begin at once," said I. "neither five minutes nor five years
+will alter my determination."
+
+His brow grew black with anger. "We shall see," was all he said.
+
+There was a silence now in which we waited, a storm of thoughts battling
+in my mind. Presently Ramiro caught up one of the flagons and applied
+it to his cup. It proved empty, and in a gust of passion he hurled it
+against the wall where it burst into a thousand pieces. Clearly he was
+very angry, and it taxed my wits to account for the little measure of
+patience he was showing me.
+
+"Beppo!" he called. A page lounging by the buffet sprang to attention.
+He was a slender, rather delicate lad, fair of hair and blue of eyes,
+not more than twelve years of age. An elderly man who stood beside
+him--one Mariani, the seneschal of Cesena--stepped forward also,
+solicitude in his glance.
+
+"Bring me wine," bawled the ogre. "Must I tell you what I need? If you
+do not put those eyes of yours to better service, I'll have them plucked
+from your empty head. Bestir, animal."
+
+The old man caught up a beaker from the buffet and handed it to the boy.
+
+"Here, my son," said he. "Hasten to his Excellency."
+
+The lad took the beaker from his father's hands, and trembling in his
+fear of Ramiro's anger, he sprang forward to serve him. In his haste
+the poor youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes.
+In seeking to recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the
+halberdiers that guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at
+Ramiro's feet, flooding the Governor's legs with the wine he carried.
+
+How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
+
+For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes
+glowing like a madman's. Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one
+hand to the boy's belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin. Feeling
+himself lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him,
+poor Beppo uttered a single scream of terror. Then Ramiro swung him
+round with an ease that displayed the man's prodigious strength. For
+just a second he seemed to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle
+that he held. Then, as if suddenly taking his resolve, that devil hurled
+the lad across the little intervening space, straight into the heart of
+the blazing fire.
+
+Beppo hurtled against the logs with a sickening crash, and a thousand
+sparks leapt up and vanished in the cavern of the chimney. Ramiro
+wheeled sharply about, and snatching the pike from the hands of one of
+my guards, he pinned down the poor body of the boy to make sure of his
+victim's entire destruction.
+
+Away by the buffet old Mariani looked on with a face as grey as ashes,
+his eyes protruding in horror at the thing they witnessed. One glimpse I
+had of him, and I scarce know which was the sight that sickened me more,
+the fathers anguish or the twitching limbs of the burning child. Two
+legs and two arms protruded from the blaze and writhed and wriggled
+horribly what time the flames peeled the garments from them and licked
+the flesh from the bones. At length they fell still and sank down into
+the white heat of the logs, a hideous, pungent odour spreading through
+the chamber. From the old man by the buffet, who had stood spellbound
+during this ghastly scene, there broke at last an anguished cry.
+
+"Mercy, my lord, mercy!"
+
+The Governor of Cesena straightened himself from his task, pulled the
+pike from the flames, and restored it to the man-at-arms. Then turning
+to Mariani:
+
+"Fetch me wine," he bade him curtly, as he seated himself once more
+upon the chair from which he had risen to perform that deed of ghastly
+ruthlessness.
+
+A torch spluttered suddenly in its sconce, and the fierce hissing of the
+fire--like some monster licking its chops over a bloody meal--were the
+only sounds that disturbed the stillness that ensued.
+
+Every man there, including Ramiro's table companions, was white to the
+lips; for accustomed though they might be to horrors in that brigand's
+nest, this was a horror that surpassed anything they had ever witnessed.
+The silence irked Messer Ramiro. He looked round from under his shaggy
+brows, and he spluttered out an oath.
+
+"Will you bring me this wine, pig?" he growled at the almost senseless
+Mariani, and in his air and voice there was a promise of such terrific
+things that the old man put aside his horror to make room for his fears,
+and mechanically seizing another flagon he hurried forward to minister
+to the wants of his fearful lord.
+
+Ramiro eyed him with cynical amusement.
+
+"Your hand shakes, Mariani," he derided him. "Are you cold? Go warm
+yourself," he added, with a brutal laugh and a jerk of his thumb towards
+the fire.
+
+My eyes have looked upon some gruesome sights, and I have heard such
+tales of ruthless cruelty as you would deem almost passing possibility.
+I have read of the awful doings of the Lord Bernabo Visconti at Milan in
+the olden time, but I believe that compared with this monster of Cesena
+that same Bernabo was no worse than a sucking dove. How it befell that
+men permitted him to live, how it was that none bethought him to put
+poison in his wine or a knife in his back, is something that I shall
+never wholly understand. Could it be that these robbers of whom he made
+a hedge for his protection were no better than himself, or was it that
+the man's terrific brutality was on such a scale that it filled them
+with an almost supernatural awe of him? To men better versed than am I
+in the mysterious ways of human nature do I leave the answering of these
+questions.
+
+The ogre turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, as with his hand he caressed
+his tawny beard. He seemed to have cooled a little now, and to have
+regained some mastery of his drunken self. Old Mariani tottered back to
+his buffet, and stood leaning against it, his eyes wandering, with the
+look of a man demented, to the fire that had devoured his child. There,
+indeed, if he escaped the madness with which the poignancy of his grief
+was threatening him, was a tool that might turn its edge against this
+inhuman monster, this devil, this bloody carnifex of a Governor.
+
+"Chance," said Ramiro, "has designed that you should see something of
+how we deal with clumsy knaves at Cesena, Boccadoro. To disobedient
+ones I can assure you that we are not half so merciful. There is no such
+short shrift for them. You have had more than the time I promised you
+for reflection. The garments await you yonder. Let us know--"
+
+The door opened suddenly, and a servant entered.
+
+"A courier from the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli, Tyrant of Citta di
+Castello," he announced, unwittingly breaking in upon Ramiro's words,
+"with urgent messages for the high and Mighty Governor of Cesena."
+
+On the instant Ramiro rose, the expression of his face changing from
+cynical amusement to sober concern, the task upon which he was engaged
+forgotten.
+
+"Admit him instantly," he commanded. And whilst he waited he paced the
+chamber in long strides, his chin thrust slightly forward, suggestive of
+deep thought. And during that pause, I, too, was thinking. Not indeed
+of him, nor vainly speculating upon such matters as might be involved
+in the message, the announcement of which seemed so deeply to engage his
+mind, but chiefly of my own and Madonna Paola's concerns.
+
+It was not fear of what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new
+channel and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del' Orca's
+behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his
+diversion. It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what the
+consequences of my death might be to Paola di Santafior.
+
+However desperate a position may seem, unlooked-for loopholes often
+present themselves, and so long as we live and have sound limbs to aid
+us to seize such opportunities as may offer, it is a weak thing utterly
+to abandon hope.
+
+Was it, then, not better to submit to the shame of the motley once again
+for a little time, when by so doing I might perhaps live to work my
+own salvation, and Madonna's should she suffer capture, rather than
+stubbornly to invite him to put me to death out of a feeling of false
+pride?
+
+The very resolve seemed to lend me strength and to revive the hope that
+lay moribund in my breast. And then, scarce was it taken, when the door
+again opened, and a man, who was splashed from head to foot with mud, in
+earnest of how hard he had ridden, was ushered in.
+
+He advanced to Meser Ramiro, bowed and presented a package. Ramiro broke
+the seal, and standing with his back to the fire, immediately in the
+light shed by one of the wax torches, he read the letter. Then his eyes
+wandered to the man who had brought it, and to me it seemed that they
+dwelt particularly upon the hat the courier was holding in his hand.
+
+"Take this good fellow to the kitchen," he bade the servant that had
+introduced him, "let him be fed and rested." Then, turning to the man,
+himself, "I shall require you to set out at daybreak with my answer,"
+he said; and so, with a wave of the hand, he dismissed him. As the
+messenger departed Ramiro returned to the table, filled himself a cup of
+wine and drank.
+
+"What says the Lord Vitelli?" Lampugnani ventured to ask him.
+
+"If he knew you," answered Ramiro, with a scowl, "he would counsel me to
+strangle some of the over-inquisitive rascals that surround me."
+
+"Over-inquisitive?" echoed Lampugnani boldly. "Body of God! It
+were enough to wake the curiosity of an ecstatic hermit to have a
+mud-splashed courier from Citta di Castello at Cesena three times within
+one little week."
+
+Ramiro looked at him, and by his glance it was plain to see that the
+words had jarred his temper. Whatever it was that Vitelli wrote to
+Ramiro, this gentleman was not minded to divulge it.
+
+"If you have supped, Lampugnani," said the Governor slowly, his eyes
+upon his offending officer, "perhaps you will find some duty to perform
+ere you seek your bed."
+
+Lampugnani turned crimson, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. Then he
+rose. He was a man of choleric aspect, and that he served under Ramiro
+del' Orca was as much a danger to the Governor as to himself. He had not
+the air of one whom it was wise to threaten in however veiled a manner.
+
+"Shall I fetch you this fellow's hat ere I sleep?" he inquired, with
+contemptuous insolence.
+
+Not a word did Ramiro answer him, but his glance fastened upon
+Lampugnani with an expression before which that impudent ruffian lowered
+his own bold eyes. Thus for a moment; then with an awkward laugh to
+cover the intimidation that he felt, Lampugnani walked heavily from the
+room and banged the door after him.
+
+There was about it all a strangeness that set my wits to work in a
+mighty busy fashion. That work suffered interruption by the harsh voice
+of Ramiro.
+
+"Are you resolved, Boccadoro?" he growled at me. "Have you decided for
+the motley or the cord?"
+
+Instantly I fell into the part I was to play.
+
+"Did I choose the latter," said I, with an assumption of sudden airiness
+and such a grimace as was part and parcel of my old-time trade, "then
+were I truly worthy of the former, for I should have proved myself,
+indeed, a fool. Yet if I choose the former, I pray that you'll not
+follow the same course of reasoning, and hold me worthy of the latter."
+
+When he had understood its subtleties; for his wits were of a quality
+that would have disgraced a calf, he roared at the conceit, and
+seemingly thrown into a better humour by the promise of more such
+entertainment, he bade my guards release me, and urged me to assume the
+motley without more delay.
+
+What time I was obeying him my mind was returning to that matter of
+Lampugnani's words, and it is not difficult to understand how I should
+arrive at the only possible conclusion they suggested. The hats of the
+other messengers from Vitelli, that the officer had mentioned, had been
+brought to Ramiro. The reason for this that at once arose in my mind
+was that within the messenger's hat there was a second and more secret
+communication for the Governor.
+
+This secrecy and Ramiro's display of anger at seeing a hint of it
+betrayed by Lampugnani struck me, not unnaturally, as suspicious. What
+were these hidden communications that passed between Vitellozzo Vitelli
+and the Governor of Cesena? It was a matter of which I could not pretend
+to offer a solution, but, nevertheless, it was one, I thought, that
+promised to repay investigation.
+
+Ramiro grew impatient, and my reflections suffered interruption by his
+rough command that I should hasten. One of the men-at-arms helped me to
+truss my points, and when that was done I stepped forward--Boccadoro the
+Fool once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. THE SENESCHAL
+
+For an hour or so that night I played the Fool for Messer Ramiro's
+entertainment in a manner which did high justice to the fame that at
+Pesaro I had earned for the name of Boccadoro.
+
+Beginning with quip and jest and paradox, aimed now at him, now at the
+officer who had remained to keep him company in his cups, now at the
+servants who ministered to him, now at the guards standing at attention,
+I passed on later to play the part of narrator, and I delighted his foul
+and prurient mind with the story of Andreuccio da Perugia and another
+of the more licentious tales of Messer Giovanni Boccacci. I crimson now
+with shame at the manner in which I set myself to pander to his mood
+that with my wit I might defend my life and limbs, and preserve them for
+the service of my Holy Flower of the Quince in the hour of her need.
+
+One man alone of all those present did I spare my banter. This was the
+old seneschal, Miriani. He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever and
+anon he would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro's cup in obedience
+to the monsters imperious orders.
+
+What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so
+calm? His face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and
+rigid, its colour ashen. But his step was tolerably firm, and his hand
+seemed to have lost the trembling that had assailed it under the first
+shock of the horror he had witnessed.
+
+As I watched him furtively I thought that were I Ramiro I should beware
+of him. That frozen calm argued to me some terrible labour of the mind
+beneath that livid mask. But the Governor of Cesena appeared insensible,
+or else he was contemptuous of danger from that quarter. It may even
+have delighted his outrageous nature to behold a man whose son he had
+done to death with such brutality continue obedient and submissive to
+his will, for it may have flattered his vanity by the concession that
+bearing seemed to make to his grim power.
+
+An hour went by, my second tale was done, and I was now entrancing
+Messer Ramiro with some impromptu verses upon the divorce of Giovanni
+Sforza, a theme set me by himself, when I was interrupted by the arrival
+of a soldier, who entered unannounced.
+
+I paled and turned cold at the cry with which Ramiro rose to greet him,
+and the words he dropped, which told me that here was one of the riders
+of the party that, under Lucagnolo, had been ordered to search the
+country about Cattolica. Had they found Madonna?
+
+"Messer Lucagnolo," the fellow announced, "has sent me to report to you
+the failure of his search to the west and north of Cattolica. He has
+beaten the country thoroughly for three leagues of the town on those two
+sides, as you desired him, but unfortunately without result. He is
+now spreading his search to the south, and not a house is being left
+unvisited. By morning he hopes to report again to your Excellency."
+
+A wild wave of joy swept through my soul. They had ransacked the country
+west and north of Cattolica without result. Why then, assuredly, they
+had missed the peasant's hut that sheltered her, and where she waited
+yet for my return. Their search to the south I knew would prove equally
+futile. I could have fallen on my knees in a prayer of thanksgiving had
+my surroundings been other than they were.
+
+Ramiro's eye wandered round to me and settled on me in a lowering
+glance. By his face it was plain that the message disappointed him.
+
+"I wonder," said he, "whether we could make you talk?" And from me his
+eyes roamed on to the instrument of torture at the end of that long
+chamber. I grew sick with fear, for if he were to do this thing, and
+maim me by it, how should I avail myself or her hereafter?
+
+"Excellency," I cried, "since you met me you have hinted at something
+that I am hiding from you, at something touching which I could give you
+information did I choose. What it may be passes all thought of mine. But
+this I do assure you: no torture could make me tell you what I do not
+know, nor is any torture needed to extract from me such information as I
+may be possessed of. I do but beg that you wilt frankly question me upon
+this matter, whatever it may be, and your Excellency shall be answered
+to the best of my knowledge."
+
+He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the
+seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that
+he believed me. A moment he hesitated yet; then--
+
+"I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior," he said
+presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table. "As I told you, the
+body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from San
+Domenico. Know you aught of this?"
+
+It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to
+fight this brigand? Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and
+a lie become a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely
+justify such an exception.
+
+"I know nothing," I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with a
+ring of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, "nor can
+I even believe this rumour. It is a wild story. That the body has been
+stolen may be true enough. Such things occur; though he was a bold man
+who laid hands upon the body of a person of such importance. But that
+she lives--Gesu! that is an old wife's tale. I had, myself, the word of
+the Lord Filippo's physician that she was dead."
+
+"Nevertheless, this old wife's tale, as you dub it, is one of which I
+have had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall
+not regret it. Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have
+abstracted the body from the church. In seeking this information I am
+acting in the interests of the noble House of Borgia which I serve and
+to which she was to have been allied, as you well know."
+
+I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
+convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover
+the true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied to
+me of his service to the House of Borgia.
+
+"I will gladly lend you these wits," said I, "to disprove to you the
+rumour of which you say that you have confirmation. Let us accept the
+statement that the body has been stolen. That much, no doubt, is true,
+for even rumours require some slight foundation. But who in all this
+world could say that when the body was taken it was not dead?
+Clearly but one man--he that administered the poison. And, I ask your
+Excellency, would he be likely to tell the world what he had done?"
+
+He might have answered me: "I am that man." But he did not. Instead, he
+hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had uttered--words
+meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter; and this they
+achieved, at least in part. He flashed me a look of sudden suspicion, it
+is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his brooding eye.
+
+"Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of
+what you say," he grumbled. "But I incline to believe you, and you are a
+merry rogue. You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as you
+amuse me. But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive me.
+You shall have the cord first and other things after, and your death
+shall be the thing you'll pray for long before it takes you from my
+vengeance. If you know aught, speak now and you shall find me merciful.
+Your life and liberty shall be the recompense of your honesty towards
+me."
+
+"I repeat, Excellency," I answered, without changing colour, "that all
+that I know have I already told you."
+
+He was convinced, I think, for the time being.
+
+"Get you gone, then," he bade me. "I have other business to deal with
+ere I sleep. Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged."
+
+The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently
+motioned me to go with him. I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance,
+and withdrew in the wake of the seneschal.
+
+He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a
+gallery that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted
+presently, and, opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished
+room.
+
+A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.
+
+The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his
+hollow eyes rested on me for a second. I thought that he was on the
+point of saying something, and I waited returning his glance with one
+that quailed before the anguish of his own. I feared to speak, to offer
+an expression of the sympathy that filled my heart; for in that strange
+place I could not tell how far a man was to be trusted--even a man so
+wronged as this one. On his own part it may be that a like doubt beset
+him concerning me, for in the end he departed as he had come, no word
+having passed his ashen lips.
+
+Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had
+left in the iron sconce on the wall. The single window overlooked the
+courtyard, so that even had I been disposed and able to cut through the
+iron that barred it, I should but succeed in falling into the hands of
+the guards who abounded in that nest of infamy.
+
+So that, for the night at least, the notion of flight must be abandoned.
+What the morrow would bring forth we must wait and see. Perhaps some way
+of escape would offer itself. Then my thoughts returned to Paola, and I
+was tortured by surmises as to her fate, and chiefly as to how she could
+have eluded the search that must have been made for her in the hut where
+I had left her. Had the peasant befriended her, I wondered; and what
+did she think of my protracted absence? I sat on the edge of the bed and
+gave rein to my conjectures. The noises in the castle had all ceased,
+and still I sat on, unconscious of time, my taper burning low.
+
+It may have been midnight when I was startled by the sound of a stealthy
+step in the corridor near my door. A heavy footfall I should have left
+unheeded, but this soft tread aroused me on the instant, and I sat
+listening.
+
+It halted at my door, and was succeeded by a soft, scratching sound.
+Noiselessly I rose, and with ready hands I waited, prepared, in the
+instinct of self-preservation, to fall upon the intruder, however futile
+the act might be. But the door did not open as I expected. Instead, the
+scratching sound continued, growing slightly louder. Then it occurred to
+me, at last, that whoever came might be a friend craving admittance, and
+proceeding stealthily that others in the castle might not overhear him.
+
+Swiftly I crossed to the door, and opened. On the threshold a dark
+figure straightened itself from a stooping posture, and the light of the
+taper behind me fell on a face of a pallor that seemed to glisten in its
+intensity. It was the face of Mariani, the seneschal of the Castle of
+Cessna.
+
+One glance we exchanged, and intuitively I seemed to apprehend the
+motive of this midnight visit. He came either to bring me aid or to seek
+mine, with vengeance for his guerdon. I stood aside, and silently he
+entered my room and closed the door.
+
+"Quench your taper," he bade me in a husky whisper.
+
+Without hesitation I obeyed him, a strange excitement thrilling me. For
+a second we stood in the dark, then another light gleamed as he plucked
+away the cloak that masked a lanthorn which he had brought with him. He
+set the lanthorn on the floor, and held the cloak in his hand, ready
+at a moment's notice to conceal the light in its folds. Then pulling me
+down beside him on the bed, where he had perched himself:
+
+"My friend," said he, "it may be that I bring you assistance."
+
+"Speak, then," I bade him. "You shall not find me slow to act if there
+is the need or the way."
+
+"So I had surmised," he said. "Are you not that same Boccadoro, Fool of
+the Court of Pesaro, who donned the Lord Giovanni's armour and rode out
+to do battle in his stead?"
+
+I answered him that I was that man.
+
+"I have heard the tale," said he. "Indeed, all Italy has heard it, and
+knows you for a man of steel, as strong and audacious as you are cunning
+and resourceful. I know against what desperate odds you fought that day,
+and how you overcame this terrible Ramiro. This it is that leads me to
+hope that in the service of your own ends you may become the instrument
+of my vengeance."
+
+"Unfold your project, man," I muttered, fiercely almost, in my burning
+eagerness. "Let me hear what you would have me do."
+
+He did not answer me until a sob had shaken his old frame.
+
+"That boy," he muttered brokenly, "that golden-haired angel sent me for
+the consolation of my decaying years, that lad whom Ramiro destroyed so
+foully and wantonly, was my son. Futile though the attempt had proved, I
+had certainly set my hands at the tyrants neck, but that I founded hopes
+on you of a surer and more terrible revenge. That thought has manned me
+and upheld me when anguish was near to slaying me outright. To see the
+boy burn so under my very eyes! God of mercy and pity! That I should
+have lived so long!"
+
+"Your child burned but a moment, suffered but an instant; for the
+deed, Ramiro will burn in Hell through countless generations, through
+interminable ages."
+
+It was a paltry consolation, perhaps, but it was the best that then
+occurred to me.
+
+"Meanwhile," I begged him, "do you tell me what you would have me do."
+
+I urged him to it that he might, thereby, suffer his mind to rest a
+moment from pondering that ghastly thing that he had witnessed, that
+scene that would live before his eyes until they closed in their last
+sleep.
+
+"You heard Lampugnani quip Ramiro with the fact that three messengers
+have ridden desperately within the week from Citta di Castello to
+Cesena, and you heard, perhaps, his obscure reference to the hat?"
+
+"I heard both, and both I weighed," said I. The old man looked at me as
+if surprised.
+
+"And what," he asked, "was the conclusion you arrived at?"
+
+"Why, simply this: that whilst the messenger bore some letter from
+Vitelli to Ramiro that should serve to lull the suspicions of any who,
+wondering at so much traffic between these two, should be moved to take
+a peep into those missives, the true letter with which the courier rides
+is concealed within the lining of his hat--probably unknown even to
+himself."
+
+He stared at me as though I had been a wizard.
+
+"Messer Boccadoro--" he began.
+
+"My name," I corrected him, "is Biancomonte--Lazzaro Biancomonte."
+
+"Whatever be your name," he returned, "of the quality of your wits there
+can be no question. You have guessed for yourself the half of what I was
+come to tell you. Has your shrewdness borne you any further? Have you
+concluded aught concerning the nature of those letters?"
+
+"I have concluded that it might repay some trouble to discover what is
+contained in letters that are sent with so much secrecy. I can conceive
+nothing that might lie between the Lord of Citta di Castello and this
+ruffian of Cesena, and yet--treason lurks often where least it is
+expected, and treason makes stranger bed-fellows than misfortune."
+
+"Lampugnani was no fool, and yet a great fool," the old man murmured. He
+surmised what you have surmised. With each of the messengers Ramiro
+has dealt in the same manner. He has sent each to be fed and refreshed
+whilst waiting to return with the answer he was penning. For their
+refreshment he has ordered a very full, stout wine--not drugged, for
+that they might discover upon awaking; but a wine that of itself would
+do the work of setting them to sleep very soundly. Then, when all slept,
+and only he remained at table, like the drunkard that he is, it has been
+his habit to descend himself to the kitchen and possess himself of
+the messenger's hat. With this he has returned to the hall, opened the
+lining and withdrawn a letter.
+
+"Then, as I suppose, he has penned his answer, thrust it into the
+lining, where the other one had been, and secured it, as it was before,
+with his own hands. He has returned the hat to the place from whence he
+took it, and when the courier awakens in the morning there is another
+letter put into his hand, and he is bidden to bear it to Vitelli."
+
+He paused a moment; then continued: "Lampugnani must have suspected
+something and watched Ramiro to make sure that his suspicions were well
+founded. In that he was wise, but he was a fool to allow Ramiro to see
+what lie he had discovered. Already he has paid the penalty. He is lying
+with a dagger in his throat, for an hour ago Ramiro stabbed him while he
+slept."
+
+I shuddered. What a place of blood was this! Could it be that Cesare
+Borgia had no knowledge of what things were being performed by his
+Governor of Cesena?
+
+"Poor Lampugnani!" I sighed. "God rest his soul."
+
+"I doubt but he is in Hell," answered Mariani, without emotion. "He
+was as great a villain as his master, and he has gone to answer for his
+villainy even as this ugly monster of a Ramiro shall. But let Lampugnani
+be. I am not come to talk of him.
+
+"Returning from his bloody act, Ramiro ordered me to bed. I went, and
+as I passed Lampugnani's room I saw the door standing wide. It was thus
+that I learnt what had befallen. I remembered his words concerning the
+hat and I remembered old suspicions of my own aroused by the thought
+of the potent wine which Ramiro had ordered me to see given to the
+couriers. I sped back to the gallery that overlooks the hall. Ramiro was
+absent, and I surmised at once that he was gone to the kitchen. Then was
+it that I thought of you and of what service you might render if things
+were indeed as I now more than suspected. Like an inspiration it came to
+me how I might prepare your way. I ran down to the hall, sweating in
+my terror that he should return ere I had performed the task I went on.
+From the buffet I drew a flagon of that same stout wine that Ramiro used
+upon his messengers. I ripped away the seal and crimson cord by which it
+is distinguished, and placing it on the table I removed the flagon I had
+set for him before I had first departed.
+
+"Then I fled back to the gallery, and from the shadows I watched for his
+return. Soon he came, bearing a hat in his hand; and from that hat he
+took a letter, all as you have surmised. He read it, and I saw his face
+lighten with a fierce excitement. Then he helped himself freely to wine,
+and drank thirstily, for all that he was overladen with it. One of the
+qualities of this wine is that in quenching thirst it produces yet a
+greater. Ramiro drank again, then sat with the letter before him in the
+light of the single taper I had left burning. Presently he grew sleepy.
+He shook himself and drank again. Then again he sat conning his epistle,
+and thus I left him and came hither in quest of you."
+
+There followed a pause.
+
+"Well?" I asked at length. "What is it you would have me do? Stab him as
+he sleeps?"
+
+He shook his head. "That were too sweet and sudden a death for him. If
+it had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent
+me strength enough. But think you it would repay me for having seen my
+boy pinned by that monster's pike to the burning logs?"
+
+"What is it, then, you ask of me?"
+
+"If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if
+its treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia--it could scarce be aimed
+at another--would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it?"
+
+"Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone--what then? You know
+this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would ransack
+the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive were
+forthcoming."
+
+"That," he groaned, "is what deterred me. If I had the means of getting
+the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from
+Cesena, I should not have hesitated. Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza,
+and I could ride there in a day. But it would be impossible for me to
+leave the place before morning. I have duties to perform in the town,
+and I might get away whilst I am about them, but before then the letter
+will have been missed, and no one will be allowed to leave the citadel."
+
+"Why then," said I, "the only hope lies in abstracting that letter in
+such a manner that he shall not suspect the loss; and that seems a very
+desperate hope."
+
+We sat in silence for some moments, during which I thought intently to
+little purpose.
+
+"Does he sleep yet, think you?" I asked presently.
+
+"Assuredly he must."
+
+"And if I were to go to the gallery, is there any fear that I should be
+discovered by others?"
+
+"None. All at Cesena are asleep by now."
+
+"Then," said I, rising, "let us take a look at him. Who knows what may
+suggest itself? Come." I moved towards the door, and he took up his
+lanthorn and followed me, enjoining me to tread lightly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. THE LETTER
+
+
+On tiptoe I crept down that corridor to the gallery above the
+banqueting-hall, secure from sight in the enveloping darkness, and
+intent upon allowing no sound to betray my presence, lest Ramiro should
+have awakened. Behind me, treading as lightly, came Messer Mariani.
+
+Thus we gained the gallery. I leaned against the stout oaken balustrade,
+and looked down into the black pit of the hall, broken in the centre by
+the circle of light from the two tapers that burnt upon the table. The
+other torches had all been quenched.
+
+At the table sat Messer Ramiro, his head fallen forward and sideways
+upon his right arm which was outstretched and limp along the board.
+Before him lay a paper which I inferred to be the letter whose
+possession might mean so much.
+
+I could hear the old man breathing heavily beside me as I leaned there
+in the dark, and sought to devise a means by which that paper might be
+obtained. No doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to snatch
+it away without disturbing him. But there was always to be considered
+that when he waked and missed the letter we should have to reckon with
+his measures to regain possession of it.
+
+It became necessary, therefore, to go about it in a manner that should
+leave him unsuspicious of the theft. A little while I pondered this,
+deeming the thing desperate at first. Then an idea came to me on a
+sudden, and turning to Mariani I asked him could he find me a sheet of
+paper of about the size of that letter held by Ramiro. He answered me
+that he could, and bade me wait there until he should return.
+
+I waited, watching the sleeper below, my excitement waxing with every
+second of the delay. Ramiro was snoring now--a loud, sonorous snore that
+rang like a trumpet-blast through that vast empty hall.
+
+At last Mariani returned, bringing the sheet of paper I had asked for,
+and he was full of questions of what I intended. But neither the place
+nor the time was one in which to stand unfolding plans. Every moment
+wasted increased the uncertainty of the success of my design. Someone
+might come, or Ramiro might awaken despite the potency of the wine he
+had been given--for on so well-seasoned a toper the most potent of wines
+could have but a transient effect.
+
+So I left Mariani, and moved swiftly and silently to the head of the
+staircase.
+
+I had gone down two steps, when, in the dark, I missed the third, the
+bells in my cap jangling at the shock. I brought my teeth together and
+stood breathless in apprehension, fearing that the noise might awaken
+him, and cursing myself for a careless fool to have forgotten those
+infernal bells. Above me I heard a warning hiss from old Mariani,
+which, if anything, increased my dread. But Ramiro snored on, and I was
+reassured.
+
+A moment I stood debating whether I should go on, or first return to
+divest myself of that cap of mine. In the end I decided to pursue the
+latter course. The need for swift and sudden movement might come ere
+I was done with this adventure, and those bells might easily be the
+undoing of me. So back I went to the surprise and infinite dismay
+of Mariani until I had whispered in his ear the reason. We retreated
+together to the corridor, and there, with his help, I removed my
+jangling headgear, which I left him to restore to my chamber.
+
+Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this
+time I gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the
+hall. Ramiro's back was towards me. On my right stood the tall buffet
+from which the boy had fetched him wine that evening; this I marked out
+as the cover to which I must fly in case of need.
+
+A second I stood hesitating, still considering my course; then I went
+softly forward, my feet making no sound in the rushes of the floor. I
+had covered half the distance, and, growing bolder, I was advancing more
+swiftly and with less caution, when suddenly my knee came in contact
+with a three-legged stool that had been carelessly left where none would
+have suspected it. The blow may have hurt afterwards, indeed, I was
+conscious of a soreness at the knee; but at the moment I had no thought
+or care for physical pain. The bench went over with a crash, and for all
+that the rushes may have deadened in part the sound of its fall, to my
+nervous ear it boomed like the report of a cannon through the stillness
+of the place.
+
+I turned cold as ice, and the sweat of fear sprang out to moisten
+me from head to foot. Instantly I dropped on all fours, lest Ramiro,
+awaking suddenly, should turn; and I waited for the least sign that
+should render advisable my seeking the cover of the buffet. In the
+gallery above I could picture old Mariani clenching his teeth at the
+noise, his knees knocking together, and his face white with horror; for
+Ramiro's snoring had abruptly ceased. It came to an end with a choking
+catch of the breath, and I looked to see him raise his head and start up
+to ascertain what it was that had aroused him. But he never stirred,
+and for all that he no longer snored, his breathing continued heavy and
+regular, so that I was cheered by the assurance that I had but disturbed
+his slumber, not dispelled it.
+
+Yet, since I had disturbed and lightened it, a greater precaution was
+now necessary, and I waited there for some ten minutes maybe, a period
+that must have proved a very eternity to the old man upstairs. At last I
+had the reward of hearing the snoring recommence; lightly at first, but
+soon with all its former fullness.
+
+I rose and proceeded now with a caution that must guard me from any
+more unlooked-for obstacles. Moreover, as I approached, the darkness was
+dispelled more and more at every stride in the direction of the light.
+At last I reached the table, and stood silent as a spectre at Ramiro's
+side, looking down upon the features of the sleeping man.
+
+His face was flushed, and his tawny hair tumbled about his damp brow;
+his lips quivered as he breathed. For a moment, as I stood gazing on
+him, there was murder in my mind. His dagger hung temptingly in his
+girdle. To have drawn it and rid the world of this monster might have
+been a worthy deed, acceptable in the eyes of Heaven. But how should
+it profit me? Rather must it prove my destruction at the hands of his
+followers, and to be destroyed just then, with Paola depending upon me,
+and life full of promise once I regained my liberty, was something I had
+no mind to risk.
+
+My eyes wandered to the letter lying on the table. If this were of the
+nature we suspected, it should prove a safer tool for his destruction.
+
+To read it as it lay was an easy matter, and it came to me then that
+ere I decided upon my course it might be well that I should do so. If
+by chance it were innocent of treason, why, then, I might resort to the
+risk of that other and more desperate weapon--his own dagger.
+
+At the foot of the short flight of steps that led from the hall to the
+courtyard I could hear the slow pacing of the sentry placed there by
+Ramiro. But unless he were summoned, it was extremely unlikely that the
+fellow would leave his post, so that, I concluded, I had little to fear
+from that quarter. I drew back and taking up a position behind Ramiro's
+chair--a position more favourable to escape in the untoward event of
+his awaking--I craned forward to read the letter over his shoulder. I
+thanked God in that hour for two things: that my sight was keen, and
+that Vitellozzo Vitelli wrote a large, bold hand.
+
+Scarcely breathing, and distracted the while by the mad racing of my
+pulses, I read; and this, as nearly as I can remember, is what the
+letter contained:
+
+"ILLUSTRIOUS RAMIRO--Your answer to my last letter reached me
+safely, and it rejoiced me to learn that you had found a man for our
+undertaking. See that you have him in readiness, for the hour of action
+is at hand. Cesare goes south on the second or third day of the New
+Year, and he has announced to me his intention of passing through Cesena
+on his way, there to investigate certain charges of maladministration
+which have been preferred against you. These concern, in particular,
+certain misappropriation of grain and stores, and an excessive severity
+of rule, of which complaints have reached him. From this you will gather
+that out of a spirit of self-defence, if not to earn the reward which
+we have bound ourselves to pay you, it is expedient that you should not
+fail us. The occasion of the Duke's visit to Cesena will be, of all, the
+most propitious for our purpose. Have your arbalister posed, and may God
+strengthen his arm and render true his aim to the end that Italy may
+be rid of a tyrant. I commend myself to your Excellency, and I shall
+anxiously await your news.
+
+"VITELLOZZO VITELLI."
+
+Here indeed were my hopes realised. A plot there was, and it aimed at
+nothing less than the Duca Valentino's life. Let that letter be borne to
+Cesare Borgia at Faenza, and I would warrant that within a dozen hours
+of his receipt of it he would so dispose that all who had suffered by
+the cruel tyranny of Ramiro del' Orca would be avenged, and those
+who were still suffering would be relieved. In this letter lay my own
+freedom and the salvation of Madonna Paula, and this letter it behoved
+me at once to become possessed. It was a safer far alternative than that
+dagger of his.
+
+A moment I stood pondering the matter for the last time, then stepping
+sideways and forward, so that I was again beside him, I put out my hand
+and swiftly whipped the letter from the table. Then standing very still,
+to prevent the slightest rustle, I remained a second or two observing
+him. He snored on, undisturbed by my light-fingered action.
+
+I drew away a pace or two, as lightly as I might, and folding the letter
+I thrust it into my girdle. Then from my open doublet I drew the sheet
+that Mariani had supplied me, and, advancing again, I placed it on the
+table in a position almost identical with that which the original had
+occupied, saving that it was removed a half-finger's breadth from his
+hand, for I feared to allow it actually to touch him lest it should
+arouse him.
+
+Holding my breath, for now was I come to the most desperate part of my
+undertaking, I caught up one of the tapers and set fire to a corner of
+the sheet. That done, I left the candle lying on its side against
+the paper, so as to convey the impression to him, when presently he
+awakened, that it had fallen from it sconce. Then, without waiting for
+more, I backed swiftly away, watching the progress of the flames as they
+devoured the paper and presently reached his hand and scorched it.
+
+At that I dropped again on all fours, and having gained the corner of
+the buffet, I crouched there, even as with a sudden scream of pain he
+woke and sprang upright, shaking his blistered hand. As a matter of
+instinct he looked about to see what it was had hurt him. Then his eyes
+fell upon the charred paper on the table, and the fallen candle, which
+was still burning across one end of it, and even to the dull wits of
+Ramiro del' Orca the only possible conclusion was suggested. He stared
+at it a moment, then swept that flimsy sheet of ashes from the table
+with an oath, and sank back once more into his great leathern chair.
+
+"Body of God!" he swore aloud, "it is well that I had read it a dozen
+times. Better that it should have been burnt than that someone should
+have read it whilst I slept."
+
+The idea of such a possibility seemed to rouse him to fresh action, for
+seizing the fallen candle and replacing it in its socket, he rose once
+more, and holding it high above his head he looked about the hall.
+
+The light it shed may have been feeble, and the shadows about my buffet
+thick; but, as I have said, my doublet was open, and some ray of that
+weak candlelight must have found out the white shirt that was showing
+at my breast, for with a sudden cry he pushed back his chair and took a
+step towards me, no doubt intent upon investigating that white something
+that he saw gleaming there.
+
+I waited for no more. I had no fancy to be caught in that corner,
+utterly at his mercy. I stood up suddenly.
+
+"Magnificent, it is I," I announced, with a calm and boundless
+effrontery.
+
+The boldness of it may have staggered him a little, for he paused,
+although his eyes were glowing horribly with the frenzy that possessed
+him, the half of which was drunkenness, the other fear and wrath lest I
+should have seen his treacherous communication from Vitelli.
+
+"What make you here?" he questioned threateningly.
+
+"I thirsted, Excellency," I answered glibly. "I thirsted, and I
+bethought me of this buffet where you keep your wine."
+
+He continued to eye me, some six paces off, his half-drunken wits no
+doubt weighing the plausibility of my answer. At last--
+
+"If that be all, what cause had you to hide?" he asked me shrewdly.
+
+"One of your candles fell over and awakened you," said I. "I feared you
+might resent my presence, and so I hid."
+
+"You came not near the table?" he inquired. "You saw nothing of the
+paper that I held? Nay, by the Host! I'll take no risks. You were born
+'neath an unlucky star, fool; for be your reason for your presence here
+no more than you assert, you have come in a season that must be fatal to
+you."
+
+He set the candle on the table, then carrying his hand to his girdle he
+withdrew it sharply, and I caught the gleam of a dagger.
+
+In that instant I thought of Mariani waiting above, and like a flash it
+came to me that if I could outpace this drunken brigand, and, gaining
+the gallery well ahead of him, transfer that letter to the old man's
+hands, I should not die in vain. Cesare Borgia would avenge me, and
+Madonna Paola, at least, would be safe from this villain. If Mariani
+could reach Valentino at Faenza, I would answer for it that within
+four-and-twenty hours Messer Ramiro del' Orca would be the banner on
+that ghastly beam that he facetiously dubbed his flagstaff; and he would
+be the blackest, dirtiest banner that ever yet had fluttered there.
+
+The thought conceived in the twinkling of an eye, I acted upon without
+a second's hesitation. Ere Ramiro had taken his first step towards me,
+I had sprung to the stairs and I was leaping up them with the frantic
+speed of one upon whose heels death is treading closely.
+
+A singular, fierce joy was blent with my measure of fear; a joy at the
+thought that even now, in this extremity, I was outwitting him, for
+never a doubt had he that the burnt paper he had found on the table was
+all that was left of Vitelli's letter. His fears were that I might have
+read it, but never a suspicion crossed his mind of such a trick as I had
+played upon him.
+
+So I sped on, the gigantic Ramiro blundering after me, panting and
+blaspheming, for although powerful, his bulk and the wine he had taken
+left him no nimbleness. The distance between us widened, and if only
+Mariani would have the presence of mind to wait for me at the mouth of
+the passage, all would be as I could wish it before his dagger found my
+heart.
+
+I was assuring myself of this when in the dark I stumbled, and
+striking my legs against a stair I hurtled forward. I recovered almost
+immediately, but, in my frenzy of haste to make up for the instant lost,
+I stumbled a second time ere I was well upon my feet.
+
+With a roar Ramiro must have hurled himself forward, for I felt my ankle
+caught in a grip from which there was no escaping, and I was roughly and
+brutally dragged back and down those stairs; now my head, now my breast
+beating against the steps as I descended them one by one.
+
+But even in that hour the letter was my first thought, and I found a way
+to thrust it farther under my girdle so that it should not be seen.
+
+At last I reached the hall, half-stunned, and with all the misery of
+defeat and the certainty of the futility of my death to further torture
+my last moments. Over me stood Ramiro, his dagger upheld, ready to
+strike.
+
+"Dog!" he taunted me, "your sands are run."
+
+"Mercy, Magnificent," I gasped. "I have done nothing to deserve your
+poniard."
+
+He laughed brutally, delaying his stroke that he might prolong my agony
+for his drunken entertainment.
+
+"Address your prayers to Heaven," he mocked me, "and let them concern
+your soul."
+
+And then, like a flash of inspiration came the words that should delay
+his hand.
+
+"Spare me," I cried "for I am in mortal sin."
+
+Impious, abandoned villain, though he was, he said too much when he
+boasted that he feared neither God nor Devil. He was prone to forget
+his God, and the lessons that as a babe he had learnt at his mother's
+knee--for I take it that even Ramiro del' Orca had once been a babe--but
+deep down in his soul there had remained the fear of Hell and an almost
+instinctive obedience to the laws of Mother Church. He could perform
+such ruthless cruelties as that of hurling a page into the fire to
+punish his clumsiness; he could rack and stab and hang men with the
+least shadow of compunction or twinge of conscience, but to slay a man
+who professed himself to be in mortal sin was a deed too appalling even
+for this ruthless butcher.
+
+He hesitated a second, then he lowered his hand, his face telling me
+clearly how deeply he grudged me the respite which, yet, he dared not do
+other than accord me.
+
+"Where shall I find me a priest?" he grumbled. "Think you the Citadel of
+Cesena is a monastery? I will wait while you make an act of contrition
+for your sins. It is all the shrift I can afford you. And get it done,
+for it is time I was abed. You shall have five minutes in which to clear
+your soul."
+
+By this it seemed to me--as it may well seem to you--that matters were
+but little mended, and instead of employing the respite he accorded me
+in the pious collecting of thoughts which he enjoined, I sat up--very
+sore from my descent of the stairs--and employed those precious moments
+in putting forward arguments to turn him from, his murderous purpose.
+
+"I have lived too ungodly a life," I protested, "to be able to squeeze
+into Paradise through so narrow a tate. As you would hope for your own
+ultimate salvation, Excellency, I do beseech you not to imperil mine."
+
+This disposed him, at least, to listen to me, and proceeded to assure
+him of the harmless nature of my visit to the hall in quest of wine to
+quench my thirst. I was running the grave risk of dying with lies on my
+lips, but I was too desperate to give the matter thought just then. His
+mood seemed to relent; the delay, perhaps, had calmed his first access
+of passion, and he was grown more reasonable. But when Ramiro cooled he
+was, perhaps, more malignant than ever, for it meant a return to
+natural condition, and Ramiro's natural condition was one of cruelty
+unsurpassed.
+
+"It may be as you say," he answered me at last, sheathing his dagger,
+"and at least you have my word that I will not slay you without first
+assuring myself that you have lied. For to-night you shall remain in
+durance. To-morrow we will apply the question to you."
+
+The hope that had been reviving in my breast fell dead once more, and
+I turned cold at that threat. And yet, between now and to-morrow,
+much might betide, and I had cause for thankfulness, perhaps, for this
+respite. Thus I sought to cheer myself. But I fear I failed. To-morrow
+he would torture me, not so much to ascertain whether I had spoken
+truly, but because to his diseased mind it afforded diversion to witness
+a man's anguish. No doubt it was that had urged him now to spare my life
+and accord me this merciless piece of mercy.
+
+In a loud voice he called the sentry who was pacing below; and in a
+moment the man appeared in answer to that summons.
+
+"You will take this knave to the chamber set apart for him up there, and
+you will leave him secure under lock and bar, bringing me the key of his
+door."
+
+The fellow informed himself which was the chamber, then turning to me he
+curtly bade me go with him. Thus was I haled back to my room, with the
+promise of horrors on the morrow, but with the night before me in which
+to scheme and pray for some miracle that might yet save me. But the days
+of miracles were long past. I lay on my bed and deplored with many a
+sigh that bitter fact. And if aught had been wanting to increase the
+weight of fear and anguish on my already over-burdened mind, and to aid
+in what almost seemed an infernal plot to utterly distract me, I had it
+in fresh, wild conjectures touching Madonna Paola. Where indeed could
+she be that Ramiro's men had failed to find her for all that they had
+scoured that part of the country in which I had left her to wait for my
+return? What if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture with
+which Ramiro's lieutenant was charged?
+
+With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter
+inability to take a step in her service, I lay. There for an hour or
+so in such agony of mind as is begotten only of suspense. In my girdle
+still reposed the treasonable letter from Vitelli to Ramiro, a mighty
+weapon with which to accomplish the butcher's overthrow. But how was I
+to wield it imprisoned here?
+
+I wondered why Mariani had not returned, only to remember that the
+soldier who had locked me in had carried the key of my prison-chamber to
+Ramiro.
+
+Suddenly the stillness was disturbed by a faint tap at my door. My
+instincts and my reason told me it must be Mariani at last. In an
+instant I had leapt from the bed and whispered through the keyhole:
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"It is I--Mariani--the seneschal," came the old man's voice, very
+softly, but nevertheless distinctly. "They have taken the key."
+
+I groaned, then in a gust of passion I fell to cursing Ramiro for that
+precaution.
+
+"You have the letter?" came Mariani's voice again.
+
+"Aye, I have it still," I answered.
+
+"Have you seen what it contains?"
+
+"A plot to assassinate the Duke--no less. Enough to get this bloody
+Ramiro broken on the wheel."
+
+I was answered by a sound that was as a gasp of malicious joy. Then the
+old man's voice added:
+
+"Can you pass it under the door? There is a sufficient gap."
+
+I felt, and found that he was right; I could pass the half of my hand
+underneath. I took the letter and thrust it through. His hands fastened
+on it instantly, almost snatching it from my fingers before they were
+ready to release it.
+
+"Have courage," he bade me. "Listen. I shall endeavour to leave Cesena
+in the morning, and I shall ride straight for Faenza. If I find the Duke
+there when I arrive, he should be here within some twelve or fourteen
+hours of my departure. Fence with Ramiro, temporise if you can till
+then, and all will be well with you."
+
+"I will do what I can," I answered him. "But if he slays me in the
+meantime, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that he will
+not be long in following me."
+
+"May God shield you," he said fervently.
+
+"May God speed you," I answered him, with a still greater fervour.
+
+That night, as you may well conceive, I slept but little, and that
+little ill. The morning, instead of relieving the fears that in the
+darkness had been with me, seemed to increase them. For now was the time
+for Mariani to act, and I was fearful as to how he might succeed. I
+was full of doubts lest some obstacle should have arisen to prevent his
+departure from Cesena, and I spent my morning in wearisome speculation.
+
+I took an almost childish satisfaction in the thought that since, being
+a prisoner, I could no longer count myself the Fool of the Court
+of Cesena, I was free to strip the motley and assume the more sober
+garments in which I had been taken, and which--as you may recall--had
+been placed in my chamber on the previous evening. It was the very
+plainest raiment. For doublet I wore a buff brigandine, quilted and
+dagger-proof, and caught at the waist by a girdle of hammered steel; my
+wine-coloured hose was stout and serviceable, as were my long boots of
+untanned leather. Yet prouder was I of this sober apparel than ever king
+of his ermine.
+
+It may have been an hour or so past noon when, at last, my solitude
+was invaded by a soldier who came to order me into the presence of the
+Governor. I had been sitting at the window, leaning against the bars and
+looking out at the desolate white landscape, for there had been a heavy
+fall of snow in the night, which reminded me--as snow ever did--of my
+first meeting with Madonna Paola.
+
+I rose upon the instant, and my fears rose with me. But I kept a bold
+front as I went down into the hall, where Ramiro and the blackguards of
+his Court were sitting, with three or four men-at-arms at attention by
+the door. Close to the pulleys appertaining to the torture of the cord
+stood two leather-clad ruffians--Ramiro's executioners.
+
+At the head of the board, which was still strewn with fragments of
+food-for they had but dined--sat Ramiro del' Orca. With him were half
+a dozen of his officers, whose villainous appearance pronounced them
+worthy of their brutal leader. The air was heavy with the pungent odour
+of viands. I looked round for Mariani, and I took some comfort from the
+fact that he was absent. Might heaven please that he was even then on
+his way to Faenza.
+
+Ramiro watched my advance with a smile in which mockery was blent with
+satisfaction, for all that of the resumption of my proper raiment he
+seemed to take no heed. No doubt he had dined well, and he was now
+disposing himself to be amused.
+
+"Messer Bocadaro," said he, when I had come to a standstill, "there was
+last night a matter that was not cleared up between us and concerning
+which I expressed an intention of questioning you to-day. I should
+proceed to do so at once, were it not that there is yet another matter
+on which I am, if possible, still more desirous you should tell us all
+you know. Once already have you evaded my questions with answers which
+at the time I half believed. Even now I do not say that I utterly
+disbelieve them, but I wish to assure myself that you told the truth;
+for if you lied, why then we may still be assisted by such information
+the cord shall squeeze from you. I am referring to the mysterious
+disappearance of Madonna Paola di Santafior--a disappearance of which
+you have assured me that you knew nothing, being even in ignorance of
+the fact that the lady was not really dead. I had confidently expected
+that the party searching for Madonna Paola would have succeeded ere this
+in finding her. But this morning my hopes suffered disappointment. My
+men have returned empty-handed once more."
+
+"For which mercy may Heaven be praised!" I burst out.
+
+He scowled at me; then he laughed evilly.
+
+"My men have returned--all save three. Captain Lucagnolo with two of
+his followers, has undertaken to go beyond the area I appointed for the
+search, and to proceed to the village of Cattolica. While he is pursuing
+his inquiries there, I have resolved to pursue my own here. I now
+call upon you, Boccadoro, to tell us what you know of Madonna Paola's
+whereabouts."
+
+"I know nothing," I answered stoutly. "I am prepared to take oath that I
+know nothing of her whereabouts."
+
+"Tell me, then, at least," said he, "where you bestowed her."
+
+I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
+
+"Do you think that I would tell you if I had the knowledge?" was the
+scornful question with which I answered him. "You may pursue your
+inquiries as you will and where you will, but I pray God they may all
+prove as futile as must those that you would pursue here and upon my own
+person."
+
+This was how I fenced with him, this was the manner in which I followed
+Mariani's sound advice that I should temporise! Oh! I know that my words
+were the words of a fool, yet no fear that Ramiro would inspire me could
+have restrained them.
+
+There was a murmur at the table, and his fellows turned their eyes on
+Ramiro to see how he would receive this bearding. He smiled quietly, and
+raising his hand he made a sign to the executioners.
+
+Rude hands seized me from behind, and the doublet was torn from my back
+by fingers that never paused to untruss my points.
+
+They turned me about, and hurried me along until I stood under the
+pulleys of the torture, and one of the men held me securely whilst
+the other passed the cords about my wrists. Then both the executioners
+stepped back, to be ready to hoist me at the Governor's signal.
+
+He delayed it, much as an epicure delays the consumption of a delectable
+morsel, heightening by suspense the keen desire of his palate. He
+watched me closely, and had my lips quivered or my eyelids fluttered, he
+would have hailed with joy such signs of weakness. But I take pride in
+truthfully writing that I stood bold and impassively before him, and if
+I was pale I thank Heaven that pallor was the habit of my countenance,
+so that from that he could gather no satisfaction. And standing there, I
+gave him back look for look, and waited.
+
+"For the last time, Boccadoro," he said slowly, attempting by words
+to shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of
+the cord, "I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this
+stubbornness. If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the
+third, the torture will compel you to disclose what you may know. Would
+you not be better advised to speak at once, while your limbs are soundly
+planted in their sockets, rather than let yourself be maimed, perhaps
+for life, ere you will do so?"
+
+There was a stir of hoofs without. They thundered on the planks of the
+drawbridge and clattered on the stones of the courtyard. The thought of
+Cesare Borgia rose to my mind. But never did drowning man clutch at
+a more illusory straw. Cold reason quenched my hope at once. If the
+greatest imaginable success attended Mariani's journey, the Duke could
+not reach Cesena before midnight, and to that it wanted some ten hours
+at least. Moreover, the company that came was small to judge by the
+sound--a half-dozen horses at the most.
+
+But Ramiro's attention had been diverted from me by the noise.
+Half-turning in his chair, he called to one of the men-at-arms to
+ascertain who came. Before the fellow could do his bidding, the door was
+thrust open and Lucagnolo appeared on the threshold, jaded and worn with
+hard riding.
+
+A certain excitement arose in me at sight of him, despite my confidence
+that he must be returning empty-handed.
+
+Ramiro rose, pushed back his chair and advanced towards the new-comer.
+
+"Well?" he demanded. "What news?"
+
+"Excellency, the girl is here."
+
+That answer seemed to turn me into stone, so great was the shock of this
+sudden shattering of the confidence that had sustained me.
+
+"My search in the country failing," pursued the captain, as he came
+forward, "I made bold to exceed your orders by pushing my inquiries as
+far as the village of Cattolica. There I found her after some little
+labour."
+
+Surely I dreamt. Surely, I told myself, this was not possible. There was
+some mistake. Lucagnolo had drought some wench whom he believed to be
+Madonna Paola.
+
+But even as I was assuring myself of this, the door opened again, and
+between two men-at-arms, white as death, her garments stained with mud
+and all but reduced to rags, and her eyes wild with a great fear, came
+my beloved Paola.
+
+With a sound that was as a grunt of satisfaction, Ramiro strode forward
+to meet her. But her eyes travelled past him and rested upon me,
+standing there between the leather-clad executioners with the cords of
+the torture pinioning my wrists, and I saw the anguish deepen in their
+blue depths.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. DOOMED
+
+Across the length of that hall our eyes met--hers and mine--and held
+each other's glances. To me the room and all within it formed an
+indistinct and misty picture, from out of which there clearly gleamed my
+Paola's sweet, white face.
+
+All at the table had risen with Ramiro, and now, copying their leader,
+they bared their heads in outward token of such respect as certainly
+would have been felt by any men less abandoned than were they before so
+much saintly beauty and distress.
+
+Lucagnolo had stepped aside, and Ramiro was now bowing low and
+ceremoniously before Madonna. His face I could not see, since his back
+was towards me, but his tones, as they floated across the hall to where
+I stood, came laden with subservience.
+
+"Madonna, I give praise and thanks to Heaven for this," said he. "I was
+afflicted by the gravest misgivings for your safety, and I am more than
+thankful to behold you safe and sound."
+
+There was a hypocritical flavour of courtliness about his words, and
+a mincing of his tones that suggested the efforts of a bull-calf to
+imitate the warbling of a throstle.
+
+Madonna paid him no heed; indeed, she appeared not to have heard him,
+for her eyes continued to look past him and at me. At last her lips
+parted, and although she scarcely seemed to raise her voice above a
+whisper, the word uttered reached my ears across the stillness of the
+great room, and the word was "Lazzaro!"
+
+At mention of my name, and at the tone in which it was uttered--a tone
+that betrayed same measure of what was in her heart--Ramiro wheeled
+sharply in my direction, his brows wrinkling. A certain craftiness he
+had, for all that I ever accounted him the dullest-witted clod that ever
+rose to his degree of honour. He must have realised how expedient it was
+that in all he did he should present himself to Madonna in a favourite
+light.
+
+"Release him," he bade the executioners that held me, and in an instant
+I was set free. The order given, he turned again to Madonna.
+
+"You have been torturing him," she cried, and her words were hard and
+fierce, her eyes blazing. "You shall repent it, Ser Ramiro. The Lord
+Cesare Borgia shall hear of it."
+
+Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have
+been to her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my
+destruction. Ramiro laughed easily.
+
+"Madonna, you are at fault. We have not been torturing him, though I
+confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question. But
+your timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were asking
+him concerned your whereabouts!"
+
+I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some
+premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind. But realising
+the futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited agonisedly.
+
+"You had tortured him in vain then," she answered scornfully. "For
+Lazzaro Biancomonte would never have betrayed me. Nor could he have
+betrayed me if he would, for after your men had searched the hut in
+which I was hidden, I walked to Cattolica thinking foolishly that I
+should be safer there."
+
+Lackaday! She had told him the very thing he had sought to know. Yet to
+make doubly sure he pursued the scent a little farther.
+
+"Indeed it seems to me that had I tortured him I had given him no
+more than he deserved for having abandoned you in that hut. Madonna, I
+tremble to think of the harm that might have come to you through that
+knave's desertion." And he scowled across at me, much as the Pharisee
+might have scowled upon the publican.
+
+"He is no knave," she answered, and I could have groaned to hear her
+working my undoing, though not by so much as a sign might I inspire her
+with caution, for that sign must have been seen by others. "Nor did he
+abandon me. He left me only to go in quest of the necessaries for our
+journey. If harm has come to me the blame of it must not rest on him."
+
+"Of what harm do you speak, Madonna?" he cried, in a voice laden with
+concern.
+
+"Of what harm," she echoed, eyeing him with a scorn that would have
+slain him had he any manhood left. "Of what harm? Mother of Mercy,
+defend me! Do you ask the question? What greater harm could have come
+to me than to have fallen into the hands of Ramiro del' Orca and his
+brigands?"
+
+He stood looking at her, and I doubt not that his face was a very
+picture of simulated consternation.
+
+"Surely, Madonna, you do not understand that we are your friends, that
+you can so abuse us. But you will be faint, Madonna," he cried, with
+a fresh and deep solicitude. "A cup of wine." And he waved his hand
+towards the table.
+
+"It would poison me, I think," she answered coldly.
+
+"You are cruel, and--alas!--mistrustful," said he. "Can you guess
+nothing of the anxiety that has been mine these two days, of the fears
+that have haunted me as I thought of you and your wanderings?"
+
+Her lip curled, and her face took on some slight vestige of colour. Her
+spirit was a thing for which I might then have come to love her had it
+not been that already I loved her to distraction.
+
+"Yes," said she, "I can guess something of your dismay when you found
+your schemes frustrated; when you found that you had come too late to
+San Domenico."
+
+"Will you not forgive me that shift to which my adoration drove me?" he
+implored, in a honeyed voice--and a more fearful thing than Ramiro the
+butcher was Ramiro the lover.
+
+At that scarcely covert avowal of his passion she recoiled a step as she
+might before a thing unclean. The little colour faded from her cheek,
+the scorn departed from her lip, and a sickly, deadly fear overspread
+her lovely face. God! that I should stand there and witness this insult
+to the woman I adored and worshipped with a fervour that the Church
+seeks to instil into us for those about the throne of Heaven. It might
+not be. A blind access of fury took me. Of the consequences I thought
+nothing. Reason left me utterly, and the slight hope that might lie in
+temporising was disregarded.
+
+Before those about me could guess my purpose, or those others, too
+engrossed in the scene at the far end of the hall, could intervene, I
+had sprung from between the executioners and dashed across the space
+that separated me from the Governor of Cesena. One well-aimed blow, and
+there should be an end to Messer Ramiro. That was the only thought that
+found room in my disordered mind.
+
+One or two there were who cried out as I sped past them, swift as the
+hound when it speeds after the fleeing hare. But I was upon Ramiro ere
+any could have sufficiently mastered his surprise to interfere.
+
+By the nape of his great neck I caught him from behind, and setting my
+knee at his spine I wrenched him backward, and so flung him over on
+the floor. Down I went with him, my hand reaching for the dagger at his
+jewelled girdle, and I had found and drawn it in that swift action of
+mine ere he had bethought him of his hands. Up it flashed and down. I
+sank it through the crimson velvet of his rich doublets straight at the
+spot where his heart should be--if he were so human as to have a heart.
+The next instant I turned cold and sick. My desperate effort had been
+all for nothing. In my hand I was left with the bronze hilt of his great
+poniard; the blade had broken off against the mesh of steel the coward
+wore beneath his finery.
+
+There was a rush of feet about us, a piercing scream from Madonna Paola,
+and it was to her that I owed my life in that grim moment. A dozen
+blades were naked and would have transfixed me as I lay, but that she
+covered my body with her own and bade them strike at me through her.
+
+A moment later and the powerful hands of the Governor of Cesena were at
+my throat. I was lifted and tossed aside, as though I had been a hound
+and he the bull I had beset. And as he swung me over and crushed me
+to the ground, he knelt above me and grinned horribly into my purpling
+face.
+
+A second we stayed so, and I thought indeed that my hour was come, when
+suddenly I felt the blood in my head released once more. He had taken
+his hands from my throat. He seized me now by the collar and dragged me
+rudely to my feet.
+
+"Take this knave and lock him in his chamber," he bade a couple of his
+bravi. "I may have need of him ere he dies."
+
+"Messer Ramiro," came the interceding voice of Madonna Paola, "what he
+did, he did for me. You will not let him die for it?"
+
+There was a pause during which he looked at her, whilst the men were
+roughly dragging me across the hall.
+
+"Who knows, Madonna?" he said, with a bow and an infernal smile. "If you
+were to beg his life, it might even come to pass that I might spare it."
+
+He did not wait for her answer, but stepping after me he called to the
+men that led me. In obedience they halted, and he came forward. We were
+now at the foot of the staircase.
+
+"Boccadoro," said he, planting himself before me, and eyeing me with
+eyes that were very full of malice, "you will recall the punishment I
+promised you if I came to discover it was you had thwarted me in Pesaro.
+It is the second time you have fooled Ramiro del' Orca. There does not
+live the man who can boast that he did it thrice, nor will I risk it
+that you be that man. Make your peace with Heaven, for at sunset--in
+an hour's time--you hang. There is one little thing that might save you
+even yet, and if you find life sweet, you would do well to pray that
+that little thing may come to pass."
+
+I answered him nothing, but I bowed my head in token that I had heard
+and he signed to the men to proceed with me, whilst turning on his heel
+he stepped down the hall again to where Madonna Paola, overcome with
+weakness, had sunk upon a stool.
+
+As I was leaving the gallery I had a last glimpse of her, sitting there
+with drawn face and haggard eyes that followed me as I passed from her
+sight, whilst Ramiro del' Orca stood beside her murmuring words that did
+not reach me. His so-called courtiers and his men-at-arms were trooping
+out of the room, no doubt in obedience to his dismissal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE SUNSET
+
+
+I have heard tell of the calm that comes upon brave men when hope is
+dead and their doom has been pronounced. Uncertainty may have tortured
+and made cowards of them; but once that uncertainty is dissolved and
+suspense is at an end, resignation enters their soul, and, possessing
+it, gives to their bearing a noble and dignified peace. By the mercy of
+Heaven they are made, maybe, to see how poor and evanescent a thing is
+life; and they come to realise that since to die is a necessity there is
+no avoiding, as well might it betide to-day as ten years hence.
+
+Such a mood, however, came not to soothe that last hour of mine, and yet
+I account myself no coward. It was an hour of such torture and anguish
+as never before I had experienced--much though I had undergone--and the
+source of all my suffering lay in the fact that Madonna Paola was in
+the hands of the ogre of Cesena. Had it not been for that most untoward
+circumstance I almost believe that while I waited for the sun to set on
+that December afternoon, my mood had not only been calm but even in some
+measure joyous, for it must have comforted my last moments to reflect
+that for all that Messer Ramiro was about to hang me, yet had I sown the
+seeds of his own destruction ere he had brought me to this pass.
+
+I did, indeed, reflect upon it, and it may even be that, in spite of
+all, I culled some grain of comfort from the reflection. But let that
+be. My narrative would drag wearily were I to digress that I might tell
+you at length the ugly course of my thoughts whilst the sands of my last
+hour were running swiftly out. For, after all, my concern and yours is
+with the story of Lazzaro Biancomonte, sometime known as Boccadoro the
+Fool, and not with his philosophies--philosophies so unprofitable that
+it can benefit no man that I should set them down.
+
+My windows faced west, and so I was able to watch the fall of the sun,
+and measure by its shortening distance from the horizon the ebbing of
+my poor life. At last the nether rim of that round, fiery orb was on
+the point of touching the line of distant hills, and it was casting a
+crimson glow along the white, snow-sheeted landscape that was singularly
+suggestive of a tide of blood--a very fitting tide to flow and ebb about
+the walls of the Castle of Cesena.
+
+One little thing there was might save me, Ramiro had said. But I had
+shut the thought out of my mind to keep me from utter distraction. The
+only little thing in which I held that my salvation could lie would be
+in the miraculous arrival of Cesare Borgia, and of that not the faintest
+hope existed. If the greatest luck attended Mariani's errand and the
+greatest speed were made by the Duke once he received the letter, he
+could not reach Cesena in less than another eight hours. And another
+eight minutes, to reckon by the swift sinking of the sun would see the
+time appointed for my hanging. I thought of Joshua in that grim hour,
+and in a mood that approached the whimsical I envied him his gift. If I
+could have stayed the setting of the sun, and held it where it was till
+midnight, all might yet be well if Mariani had been diligent and Cesare
+swift.
+
+The key grating in the lock put an end to my vague musings, and reminded
+me of the fact that I had neglected to employ that last hour as would
+have become a good son of Mother Church. For an instant I believe that
+my heart turned me to thoughts of God, and sent up a prayer for mercy
+for my poor sinful soul. Then the door swung wide. Two halberdiers and
+a carnifex in his odious leathern apron stood before me. Clearly Ramiro
+sought to be exact, and to have me hanging the instant the sun should
+vanish.
+
+"It is time," said one of the soldiers, whilst the executioner, stepping
+into my chamber, pinioned my wrists behind me, and retaining hold of the
+cord bade me march. He followed, holding that slender cord, and so, like
+a beast to the shambles, went I.
+
+Once more they led me into the hall, where the shadows were lengthening
+in dark contrast to the splashes of sunlight that lingered on the floor,
+and whose blood-red hue was deepened by the gules of the windows through
+which it was filtered.
+
+Ramiro was waiting for me, and six of his officers were in attendance.
+But, for once, there were no men-at-arms at hand. On a chair, the one
+usually occupied by Ramiro, himself, sat Madonna Paola, still in her
+torn and bedraggled raiment, her face white, her eyes wild as they had
+been when first she had been haled into Ramiro's presence, some two
+hours ago, and her features so rigidly composed that it told the tale of
+the awful self-control she must be exerting--a self-control that might
+end with a sudden snap that would plunge her into madness.
+
+A wild rage possessed me at sight of her. Let Ramiro be ruthless and
+cruel where men were concerned; that was a thing for which forgiveness
+might be found him. But that he should submit a lady, delicately
+nurtured as was Madonna, to such horrors as she had undergone since she
+had awakened from his sleeping-potion in the Church of San Domenico, was
+something for which no Hell could punish him condignly.
+
+Ramiro met me with a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I
+could espy his wicked, infernal mockery peeping forth.
+
+"I deplore your end, Lazzaro Biancomonte," said he slowly, "for you are
+a brave man, and brave men are rare. You were worthy of better things,
+but you chose to cross swords with Ramiro del' Orca, and you have got
+your death-blow. May God have mercy on your soul."
+
+"I am praying," said I, "for just so much mercy as you shall have
+justice. If my prayer is heard, I should be well-content."
+
+He changed countenance a little. So, too, I thought, did Madonna Paola.
+My firmness may have yielded her some grain of comfort. Ramiro set his
+hands on his hips, and eyed me squarely.
+
+"You are a dauntless rogue," he confessed.
+
+I laughed for answer, and in that moment it entered my mind that I might
+yet enjoy some measure of revenge in this life. More than that, I might
+benefit Madonna. For were the seed I was about to sow to take root in
+the craven heart of Ramiro del' Orca, it would so fully occupy his mind
+that he would have little time to bestow on Paola in the few hours that
+were left him. But before I could bethink me of words, he was speaking
+again.
+
+"I held out to you a slender hope," said he. "I told you that there
+was one little thing might save you. That hope has borne no fruit; the
+little thing, I spoke of has not come to pass. It rested with Madonna
+Paola, here. She had it in her hands to effect your salvation, but she
+has refused. Your blood rests on her head."
+
+She shuddered at the words, and a low moan escaped her. She covered her
+face with her hands. A moment I stood looking at her; then I shifted my
+glance to Ramiro.
+
+"Will it please you, Illustrious, to allow me a few moments'
+conversation with Madonna Paola di Santafior?"
+
+I invested my tones with a weight of meaning that did not escape him.
+His face suddenly lightened; whilst one of his officers--a fellow very
+fitly named Lupone--laughed outright.
+
+"Your hero seems none so heroic after all," he said derisively to the
+Governor. "The imminence of death makes him amenable."
+
+Ramiro scowled on him for answer. Then, turning to me--"Do you think you
+could bend her stubbornness?" quoth he.
+
+"I might attempt it," answered I.
+
+His eyes flashed with evil hope; his lips parted in a smile. He shot
+a glance at Madonna, who had withdrawn her hands from her face and
+was regarding me now with a strange expression of horror and
+incredulity--marvelling, no doubt, to find me such a craven as I must
+have seemed.
+
+Ramiro looked at the diminishing sunlight on the floor.
+
+"In some five minutes the sun will have completely set," said he. "Those
+five minutes you shall have to seek to enlist Madonna's aid on your
+behalf. If you succeed--and she may tell you on what terms you are to
+have your life--you shall depart from Cesena to-night a free man."
+
+He paused a moment, and his eyes, lighted by an odious smile, rested
+once more on Madonna Paula. Then he bade all withdraw, and went with
+them into an adjoining chamber, fondly nurturing the hopes that were
+begotten of his belief that Lazzaro Biancomonte was a villain.
+
+When we were alone, she and I, I stood a moment where they had left me,
+my hands pinioned behind me, and the cord which the executioner had
+held trailing the ground like a lambent tail. Then I went slowly forward
+until I stood close before her. Her eyes were on my face, still with
+that same look of unbelief.
+
+"Madonna mia," said I, "do not for an instant think that it is my
+purpose to ask of you any sacrifice that might save my worthless
+life. Rather was my purpose in seeking these few moments with you, to
+strengthen and encourage you by such news as it is mine to bring."
+
+She looked now as if she scarcely understood.
+
+"If I will wed him to-night, he has promised that you shall go free,"
+she said in a whisper. "He says that he can bring a priest from the
+neighbourhood at a moment's notice."
+
+"Do not heed him," I cried sternly.
+
+"I do not heed him," said she, more composedly. "If he seeks to force
+me, I shall find a way of setting myself free. Dear Mother of Heaven!
+death were a sweet and restful thing after all that I have suffered in
+these days."
+
+Then she fell suddenly to weeping.
+
+"Think me not an utter coward, Lazzaro. Willingly would I do this thing
+to save so noble a life as yours, did I not think that you must hate
+me for it. I was stout and firm in my refusal, confident that you would
+have had me so. Was I not right, my poor, poor Lazzaro?"
+
+"Madonna, you were right," I answered firmly and calmly.
+
+"And you are to die, amor mio," she murmured passionately. "You are to
+die when the promise of happiness seemed held out to us. And yet, were
+you to live at the price at which life is offered you, would your life
+be endurable? Tell me the truth, Lazzaro; swear it to me. For if life is
+the dearer thing to you, why then, you shall have your life."
+
+"Need you ask me, Paola?" questioned I. "Does not your heart tell
+you how much easier is death than would be such life as I must lead
+hereafter, even if we could trust Ramiro, which we cannot. Be brave,
+Madonna, and help me to be brave and to bear thyself with a becoming
+fortitude. Now listen to what I have to tell you. Ramiro del' Orca is a
+traitor who is plotting the death of his overlord. Proofs of it are by
+now in the hands of Cesare Borgia, and in some seven or eight hours the
+Duke himself should be here to put this monster to the question touching
+these matters. I will say a word in his ear ere I depart that will fill
+his mind with a very wholesome fear, and you will find that during
+the few hours left him he will have little leisure to think of you and
+afflict you with his odious wooing. Be strong, then, for a little while,
+for Cesare is coming to set you free."
+
+She looked at me now with eyes that were wide open. Suddenly--
+
+"Could we not gain time?" she cried, and in her eagerness she rose and
+set her hands upon my shoulders. "Could I not pretend to acquiesce to
+his wishes, and so delay your end?"
+
+"I have thought of it," I answered gloomily, "but the thought has
+brought me no hope. Ramiro is not to be trusted. He might tell you
+that he sets me free, but he dare not do so; he fears that I may have
+knowledge of his dealings with Vitelli, and assuredly he would break
+faith with us. Again the coming of the Duke might be delayed. Alas!"
+I ended in despair, "there is nothing to be done but to let things run
+their course."
+
+There was even more in my mind than I expressed. My mistrust of Ramiro
+went further than I had explained, and concerning Madonna more closely
+than it did me.
+
+"Nay, Lazzaro mine," she still protested, "I will attempt it. It is, at
+least, well worth the risk.
+
+"You forget," said I, "that even when Cesare comes we cannot say how he
+will bear himself towards you. You were to have been betrothed to his
+cousin, Ignacio. It is a matter upon which he may insist."
+
+She looked at me for a moment with anguish in her eyes that turned my
+misery into torture.
+
+"Lazzaro," she moaned, "was ever woman so beset! I think that Heaven
+must have laid some curse upon me."
+
+Her face was close to mine. I stooped forward and kissed her on her
+brow.
+
+"May God have you in His keeping, Madonna mia," I murmured. "The sun is
+gone."
+
+"Lazzaro!" It was the cry of a breaking heart. Her arms went round my
+neck, and in a passion of grief her kisses burned on my lips.
+
+Then the door of the anteroom opened--and I thanked God for the mercy
+of that interruption. I whispered a word to her, and in obedience she
+sprang back, and sank limp and broken on the chair once again.
+
+Ramiro entered, his men behind him, his face alit with eagerness. There
+and then I swamped his hopes.
+
+"The sun is gone, Magnificent," said I. "You had best get me hanged."
+
+His brow darkened, for there was a note of mockery and triumph in my
+voice.
+
+"You have fooled me, animal," he cried. His jaw set, and his eyes
+continued to regard me with an evil glow. Then he laughed terribly,
+shrugged his shoulders, and spoke again. "After all, it shall avail you
+little." He turned to the carnifex. "Federigo, do your work," said
+he, whereupon the fellow stepped behind me, and the halberdiers ranged
+themselves one on either side of me again.
+
+"A word ere I go, Messer del' Orca," I demanded insolently.
+
+He looked at me sharply, wondering, maybe, at the fresh tone I took.
+
+"Say it and begone," he sullenly permitted me.
+
+I paused a moment to choose fitting words for that portentous death-song
+of mine. At length--
+
+"You boasted to me a little while ago," said I, smiling grimly, "that
+the man did not live who had thrice fooled you. That man does live, for
+that man am I."
+
+"Bah!" he returned contemptuously, thinking, no doubt, that I referred
+to my interview with Madonna Paola. "You may take what pride you will
+from such a thought. You are upon the threshold of death."
+
+"True, but the thought is one that affords me more comfort and joy than
+pride. As much comfort and joy as you shall take horror when I tell you
+in what manner I have fooled you." I paused to heighten the sensation of
+my words.
+
+"To such good purpose have I used my wits that ere another sun shall
+rise and set you will have followed me along the black road that I am
+now treading--the road whose bourne is the gallows. Bethink you of the
+charred paper that last night you brushed from this table when you awoke
+to find a candle fallen on the treacherous letter Vitellozzo Vitelli
+sent you in the lining of a hat."
+
+His jaw fell, his face flamed redder than ever for a second, then it
+went grey as ashes.
+
+"Of what do you prate, fool?" he questioned huskily, seeking to bluster
+it before the startled glances of his officers.
+
+"I speak," said I, "of that charred paper. It was I who laid the candle
+across it; but it was a virgin sheet I burned. Vitelli's letter I had
+first abstracted."
+
+"You lie!" he almost screamed.
+
+"To prove that I do not, I will tell you what it contained. It held
+proof that bribed by the Tyrant of Citta di Castello you had undertaken
+to pose an arbalister to slay the Duke on the occasion of his coming
+visit to Cesena."
+
+He glared at me a moment in furious amazement. Then he turned to his
+officers.
+
+"Do not heed him," he bade them. "The dog lies to sow doubts in your
+minds ere he goes out to hang. It is a puerile revenge."
+
+I laughed with amused confidence. There was one among them had heard
+Lampugnani's words touching the messenger's hat--words that had cost
+the fellow his life. But my concern was little with the effect my words
+might produce upon his followers.
+
+"By to-morrow you will know whether I have lied or not. Nay, before then
+shall you know it, for by midnight Cesare Borgia should be at Cesena.
+Vitellozzo Vitelli's letter is in his hands by now."
+
+At that Ramiro burst into a laugh. So convinced was he of the
+impossibility of my having got the letter to the Duke, even if what I
+had said of its abstraction were true, that he gathered assurance from
+what seemed to him so monstrous an exaggeration.
+
+"By your own words are you confounded," said he. "Out of your own mouth
+have you proven your lies. Assuming that all you say were true, how
+could you, who since last night have been a prisoner, have got a
+messenger to bear anything from you to Cesare Borgia?"
+
+I looked at him with a contemptuous amusement that daunted him.
+
+"Where is Mariani?" I asked quietly. "Where is the father of the lad you
+so brutally and wantonly slew yesternight? Seek him throughout Cesena,
+and when you find him not, perhaps you will realise that one who had
+seen his own son suffer such an outrageous and cruel death at your
+brigand's hands would be a willing and ready instrument in an act that
+should avenge him."
+
+Vergine santa! What a consternation was his. He must have missed Mariani
+early in the day, for he took no measure, asked no questions that might
+confirm or refute the thing I announced. His face grew livid, and his
+knees loosened. He sank on to a chair and mopped the cold sweat from his
+brow with his great brown hand. No thought had he now for the eyes of
+his officers or their opinions. Fear, icy and horrid, such fear as in
+his time he had inspired in a thousand hearts was now possessed of his.
+Sweet indeed was the flavour of my vengeance.
+
+His officers instinctively drew away from him before the guilt so
+clearly written on his face, and their eyes were full of doubt as to
+how they should proceed and of some fear--for it must have been passing
+through their minds that they stood, themselves, in danger of being
+involved with him in the Duke's punishment of his disloyalty.
+
+This was more than had ever entered into my calculations or found room
+in my hopes. By a brisk appeal to them, it almost seemed that I might
+work my salvation in this eleventh hour.
+
+Madonna watched the scene with eyes that suggested to me that the same
+hope had arisen in her own mind. My halberdiers and the carnifex alone
+stood stolidly indifferent. Ramiro was to them the man that hired them;
+with his intriguing they had no concern.
+
+For a moment or two there was a silence, and Ramiro sat staring before
+him, his white face glistening with the sweat of fear. A very coward at
+heart was this overbearing ogre of Cesena, who for years had been the
+terror and scourge of the countryside. At last he mastered his emotion
+and sprang to his feet.
+
+"You have had the laugh of me," he snarled, fury now ringing in his
+voice. "But ere you die you may regret it that you mocked me."
+
+He turned to the executioner.
+
+"Strip him," he commanded fiercely. "He shall not hang as I intended--at
+least not before we have torn every bone of his body from its socket.
+To the cord with him!" And he pointed to the torture at the end of the
+hall.
+
+The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola
+leapt to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new
+excitement.
+
+"Is there none here," he cried, appealing to Ramiro's officers, "that
+will draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the Duca Valentino?
+There stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his loyalty to
+Cesare Borgia. The Duke is likely to demand a heavy price for the
+life of that faithful one to whose warning he owes his escape of
+assassination. Will none of you side now with the right that anon you
+may stand well with Cesare Borgia when he comes? Or, by idly allowing
+this traitor to have his way, will you participate in the punishment
+that must be his?"
+
+It was the very spur they needed. And scarce was that final question of
+hers flung at those knaves, when the answer came from one of them. It
+was that same sturdy Lupone.
+
+"I, for one, am for the Duke," said he, and his sword leapt from its
+scabbard. "I draw my iron for Valentino. Let every loyal man do likewise
+and seize this traitor." And with his sword he pointed at Ramiro.
+
+In an instant three others bared their weapons and ranged themselves
+beside him. The remaining two--of whom was Lucagnolo--folded their
+hands, manifesting by that impassivity that they were minded to take
+neither one side nor the other.
+
+The carnifex paused in his labours of undressing me, and the affair
+promised to grow interesting. But Ramiro did not stand his ground. Fury
+swelling his veins and crimsoning his huge face, he sprang to the door
+and bellowed to his guards. Six men trooped in almost at once, and
+reinforced by the halberdiers that had been guarding me, they made short
+work of the resistance of those four officers. In as little time as it
+takes me to record it, they were disarmed and ranged against the wall
+behind those guards and others that had come to their support--to be
+dealt with by Ramiro after he had dealt with me.
+
+His fear of Cesare's coming was put by for the moment in his fierce
+lust to be avenged upon me who had betrayed him and the officers who
+had turned against him. Madonna sank back once more in her despair. The
+little spark that she had so bravely fanned to life had been quenched
+almost as soon as it had shown itself.
+
+"Now, Federigo," said Ramiro grimly, "I am waiting."
+
+The executioner resumed his work, and in an instant I stood stripped of
+my brigandine. As the fellow led me, unresisting, to the torture--for
+what resistance could have availed me now?--I tried to pray for strength
+to endure what was to come. I was done with life; for some portion of
+an hour I must go through the cruellest of agonies; and then, when it
+pleased God in His mercy that I should swoon, it would be to wake no
+more in this world. For they would bear out my unconscious body, and
+hang it by the neck from that black beam they called Ramiro del' Orca's
+flagstaff.
+
+I cast a last glance at Madonna. She had fallen on her knees, and with
+folded hands was praying intently, none heeding her.
+
+Federigo halted me beneath the pulleys, and his horrid hands grew busy
+adjusting the ropes to my wrists.
+
+And then, when the last ray of hope had faded, but before the
+executioner had completed his hideous task, a trumpet-blast, winding a
+challenge to the gates of the Castle of Cesena, suddenly rang out upon
+the evening air, and startled us all by its sudden and imperious note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a
+miracle had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight hours
+before it was possible for Mariani to have fetched him from Faenza. The
+same doubt may have crossed Ramiro's mind, for he changed colour and
+sprang to the door to bawl an order forbidding his men to lower the
+bridge.
+
+But he was too late. Before he was answered by his followers, we heard
+the creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending
+in a thud that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat.
+Then came the loud continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers.
+Paralysed by fear Ramiro stood where he had halted, turning his eyes
+wildly in this direction and in that, but never moving one way or the
+other.
+
+It must be Cesare, I swore to myself. Who else could ride to Cessna with
+such numbers? But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he had
+seen Mariani, for he could not have ridden from Faenza. Madonna had
+risen too, and with a white face and straining eyes she was looking
+towards the door.
+
+And then our doubts were at last ended. There was a jangle of spurs and
+the fall of feet, and through the open door stepped a straight, martial
+figure in a doublet of deep crimson velvet, trimmed with costly lynx
+furs and slashed with satin in the sleeves and shoulder-puffs; jewels
+gleamed in the massive chain across his breast and at the marroquin
+girdle that carried his bronze-hilted sword; his hose was of red silk,
+and his great black boots were armed with golden spurs. But to crown all
+this very regal splendour was the beautiful, pale, cold face of Cesare
+Borgia, from out of which two black eyes flashed and played like
+sword-points on the company.
+
+Behind him surged a press of mercenaries, in steel, their weapons naked
+in their hands, so that no doubt was left of the character of this
+visit.
+
+Collecting himself, and bethinking him that after all, he had best
+dissemble a good countenance; Ramiro advanced respectfully to meet his
+overlord. But ere he had taken three steps the Duke stayed him.
+
+"Stand where you are, traitor," was the imperious command. "I'll trust
+you no nearer to my person." And to emphasise his words he raised his
+gloved left hand, which had been resting on his sword-hilt, and in which
+I now observed that he held a paper.
+
+Whether Ramiro recognised it, or whether it was that the mere sight of
+a paper reminded him of the letter which on my testimony should be in
+Cesare's keeping, or whether again the word "traitor" with which Cesare
+branded him drove the iron deeper into his soul, I cannot say; but to
+this I can testify: that he turned a livid green, and stood there before
+his formidable master in an attitude so stricken as to have aroused pity
+for any man less a villain than was he.
+
+And now Cesare's eye, travelling round, alighted on Madonna Paola,
+standing back in the shadows to which she had instinctively withdrawn at
+his coming. At sight of her he recoiled a pace, deeming, no doubt, that
+it was an apparition stood before him. Then he looked again, and being a
+man whose mind was above puerile superstitions, he assured himself that
+by what miracle the thing was wrought, the figure before him was the
+living body of Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior. He swept the velvet
+cap with its jewelled plume from off his auburn locks, and bowed low
+before her.
+
+"In God's name, Madonna, how are you come to life again, and how do I
+find you here of all places?"
+
+She made no ado about enlightening him.
+
+"That villain," said she, and her finger pointed straight and firmly
+at Ramiro, "put a sleeping-potion in my wine on the last night he dined
+with us at Pesaro, and when all thought me dead he came to the Church of
+San Domenico with his men to carry off my sleeping body. He would have
+succeeded in his fell design but that Lazzaro Biancomonte there, whom
+you have stayed him in the act of torturing to death, was beforehand
+and saved me from his clutches for a time. This morning at Cattolica his
+searching sbirri discovered me and brought me hither, where I have been
+for the past three hours, and where, but for your Excellency's timely
+arrival, I shudder to think of the indignities I might have suffered."
+
+"I thank you, Madonna, for this clear succinctness," answered Cesare
+coldly, as was his habit. They say he was a passionate man, and such
+indeed I do believe him to have been; but even in the hottest frenzy of
+rage, outwardly he was ever the same--icily cold and tranquil. And this,
+no doubt, was the thing that made him terrible.
+
+"Presently, Madonna," he pursued, "I shall ask you to tell me how it
+chanced that, having saved you, Messer Biancomonte did not bear you
+to your brother's house. But first I have business with my Governor of
+Cesena--a score which is rendered, if possible, heavier than it already
+stood by this thing that you have told me."
+
+"My lord," cried out Ramiro, finding his tongue at last, "Madonna has
+misinformed you. I know nothing of who administered the sleeping-potion.
+Certainly it was not I. I heard a rumour that her body had been stolen,
+and--"
+
+"Silence!" Cesare commanded sternly. "Did I question you, dog?"
+
+His beautiful, terrible eyes fastened upon Ramiro in a glance that
+defied the man to answer him. Cowed, like a hound at sight of the whip,
+Ramiro whimpered into silence.
+
+Cesare waved his hand in his direction, half-turning to the men-at-arms
+behind him.
+
+"Take and disarm him," was his passionless command. And while they were
+doing his bidding, he turned to me and ordered the executioner beside me
+to unbind my hands and set me at liberty.
+
+"I owe you a heavy debt, Messer Biancomonte," he said, without any
+warmth, even now that his voice was laden with a message of gratitude.
+"It shall be discharged. It is thanks to your daring and resource that
+the seneschal Mariani was able to bring me this letter, this piece of
+culminating proof against Ramiro del' Orca. It is fortunate for you that
+Mariani was not put to it to ride to Faenza to find me, or else I am
+afraid we had not reached Cesena in time to save your life. I met him
+some leagues this side of Faenza, as I was on my way to Sinigaglia."
+
+He turned abruptly to Ramiro.
+
+"In this letter which Vitelli wrote you," said he, "it is suggested that
+there are others in the conspiracy. Tell me now, who are those others?
+See that you answer me with truth, for I shall compel proofs from you of
+such accusations as you may make."
+
+Ramiro looked at him with eyes rendered dull by agony. He moistened his
+lips with his tongue, and turning his head towards his men--
+
+"Wine," he gasped, from very force of habit. "A cup of wine!"
+
+"Let it be supplied him," said Cesare coldly, and we all stood waiting
+while a servant filled him a cup. Ramiro gulped the wine avidly, never
+pausing until the goblet was empty.
+
+"Now," said Cesare, who had been watching him, "will it please you to
+answer my question?"
+
+"My lord," said Ramiro, revived and strengthened in spirit by the
+draught, "I must ask your Excellency to be a little plainer with me.
+To what conspiracy is it that you refer? I know of none. What is this
+letter which you say Vitelli wrote me? I take it you refer to the Lord
+of Citta di Castello. But I can recall no letters passing between us. My
+acquaintance with him is of the slightest."
+
+Cesare looked at him a second.
+
+"Approach," he curtly bade him, and Ramiro came forward, one of the
+Borgia halberdiers on either side of him, each holding him by an arm.
+The Duke thrust the letter under his eyes. "Have you never seen that
+before?"
+
+Ramiro looked at it a moment, and his attempt at dissembling
+bewilderment was a ludicrous thing to witness.
+
+"Never," he said brazenly at last.
+
+Cesare folded the letter and slipped it into the breast of his doublet.
+From his girdle he took a second paper. He turned from Ramiro.
+
+"Don Miguel," he called.
+
+From behind his men-at-arms a tall man, all dressed in black, stood
+forward. It was Cesare's Spanish captain, one whose name was as well
+known and as well-dreaded in Italy as Cesare's own. The Duke held out to
+him the paper that he had produced.
+
+"You heard the question that I asked Messer del' Orca?" he inquired.
+
+"I heard, Illustrious," answered Miguel, with a bow.
+
+"See that you obtain me an answer to it, as well as an account of
+the other matters that I have noted on this list--concerning the
+misappropriation of stores, the retention of taxes illicitly levied, and
+the wanton cruelty towards my good citizens of Cesena. Put him to the
+question without delay, and record me his replies. The implements are
+yonder."
+
+And with the same calm indifference which characterised his every word
+and action Cesare pointed to the torture, and turned to Madonna Paola,
+as though he gave the matter of Ramiro del' Orca and his misdeeds not
+another thought.
+
+"Mercy, my lord," rang now the voice of Ramiro, laden with horrid fear.
+"I will speak."
+
+"Then do so--to Don Miguel. He will question you in my name." Again he
+turned to Madonna. "Madonna Paola, may I conduct you hence? Things may
+perhaps occur which it is not seemly your gentle eyes should witness.
+Messer Biancomonte, attend us."
+
+Now, in spite of all that Ramiro had made me suffer, I should have been
+loath to have remained and witnessed his examination. That they would
+torture him was now inevitable. His chance of answering freely was
+gone. Even if he returned meek replies to Don Miguel's questions,
+that gentleman would, no doubt, still submit him to the cord by way of
+assuring himself that such replies were true ones.
+
+Gladly, then, did I turn to follow the Duke and Madonna Paola into the
+adjoining chamber to which Cesare led the way, even as Don Miguel's
+voice was raised to command his men to clear the hall, to the end that
+he might conduct his examination in private.
+
+The three of us stood in the anteroom. A servant had lighted the tapers
+and closed the doors, and the Duke turned to me.
+
+"First, Messer Biancomonte, to discharge my debt. You are, if I am not
+misinformed, the lord by right of birth of certain lands that bear
+your name, which suffered sequestration during the reign of the late
+Costanzo, Tyrant of Pesaro, whose son Giovanni upheld that confiscation.
+Am I right?"
+
+"Your Excellency is very well informed. The Lord of Pesaro did make me
+tardy restitution--so tardy, indeed, that the lands which he restored to
+me had already virtually passed from his possession."
+
+Cesare smiled.
+
+"In recompense for the service you have rendered me this day," said he,
+and my heart thrilled at the words and at the thought of the joy which
+I was about to bear to my old mother, "I reinvest you in your lands
+of Biancomonte for so long as you are content to recognise in me your
+overlord, and to be loyal, true and faithful to my rule."
+
+I bowed, murmuring something of the joy I felt and the devotion I should
+entertain.
+
+"Then that is done with. You shall have the deed from my hand by
+morning. And now, Madonna, will you grant me some explanation of your
+conduct in leaving Pesaro in this man's company, instead of repairing to
+your brother's house, when you awakened from the effects of the
+potion Ramiro gave you, or must I seek the explanation from Messer
+Biancomonte?"
+
+Her eyes fell before the scrutiny of his, and when they were raised
+again it was to meet my glance, and if Cesare could not, for himself,
+read the message of those eyes, why then, his penetration was by no
+means what the world accounted it.
+
+"My lord," I cried, "let me explain. I love Madonna Paola. It was love
+of her that led me to the church and kept me there that night. It was
+love of her and the overmastering passion of my grief at her so sudden
+death that led me, in a madness, to desire once more to look upon her
+face ere they delivered it to earth's keeping. Thus was it that I came
+to discover that she lived; thus was it that I anticipated Ramiro del'
+Orca. He came upon us almost before I had raised her from the coffin,
+yet love lent me strength and craft to delude him. We hid awhile in the
+sacristy, and it was there, after Madonna had revived, that the pent-up
+passion of years burst the bond with which reason had bidden me restrain
+it."
+
+"By the Host!" cried Cesare, his brows drawn down in a frown. "You are a
+bold man to tell me this. And you, Madonna," he cried, turning suddenly
+to her, "what have you to say?"
+
+"Only, my lord, that I have suffered more I think in these past few days
+than has ever fallen to the life-time's share of another woman. I think,
+my lord, that I have suffered enough to have earned me a little peace
+and a little happiness for the remainder of my days. All my life have
+men plagued me with marriages that were hateful to me, and this has
+culminated in the brutal act of Ramiro del' Orca. Do you not think that
+I have endured enough?"
+
+He stared at her for a moment.
+
+"Then you love this fellow?" he gasped. "You, Madonna Paola Sforza di
+Santafior, one of the noblest ladies in all Italy, confess to love this
+lordling of a few barren acres?"
+
+"I loved him, Illustrious, when he was less, much less, than that.
+I loved him when he was little better than the Fool of the Court of
+Pesaro, and not even the shame of the motley that disgraced him could
+stay the impulse of my affections."
+
+He laughed curiously.
+
+"By my faith," said he, "I have gone through life complaining of the
+want of frankness in the men and women I have met. But you two seem
+to deal in it liberally enough to satisfy the most ardent seeker after
+truth. I would that Pontius Pilate could have known you." Then he grew
+sterner. "But what account of this evening's adventure am I to bear to
+my cousin Ignacio?"
+
+She hung her head in silence, whilst my own spirit trembled. Then
+suddenly I spoke.
+
+"My lord," said I, "if you take her back to Pesaro, you may keep the
+deed of Biancomonte. For unless Madonna Paola goes thither with me, your
+gift is a barren one, your reward of no account or value to me."
+
+"I would not have it so," said he, his head on one side and his fingers
+toying with his auburn beard. "You saved my life, and you must be
+rewarded fittingly."
+
+"Then, Illustrious, in payment for my preservation of your life, do you
+render happy mine, and we shall thus be quits."
+
+"My lord," cried Paola, putting forth her hands in supplication, "if you
+have ever loved, befriend us now."
+
+A shadow darkened his face for an instant, then it was gone, and his
+expression was as inscrutable as ever. Yet he took her hands in his and
+looked down into her eyes.
+
+"They say that I am hard, bloodthirsty and unfeeling," he said in tones
+that were almost of complaint. "But I am not proof against so much
+appeal. Ignacio must find him a bride in Spain; and if he is wise and
+would taste the sweets of life, he will see to it that he finds him a
+willing one."
+
+"As for you two, Cesare Borgia shalt stand your friend. He owes you no
+less. I will be godfather to your nuptials. Thus shall the blame and
+consequences rest on me. Paola Sforza di Santafior is dead, men think.
+We will leave them thinking it. Filippo must know the truth. But you can
+trust me to make your brother take a reasonable view of what has come
+to pass. After all, there may be a disparity in your ranks. But it is
+purely adventitious, for noble though you may be, Madonna Paola, you are
+wedding one who seems no less noble at heart, whatever the parts he may
+have played in life." He smiled inscrutably, as he added: "I have in
+mind that you once sought service with me Messer Biancomonte, and if a
+martial life allures you still, I'll make you lord of something better
+far than Biancomonte."
+
+I thanked him, and Madonna joined me in that expression of gratitude--an
+expression that fell very short of all that was in our hearts. But
+touching that offer of his that I should follow his fortunes, I begged
+him not to insist.
+
+"The possession of Biancomonte has from my cradle been the goal of all
+my hopes. It is patrimony enough for me, and there, with Madonna
+Paola, I'll take a long farewell of ambition, which is but the seed of
+discontent."
+
+"Why, as you will," he sighed. And then, before more could be said,
+there came from the adjoining room a piercing scream.
+
+Cesare raised his head, and his lips parted in the faintest vestige of a
+smile.
+
+"They are exacting the truth from the Governor of Cesena," said he. "I
+think, Madonna, that we had better move a little farther off. Ramiro's
+voice makes indifferent music for a lady's ear."
+
+She was white as death at the horrid noise and all the things of which
+it may have reminded her, and so we passed from the antechamber and
+sought the more distant places of the castle.
+
+Here let me pause. We were married on the morrow which was Christmas
+eve, and in the grey dawn of the Christmas morning we set out for
+Biancomonte with the escort which Cesare Borgia placed at our disposal.
+
+As we rode out from the Citadel of Cesena, we saw the last of Ramiro
+del' Orca. Beyond the gates, in the centre of the public square, a block
+stood planted in the snow. On the side nearer the castle there was a
+dark mass over which a rich mantle had been thrown; it was of purple
+colour, and in the uncertain light it was not easy to tell where the
+cloak ended, and the stain that embrued the snow began. On the other
+side of the block a decapitated head stood mounted on an upright pike,
+and the sightless eyes of Ramiro del' Orca looked from his grinning face
+upon the town of Cesena, which he had so wantonly misruled.
+
+Madonna shuddered and turned her head aside as we rode past that dread
+emblem of the Borgia justice.
+
+To efface from her mind the memory of such a thing on such a day, I
+talked to her, as we cantered out into the country, of the life to come,
+of the mother that waited to welcome us, and of the glad tidings with
+which we were to rejoice her on that Christmas day.
+
+There is no moral to my story. I may not end with one of those graceful
+admonitions beloved of Messer Boccacci to whom in my jester's days
+I owed so much. Not mine is it to say with him "Wherefore, gentle
+ladies"--or "noble sirs--beware of this, avoid that other thing."
+
+Mine is a plain tale, written in the belief that some account of
+those old happenings that befell me may offer you some measure of
+entertainment, and written, too, in the support of certain truths which
+my contemporaries have been shamefully inclined and simoniacally induced
+to suppress. Many chroniclers set forth how the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli
+and his associates were barbarously strangled by Cesare's orders at
+Sinigaglia, and wilfully--for I cannot believe that it results from
+ignorance--are they silent touching the reason, leaving you to imagine
+that it was done in obedience to a ruthlessness of character beyond
+parallel, so that you may come to consider Cesare Borgia as black as
+they were paid to paint him.
+
+To confute them do I set down these facts of which my knowledge cannot
+be called in question, and also that you may know the true story of
+Paola di Santafior--and more particularly that part of it which lies
+beyond the death she did not die.
+
+The sun of that Christmas day was setting as we drew near to Biancomonte
+and the humble dwelling of my old mother. We fell into talk of her once
+more. Suddenly Paola turned in her saddle to confront me.
+
+"Tell me, Lord of Biancomonte, will she love me a little, think you?"
+she asked, to plague me.
+
+"Who would not love you, Lady of Biancomonte?" counter-questioned I.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shame of Motley, by Raphael Sabatini
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHAME OF MOTLEY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 3408.txt or 3408.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/3408/
+
+Produced by John Stuart Middleton
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/3408.zip b/old/3408.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16b0366
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3408.zip
diff --git a/old/shmot10.txt b/old/shmot10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f9e207
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/shmot10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9037 @@
+The Project Gutenberg Etext The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini
+#12 in our series by Raphael Sabatini
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.
+
+Please do not remove this.
+
+This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
+Do not change or edit it without written permission.  The words
+are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
+need about what they can legally do with the texts.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota,
+Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states
+are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will
+begin in the additional states. These donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655
+
+
+Title: The Shame of Motley
+
+Author: Raphael Sabatini
+
+Release Date: September, 2002  [Etext #3408]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[Date first posted:  04/06/01]
+[Date last updated: June 21, 2004]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini
+******This file should be named shmot10.txt or shmot10.zip*****
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, shmot11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, shmot10a.txt
+
+This etext was produced by John Stuart Middleton <johnmiddleton@netzero.net>
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
+the official publication date.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02
+or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02
+
+Or /etext01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding.
+
+Something is needed to create a future for Project Gutenberg for
+the next 100 years.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa,
+Indiana, and Vermont.  Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal
+Revenue Service (IRS).  Donations are tax-deductible to the extent
+permitted by law.  As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the
+additional states.
+
+All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation.  Mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Avenue
+Oxford, MS 38655  [USA]
+
+We are working with the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+to build more stable support and ensure the future of Project
+Gutenberg.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+You can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email.
+
+
+Example command-line FTP session:
+
+ftp ftp.ibiblio.org
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc.
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses.
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by John Stuart Middleton <johnmiddleton@netzero.net>
+
+
+
+
+
+The Shame of Motley
+Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions in the Life of Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro.
+
+by Rafael Sabatini
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I.  THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+   II.  THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+  III.  MADONNA PAOLA
+
+   IV.  THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+    V.  MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+
+   VI.  FOOL'S LUCK
+
+  VII.  THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+ VIII.  "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
+
+   IX.  THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+    X.  THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+
+   XI.  MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+
+  XII.  THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+ XIII.  POISON
+
+  XIV.  REQUIESCAT!
+
+   XV.  AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+  XVI.  IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+ XVII.  THE SENESCHAL
+
+XVIII.  THE LETTER
+
+  XIX.  DOOMED
+
+   XX.  THE SUNSET
+
+  XXI.  AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+FLOWER OF THE QUINCE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CARDINAL OF VALENCIA
+
+
+For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by
+suspense.  It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with
+after I had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from
+Pesaro, and I wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious
+Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia might see fit to offer me the
+honourable employment with which Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that he
+would reward the service I had rendered the House of Borgia by my
+journey.
+
+Three days were sped, yet nought had happened to signify that things
+would shape the course by me so ardently desired; that the means would
+be afforded me of mending my miserable ways, and repairing the wreck my
+life had suffered on the shoals of Fate.  True, I had been housed and
+fed, and the comforts of indolence had been mine; but, for the rest, I
+was still clothed in the livery of folly which I had worn on my arrival,
+and, wherever I might roam, there followed ever at my heels a crowd of
+underlings, seeking to have their tedium lightened by jests and capers,
+and voting me--when their hopes proved barren--the sorriest Fool that had
+ever worn the motley.
+
+On that third day I speak of, my patience tried to its last strand, I had
+beaten a lacquey with my hands, and fled from the cursed gibes his
+fellows aimed at me, out into the misty gardens and the chill January
+air, whose sting I could, perhaps, the better disregard by virtue of the
+heat of indignation that consumed me.  Was it ever to be so with me?
+Could nothing lift the curse of folly from me, that I must ever be a
+Fool, and worse, the sport of other fools?
+
+It was there on one of the terraces crowning the splendid heights above
+immortal Rome that Messer Gianluca found me.  He greeted me courteously;
+I answered with a snarl, deeming him come to pursue the plaguing from
+which I had fled.
+
+"His Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia is asking for
+you, Messer Boccadoro," he announced.  And so despairing had been my mood
+of ever hearing such a summons that, for a moment, I accounted it some
+fresh jest of theirs.  But the gravity of his fat countenance reassured
+me.
+
+"Let us go, then," I answered with alacrity, and so confident was I that
+the interview to which he bade me was the first step along the road to
+better fortune, that I permitted myself a momentary return to the Fool's
+estate from which I thought myself on the point of being for ever freed.
+
+"I shall use the interview to induce his Excellency to submit a tenth
+beatitude to the approval of our Holy Father: Blessed are the bearers of
+good tidings.  Come on, Messer the seneschal."
+
+I led the way, in my impatience forgetful of his great paunch and little
+legs, so that he was sorely tried to keep pace with me.  Yet who would
+not have been in haste, urged by such a spur as had I?  Here, then, was
+the end of my shameful travesty. To-morrow a soldier's harness should
+replace the motley of a jester; the name by which I should be known again
+to men would be that of Lazzaro Biancomonte, and no longer Boccadoro--the
+Fool of the golden mouth.
+
+Thus much had Madonna Lucrezia's promises led me to expect, and it was
+with a soul full of joyous expectation that I entered the great man's
+closet.
+
+He received me in a manner calculated to set me at my ease, and yet there
+was about him a something that overawed me.  Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of
+Valencia, was then in his twenty-third year, for all that there hung
+about him the semblance of a greater age, just as his cardinalitial robes
+lent him the appearance of a height far above the middle stature that was
+his own.  His face was pale and framed in a silky auburn beard; his nose
+was aquiline and strong; his eyes the keenest that I have ever seen; his
+forehead lofty and intelligent.  He seemed pervaded by an air of feverish
+restlessness, something surpassing the vivida vis animi, something that
+marked him to discerning eyes for a man of incessant action of body and
+of mind.
+
+"My sister tells me," he said in greeting, "that you are willing to take
+service under me, Messer Biancomonte."
+
+"Such was the hope that guided me to Rome, Most Excellent," I answered
+him.
+
+Surprise flashed into his eyes, and was gone as quickly as it had come.
+His thin lips parted in a smile, whose meaning was inscrutable.
+
+"As some reward for the safe delivery of the letter you brought me from
+her?" he questioned mildly.
+
+"Precisely, Illustrious," I answered in all frankness.
+
+His open hand smote the table of wood-mosaics at which he sat.
+
+"Praised be Heaven!" he cried. "You seem to promise that I shall have in
+you a follower who deals in truth."
+
+"Could your Excellency, to whom my real name is known, expect ought else
+of one who bears it--however unworthily?"
+
+There was amusement in his glance.
+
+"Can you still swagger it, after having worn that livery for three
+years?" he asked, and his lean forefinger pointed at my hideous motley of
+red and black and yellow.
+
+I flushed and hung my head, and--as if to mock that very expression of my
+shame--the bells on my cap gave forth a silvery tinkle at the movement.
+
+"Excellency, spare me," I murmured.  "Did you know all my miserable story
+you would be merciful.  Did you know with what joy I turned my back on
+the Court of Pesaro--"
+
+"Aye," he broke in mockingly, "when Giovanni Sforza threatened to have
+you hanged for the overboldness of your tongue.  Not until then did it
+occur to you to turn from the shameful life in which the best years of
+your manhood were being wasted.  There!  Just now I commended your
+truthfulness; but the truth that dwells in you is no more, it seems,
+than the truth we may look for in the mouth of Folly. At heart, I fear,
+you are a hypocrite, Messer Biancomonte; the worst form of hypocrite--a
+hypocrite to your own self."
+
+"Did your Excellency know all!" I cried.
+
+"I know enough," he answered, with stern sorrow; "enough to make me
+marvel that the son of Ettore Biancomonte of Biancomonte should play
+the Fool to Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro.  Oh you will tell me that
+you went there for revenge, to seek to right the wrong his father did
+your father."
+
+"It was, it was!" I cried, with heated vehemence. "Be flames everlasting
+the dwelling of my soul if any other motive drove me to this shameful
+trade."
+
+There was a pause.  His beautiful eyes flamed with a sudden light as
+they rested on me.  Then the lids drooped demurely, and he drew a deep
+breath. But when he spoke there was scorn in his voice.
+
+"And, no doubt, it was that same motive kept you there, at peace for
+three whole years, in slothful ease, the motleyed Fool, jesting and
+capering for his enemy's delectation--you, a man with the knightly memory
+of your foully-wronged parent to cry hourly shame upon you.  No doubt you
+lacked the opportunity to bring the tyrant to account.  Or was it that
+you were content to let him make a mock of you so long as he housed and
+fed you and clothed you in your garish livery of shame?
+
+"Spare me, Excellency," I cried again. "Of your charity let my past be
+done with.  When he drove me forth with threats of hanging, from which
+your gracious sister saved me, I turned my steps to Rome at her bidding
+to--"
+
+"To find honourable employment at my hands," he interrupted quietly.
+Then suddenly rising, and speaking in a voice of thunder--"And what,
+then, of your revenge?" he cried.
+
+"It has been frustrated," I answered lamely.  "Sufficient do I account
+the ruin that already I have wrought in my life by the pursuit of that
+phantom.  I was trained to arms, my lord.  Let me discard for good these
+tawdry rags, and strap a soldier's harness to my back."
+
+"How came you to journey hither thus?" he asked, suddenly turning the
+subject.
+
+"It was Madonna Lucrezia's wish.  She held that my errand would be safer
+so, for a Fool may travel unmolested."
+
+He nodded that he understood, and paced the chamber with bowed head.  For
+a spell there was silence, broken only by the soft fall of his slippered
+feet and the swish of his silken purple.  At last he paused before me and
+looked up into my face--for I was a good head taller than he was.  His
+fingers combed his auburn beard, and his beautiful eyes were full on
+mine.
+
+"That was a wise precaution of my sister's," he approved.  "I will take a
+lesson from her in the matter.  I have employment for you, Messer
+Biancomonte."
+
+I bowed my head in token of my gratitude.
+
+"You shall find me diligent and faithful, my lord," I promised him.
+
+"I know it," he sniffed, "else should I not employ you."
+
+He turned from me, and stepped back to his table.  He took up a package,
+fingered it a moment, then dropped it again, and shot me one of his quiet
+glances.
+
+"That is my answer to Madonna Lucrezia's letter," he said slowly, his
+voice as smooth as silk, "and I desire that you shall carry it to Pesaro
+for me, and deliver it safely and secretly into her hands."
+
+I could do no more than stare at him.  It seemed as if my mind were
+stricken numb.
+
+"Well?" he asked at last; and in his voice there was now a suggestion of
+steel beneath the silk.  "Do you hesitate?"
+
+"And if I do," I answered, suddenly finding my voice, "I do no more than
+might a bolder man.  How can I, who am banned by punishment of death,
+contrive to penetrate again into the Court of Pesaro and reach the Lady
+Lucrezia?"
+
+"That is a matter that I shall leave to the shrewd wit which all Italy
+says is the heritage of Boccadoro, the Prince of Fools.  Does the task
+daunt you?"  His glance and voice were alike harsh.
+
+In very truth it did, and I told him so, but in the terms which the
+shrewd wit he said was mine dictated.
+
+"I hesitate, my lord, indeed; but more because I fear the frustration of
+your own ends--whatever they may be--than because I dread to earn a
+broken neck by again adventuring into Pesaro.  Would not some other
+messenger--unknown at the Court of Giovanni Sforza--be in better case to
+acquit himself of such a task?
+
+"Yes, if I had one I could trust," he answered frankly.
+
+"I will be open with you, Biancomonte.  There are such grave matters at
+issue, there are such secrets confided to that paper, that I would not
+for a kingdom, not for our Holy Father's triple crown, that they should
+fall into alien hands."
+
+He approached me again, and his slender hand, upon which the sacred
+amethyst was glowing, fell lightly on my shoulder.  He lowered his voice
+"You are the man, the one man in Italy, whose interests are bound up with
+mine in this; therefore are you the one man to whom I can entrust that
+package."
+
+"I?" I gasped in amazement--as well I might, for what interests had
+Boccadoro, the Fool, in common with Cesare Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia?
+
+"You," he answered vehemently, "you, Lazzaro Biancomonte of Biancomonte,
+whose father Costanzo of Pesaro stripped of his domains.  The matters in
+those papers mean the ruin of the Lord of Pesaro.  We are all but ripe to
+strike at him from Rome and when we strike he shall be so disfigured by
+the blow that all Italy shall hold its sides to laugh at the sorry figure
+he will cut.  I would not say so much to any other living man but you and
+if I tell it you it is because I need your aid."
+
+"The lion and mouse," I murmured.
+
+"Why yes, if you will."
+
+"And this man is the husband of your sister!" I exclaimed, almost
+involuntarily.
+
+"Does that imply a doubt of what I have said?" he flashed, his head
+thrown back, his brows drawn suddenly together.
+
+"No, no," I hastened to assure him.  He smiled softly.
+
+"Maddonna Lucrezia knows all--or nearly all.  Of what else she may need to
+learn, that letter will inform her.  It is the last thread, the last knot
+needed, before we can complete the net in which we are to hold that
+tyrant?  Now, will you bear the letter?"
+
+Would I bear it?  Dear God!  To achieve the end in view I would have
+spent my remaining days in motley, making sport for grooms and kitchen
+wenches.  Some such answer did I make him, and he smiled his
+satisfaction.
+
+"You shall journey as you are," he bade me.  "I am guided by my sister,
+assured that the coat of a Fool is stouter protection than the best
+hauberk ever tempered.  When you have done your errand come you back to
+me, and you shall have employment better suited to one who bears the name
+of Biancomonte."
+
+"You may depend upon me in this, my lord," I promised gravely.  "I shall
+not fail you."
+
+"It is well" said he; and those wondrous eyes of his rested again upon my
+face.  "How soon can you set out?"
+
+"At once, my lord.  Does not the by-word say that a fool makes little
+preparation for a journey?"
+
+He nodded, and moved to a coffer, a beautiful piece of Venetian work in
+ultramarine and gold.  From this he took a heavy bag.
+
+"There," said he, "you will find the best of all travelling companions."
+I thanked him, and set the bag on the crook of my left arm, and by its
+weight I knew how true he was to the notorious splendour of his race.
+"And this," said he, "is a talisman that may serve to help you out of any
+evil plight, and open many a door that you may find locked."  And he
+handed me a signet ring on which was graven the steer that is the emblem
+of the House of Borgia.
+
+He raised aloft the hand on which was glistening the sacred amethyst--two
+fingers crooked and two erect.  Wondering what this should mean, I stared
+inquiry.
+
+"Kneel," he bade me.  And realising what he would be about, I sank on to
+my knees whilst he murmured the Apostolic benediction over my bowed head.
+The rushes of the floor were the only witnesses of the smile that crept
+to my lips at this sudden assumption of his churchly office by that most
+worldly prince.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LIVERIES OF SANTAFIOR
+
+
+Such preparations as I had to make were soon complete.
+
+Although it was agreed that I was to travel in the motley, yet, in my
+lately-born shame of that apparel, I decided that I would conceal it as
+best might be, revealing it only should the need arise.  Moreover, it was
+incumbent that I should afford myself more protection against the
+inclement January night than that of my foliated cape, my crested cap and
+silken hose.  So, a black cloak, heavy and ample, a broad-brimmed hat,
+and a pair of riding boots of untanned leather were my further equipment.
+In the lining of one of those boots I concealed the Lord Cesare's
+package; his money--some twenty ducats--I carried in a belt about my
+waist, and his ring I set boldly on my finger.
+
+Few moments did it need me to make ready, yet fewer, it seems, would the
+Borgia impatience have had me employ; for scarce was I booted when
+someone knocked at my door.  I opened, and there entered a very mountain
+of a man, whose corselet flashed back the yellow light of my tapers, as
+might have done a mirror, and whose harsh voice barked out to ask if I
+was ready.
+
+I had had some former acquaintance with this fellow, having first met him
+during the previous year, on the occasion of the Court of Pesaro's
+sojourn at Rome.  His name was Ramiro del' Orca, and throughout the Papal
+army it stood synonymous for masterfulness and grim brutality.  He was,
+as I have said, an enormous man, of prodigious bodily strength, heavy,
+yet of good proportions.  Of his face one gathered the impression of a
+blazing furnace.  His cheeks and nose were of a vivid red, and still more
+fiery was the hair, now hidden 'neath his morion, and the beard that
+tapered to a dagger's point.  His very eyes kept tune with the red
+harmony of his ferocious countenance, for the whites were ever bloodshot
+as a drunkard's--which, with no want of truth, men said he was.
+
+"Come," grunted that fiery, self-sufficient vassal, "be stirring, sir
+Fool.  I have orders to see you to the gates.  There is a horse ready
+saddled for you.  It is the Lord Cardinal's parting gift.  Resolve me
+now, which will be the greater ass--the one that rides, or the one that
+is ridden?"
+
+"O monstrous riddle!" I exclaimed, as I took up my cloak and hat.  "Who
+am I that I should solve it?"
+
+"It baffles you, sir Fool?" quoth he.
+
+"In very truth it does."  I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells set
+up a jangle.  "For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse.  But," I
+pursued, in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of the
+jester's wit, "were you to make a trio of us, including Messer Ramiro
+del' Orca, Captain in the army of his Holiness, no doubt would then
+afflict me.  I should never hesitate which of the three to pronounce the
+ass."
+
+"What shall that mean?" he asked, with darkening brows.
+
+"That its meaning proves obscure to you confirms the verdict I was
+hinting at," I taunted him.  "For asses are notoriously of dull
+perceptions."  Then stepping forward briskly: "Come, sir," I sharply
+urged him, "whilst we engage upon this pretty play of wit, his
+Excellency's business waits, which is an ill thing.  Where is this horse
+you spoke of?"
+
+He showed me his strong, white teeth in a very evil smile.
+
+"Were it not for that same business--" he began.
+
+"You would do fine things, I am assured," I interrupted him.
+
+"Would I not?" he snarled.  "By the Host!  I should be wringing your pert
+neck, or laying bare your bones with a thong of bullock-hide, you ill
+conditioned Fool!"
+
+I looked at him with pleasant, smiling eyes.
+
+"You confirm the opinion that is popularly held of you," said I.
+
+"What may that be?" quoth he, his eyes very evil.  "In Rome, I'm told,
+they call you hangman."
+
+He growled in his throat like an angered cur, and his hands were jerked
+to the level of his breast, the fingers bending talon-wise.
+
+"Body of God!" he muttered fiercely, "I'll teach one fool, at least--"
+
+"Let us cease these pleasantries, I entreat you," I laughed.  "Saints
+defend me!  If your mood incline to raillery you'll find your match in
+some lad of the stables.  As for me, I have not the time, had I the will,
+to engage you further.  Let me remind you that I would be gone."
+
+The reminder was well-timed.  He bethought him of the journey I must go,
+on which he was charged to see me safely started.
+
+"Come on, then," he growled, in a white heat of passion that was only
+curbed by the consideration of that slender, pale young cardinal, his
+master.
+
+Still, some of his rage he vented in roughly taking me by the collar of
+my doublet, and dragging the almost headlong from the room, and so a-down
+a flight of steps out into the courtyard.  Meet treatment for a Fool--a
+treatment to which time might have inured me; for had I not for three
+years already been exposed to rough usage of this kind at the hands of
+every man above the rank of groom?  And had I once rebelled in act as I
+did in soul, and used the strength wherewith God endowed me to punish my
+ill-users, a whip would have reminded me into what sorry slavery had I
+sold myself when I put on the motley.
+
+It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the
+courtyard when we descended.
+
+At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of
+hoofs, muffled by the snow.  Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare
+upon the all-encompassing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward the
+horse that was destined to bear me.  I donned my broad-brimmed hat, and
+wrapped my cloak about me.  Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears, from
+those minions with whom I had herded during my three days at the Vatican.
+Then Messer del' Orca thrust me forward.
+
+"Mount, Fool, and be off," he rasped.
+
+I mounted, and turned to him.  He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog wore
+human shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain Ramiro.
+
+"Brother, farewell," I simpered.
+
+"No brother of yours, Fool," snarled he.
+
+"True--my cousin only.  The fool of art is no brother to the fool of
+nature."
+
+"A whip!" he roared to his grooms.  "Fetch me a whip."
+
+I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and over the
+narrow drawbridge.  Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my shoulder.
+They stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men, looking black
+against the whiteness of the ground.  Behind them rose the brown walls of
+the rocca illumined by the flare of torches, from which the smell of
+rosin reached my nostrils as I paused.  I waved my hat to them in token
+of farewell, and digging my spurless heels into the flanks of my horse, I
+ambled down through the biting wind and drifting snow, into the town.
+
+The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell from
+a window, and there stole through the chink of a door to glow upon the
+snow in earnest of the snug warmth within.  Silence reigned, broken only
+by the moan of the wind under the eaves, for although it was no more than
+approaching the second hour of night, yet who but the wight whom
+necessity compelled would be abroad in such weather?
+
+All night I rode despite that weather's foulness--a foulness that might
+have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less attuned to
+his own supreme desires.
+
+Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to Magliano,
+and there I broke my fast and took some rest.  My horse had suffered by
+the journey more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh one at
+Magliano, but there was none to be had--so they told me--this side of
+Narni, wherefore I was forced to set out once more upon that poor jaded
+beast that had carried me all night.
+
+It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the
+journey accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster.  Here I
+paused to dine, but here, again, they told me that no horses might be
+had.  And so, leading by the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride,
+lest I should kill it outright, I entered the territory of Urbino on
+foot, and trudged wearily amain through the snow that was some inches
+deep by now.  In this miserable fashion I covered the seven leagues, or
+so, to Spoleto, where I arrived exhausted as night was falling.
+
+There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay.  I found a company of
+gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley--when I had
+thrown off my sodden cloak and hat--pressed me, willy-nilly, into amusing
+them.  And so I spent the night at my Fool's trade, giving them
+drolleries from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti--the horn-books of
+all jesters.
+
+I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending
+to travel with a better speed.  The snow was thick and soft at first, but
+as I approached the hills it grew more crisp.  Overhead the sky was of an
+unbroken blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was warmth in the
+sunshine.  All day I rode hard, and never rested until towards nightfall
+I found myself on the spurs of the Apennines in the neighborhood of
+Gualdo, the better half of my journey well-accomplished.  The weather had
+changed again at sunset.  It was snowing anew, and the north wind was
+howling like a choir of the damned.
+
+Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it
+might suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I drew
+rein before that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse.
+Despite the early hour the door was already barred, for the bedding of
+travellers formed no part of the traffic of so lowly a house as this
+nameless, wayside wine-shop.  Theirs was a trade that ended with the
+daylight.  Nevertheless I was assured they could be made to find me a rag
+of straw to lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
+
+The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the
+light of the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not
+over-clean.  Behind him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman
+as you might look to find the mate of such a man: broad and tall of frame
+and most scurvily cross-grained of face.  It may well be that had he
+bidden me welcome, she had driven me back into the night; but since he
+made some demur when I asked for lodging, and protested that in his house
+was but accommodation too rude to offer my magnificence, the woman thrust
+him aside, and loudly bade me enter.
+
+I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests
+should suffer were my trade disclosed.  I bade the man see to my horse,
+and then escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room above,
+which, in obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my
+convenience.
+
+It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner, and
+in the centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy chair
+beside it.  The floor was black with age and filth, and broken everywhere
+by rat-holes.  She set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the table, and
+with some apology for the rudeness of the chamber she asked in tones
+almost defiant if my excellency would be content.
+
+"Perforce," said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key to
+the respect of such a creature; "a king might thank Heaven for a kennel
+on such a night as this."
+
+She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered
+had I supped.  I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have been
+poisoned by such foulnesses as they might have set before me.  So I
+answered her that all I needed was a cup of wine.
+
+When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the
+door.  It had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three
+legged stool against it that it might give me warning of intrusion.  Next
+I threw off my cloak and hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I flung
+myself upon my miserable couch.  But jaded though I might be, it was not
+yet my intent to sleep.  Now that the half of my journey was
+accomplished, I found myself beset by doubts which had not before
+assailed me, touching the manner in which this mission of mine was to
+be accomplished.  It would prove no easy thing for me to penetrate
+unnoticed into the town of Pesaro, much less into the Sforza Court, where
+for three years I had pursued my Fool's trade.  There was scarce a man, a
+woman or a child in the entire domains of Giovanni Sforza to whom
+Boccadoro, the Fool, was not known; and many a villano, who had never
+noticed the features of the Lord of Pesaro, could have told you the very
+colour of his jester's eyes; which, after all, is no strange thing, for--
+sad reflection!--in a world in which Wisdom may be overlooked, Folly goes
+never disregarded.
+
+The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would
+gain the presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in others.
+And then my thoughts wandered into speculation.  What might be this
+momentous letter that I carried?  What was this secret traffic 'twixt
+Cesare Borgia and his sister?  Since Cesare had said that it meant the
+ruin of Giovanni Sforza--a ruin so utter, so complete and humiliating
+that it must provoke the scornful mirth of all Italy--the knowledge of it
+must soon be mine.  Meanwhile I was an agent of that ruin.  Dear God! how
+that reflection warmed me!  What joy I took in the thought that, though
+he knew it not, nor could come to know it, I Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he
+had abused and whose spirit he had broken--was become a tool to expedite
+the work of abasement and destruction that was ripening for him.  And
+realizing all this, that letter I vowed to Heaven I would carry,
+suffering no obstacle to daunt me, suffering nothing to turn me from my
+path.
+
+And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out impatiently:
+"Yes, yes; but how?"
+
+I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured
+myself a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive
+rat that had thrust its head above the boards.  Then I quenched the
+light, and flung myself once more upon my bed, in the hope that darkness
+would prove a stimulant to thought and bring me to the solution I was
+seeking.  It brought me sleep instead.  Unconsciously I sank to it, my
+riddle all unsolved.
+
+I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing the
+pattern of my lattice on the ceiling.  The stormy night had been
+succeeded by a calm and sunlit day.  And by its light the place wore a
+more loathsome look than it had done last night, so that at the very
+sight of it I leapt from my couch and grew eager to be gone.  I set a
+ducat on the table, and going to the door I called my hostess.  The
+stairs creaked presently 'neath her portentous weight, and, panting
+slightly, she stood before me.
+
+At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed in
+the cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then in
+rage--deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the garb
+of folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some scurvy
+tumbling or some witless jests.
+
+"Ossa di Cristo!" was her cry.  "Have I housed a Fool?"
+
+"If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has
+been a singularly choice resort.  Woman--"
+
+"Would you 'woman' me?" she stormed.
+
+"Why, no," said I politely.  "I was at fault.  I'll keep the title for
+your husband--God help him!"
+
+She smiled grimly.
+
+"And are these," she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, "the jests with
+which you pay the score?"
+
+"Jests?" quoth I.  "Score?  Pish!  More eyes, less tongue would more
+befit a hostess who has never housed a fool."  And with a splendid
+gesture I pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table.  At sight of the
+gold her eyes grew big with greed.
+
+"My master--" she began, and coming forward took the piece in her hand,
+to assure herself that she was not the dupe of magic.  "A fool with
+gold!" she marvelled.
+
+"Is a shame to his calling," I acknowledged.  Then--"Get me a needle and
+a length of thread," said I.  She scuttled off to do my bidding, like
+nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty.  She
+was back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a
+rent about me she might make bold to stitch.  What a key to courtesy is
+gold, my masters!  I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went
+at once.
+
+With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which it
+stood in need.  Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my way
+below, calling for my horse as I descended.
+
+I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed.  That last night's
+draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was
+theirs to tender.  I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and
+stood waiting in the squalid common-room, my mind divided 'twixt
+impatience to resume the road to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the
+means I was to adopt to enter it and yet save my neck--for this was now
+become an obsessing problem.
+
+As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an approaching
+cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs upon the thick
+snow carpet.  The company halted at the door, and a loud, gruff voice was
+raised to cry:
+
+"Locandiere!  Afoot, sluggard!"
+
+I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four
+mounted men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn so
+that nothing might be seen of him or her that rode within.  Grooms were
+those four, as all the world might see at the first glance, and the livery
+they wore was that of the noble House of Santafior--the holy white flower
+of the quince being embroidered on the breast of their gabardines.
+
+They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was
+soon guessed they had spent the night in the saddle.  Their horses were in
+a foam of sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from foot
+to cap.
+
+Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared, leading
+my horse by the bridle.  Now at an inn the traveller that arrives is ever
+of more importance than he that departs.  At sight of those horsemen, the
+taverner forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow in welcome to the one
+that seemed the leader.
+
+"Most Magnificent," said he to that liveried hind, "command me."
+
+"We need a guide," the fellow answered with an ill grace.
+
+"A guide, Illustrious?" quoth the host.  "A guide?"
+
+"I said a guide, fool," answered him the groom.  "Heard you never of such
+animals?  We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the shortest
+road to Cagli."
+
+The taverner shook his grey head stupidly.  He bowed again until I fancied
+I could hear the creak of his old joints.
+
+"Here be no guides, Magnificent," he deplored.  "Perhaps at Gualdo--"
+
+"Animal," was the retort--for true courtesy commend me to a lacquey!--"it
+is not our wish to pursue the road as far as Gualdo, else had we not
+stopped at this kennel of yours."
+
+I scarce know what it can have been that moved me to act as I then did,
+for, in the truth, the manner of that rascal of a groom was little
+prepossessing, and his master, I doubted, could be little better that he
+left the fellow to hector it thus over that wretched tavern oaf.  But I
+stepped forward.
+
+"Did you say that you were journeying to Cagli?" questioned I.
+
+He eyed me sourly, suspicion writ athwart his round, ill-favoured face,
+But my motley was hidden from his sight.  My cloak, my hat and boots
+allowed naught of my true condition to appear, and might as well have
+covered a lordling as a jester.  Yet his inveterate surliness the rascal
+could not wholly conquer.
+
+"What may be the purpose of your question?" he growled.
+
+"To serve your master, whoever he may be," I answered him serenely,
+"although it is a service I do not press upon him.  I, too, am journeying
+to Cagli, and like yourselves, I am in haste and go the shorter way across
+the hills, with which I am well acquainted.  If it so please you to follow
+me your need of a guide may thus be satisfied."
+
+It was the tone to take if I would be respected.  Had I proposed that we
+should journey in company I should not have earned me the half of the
+deference which was accorded to my haughtily granted leave that they might
+follow me if they so chose.
+
+With marked submission did he give me thanks in his master's name.
+
+I mounted and set out, and at my heels came now the litter and its escort.
+Thus did we quit the plain and breast the slopes, where the snow grew
+deeper and firmer underfoot as we advanced.  And as I went, still plaguing
+my mind to devise a means by which I might penetrate to the Court of
+Pesaro, little did I dream that the matter was being solved for me--the
+solution having begun with my offer to guide that company across the
+hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MADONNA PAOLA
+
+
+We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted and paused
+awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was to lead us down
+to Cagli.  The air was sharp and cold, for all that overhead was spread a
+cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured down its light upon the
+wide expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness so dazzling as to be
+hurtful to the sight.
+
+Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that following
+company as if I had been unconscious of its existence.  But now that we
+paused, their fat, white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo, approached
+me and sought to draw me into conversation.  I yielded readily enough, for
+I scented a mystery about that closely-curtained litter, and mysteries are
+ever provoking to such a mind as mine.  For all that it might profit me
+naught to learn who rode there, and why with all this haste, yet these
+were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity was aroused.
+
+"Are you journeying beyond Cagli?" I asked him presently, in an idle tone.
+
+He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes
+confirming the existence of the mystery I scented.
+
+"Yes," he answered, after a pause.  "We hope to reach Urbino before night.
+And you?  Are you journeying far?"
+
+"That far, at least," I answered him, emulating the caution he had shown.
+
+And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the
+litter were sharply drawn aside.  At the sound I turned my head, and so
+far was the vision different from that which--for no reason that I can
+give--I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder.  A
+lady--a very child, indeed--had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any of
+those grooms could offer her assistance.
+
+She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and to
+one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine beauty
+it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that writer's
+catalogue of womanly perfections.  She was of a good shape and stature,
+despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicately featured and of an
+ivory pallor. Her eyes--blue as the heavens overhead--were not of the
+colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was her hair of the golden brown
+which that arbiter commends.  Had Firenzuola seen her, it may well be that
+he had altered or modified his views.  She was sumptuously arrayed in a
+loose-sleeved camorra of grey velvet that was heavy with costly furs;
+above the lenza of fine linen on her head gleamed the gold thread of a
+jewelled net, and at her waist a girdle of surpassing richness, all set
+with gems, glowed like a thing of fire in the bright sunshine.
+
+She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked about
+her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached us across
+the gleaming snow.
+
+"Is this," she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfect
+match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, "the traveller who so
+kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?"
+
+Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
+
+"I am in your debt, sir," she protested, with an odd earnestness.  "You do
+not know how great a service you have rendered me.  But if at any time
+Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, you
+shall find me very willing."
+
+White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of her
+identity.
+
+I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I hated
+the very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
+
+"Madonna, you overrate my service.  It so chanced that I was travelling
+this way."
+
+She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reason of
+my churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not see the
+motley worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her.  No doubt she
+accounted me a clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and so she
+turned away, telling Giacopo that as soon as the horses were breathed they
+might push on.
+
+"We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna," answered he, "if they are to
+carry us as far as Cagli.  Heaven send that we may obtain fresh cattle
+there, else is all lost."
+
+Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
+
+"You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there any for
+those others."  And she waved her hand towards the valley below and the
+road by which we had come.  From this and from what was said I gathered
+that they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at their heels.
+
+"They have a warrant which we have not," was Giacopo's answer, gloomily
+delivered, "and they will seize cattle where they can find it."
+
+With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the peril
+that aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
+
+"Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir stranger,"
+said Giacopo to me.
+
+I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Better the horse should die of cold than I," I answered gruffly, and
+turning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood that was
+chilling in my veins.
+
+There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me that
+compelled my glance.  To some it might compare but ill with the luxuriant
+splendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a wondrously
+impressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse of snow,
+expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by virtue of that
+very lack of expression.  From Fabriano, at our feet, was spread to the
+east, the broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the Masone, as far as
+Mount Comero, which, in the distance, lifted its round shoulder from the
+haze of sea.  To the west the country lay under the same winding-sheet of
+snow as far as eye might range, to the towers of distant Perugia, to the
+Lake Trasimeno--a silver sheen that broke the white monotony--to Etruscan
+Cortona, perched like an eyrie on its mountain top, and to the line of
+Tuscan hills, like heavy, low-lying clouds upon the blue horizon.
+
+Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded by a
+volley of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to my
+companions.  They stood grouped together, and their eyes were on the road
+by which we had scaled those heights.  Their first expression of loud
+astonishment had been succeeded by an utter silence.  I stepped forward to
+command a better view of what they contemplated, and in the plain below,
+midway between Narni and the slopes, a mile or so behind us, I caught a
+glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the sunshine.  A company of some dozen
+men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the tracks we had left behind us
+in the snow.  Could these be the pursuers?
+
+Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady's silvery voice, behind
+me, put it into words.  She had drawn aside the curtains of her litter and
+she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points of brilliance.
+
+"Madonna," cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, "they are Borgia
+soldiers."
+
+"Your fear is father to that opinion," she answered scornfully.  "How can
+you descry it at this distance?"
+
+Now, either God had given that knave an eagle's sight, or else, as she
+suggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of what he
+thought he saw.
+
+"The leader's bannerol bears the device of a red bull," he answered
+promptly.
+
+I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
+
+"In God's name, let us get forward, then!" cried Giacopo.  "Orsu!  To
+horse, knaves!"
+
+No second bidding did they need.  In the twinkling of an eye they were in
+the saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule of
+the litter.  Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no more
+ceremony than if I had been one of themselves.  But I made no ado.  A
+chase is an interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if a
+greater safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener excitement with the
+hunted.
+
+Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli at a
+pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menace us
+from any party of pursuers.  But fear was spur and whip to the unreasoning
+minds of those poltroons, and so from the danger behind us we fled, and
+courted a more deadly and certain peril in the fleeing.  At first I sought
+to remonstrate with Giacopo; but he was deaf to the wisdom that I spoke.
+He turned upon me a face which terror had rendered whiter than its natural
+habit, white as the egg of a duck, with a hint of blue or green behind it.
+I had, besides, an ugly impression of teeth and eyeballs.
+
+"Death is behind us, sir," he snarled.  "Let us get on."
+
+"Death is more assuredly before you," I answered grimly.  "If you will
+court it, go your way.  As for me, I am over-young to break my neck and be
+left on the mountain-side to fatten crows.  I shall follow at my leisure."
+
+"Gesu!" he cried, through chattering teeth.  "Are you a coward, then?"
+
+The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it was;
+but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no more
+than provoke my mirth.
+
+"Come on, then, valiant runagate," I laughed at him.
+
+And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yard
+of moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than these
+rational animals that bestrode them.  Twice did it chance that a man was
+flung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have been
+uttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching the plain
+with never so much as a broken bone.
+
+Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.
+The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the
+descent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than an
+amble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
+
+At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo.  His head was ever
+turned to look behind--unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyes
+were ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to behold
+the flash of the pursuers' steel.  The end soon followed.  He drew rein
+and called a halt, sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived of wit--
+which is to pay him the compliment of supposing that he ever had wit to be
+deprived of.
+
+Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola's head appeared, her
+voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
+
+Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
+
+"Madonna, our horses are done.  It is useless to go farther."
+
+"Useless?" she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could ring the
+voice that I had heard so gentle.  "Of what do you talk, you knave?  Ride
+on at once."
+
+"It is vain to ride on," he answered obdurately, insolence rising in his
+voice.  "Another half-league--another league at most, and we are taken."
+
+"Cagli is less than a league distant," she reminded him.  "Once there,
+we can obtain fresh horses.  You will not fail me now, Giacopo!"
+
+"There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli," he reminded her, "and,
+meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri."  And he pointed to
+the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
+
+She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
+
+"You will stand by me, my friends," she cried.  "Giacopo, here, is a
+coward; but you are better men."  They stirred, and one of them was
+momentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
+
+"We will go with you, Madonna," he exclaimed.  "Let Giacopo remain behind,
+if so he will."
+
+But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nor
+tolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
+
+"You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!" he exclaimed, "as
+caught you will be, and within the hour.  If you would save your necks,
+stay here and make surrender."
+
+His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonna
+leapt from the litter, the better to confront them.  The corners of her
+sensitive little mouth were quivering now with the emotion that possessed
+her, and on her eyes there was a film of tears.
+
+"You cowards!" she blazed at them, "you hinds, that lack the spirit even
+to run!  Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you could
+not show yourselves more palsied.  I was a fool," she sobbed, stamping her
+foot so that the snow squelched under it.  "I was a fool to entrust myself
+to you."
+
+"Madonna," answered one of them, "if flight could still avail us, you
+should not find us stubborn.  But it were useless.  I tell you again,
+Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were but a
+half-league behind.  Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and we
+shall be seen."
+
+"Fool!" she cried, "a half-league behind, you say; and you forget that we
+were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it.  If you but press on we
+shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.
+Besides, Giacopo," she added, turning again to the leader, "you may be at
+fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting them
+our pursuers."
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
+
+"Arnaldo, there, made no mistake.  He told us what he saw."
+
+"Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!" she
+exclaimed, between grief and anger.
+
+I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved.  I
+have said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tender
+child to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compass
+of that hatred?  I had inferred that her pursuers were of the House of
+Borgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I might
+prove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to serve her
+in this extremity.  And to be of service to her, her winsome beauty had
+already inflamed me.  For there was I know not what about this child that
+seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me that there and then
+I would have risked my life in her good service.  Oh, you may laugh who
+read.  Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed myself, I think, at the
+heroics to which I was yielding--I, the Fool, most base of lacqueys--over
+a damsel of the noble House of Santafior.  It was shame of my motley,
+maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about me as I urged
+forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
+
+"Lady," said I bluntly and without preamble, "can I assist you?  I have
+inferred your case from what I have overheard."
+
+All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise--hers no less than her grooms'.
+
+"What can you do alone, sir?" she asked, her gentle glance upraised to
+mine.
+
+"If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I may
+do something."
+
+"They are," she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,
+investing her tones.
+
+It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a
+stranger into her confidence.  Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in
+which she found herself.  Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies
+hot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, or to
+despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem.  With both
+hands she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of her
+despair.
+
+"Sir," she cried, "if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you could
+not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but know the
+details of my sorry circumstance."
+
+"That power, Madonna, it may be that I have," said I, and at those words
+of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest.  They
+leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a sudden
+hopeful.  "And," I continued, "if you will have utter faith in me, I see a
+way to render doubly certain your escape."
+
+She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured her
+that I promised no more than I could accomplish.  For the rest she had to
+choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
+
+"Sir," said she, "I do not know you, nor why you should interest yourself
+in the concerns of a desolated woman.  But, Heaven knows, I am in no case
+to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I doubt the good
+faith that moves you.  Let me hear, sir, how you would propose to serve
+me."
+
+"Whence are you?" I inquired.
+
+"From Rome," she informed me without hesitation, "to seek at my cousin's
+Court of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the Borgia family is
+submitting me."
+
+At her cousin's Court of Pesaro!  An odd coincidence, this--and while I
+was pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I might
+assist myself.  Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serve
+her, I had it now.
+
+"Yet," said I, surprise investing my voice, "at Pesaro there is Madonna
+Lucrezia of that same House of Borgia."
+
+She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
+
+"Madonna Lucrezia is my friend," said she; "as sweet and gentle a friend
+as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her own family."
+
+Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned to what
+was of more immediate interest.
+
+"And you fled," said I, "with these?"  And I indicated her attendants.
+"Not content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you in the snow, you
+have had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of Santafior.  So
+that by asking a few questions any that were so inclined might follow you
+with ease."
+
+She opened wide her eyes at that.  Oftentimes have I observed that it
+needs a fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of this
+world.  I leapt from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, the
+bridle on my arm.
+
+"Listen now, Madonna.  If you would make good your escape it first imports
+that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort.  Separate from it for
+a little while.  Take you my horse--it is a very gentle beast, and it wilt
+carry you with safety--and ride on, alone, to Cagli."
+
+"Alone?" quoth she, in some surprise.
+
+"Why, yes," I answered gruffly.  "What of that?  At the Inn of 'The Full
+Moon' ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escort
+there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection.  She is
+a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend you
+readily.  But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs."
+
+"And then?" she inquired eagerly.
+
+"Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning, for
+these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your journey."
+
+"But we--" began Giacopo.  Scenting his protest, I cut him short.
+
+"You four," said I, "shall escort me--for I shall replace Madonna in the
+litter--you shall escort me towards Fabriano.  Thus shall we draw the
+pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape."
+
+They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they
+would lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments to
+persuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us all
+from harm.
+
+"Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with you?
+Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sake of a
+lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?"
+
+It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have had
+with the dullest.  I flashed my ring before their eyes.
+
+"This escutcheon," said I, "is the shield that shall stand between us and
+danger from any of the house that bears these arms."
+
+Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey me--
+the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to their
+present situation.  In danger they already stood from those that followed
+as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying one who was
+armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape that danger.
+But even as I was convincing them, by the same arguments was I sowing
+doubts in the lady's subtler mind.
+
+"You are attached to that house?" quoth she, in accents of mistrust.  She
+wanted to say more.  I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering was there
+treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to justify
+suspicion.
+
+"Madonna," said I, "if you would save yourself I implore that you will
+trust me.  Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights, and
+then your chance of flight will be lost to you.  I will ask you but this:
+Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done better
+than to have left you with your grooms?"
+
+Her face lighted.  A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
+
+"I should have thought of that," said she.  And what more she would have
+added I put off by urging her to mount.
+
+Sitting the man's saddle as best she might--well enough, indeed, to fill
+us all with surprise and admiration--she took her leave of me with pretty
+words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
+
+"You have but to follow the road," said I, "and it will bring you straight
+to Cagli.  The distance is a short league, and you should come there
+safely.  Farewell, Madonna!"
+
+"May I not know," she asked at parting, "the name of him that has so
+generously befriended me?"
+
+I hesitated a second.  Then--"They call me Boccadoro," answered I.
+
+"If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are you well-named,"
+said she.  Then, gathering her mantle about her, and waving me farewell,
+she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardly hinds who had
+failed her in the hour of her need.
+
+A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine; then
+stepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
+
+"Now, rogues," said I to the escort, "strike me that road to Fabriano."
+
+"I know you not, sir," protested Giacopo.  "But this I know--that if you
+intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for your
+pains."
+
+"Fool!" I scorned him, "since when has it been worth the while of any man
+to betray such creatures as are you?  Plague me no more!  Be moving, else
+I leave you to your coward's fate."
+
+It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality.
+It quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of those
+knaves had caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter moved
+forward, whilst Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a pace
+as their weary horses would yield.  In this guise we took the road south,
+in the direction opposite to that travelled by the lady.  As we rode, I
+summoned Giacopo to my side.
+
+"Take your daggers," I bade him, "and rip me that blazon from your coats.
+See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the House of
+Santafior, or all is lost.  It is a precaution you would have taken
+earlier if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper."
+
+He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of my
+comment on his wit.  For the rest, they did my bidding there and then.
+
+Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, I drew
+the curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up to
+pondering the manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when they
+overtook me.  From that I passed on to the contemplation of the position
+in which I found myself, and the thing that I had done.  And the
+proportions of the jest that I was perpetrating afforded me no little
+amusement.  It was a burla not unworthy the peerless gifts of Boccadoro,
+and a fitting one on which to close his wild career of folly.  For had I
+not vowed that Boccadoro I would be no more once the errand on which I
+travelled was accomplished?  By Cesare Borgia's grace I looked to--
+
+A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and the
+realisation that in the last few moments we had increased our pace.
+I put out my head.
+
+"Giacopo!" I shouted.  He was at my side in an instant.  "Why are we
+galloping?"
+
+"They are behind," he answered, and fear was again overspreading his fat
+face.  "We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last hill."
+
+"You caught a glimpse of whom?" quoth I.
+
+"Why, of the Borgia soldiers."
+
+"Animal," I answered him, "what have we to do with them?  They may have
+mistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit.  But since we are
+not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonable speed.
+We do not wish to have the air of fugitives."
+
+He understood me, and I was obeyed.  For a half-hour we rode at a more
+gentle pace.  That was about the time they took to come up with us, still
+a league or so from Fabriano.  We heard their cantering hoofs crushing the
+snow, and then a loud imperious voice shouting to us a command to stay.
+Instantly we brought up in unconcerned obedience, and they thundered
+alongside with cries of triumph at having run their prey to earth.
+
+I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtains with
+a jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt.  Whom my
+appearance astounded the more--whether the lacqueys of Santafior, or the
+Borgia men-at-arms that now encircled us--I cannot guess.  But in the
+crowd of faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look of
+deep amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
+
+
+The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twenty men-at-
+arms, whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del' Orca--that same
+mountain of a man who had attended my departure from the Vatican three
+nights ago.  From the circumstance that so important a personage should
+have been charged with the pursuit of the Lady of Santafior, I inferred
+that great issues were at stake.
+
+He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered the bannerol
+bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality to Madonna's
+servants.
+
+At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for a little
+season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
+
+"Sainted Host!" he roared at last.  "What trickery may this be?"  And
+sidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my litter.
+
+Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold me
+reclining there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots, and
+my motley garb of red and black and yellow all revealed.  I believe their
+astonishment by far surpassed the Captain's own.
+
+"You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro," I greeted him.  Then, seeing that he
+only stared, and made no shift to speak: "Maybe," quoth I, "you'll explain
+why you detain me.  I am in haste."
+
+"Explain?" he thundered.  "Sangue di Cristo!  The burden of explaining
+lies with you.  What make you here?"
+
+"Why," answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, "I am about the business
+of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master."
+
+"Davvero?" he jeered.  He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by the
+collar of my doublet.  "Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there will
+be a fool the less in the world."
+
+"Indeed, the world might spare more."
+
+He scowled at my pleasantry.  To him, apparently, the situation afforded
+no scope for philosophical reflections.
+
+"Where is the girl?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"Girl?" quoth I.  "What girl?  Am I a mother-abbess, that you should set
+me such a question?"
+
+Two dark lines showed between his brows.  His voice quivered with passion.
+
+"I ask you again--where is the girl?"
+
+I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment provided
+for him.
+
+"Here be no girls, Messer del' Orca," I answered him in the same tone.
+"Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends."
+
+My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained the
+expression of it, whispered a doubt into his mind.  He released me, and
+turned upon his men, a baffled look in his eyes.
+
+"Was not this the party?" he inquired ferociously.  "Have you misled me,
+beasts?
+
+"It seemed the party, Illustrious," answered one of them.
+
+"Do you dare tell me that 'it seemed'?" he roared, seeking to father upon
+them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had made.  "But--What is
+the livery of these knaves?
+
+"They wear none," someone answered him, and at that answer he seemed to
+turn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
+
+Then he bridled afresh.
+
+"Yet the party, I'll swear, is this!" he insisted; and turning once more
+to me:  "Explain, animal!" he bade me in terrifying tones.  "Explain, or,
+by the Host! be you ignorant or not, I'll have you hanged."
+
+I accounted it high time to take another tone with him.  Hanging was a
+discomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
+
+"Draw nearer, fool," said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, so greatly
+did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
+
+"I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir captain," I
+pursued.  "But this I know--that if you persist in hindering me, or commit
+the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will answer for it,
+hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
+
+"I am going upon a secret mission"--and here I sank my voice to a whisper
+for his ears alone--"in the service of the house that hires you, as for
+yourself you might easily have inferred.  Behold."  And I revealed my
+ring.  "Detain me longer at your peril."
+
+He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in Cesare
+Borgia's service, and this coupled with the sight of that talisman
+effected in his manner a swift and wholesome change.  Had I, arrayed in
+the panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory could not have
+been more complete.
+
+He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenly to
+the four winds of Heaven.
+
+"But this litter," he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me, "and these
+four knaves--?"
+
+"Tell me," I questioned, with sudden earnestness, "are you in quest of
+just such a party?"
+
+"Aye that I am," he answered sharply, intelligence returning to his
+glance, inquiry burning in it.
+
+"And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House of
+Santafior?"
+
+His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
+
+"Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time.  Such a party
+passed us at the gallop about an hour ago.  It would be an hour, would it
+not, Giacopo?"
+
+"I should say an hour," answered the lacquey dully.
+
+"In what direction?" came Ramiro's frenzied question.  He doubted me no
+longer.
+
+"In the direction of Fabriano I should say," I answered.  "Although it may
+well be that they were making for Sinigaglia.  The road branches farther
+on."
+
+He waited for no more.  Without word of thanks for the priceless
+information I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse
+command to his followers.  A moment later and they were cantering past us,
+the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last of them
+had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only indication of the
+halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown where their horses
+had crushed the snow.
+
+I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozening
+of Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so much
+relief and relish as his abrupt departure.  I sank back on the cushions of
+my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughter which
+was interrupted ere it was half done by Giacopo, who had dismounted and
+approached me.
+
+"You have fooled us finely," said he, with venom.
+
+I quenched my laughter to regard him.  Of what did he babble?  Was he, and
+were his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the man
+who had saved them?
+
+"You have fooled us finely," he insisted in a louder voice.
+
+"That, knave, is my trade," said I.  "But it rather seems to me that it
+was Messer Ramiro del' Orca whom I fooled."
+
+"Aye," he answered querulously.  "But what when he discerns how you have
+played upon him?  What when he discovers the trick by which you have
+thrown him off the scent?  What when he returns?"
+
+"Spare me" I begged, "I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture."
+
+"Nay, but you shall answer me," he cried, livid with a passion that my
+bantering tone had quickened.
+
+"Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
+returns?" I questioned meekly.
+
+"I am," he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
+
+"It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that actuates
+you.  Remain here, and await his return.  Thus shall you learn."
+
+"That will not I," he vowed.
+
+"Nor I, nor I, nor I!" chorused his followers.
+
+"Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions?  What concern is it of
+ours how Messer del' Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.
+Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress.  Ride hard for Cagli.  Seek her
+at the sign of 'The Full Moon,' and then away for Pesaro.  If you are
+brisk you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza's fortress
+long before Messer del' Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, he ever
+does so."
+
+Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornful mirth
+of him.
+
+"By my faith, I'm done with the business," he cried, and the other three
+expressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
+
+"How done with it?" I asked.
+
+"I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps to
+Rome.  I'll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool."
+
+"If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself," said I, with
+unmeasured scorn, "you'll risk it for the greatest fool and the
+cowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man.  And your mistress?
+Is she to wait at Cagli until doomsday?  If anywhere within the bulk of
+that elephant's body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you'll get you to
+horse and ride to the help of that poor lady."
+
+They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly.  Messer
+Giacopo went the length of raising his hand to me.  But I am a man of
+amazing strength--amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do not have
+the air of it.  Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught that miserable
+vassal by the breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice, then tossed
+him headlong into a drift of snow by the roadside.
+
+At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me.  But I flung
+myself on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the stout
+Pistoja dagger that I carried, I presented with it a bold and truculent
+front, no whit intimidated by their numbers.  Four to one though they
+were, they thought better of it.  A moment they stood off, consulting
+among themselves; then Giacopo mounted, and with some mocking counsel as
+to how I should dispose of the litter and the mules, they made off, no
+doubt, to find their way back to Rome.  Giacopo, as I was afterwards to
+discover, was Madonna Paola's purse-bearer, so that they would not lack
+for means.
+
+Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens that
+they were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli, and
+who would await them in vain.  There, on the mule, I sat in the noontide
+sunlight, and pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as to have grown
+forgetful of my own.  At last I resolved to ride on to Cagli alone, and
+inform her that her men were fled.
+
+There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramiro del'
+Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, and return hot-
+foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means as I had no
+stomach for enduring.
+
+First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving no
+sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I had
+tricked him.  Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.
+Slowly, then, did I consider!  The escort was, no doubt, on its way back
+to Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser Ramiro
+would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up the trail.  I
+remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my mule back to that
+as fast as it would travel with the litter and the other mule attached to
+it.  Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on the very edge of that
+shallow precipice.  Then exerting all my strength, I contrived to roll the
+litter over.  Down that steep incline it went, over and over, gathering
+more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinking at last into the
+drift at the bottom.  There were signs enough to show its presence, but
+those signs would hardly be read by any but the sharpest eyes, or by such
+as might be looking for it in precisely such a position.  I must trust to
+luck that it escaped the notice of Messer Ramiro.  But even if he did
+discover it, I did not think that it would tell him overmuch.
+
+That done I resumed my hat and cloak--which I had retained--mounted once
+more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as might
+be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli.  That distance
+covered, again I halted.  There was not a soul in sight.  I stripped one
+of the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind a
+hedge, then I drove the beast loose into a field.  The peasant-owner of
+that land might conclude upon the morrow that it had rained asses in the
+night.
+
+And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I had
+passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of the
+four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.
+Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at their
+cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on towards Cagli.
+It was a short league farther, and in little more than half an hour, my
+mule half-dead, I halted at the door of "The Full Moon."
+
+Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my
+cloak, and called for the hostess.  The place was empty, as indeed all
+Cagli had seemed when I rode up.  She came forward--a woman with a brown,
+full face, and large kindly eyes--and I asked her whether a lady had
+arrived there in safety that morning.  At first she seemed mistrustful,
+but when I had assured her that I was in that lady's service, she frankly
+owned that Madonna was safe in her own room.  Thither I allowed her to
+lead me, at once eager and reluctant.  Eager with my own eyes to assure
+myself of her perfect safety; reluctant that, since a man may not
+penetrate to a lady's chamber hat on head, by uncovering I must disclose
+my shameful trade.  Yet there was nothing for it but a bold face, and as I
+mounted the stairs in the woman's wake, I told myself that I was doubly a
+fool to be tormented by qualms of such a nature.
+
+Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna's room.  The lady rose
+from the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyes
+wearing an anxious look.  At sight of my head crowned with the crested,
+horned hood of folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together, and
+she looked more closely to see whether I was indeed the man who had
+befriended her that morning in her extremity.  In the eyes of the hostess
+I caught a gleam of recognition.  She knew me for the merry loon who had
+entertained her guests one night a fortnight since, when on my way from
+Pesaro to Rome.  But before she could give expression to this discovery of
+hers, the lady spoke.
+
+"Leave us awhile, my woman," she commanded.  But I stayed the hostess as
+she was withdrawing.
+
+"This lady," said I, "will need an escort of three or four stout knaves
+upon a journey that she is going.  She will be setting out as soon as may
+be."
+
+"But what of my grooms?" cried the lady.
+
+"Madonna," I informed her, "they have deserted you.  That is the reason of
+my presence here.  You shall hear the story of it presently.  Meanwhile,
+we must arrange to replace them."  And I turned again to the hostess.
+
+She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face.  But as I
+looked at her she shook her head.
+
+"There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli," she made answer.
+"The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on the
+pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for the
+Feast of the Epiphany."
+
+It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surely be
+found.  She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there because they
+would not be elsewhere.
+
+The lady's face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence she
+shrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
+
+"There is your ostler," quoth I at last.  "He will do for one."
+
+"He is the only man I have.  My husband and my sons are gone to Pesaro."
+
+"Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services."
+
+But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she was well-
+advised, for she contended that there was work to be done such as was
+beyond her years and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off, as
+well might she close her inn--a thing that was impossible.
+
+Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned.  It was
+impossible to send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of some ten
+leagues, and the most of it by night--for if she would make sure of
+escaping, she must journey now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
+
+And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, ready to
+my hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despite my
+banishment, and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia.  For, surely,
+considering the mission on which ostensibly I should be returning--as the
+saviour and protector of his kinswoman--Giovanni Sforza could not enforce
+that ban against me.  Next I bethought me of the other aspect that the
+business wore.  In fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgia ends; in
+rescuing Madonna Paola I had perhaps set at naught the Cardinal of
+Valencia's aims.  If so, what then?  It would seem that because the lady's
+eyes were mild and sweet, and because her beauty had so deeply wrought
+upon me, I had indeed fooled away my chance of salvation from the life and
+trade that were grown hateful to me.  For back to Rome and Cesare Borgia I
+should dare go no more.  Clearly I had burned my boats, and I had done it
+almost unthinkingly, acting upon the good impulse to befriend this lady,
+and never reckoning the cost down to its total.  For all that the thing I
+had done, and what I might yet do, should offer me the means I needed to
+enter Pesaro without danger to my neck, I did not see that I was to derive
+great profit in the end--unless my profit lay in knowing that I had
+advanced the ruin of Giovanni Sforza by delivering my letter to Lucrezia.
+That at any rate was enough incentive clearly to define for me the line
+that I should take through this tangle into which the ever-jesting Fates
+had thrust me.
+
+I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexing
+situation, the hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenly Madonna
+Paola spoke.
+
+"Sir," said she, in faltering accents,  "I--I have not the right to ask
+you, and I stand already so deeply in your debt.  Not a doubt of it, but
+it will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to inform me of
+the flight of my grooms.  Yet if you could--"  She paused, timid of
+proceeding, and her glance fell.
+
+The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which this
+very evidently noble lady addressed a Fool.  I opened the door for her.
+
+"You may leave us now," said I.  "I will come to you presently."
+
+When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolved upon.
+My hate had conquered my last doubt.  What first imported was that I
+should get to Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
+
+"You were about to ask me," said I, "that I should accompany you to
+Pesaro."
+
+"I hesitated, sir," she murmured.  I bowed respectfully.
+
+"There was not the need, Madonna," I assured her.  "I am at your service."
+
+"But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you."
+
+"Surely," said I, "the claim that every distressed lady has upon a man of
+heart.  Let us say no more.  It were best not to delay in setting out,
+although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger from
+Ramiro del' Orca now."
+
+"Who is he?" she inquired.  I told her, whereupon--"
+
+Did they come up with you?" she asked.  "What passed between you?"
+
+Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on a
+fool's errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, and of
+how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule.  She heard me, her
+eyes sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee that was
+almost childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was brave.  I allayed
+what little fears remained her by pointing out how effectively we had
+effaced our tracks, and how vainly now Messer del' Orca might beat the
+country in quest of a lady in a litter, escorted by four grooms.
+
+And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonder at
+my generous readiness to befriend her--a wonder all devoid of suspicion
+touching the single-mindedness of my purpose.  But I reminded her that we
+had little leisure to stand talking, and left her to make her preparations
+for the journey, whilst I went below to see that my mule and her horse
+were saddled.  I made bold to pay the reckoning, and when presently she
+spoke of it, with flaming cheeks, and would have pledged me a jewel, I
+bade her look upon it as a loan which anon she might repay me when I had
+brought her safely to her kinsman's Court at Pesaro.
+
+Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side by side
+and talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of her flight
+and of her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest to her heart,
+found readiest expression.  I went wrapped in my cloak once more, my head-
+dress hidden 'neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that the few wayfarers we
+chanced on need not marvel to see a lady in such friendly intercourse with
+a Fool.  And so dull was I that day as not to marvel, myself, at such a
+state of things.
+
+The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on our
+left, casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere encompassed
+us, as we cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
+
+In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping that
+Messer Ramiro del' Orca might not chance upon the discovery of how
+egregiously I had fooled him.  He was dull-witted and slow at inference,
+and upon that I built the hope that he might fail to associate me with
+Madonna Paola's elusion of his pursuit.  Thus the chance might yet be mine
+of returning to Rome and the honourable employment Cesare Borgia had
+promised me.  If only that were so to fall out, I might yet contrive to
+mend the wreckage of my life.  I was returned, it seems, to the ways of
+early youth, when we build our hopes of future greatness upon untenable
+foundations!
+
+Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that January
+evening, fired by the gentle child that rode beside me.  Fate had sent me
+to her aid that day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of that
+circumstance, a certain right in her.  Had Fate no other favours for me in
+her lap!  I bethought me of the very House of Sforza, to which I had been
+so shamefully attached, and of its humble source in that peasant,
+Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for his abnormal strength of body,
+who rose to great and princely heights.
+
+Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance but
+given me--
+
+I went no further.  Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wild
+musings.  Cesare Borgia would come to know--he must, whether Ramiro told
+him, or whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro must
+give him of our meeting--how I had thwarted him in one thing, whilst I had
+served him in another.  Fate was against me.  I had fallen too low to ever
+rise again, and no dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and inspired,
+perhaps, by a child who was beautiful as one of the saints of God, would
+ever come to be realised by poor Boccadoro.
+
+Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets of
+Fossombrone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MADONNA'S INGRATITUDE
+
+
+We stayed in Fossombrone little more than a half-hour, and having made a
+hasty supper we resumed our way, giving out that we wished to reach Fano
+ere we slept.  And so by the first hour of night Fossombrone was a league
+or so behind us, and we were advancing briskly towards the sea.  Overhead
+a moon rode at the full in a clear sky, and its light was reflected by the
+snow, so that we were not discomforted by any darkness.  We fell,
+presently, into a gentler pace, for, after all, there could be no
+advantage in reaching Pesaro before morning, and as we rode we talked, and
+I made bold to ask her the cause of her flight from Rome.
+
+She told me then that she was Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior, and that
+Pope Alexander, in his nepotism and his desire to make rich and powerful
+alliances for his family, had settled upon her as the wife for his nephew,
+Ignacio Borgia. He had been emboldened to this step by the fact that her
+only protector was her brother, Filippo di Santafior, whom they had sought
+to coerce.  It was her brother, who, seeing himself in a dangerous and
+unenviable position, had secretly suggested flight to her, urging her to
+repair to her kinsman Giovanni Sforza at Pesaro.  Her flight, however,
+must have been speedily discovered and the Borgias, who saw in that act a
+defiance of their supreme authority, had ordered her pursuit.
+
+But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her
+capture, and once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they
+would have driven her into the alliance by means of which they sought to
+bring her fortune into their own house.  This drew her into fresh
+protestations of the undying gratitude she entertained towards me,
+protestations which I would have stemmed, but that she persisted in them.
+
+"It is a good and noble thing that you have done," said she, "and I think
+that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is scarce likely that
+in all Italy I should have found another man who would have done so much."
+
+"Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done?" I cried.  "It is no
+less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would have done
+seeing you so beset."
+
+"Nay, that is more than I can ever think," she answered.  "Who for the
+sake of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have you?
+Who would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the defection
+of my grooms?  Who, when other escort failed, would have gone the length
+of journeying all this way to render a service that is beyond repayment?
+And, above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid would have submitted
+to this travesty of yours?"
+
+"Travesty?" quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last.  "What
+travesty, Madonna?"
+
+"Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my pursuers
+and that you still wear in my poor service."
+
+I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly saw
+her eyes meet mine.  So! that was the reason of her kindness and of the
+easy familiarity of her speech with me!  She deemed me some knight-errant
+who caracoled through Italy in quest of imperilled maidens needing aid.
+Of a certainty she had gathered her knowledge of the world from the works
+of Messer Bojardo, or perhaps from the "Amadis of Gaul" of Messer Bernardo
+Tasso.  And, no doubt, she thought that suits of motley grew on bushes by
+the roadside, whence those who had a fancy for disguise might cull them.
+
+Well, well, it were better she should know the truth at once, and choose
+such a demeanour as she considered fitting towards a Fool.  I had no
+stomach for the courtesies that were meant for such a man as I was not.
+
+"Madonna, you are in error," I informed her, speaking slowly. "This garb
+is no travesty.  It is my usual raiment."
+
+There was a pause and I saw the slackening of her reins.  No doubt, had we
+been afoot she would have halted, the better to confront me.
+
+"How?" she asked, and a new note, imperious and chill, was sounding
+already in her voice.  "You would not have me understand that you are by
+trade a Fool?
+
+"Allowing that I am not a fool by birth, under what other circumstances,
+think you, I should be likely to wear the garments of a Fool?"
+
+"But this morning," she protested, after a brief pause, "when first I met
+you, you were not so arrayed."
+
+"I was arrayed even as I am now, in a cloak and hat and boots that hid my
+motley from such undiscerning eyes as were yours and your grooms'--all
+taken up with your own fears as you then were."
+
+There was in the tail of that a sting, as I meant there should be, for the
+sudden haughtiness of her tone was cutting into me.  Was I less worthy of
+thanks because I was a Fool?  Had I on that account done less to serve and
+save her?  Or was it that the action which, in a spurred and armoured
+knight, had been accounted noble was deemed unworthy of thanks in a
+crested, motleyed jester?  It seemed, indeed, that some such reasoning she
+followed, for after that we spoke no more until we were approaching Fano.
+
+A many times before had I felt the shame of my ignoble trade, but never so
+acutely as at that moment.  It had seared my soul when Giovanni Sforza had
+told my story to his Court, ere he had driven me from Pesaro with threats
+of hanging, and it had burned even deeper when later, Madonna Lucrezia,
+upon entrusting me with her letter to her brother, had upbraided me with
+the supineness that so long had held me in that vile bondage.  But deepest
+of all went now the burning iron of that disgrace.  For my companion's
+silence seemed to argue that had she known my quality she would have
+scorned the aid of which she had availed herself to such good purpose.  If
+any doubt of this had mercifully remained me, her next words would have
+served to have resolved it.  It was when the lights of Fano gleamed ahead;
+we were coming to a cross-roads, and I urged the turning to the left.
+
+"But Fano is in front," she remonstrated coldly.
+
+"This way we can avoid the town and gain the Pesaro road beyond it,"
+answered I, my tone as cool as hers.
+
+"Yet may it not be that at Fano I might find an escort?"
+
+I could have cried out at her cruelty, for in her words I could but read
+my dismissal from her service.  There had been no more talk of an escort
+other than that which I afforded, and with which at first she had been
+well content.
+
+I sat my mule in silence for a moment.  She had been very justly served
+had I been the vassal that she deemed me, and had I borne myself in that
+character without consideration of her sex, her station or her years.  She
+had been very justly served had I wheeled about and left her there to make
+her way to Fano, and thence to Pesaro, as best she might.  She was without
+money, as I knew, and she would have found in Fano such a reception as
+would have brought the bitter tears of late repentance to her pretty eyes.
+
+But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner that
+was to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and the
+need to use me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might yet do,
+if she lacked the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake of that
+which I had done already.
+
+"Madonna," said I.  "It were wiser to choose the by-road and forego the
+escort, since we have dispensed with it so far.  There are many reasons
+why a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night."
+
+"I know of none," she interrupted me.
+
+"That may well be.  Nevertheless they exist."
+
+"This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste," she told
+me sullenly. "I am for Fano."
+
+She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as
+plainly as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as I
+should choose.  In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule's head
+once more towards the lights of the town.
+
+"Since you are resolved, so be it," was all my answer; and we proceeded.
+
+No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she
+curtly asked me which was the best inn.
+
+"'The Golden Fish,'" said I, as curtly, and to "The Golden Fish" we went.
+
+Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands.  She
+dismounted, leaving the reins with a groom, and entering the common-room
+she proclaimed her needs to those that occupied it by loudly calling upon
+the landlord to find her an escort of three or four knaves to accompany
+her at once to Pesaro, where they should be well rewarded by the Lord
+Giovanni, her cousin.
+
+I had followed her in, and I ground my teeth at such an egregious piece of
+folly.  Her hood was thrown back, displaying the lenza of fine linen on
+her sable hair, and over this a net of purest gold all set with jewels.
+Her camorra, too, was open, and in her girdle there were gems for all to
+see.  There were but a half-dozen men in the room.  Two of these had a
+venerable air--they may have been traders journeying to Milan--whilst a
+third, who sat apart, was a slender, effeminate-looking youth.  The
+remaining three were fellows of rough aspect, and when one of them--a
+black-browed ruffian--raised his eyes and fastened them upon the riches
+that Madonna Paola with such indifference displayed, I knew what was to
+follow.
+
+He rose upon the instant, and stepping forward, he made her a low bow.
+
+"Illustrious lady," said he, "if these two friends of mine and I find
+favour with you, here is an escort ready found.  We are stout fellows, and
+very faithful."
+
+Faithful to their cut-throat trade, I made no doubt he meant.
+
+His fellows now rose also, and she looked them over, giving herself the
+airs of having spent her virgin life in judging men by their appearance.
+It was in vain I tugged her cloak, in vain I murmured the word "wait"
+under cover of my hand.  She there and then engaged them, and bade them
+make ready to set out at once.  One more attempt I made to induce her to
+alter her resolve.
+
+"Madonna," said I, "it is an unwise thing to go a-journeying by night with
+three unknown men, and of such villainous appearance.  To me they seem no
+better than bandits."
+
+We were standing apart from the others, and she was sipping a cup of
+spiced wine that the host had mulled for her.  She looked at me with a
+tolerant smile.
+
+"They are poor men," said she.  "Would you have them robed in velvet?"
+
+"My quarrel is with their looks, Madonna, not their garments," I answered
+patiently.  She laughed lightly, carelessly; even, I thought, a trifle
+scornfully.
+
+"You are very fanciful," said she, then added--"but if so be that you are
+afraid to trust yourself in their company, why then, sir, I need bring you
+no farther out of the road that you were following when first we met."
+
+Did the child think that some jealousy actuated me, and prompted me to
+inspire her with mistrust of my supplanters?  She angered me.  Yet now,
+more than ever was I resolved to journey with her.  Leave her at the mercy
+of those ruffians, whom in her ignorance she was mad enough to trust, I
+could not--not even had she whipped me.  She was so young, so frail and
+slight, that none but a craven could have found it in his heart to have
+deserted her just then.
+
+"If it please you Madonna," I answered smoothly, "I will make bold to
+travel on with you."
+
+It may be that my even accents stung her; perhaps she read in them some
+measure of reproof of the ingratitude that lay in her altered bearing
+towards me.  Her eyes met mine across the table, and seemed to harden as
+she looked.  Her answer came in a vastly altered tone.
+
+"Why, if you are bent that way, I shall be glad to have you avail yourself
+of my escort, Boccadoro."
+
+I had suffered the scorn now of her speech, now of her silence, for some
+hours, but never was I so near to turning on her as at that moment; never
+so near to consigning her to the fate to which her headstrong folly was
+compelling her.  That she should take that tone with me!
+
+The violence of the sudden choler I suppressed turned me pale under her
+steady glance.  So that, seeing it, her own cheeks flamed crimson, and her
+eyes fell, as if in token that she realised the meanness of her bearing.
+To some natures there can be nothing more odious than such a realisation,
+and of those, I think, was she; for she stamped her foot in a sudden pet,
+and curtly asked the host why there was such delay with the horses.
+
+"They are at the door, Madonna," he protested, bowing as he spoke.  "And
+your escort is already waiting in the saddle."
+
+She turned and strode abruptly towards the threshold.  Over her shoulder
+she called to me:
+
+"If you come with us, Boccadoro, you had best be brisk."
+
+"I follow, Madonna," said I, with a grim relish, "so soon as I have paid
+the reckoning."
+
+She halted and half turned, and I thought I saw a slight droop at the
+corners of her mouth.
+
+"You are keeping count of what I owe you?" she muttered.
+
+"Aye, Madonna," I answered, more grimly still, "I am keeping count."  And
+I thought that my wits were vastly at fault if that account were not to be
+greatly swelled ere Pesaro was reached.  Haply, indeed, my own life might
+go to swell it.  I almost took a relish in that thought.  Perhaps then,
+when I was stiff and cold--done to death in her service--this handsome,
+ungrateful child would come to see how much discomfort I had suffered for
+her sake.
+
+My thoughts still ran in that channel as we rode out of Pesaro, for I
+misliked the way in which those knaves disposed themselves about us.  In
+front went Madonna Paola; and immediately behind her, so that their
+horses' heads were on a level with her saddle-bow, one on each side, went
+two of those ruffians.  The third, whom I had heard them call Stefano, and
+who was the one who had made her the offer of their services, ambled at my
+side, a few paces in the rear, and sought to draw me into conversation,
+haply by way of throwing me off my guard.
+
+Mistrust is a fine thing at times.  "Forewarned is forearmed," says the
+proverb, and of all forewarnings there is none we are more likely to heed
+than our own mistrust; for whereas we may leave unheeded the warnings of a
+friend, we seldom leave unheeded the warnings of our spirit.
+
+And so, while my amiable and garrulous Ser Stefano engaged me in pleasant
+conversation--addressing me ever as Messer the Fool, since he knew me not
+by name--I wrapped my cloak about me, and under cover of it kept my
+fingers on the hilt of my stout Pistoja dagger, ready to draw and use it
+at the first sign of mischief.  For that sign I was all eyes, and had I
+been Argus himself I could have kept no better watch.  Meanwhile I plied
+my tongue and maintained as merry a conversation with Ser Stefano as you
+could wish to hear, for he seemed a ready-witted knave of a most humorous
+turn of fancy--God rest his rascally soul!  And so it came to pass that I
+did by him the very thing he sought to do by me; I lulled him into a
+careless confidence.
+
+At last the sign I had been waiting for was given.  I saw it as plainly as
+if it had been meant for me; I believe I saw it before the man for whom it
+was intended, and but for my fears concerning Madonna Paola, I could have
+laughed outright at their clumsy assurance.  The man who rode on Madonna's
+right turned in his saddle and put up his hand as if to beckon Stefano.  I
+was regaling him with one of the choicest of Messer Sacchetti's paradoxes,
+gurgling, myself, at the humour of the thing I told.  I paid no heed to
+the sign.  I continued to expound my quip, as though we had the night
+before us in which to make its elusive humour clear.  But out of the tail
+of my eye I watched my good friend Stefano, and I saw his right hand steal
+round to the region of his back where I knew his dagger to be slung.  Yet
+was I patient.  There should be no blundering through an excessive
+precipitancy.  I talked on until I saw that my suspicions were amply
+realised.  I caught the cold gleam of steel in the hand that he brought
+back as stealthily as he had carried it to his poniard.  Sant' Iddio!
+What a coward he was for all his bulk, to go so slyly about the business
+of stabbing a poor, helpless, defenceless Fool.
+
+"But Sacchetti makes his point clear," I babbled on, most blandly; "almost
+as clear, as comprehensive and as penetrating as should be to you the
+point of this."  And with a swift movement I swung half-round in my
+saddle, and sank my dagger to the hilt in his side even as he was in the
+act of raising his.
+
+He made no sound beyond the faintest gurgle--the first vowel of a suddenly
+choked word of wonder and surprise.  He rocked a second in his saddle,
+then crashed over, and lay with arms flung wide, like a huge black
+crucifix, upon the white ground.  At the same moment a piercing scream
+broke from Madonna Paola.
+
+I tremble still to think what might have been her fate had not those
+ruffians who had laid hands on her fallen into the sorry error of holding
+their single adversary too lightly.  They heard the thud of the gallant
+Stefano's fall, and they never doubted that mine was the body that had
+gone down.  They heard the rapid hoof-beats of my approach, yet, they
+never turned their heads to ascertain whether they might not be mistaken
+in their firm conviction that it was Messer Stefano who was joining them.
+
+I kissed my blade for luck, and drove it straight and full into the back
+of the fellow on Madonna Paola's right.  He cried out, essayed to turn in
+his saddle that he might deal with this unlooked-for assailant, then,
+overcome, he lurched forward on to the withers of his horse and thence
+rolled over, and was dragged away at the gallop, his foot caught in a
+stirrup, by the suddenly startled brute he rode.
+
+So far things had gone with an amazing and delightful ease.  If only the
+last of them had had the amiability to be intimidated by my prowess and to
+have taken to his heels, I might have issued from that contest with the
+unscathed glory of a very Mars.  But from his throat there came, in answer
+to his comrade's cry, a roar of rage.  He fell back from Madonna, and
+wheeled his horse to come at me, drawing his sword as he advanced.
+
+"Ride on, Madonna," I shouted.  "I will rejoin you presently."
+
+The fellow laughed, a mighty ugly and discomposing laugh, which may or may
+not have shaken her faith in my promise to rejoin her.  It certainly went
+near to shaking mine.  However, she displayed a presence of mind full
+worthy of the haughtiness and ingratitude of which she had showed herself
+capable.  She urged her mule forward, and, so, left him a clear road to
+attack me.  I made a mistake then that went mighty near to costing me my
+life.  I paused to twist my cloak about my left arm intending to use it as
+a buckler.  Had I but risked the arm itself, all unprotected, in that
+task, it may well be that it had served me better.  As it was, my
+preparations were far from complete when already he was upon me, with the
+result that the waving slack of my cloak was in my way to hamper and
+retard the movements of my arm.
+
+His sword leapt at me, a murderous blue-white flash of moonlit steel.  I
+put up my half-swaddled arm to divert the thrust, holding my dagger ready
+in my right, and gripping my mule with all the strength of my two knees.
+I caught the blade, it is true, and turned aside the stroke intended for
+my heart.  But the slack of the cloak clung to the neck of my mule, so
+that I could not carry my arm far enough to send his point clear of my
+body.  It took me in the shoulder, stinging me, first icy cold then
+burning hot, as it went tearing its way through.  For just a second was I
+daunted, more at knowing myself touched than by the actual pain.  Then I
+flung my whole body forward to reach him at the close quarters to which he
+had come, and I buried my dagger in his breast, high up at the base of his
+dirty throat.
+
+The force of the blow carried me forward, even as it bore him backward;
+and so, with his sword-blade in my shoulder, and my dagger where I had
+planted it, we hurtled over together and lay a second amidst what seemed a
+forest of equine legs.  Then something smote me across the head, and I was
+knocked senseless.
+
+Conceive me, if you can, a sorrier, or more useless thing.  A senseless
+Fool!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FOOL'S LUCK
+
+
+My return to consciousness seemed to afford me such sensations as a diver
+may experience as he rises up and up through the depth of water he has
+plumbed--or as a disembodied soul may know in its gentle ascent towards
+Heaven.  Indeed the latter parallel may be more apt.  For through the mist
+that suffused my senses there penetrated from overhead a voice that seemed
+to invoke every saint in the calendar on the behalf of some poor mortal.
+A very litany of intercession was it, not quite, it would appear, devoid
+of self-seeking.
+
+"Sainted Virgin, restore him!  Good St. Paul, who wert done to death with
+a sword, let him not perish, else am I lost indeed!" came the voice.
+
+I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes, whereat the voice cried out
+gladly that its intercessions had been heard, and I knew that it was on my
+behalf that the saints of Heaven had been disturbed in their beatific
+peace.  My head was pillowed in a woman's lap, and it took me a moment or
+two to realise that that lap was Madonna Paula's, as was hers the voice
+that had reached my awakening senses, the voice that now welcomed me back
+to life in terms that were very different from the last that I could
+remember her having used towards me.
+
+"Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!" she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
+
+Her face was black with shadow, but in her voice I caught a hint of tears,
+and I wondered whether they were shed on my behalf or on her own.
+
+"I do" I answered fervently.  "Have you any notion of what hour it is?"
+
+"None," she sighed.  "You have been so long unconscious that I was losing
+hope of ever hearing your voice again."
+
+I became aware of a dull ache on the right side of my head.  I put up my
+hand, and withdrew it moist.  She saw the action.
+
+"One of the horses must have struck you with its hoof after you fell," she
+explained.  "But I was more concerned for your other wound.  I withdrew
+the sword with my own hands."
+
+That other wound she spoke of was now making itself felt as well.  It was
+a gnawing, stinging pain in the region of my left shoulder, which seemed
+to turn me numb to the waist on that side of my body, and render powerless
+my arm.  I questioned her touching my three adversaries, and she silently
+pointed to three black masses that lay some little distance from us in the
+snow.
+
+"Not all dead?" I cried.
+
+"I do not know," she answered, with a sob.  "I have not dared go near
+them.  They frighten me.  Mother of Heaven, what a night of horror it has
+been!  Oh, that I had taken your advice, Messer Boccacloro!" she exclaimed
+in a passion of self-reproach.
+
+I laughed, seeking to soften her distress.
+
+"To me it seems, that whether you would or not, you have been compelled to
+take it, after all.  Those fellows lie there harmless enough, and I am
+still--as I urged that I should be--your only escort."
+
+"A nobler protector never woman had," she assured me, and I felt a hot
+pearl of moisture fail upon my brow.
+
+"You were wise, at least, to journey with a Fool," I answered her.  "For
+fools are proverbially lucky folk, and to-night has proven me of all fools
+the luckiest.  But, Madonna," I suggested, in a different tone, "should we
+not be better advised to attempt to resume, this interesting journey of
+ours?  We do not seem to lack horses?"
+
+A couple of nags were standing by the road-side, together with our mules,
+and I was afterwards to learn that she, herself, it was had tethered them.
+
+"It must be yet some three leagues to Pesaro," I added, "and if we journey
+slowly, as I fear me that we must, we should arrive there soon after
+daybreak."
+
+"Do you think that you can stand?" she asked, a hopeful ring in her voice.
+
+"I might essay it," answered I, and I would have done so, there and then,
+but that she detained me.
+
+"First let me see to this hurt in your head," said she.  "I have been
+bathing it with snow while you were unconscious."
+
+She gathered a fresh handful as she spoke, and, very tenderly she wiped
+away the blood.  Then from her own head she took the fine linen lanza that
+she wore, and made a bandage--a bandage sweet with the faint fragrance of
+marsh-mallow--and bound it about my battered skull.  When that was done
+she turned her attention to my shoulder.  This was a more difficult
+matter, and all that we could do was to attempt to stanch the blood, which
+already had drenched my doublet on that side.  To this end she passed a
+long scarf under my arm, and wound it several times about my shoulder.
+
+At last her gentle ministrations ended, I sought to rise.  A dizziness
+assailed me scarce was I on my feet, and it is odds I had fallen back, but
+that she caught and steadied me.
+
+"Mother in Heaven!  You are too weak to ride," she exclaimed.  "You must
+not attempt it."
+
+"Nay, but I will," I answered, with more stoutness of tone than I felt of
+body, and notwithstanding that my knees were loosening under my weight.
+"It is a faintness that will pass."
+
+If ever man willed himself to conquer weakness, that did I then, and with
+some measure of success--or else it was that my faintness passed of
+itself.  I drew away from her support, and straightening myself, I crossed
+to where the animals were tethered, staggering at first, but presently
+with a surer foot.  She followed me, watching my steps with as much
+apprehension as a mother may feel when her first-born makes his earliest
+attempts at walking, and as ready to spring to my aid did I show signs of
+stumbling.  But I kept up, and presently my senses seemed to clear, and I
+stepped out more surely.
+
+Awhile we stood discussing which of the animals we should take.  It was my
+suggestion that we should ride the horses but she wisely contended that
+the mules would prove the more convenient if the slower.  I agreed with
+her, and then, ere we set out, I went to see to my late opponents.  One of
+them--Ser Stefano--was cold and stiff; the other two still lived, and from
+the nature of their wounds seemed likely to survive, if only they were not
+frozen to death before some good Samaritan came upon them.
+
+I knelt a moment to offer up a prayer for the repose of the soul of him
+that was dead, and I bound up the wounds of the living as best I could, to
+save them greater loss of blood.  Indeed, had it lain in my power, I would
+have done more for them.  But in what case was I to render further aid?
+After all, they had brought their fate upon themselves, and I doubt not
+they were paying a score that they had heaped up heavily in the past.
+
+I went back to the mules, and, despite my remonstrances, Madonna Paola
+insisted upon aiding me to mount, urging me to have a care of my wound,
+and to make no violent movement that should set it bleeding again.  Then
+she mounted too, nimble as any boy that ever robbed an orchard, and we set
+out once more.  And now it was a very contrite and humbled lady that rode
+with me, and one that was at no pains to dissemble her contrition, but,
+rather, could speak of nothing else.
+
+It moved me strangely to have her suing pardon from me, as though I had
+been her equal instead of the sometime jester of the Court of Pesaro,
+dismissed for an excessive pertness towards one with whom his master
+curried favour.
+
+And presently, as was perhaps but natural after all that she had
+witnessed, she fell to questioning me as to how it came to pass that one
+of such wit, resource and courage should follow the mean calling to which
+I had owned.  In answer I told her without reservation the full story of
+my shame.  It was a thing that I had ever most zealously kept hidden, as
+already I have shown.
+
+To be a Fool was evil enough in all truth; but to let men know that under
+my motley was buried the identity of a man patrician-born was something
+infinitely worse.  For, however vile the trade of a Fool may be, it is not
+half so vile for a low-born clod who is too indolent or too sickly to do
+honest work as for one who has accepted it out of a half-cowardice and
+persevered in it through very sloth.
+
+Yet on that night and after all that had chanced, no matter how my cheeks
+might burn in the gloom as I rode beside her, I was glad for once to tell
+that ignominious story, glad that she should know what weight of
+circumstance had driven me to wear my hideous livery.
+
+But since my story dealt oddly with that Lord of Pesaro, the kinsman whose
+shelter she was now upon her way to seek, I must first assure myself that
+the candour to which I was disposed would not offend.
+
+"Does it happen, Madonna," I inquired, "that you are well acquainted with
+the Lord of Pesaro?"
+
+"Nay; I have never seen him," answered she.  "When he was at Rome, a year
+ago in the service of the Pope, I was at my studies in the convent.  His
+father was my father's cousin, so that my kinship is none so near.  Why do
+you ask?"
+
+"Because my story deals with him, Madonna, and it is no pretty tale.  Not
+such a narrative as I should choose wherewith to entertain you.  Still,
+since you have asked for it, you shall hear it.
+
+"It was in the year that Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, celebrated his
+nuptials with the Lady Lucrezia Borgia--three years ago, therefore--that
+one morning there rode into the courtyard of his castle of Pesazo a tall
+and lean young man on a tall and lean old horse.  He was garbed and
+harnessed after a fashion that proclaimed him half-knight, half-peasant,
+and caused the castle lacqueys to eye him with amusement and greet him
+with derision.  Lacqueys are great arbiters of fashion.
+
+"In a loud, imperious voice this cockerel called for Giovanni, Lord of
+Pesaro, whereupon, resenting the insolence of his manner, the men-at-arms
+would have driven him out without more ado.  But it chanced that from one
+of the windows of his stronghold the tyrant espied his odd visitor.  He
+was in a mood that craved amusement, and marvelling what madman might be
+this, he made his way below and bade them stand back and let me speak--for
+I, Madonna, was that lean young man.
+
+"'Are you,' quoth I, 'the Lord of Pesaro?'
+
+"He answered me courteously that he was, whereupon I did my errand to him.
+I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.
+
+"'Your father,' said I, 'Costanzo of Pesaro, was a foul brigand, who
+robbed my father of his castle and lands of Biancomonte, leaving him to a
+needy and poverty-stricken old age.  I am here to avenge upon your
+father's son my father's wrongs; I am here to redeem my castle and my
+lands.  If so be that you are a true knight, you will take up the
+challenge that I fling you, and you will do battle with me, on horse or
+foot, and with whatsoever arms you shall decree, God defending him that
+has justice on his side.'
+
+"Knowing the world as I know it now, Madonna," I interpolated, "I realise
+the folly of that act of mine.  But in those days my views belonged to a
+long departed age of chivalry, of which I had learnt from such books as
+came my way at Biancomonte, and which I believed was the life of to-day in
+the world of men.  It was a thing which some tyrants would have had me
+broken on the wheel.  But Giovanni Sforza never so much as manifested
+anger.  There was a complacent smile on his white face and his fingers
+toyed carelessly with his beard.
+
+"I waited patiently, very haughty of mien and very fierce at heart, and
+when the amusement began to fade from his eyes, I begged that he would
+deliver me his answer.
+
+"'My answer,' quoth he, 'is that you get you back to the place from whence
+you came, and render thanks to God on your knees every morning of the life
+I am sparing you that Giovanni Sforza is more entertained than affronted
+by your frenzy.'
+
+"At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.
+
+"'Do you disdain me?' I questioned, choking with rage.  He turned, with a
+shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his
+glove, and conduct him from the castle.  Several that had stood at hand
+made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning fury
+that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me.  They were many, I
+was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and dragging me
+from my horse.
+
+"They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then get
+me hanged without delay.  Had he done that, the world being as it is,
+perhaps none could blame him.  But he elected to spare my life, yet on
+such terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the
+consideration of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of
+Biancomonte whilst I went forth to seek my fortune--such was the tale I
+had told her.  I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my death
+must have been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very want.  The
+thought of that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in durance
+waiting for my end, and when the priest came, whom they had sent to shrive
+me, he found me weeping, which he took to argue a contrite heart.  He bore
+the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of Pesaro came to visit me in
+consequence, and found me sorely changed from my furious mood of some
+hours earlier.
+
+"I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother's sake.  If I feared
+death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to her."
+
+"At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my eyes
+and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had been my
+erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him.  I told him the truth--that
+for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother in the hills
+who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus cut off.
+
+"He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.
+Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious depth
+I was far indeed from suspecting.  He asked me would I take solemn oath
+that if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand against him.
+That oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the death that was
+impending.
+
+"'You have been wise,' said he,' and you shall have your life on one
+condition--that you devote it to my service.'
+
+"'Even that will I do,' I answered readily.  He turned to an attendant,
+and ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley.  No word passed between us
+until that man returned with those garish garments.  Then Giovanni smiled
+on me in his mocking, infernal way.
+
+"'Not that,' I cried, guessing his purpose.
+
+"'Aye, that,' he answered me; 'that or the hangman's noose.  A man who
+could devise so monstrous a jest as was your challenge to the Tyrant of
+Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would.  I need such a one.  There
+are two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers, deformed vermin
+that excite as much disgust as mirth.  I need a sprightlier man, a man of
+some learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would seem
+to be.'
+
+"I recoiled in horror and disgust.  Was this his clemency--this sparing of
+my life that he might submit it to an eternal shame?  For a moment my
+mother was forgotten.  I thought only of myself, and I grew resolved to
+hang.
+
+"'When you spoke of service,' said I 'I thought of service of an
+honourable sort.'
+
+"'The service that I offer you is honourable,' he said, with cold
+amusement.  'Indeed, remembering that your life was forfeit, you should
+account yourself most fortunate.  You shall be well housed and well fed,
+you shall wear silk and lie in fine linen, on condition that you are
+merry.  If you prove dull our castellan shall have you whipped--for such a
+one as you could not be dull save out of sullenness, of which we shall
+seek to cure you if you show signs of it.'
+
+"'I will not do it,' I cried, 'it were too base.'
+
+"'My friend,' he answered me, 'the choice is yours.  You shall have an
+hour in which to resolve what you will do.  When they open this door for
+you at sunset, come forth clad as you are, and you shall hang.  If you
+prefer to live, then don me that robe and cap of motley, and, on condition
+that you are merry, life is yours.'"
+
+I paused a moment.  Our horses were moving slowly, for the tale engrossed
+us both, me in the telling, her in the hearing.  Presently--
+
+"I need not harass you with the reflections that were mine during that
+hour, Madonna.  Rather let me ask you: how should a man so placed make
+choice to be full worthy of the office proffered him?"
+
+There was a moment's silence while she pondered.
+
+"Why," she answered me, at last, "a fool I take it would have chosen
+death: the wise man life, since it must hold the hope of better days."
+
+"And since it asked a man of wit to play the fool to such a tune as the
+Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly.  But was
+that choice indeed so wise?  The story ends not there.  That young men
+whose early life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed, well-
+housed and fed as the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he fell into
+a slothful spirit, and was content to play the Fool for bed and board.
+
+"There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
+tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of all,
+from prince to scullion.  But in the three years that I had dwelt at
+Pesaro my identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been aware
+of it.  Moreover, a court is a place of changes, and in three years there
+had been such comings and goings at the Court of Giovanni Sforza, that not
+more than one or two remained of those that had inhabited it when first I
+entered on my existence there.  Thus had my position grown steadily more
+bearable.  I was just a jester and no more, and so, in a measure--though I
+blush to say it--I grew content.  I gathered consolation from the fact
+that there were not any who now remembered the story of my coming to
+Pesaro, or who knew of the cowardliness I had been guilty of when I
+consented to mask myself in the motley and assume the name of Boccadoro.
+I counted on the Lord Giovanni's generosity to let things continue thus,
+and, meanwhile, I provided for my mother out of the vails that were earned
+me by my shame.  But there came a day when Giovanni in evil wantonness of
+spirit chose to make merry at the Fool's expense.
+
+"To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such as I,
+and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the derision
+of his Court, haply I had been his jester still.  But such sport as that
+would have satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of his soul.  The man
+whom his cruel mockery crucified for their entertainment was Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, whom he revealed to them, relating in his own fashion the
+tale I have told you.
+
+"At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
+all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live.  Passion surged
+up in him,  and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the bone--in short,
+to slay me with a whip.
+
+"From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
+Lucrezia.  But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it
+happens that I am a wanderer now."
+
+At that I left it.  I had no mind to tell her what motives had impelled
+Lucrezia Borgia to rescue me, nor on what errand I had gone to Rome and
+was from Rome returning.
+
+She had heard me in silence, and now that I had done, she heaved a sigh,
+for which gentle expression of pity out of my heart I thanked her.  We
+were silent, thereafter, for a little while.  At length she turned her
+head to regard me in the light of the now declining moon.
+
+"Messer Biancomonte," said she, and the sound of the old name, falling
+from her lips, thrilled me with a joy unspeakable, and seemed already to
+reinvest me in my old estate, "Messer Biancomonte, you have done me in
+these four-and-twenty hours such service as never did knight of old for
+any lady--and you did it, too, out of the most disinterested and noble of
+motives, proving thereby how truly knightly is that heart of yours, which,
+for my sake, has all but beat its last to-night.  You must journey on to
+Pesaro with me despite this banishment of which you have told me.  I will
+be surety that no harm shall come to you.  I could not do less, and I
+shall hope to do far more.  Such influence as I may prove to have with my
+cousin of Pesaro shall be exerted all on your behalf, my friend; and if in
+the nature of Giovanni Sforza there be a tithe of the gratitude with which
+you have inspired me, you shall, at least, have justice, and Biancomonte
+shall be yours again."
+
+I was silent for a spell, so touched was I by the kindness she manifested
+me--so touched, indeed, and so unused to it that I forgot how amply I had
+earned it, and how rudely she had used me ere that was done.
+
+"Alas!" I sighed.  "God knows I am no longer fit to sit in the house of
+the Biancomonte.  I am come too low, Madonna."
+
+"That Lazzaro, after whom you are named," she answered, "had come yet
+lower.  But he lived again, and resumed his former station.  Take your
+courage from that."
+
+"He lived not at the mercy of Giovanni of Pesaro," said I.
+
+There was a fresh pause at that.  Then--"At least," she urged me, "you'll
+come to Pesaro with me?"
+
+"Why yes," said I.  "I could not let you go alone."  And in my heart I
+felt a pang of shame, and called myself a cur for making use of her as I
+was doing to reach the Court of Giovanni Sforza.
+
+"You need fear no consequences," she promised me.  "I can be surety for
+that at least."
+
+In the east a brighter, yellower light than the moon's began to show.  It
+was the dawn, from which I gathered that it must be approaching the
+thirteenth hour. Pesaro could not be more than a couple of leagues
+farther, and, presently, when we had gained the summit of the slight hill
+we were ascending, we beheld in the distance a blurred mass looming on the
+edge of the glittering sea.  A silver ribbon that uncoiled itself from the
+western hills disappeared behind it.  That silvery streak was the River
+Foglia; that heap of buildings against the landscape's virgin white, the
+town of Pesaro.
+
+Madonna pointed to it with a sudden cry of gladness. "See Messer
+Biancomonte, how near we are.  Courage, my friend; a little farther, and
+yonder we have rest and comfort for you."
+
+She had need, in truth, to cry me "Courage!" for I was weakening fast once
+more.  It may have been the much that I had talked, or the infernal
+jolting of my mule, but I was losing blood again, and as we were on the
+point of riding forward my senses swam, so that I cried out; and but for
+her prompt assistance I might have rolled headlong from my saddle.
+
+As it was, she caught me about the waist as any mother might have done her
+son.  "What ails you?" she inquired, her newly-aroused anxiety contrasting
+sharply with her joyous cry of a moment earlier.  "Are you faint, my
+friend?"  It needed no confession on my part.  My condition was all too
+plain as I leaned against her frail body for support.
+
+"It is my wound," I gasped.  Then I set my teeth in anguish.  So near the
+haven, and to fail now!  It could not be; it must not be.  I summoned all
+my resolution, all my fortitude; but in vain.  Nature demanded payment for
+the abuses she had suffered.
+
+"If we proceed thus," she ventured fearfully, "you leaning against me, and
+going at a slow pace--no faster than a walk--think you, you can bear it?
+Try, good Messer 'Biancomonte."
+
+"I will try, Madonna," I replied.  Perhaps thus, and if I am silent, we
+may yet reach Pesaro together.  If not--if my strength gives out--the town
+is yonder and the day is coming.  You will find your way without me."
+
+"I will not leave you, sir," she vowed; and it was good to hear her.
+
+"Indeed, I hope you may not know the need," I answered wearily.  And thus
+we started on once more.
+
+Sant' Iddio!  What agonies I suffered ere the sun rose up out of the sea
+to flood us with his winter glory!  What agonies were mine during those
+two hours or so of that last stage of our eventful journey!  "I must bear
+up until we are at the gates of Pesaro," I kept murmuring to myself, and,
+as if my spirit were inclined to become the servant of my will and hold my
+battered flesh alive until we got that far, Pesaro's gates I had the joy
+of entering ere I was constrained to give way.
+
+Dimly I remember--for very dim were my perceptions growing--that as we
+crossed the bridge and passed beneath the archway of the Porta Romana, the
+officer turned out to see who came.  At sight of me be gaped a moment in
+astonishment.
+
+"Boccadoro?" he exclaimed, at last.  "So soon returned?"
+
+"Like Perseus from the rescue of Andromeda," answered I, in a feeble
+voice, "saving that Perseus was less bloody than am I.  Behold the Madonna
+Paola Sforza di Santafior, the noble cousin of our High and Mighty Lord."
+
+And then as if my task being done, I were free to set my weary brain to
+rest, my senses grew confused, the officer's voice became a hum that
+gradually waxed fainter as I sank into what seemed the most luxurious and
+delicious sleep that ever mortal knew.
+
+Two days later, when I was conscious once more, I learned what excitement
+those words of mine had sown, with what honours Madonna Paola was escorted
+to the Castle, and how the citizens of Pesaro turned out upon hearing the
+news which ran like fire before us.  And Madonna, it seems, had loudly
+proclaimed how gallantly I had served her, for as they bore me along in a
+cloak carried by four men-at-arms, the cry that was heard in the streets
+of Pesaro that morning was "Boccadoro!"  They had loved me, had those good
+citizens of Pesaro, and the news of my departure had cast a gloom upon the
+town.  To have their hero return in a manner so truly heroic provoked that
+brave display of their affection, and I deeply doubt if ever in the days
+of greatest loyalty the name of Sforza was as loudly cried in Pesaro as,
+they tell me, was the name of Sforza's Fool that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SUMMONS FROM ROME
+
+
+If Madonna Paola did not achieve quite all that she had promised me so
+readily, yet she achieved more than from my acquaintance with the nature
+of Giovanni Sforza--and my knowledge of the deep malice he entertained for
+me--I should have dared to hope.
+
+The Tyrant of Pesaro, as I was soon to learn, was greatly taken with this
+fair cousin of his, whom that morning he had beheld for the first time.
+And being taken with her, it may be that Giovanni listened the more
+readily to her intercessions on my poor behalf.  Since it was she who
+begged this thing, he could not wholly refuse.  But since he was Giovanni
+Sforza, he could not wholly grant.  He promised her that my life, at
+least, should be secure, and that not only would he pardon me, but that he
+would have his own physician see to it that I was made sound again.  For
+the time, that was enough, he thought.  First let them bring me back to
+life.  When that was achieved, it would be early enough to consider what
+course this life should take thereafter.
+
+And she, knowing him not and finding him so kind and gracious, trusted
+that he would perform that which he tricked her into believing that he
+promised.
+
+For some ten days I lay abed, feverish at first and later very weak from
+the great loss of blood I had sustained.  But after the second day, when
+my fever had abated, I had some visitors, among whom was Madonna Paola,
+who bore me the news that her intercessions for me with the Lord of Pesaro
+were likely to bear fruit, and that I might look for my reinstatement.
+Yet, if I permitted myself to hope as she bade me; I did so none too
+fully.
+
+My situation, bearing in mind how at once I had served and thwarted the
+ends of Cesare Borgia, was perplexing.
+
+Another visitor I had was Messer Magistri--the pompous seneschal of
+Pesaro--who, after his own fashion, seemed to have a liking for me, and a
+certain pity.  Here was my chance of discharging the true errand on which
+I was returned.
+
+"I owe thanks," said I, "to many circumstances for the sparing of my life;
+but above all people and all things do I owe thanks to our gracious Lady
+Lucrezia.  Do you think, Messer Magistri, that she would consent to see me
+and permit me again to express the gratitude that fills my heart?"
+
+Mosser Magistri thought that he could promise this, and consented to bear
+my message to her.  Within the hour she was at my bedside and divining
+that, haply, I had news to give her of the letter I had born her brother,
+she dismissed Magistri who was in attendance.
+
+Once we were alone her first words were of kindly concern for my
+condition, delivered in that sweet, musical voice that was by no means the
+least charm of a princess to whom Nature had been prodigal of gifts.  For
+without going to that length of exaggerated praise which some have
+bestowed--for her own ear, and with an eye to profit--upon Madonna
+Lucrezia, yet were I less than truthful if I sought to belittle her ample
+claims to beauty.  Some six years later than the time of which I write she
+was met on the occasion of her entry into Ferrara by a certain clown
+dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd Paris, who proffered her the
+apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that since beholding her he
+had been forced to alter his old-time judgment in favour of Venus.
+
+He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for which
+he should have been soundly whipped.  Her nose was a shade too long, her
+chin a shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such comparisons.
+Still, that she had a certain gracious beauty, as I have said, it is not
+mine to deny.  There was an almost childish freshness in her face, an
+almost childish innocence in her fine gray eyes, and, above all, a golden
+and resplendent hair as brought to mind the tresses of God's angels.
+
+That fair child--for no more than a child was she--drew a chair to my
+bedside.
+
+There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my behalf,
+and answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad again in a
+day or two.
+
+"Brave lad," she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the coverlet,
+as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool, "count me ever
+your friend hereafter, for what you have done for Madonna Paola.  For
+although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you did so to serve one
+who is more to me than any family, more than any sister could be."
+
+"What I did, Madonna," I answered, "I did with the better heart since it
+opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my Lord,
+your Illustrious brother, set me--one that otherwise might well have
+overtaxed my wits."
+
+"Ah?"  Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a glance
+that revealed to the full their matchless beauty.  Care seemed of a sudden
+to have aged her face.  The question of her eyes needed no translation
+into words.
+
+"The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
+answer to your own," I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I drew
+the package, which during Magistri's absence I had abstracted from my boot
+that I might have it in readiness when she came.
+
+She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of her
+mouth.
+
+"I had hoped he would have found better employment for you," she said.
+
+"His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the future
+did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch.  But by aiding
+Madonna Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim the
+redemption of that promise; though had it not been for Madonna Paola and
+what I did, I scarce know how I should have penetrated here to you."
+
+She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood
+reading the letter, her back toward me.  Presently I heard a stifled sob.
+The letter was crushed in her hand.  Then moments passed ere she
+confronted me once more.  But her manner as all changed; she was agitated
+and preoccupied, and for all that she forced herself to talk of me and my
+affairs, her mind was clearly elsewhere.  At last she left me, nor did I
+see her again during the time I was confined to my bed.
+
+On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like, I
+was permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on the
+terrace that overlooks the sea.  I found no garments but some suits of
+motley, and so, in despite of my repugnance now to reassume that garb, I
+had no choice but to array myself in one of these.  I selected the least
+garish one--a suit of black and yellow stripes, with hose that was half
+black, half yellow, too; and so, leaning upon the crutch they had left me,
+I crept forth into the sunlight, the very ghost of the man that I had been
+a fortnight ago.
+
+I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards
+Ancona, and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air of
+the Adriatic.  The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some
+twenty paces off--there was a stretch of soft, green turf.
+
+I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I was
+yet abed.  It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with the
+proverbs of one Domenico Lopez--all very proper nourishment for a jester's
+mind.  The odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and among the
+proverbs there were many that were new to me in framing and in substance.
+Moreover, I was glad of this means of improving my acquaintance with the
+tongue of Spain, and I was soon absorbed.  So absorbed, indeed, as never
+to hear the footsteps of the Lord Giovanni, when presently he approached
+me unattended, nor to guess at his presence until his shadow fell athwart
+my page.  I raised my eyes, and seeing who it was I made shift to get on
+my feet; but he commanded me to remain seated, commenting sympathetically
+upon my weak condition.
+
+He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile fluttered
+across his white face.
+
+"You choose your reading with rare judgment," said he.  "Read on, and
+prime your mind with fresh humour, prepare yourself with new conceits for
+our amusement against the time when health shall be more fully restored
+you."
+
+It was in such words as these that he intimated to me that I was pardoned,
+and reinstated--as the Fool of the Court of Pesaro.  That was to be the
+sum of his clemency.  We were precisely where we had been.  Once before
+had he granted me my life on condition that I should amuse him; he did no
+more than repeat that mercy now.  I stared at him in wonder, open-mouthed,
+whereit he laughed.
+
+"You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro?" said he, his fingers straying
+to his beard as was his custom.  "My clemency is no more than you deserve
+in return for the service you have rendered to the House of Sforza."  And
+he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs that had borne
+itself bravely in the chase.
+
+I answered nothing.  I sat there as if I had been a part of the stone from
+which my seat was hewn, for I lacked the strength to rise and strangle him
+as he deserved--moreover, I was bound by an oath, which it would have
+damned my soul to break, never to raise my hand against him.
+
+And then, before he could say more, two ladies issued from the doorway on
+my right.  They were Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Paola.  Upon espying me
+they hastened forward with expressions of pleased surprise at seeing me
+risen and out, and when I would have got to my feet they stayed me as
+Giovanni had done.  Madonna Paola's words seemed addressed to heaven
+rather than to me, for they were words of thanksgiving for this recovery
+of my strength.
+
+"I have no thanks," she ended warmly, "that can match the deeds by which
+you earned them, Messer Biancomonte."
+
+My eyes drifting to Giovanni's face surprised its sudden darkening.
+
+"Madonna Paola," said he, in an icy voice, "you have uttered a name that
+must not be heard within my walls of Pesaro, if you would prove yourself
+the friend of Boccadoro.  To remind me of his true identity is to remind
+me of that which counts not in his favour."
+
+She turned to regard him, a mild surprise in her blue eyes.
+
+"But, my lord, you promised--" she began.
+
+"I promised," he interposed, with an easy smile and manner never so
+deprecatory, "that I would pardon him, grant him his life and restore him
+to my favour."
+
+"But did you not say that if he survived and was restored to strength you
+would then determine the course his life should take?"
+
+Still smiling, he produced his comfit-box, and raised the lid.
+
+"That is a thing he seems to have determined for himself," he answered
+smoothly--he could be smooth as a cat upon occasion, could this bastard of
+Costanzo Sforza.  "I came upon him here, arrayed as you behold him, and
+reading a book of Spanish quips.  Is it not clear that he has chosen?"
+
+Between thumb and forefinger he balanced a sugar-crusted comfit of
+coriander seed steeped in marjoram vinegar, and having put his question he
+bore the sweet-meat to his mouth.  The ladies looked at him, and from him
+to me.  Then Madonna Paola spoke, and there seemed a reproachful wonder in
+her voice.
+
+"Is this indeed your choice?" she asked me.
+
+"It is the choice that was forced on me," said I, in heat.  "They left me
+no garment save these of folly.  That I was reading this book it pleases
+my lord to interpret into a further sign of my intentions."
+
+She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of
+Madonna Lucrezia.  He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of
+rare loftiness.
+
+"I am more clement than you think," said he, "in having done so much.  For
+the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving political
+issues you little dream of.  What is this?"
+
+He had turned abruptly.  A servant was approaching, leading a mud-splashed
+courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
+
+"Whence are you?" Giovanni questioned him.
+
+"From the Holy See," answered the courier, bowing, "with letters for the
+High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his noble
+spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia."
+
+He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown
+overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant.  Then bidding the
+servant see to the courier's refreshment, he dismissed them both.
+
+A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he
+would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro
+were, there and then, forgotten by us all.  For the thought that rose
+uppermost in our minds--saving always that of Madonna Lucrezia--was that
+these communications concerned the sheltering of Madonna Paola, and were a
+command for her immediate return to Rome.  At last Giovanni handed his
+wife the letter intended for her, and, in silence, broke the seal of his
+own.
+
+He unfolded it with a grim smile, but scarce had he begun to read when his
+expression softened into one of terror, and his face grew ashen.  Next it
+flared crimson, the veins on his brow stood out like ropes, and his eyes
+flashed furiously upon Madonna Lucrezia.  She was reading, her bosom
+rising and falling in token of the excitement that possessed her.
+
+"Madonna," he cried in an awful voice, "I have here a command from the
+Holy See to repair at once to Rome, to answer certain charges that are
+preferred against me relating to my marriage.  Madonna, know you aught of
+this?"
+
+"I know, sir," she answered steadily, "that I, too, have here a letter
+calling me to Rome.  But there is no reason given for the summons."
+
+Intuitively it flashed across my mind that whatever the matter might be,
+Madonna Lucrezia had full knowledge of it through the letter I had brought
+her from her brother.
+
+"Can you conjecture, Madonna, what are these charges to which my letter
+vaguely alludes?" Giovanni was inquiring.
+
+"Your pardon, but the subject is scarcely of a nature to permit discussion
+in the castle courtyard.  Its character is intimate."
+
+He looked at her very searchingly, but for all that he was a man of almost
+twice her years, her wits were more than a match for his, and his scrutiny
+can have told him nothing.  She preserved a calm, unruffled front.
+
+"In five minutes, Madonna," said he, very sternly, "I shall be honoured if
+you will receive me in your closet."
+
+She inclined her head, murmuring an unhesitating assent.  Satisfied, he
+bowed to her and to Madonna Paola--who had been looking on with eyes that
+wonder had set wide open--and turning on his heel he strode briskly away.
+As he passed into the castle, Madonna Lucrezia heaved a sigh and rose.
+
+"My poor Boccadoro," she cried, "I fear me your affairs must wait a while.
+But think of me always as your friend, and believe that if I can prevail
+upon my brother to overlook the ill-turn you did him when you entered the
+service of this child"--and she pointed to Madonna Paola--"I shall send
+for you from Rome, for in Pesaro I fear you have little to hope for.  But
+let this be a secret between us."
+
+From those words of hers I inferred, as perhaps she meant I should, that
+once she left Pesaro to obey her father's summons, our little northern
+state was to know her no more.  Once again, only, did I see her, on the
+occasion of her departure, some four days later, and then but for a
+moment.  Back to Pesaro she came no more, as you shall learn anon; but
+behind her she left a sweet and fragrant memory, which still endures
+though many years are sped and much calumny has been heaped upon her name.
+
+I might pause here to make some attempt at refuting the base falsehoods
+that had been bruited by that time-serving vassal Guicciardini, and others
+of his kidney, whom the upstart Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere--sometime
+pedlar--in his jealous fury at seeing the coveted pontificate pass into
+the family of Borgia, bought and hired to do his loathsome work of calumny
+and besmirch the fame of as sweet a lady as Italy has known.  But this
+poor chronicle of mine is rather concerned with the history of Madonna
+Paola di Santafior, and it were a divergence well-nigh unpardonable to set
+my pen at present to that other task.  Moreover, there is scarce the need.
+If any there be who doubt me, or if future generations should fall into
+the error of lending credence to the lies of that villain Guicciardini, of
+that arch-villain Giuliano della Rovere, or of other smaller fry who have
+lent their helot's pens to weave mendacious records of her life, dubbing
+her murderess, adulteress, and Heaven knows what besides--I will but refer
+them to the archives of Ferrara, whose Duchess she became at the age of
+one-and-twenty, and where she reigned for eighteen years.  There shall it
+be found recorded that she was an exemplary, God-fearing woman; a faithful
+and honoured wife; a wise, devoted mother; and a princess, beloved and
+esteemed by her people for her piety, her charity and her wisdom.  If such
+records as are there to be read by earnest seekers after truth be not
+sufficient to convince, and to reveal those others whom I have named in
+the light of their true baseness, then were it idle for me to set up in
+these pages a passing refutation of the falsehoods which it has grieved me
+so often to hear repeated.
+
+It was two days later that the Lord Giovanni set out for Rome, obedient to
+the command he had received.  But before his departure--on the eve of it,
+to be precise--there arrived at Pesaro a very wonderful and handsome
+gentleman.  This was the brother of Madonna Paola, the High and Mighty
+Lord Filippo di Santafior.  He had had a hint in Rome that his connivance
+at his sister's defiant escape was suspected at the Vatican, and he had
+wisely determined that his health would thrive better in a northern
+climate for a while.
+
+A very splendid creature was this Lord Filippo, all shimmering velvet,
+gleaming jewels, costly furs and glittering gold.  His face was
+effeminate, though finely featured, and resembled, in much, his sister's.
+He rode a cream-coloured horse, which seemed to have been steeped in musk,
+so strongly was it scented.  But of all his affectations the one with
+which I as taken most was to see one of his grooms approach him when he
+dismounted, to dust his wondrous clothes down to his shoes, which he wore
+in the splayed fashion set by the late King of France who was blessed with
+twelve toes on each of his deformed feet.
+
+The Lord Giovanni, himself not lacking in effeminacy, was greatly taken by
+the wondrous raiment, the studied lisp and the hundred affectations of
+this peerless gallant.  Had he not been overburdened at the time by the
+Papal business that impended, he might there and then have cemented the
+intimacy which was later to spring up between them.  As it was, he made
+him very welcome, and placed at his and his sister's disposal the
+beautiful palace that his father had begun, and he, himself, had
+completed, which was known as the Palazza Sforza.  On the morrow Giovanni
+left Pesaro with but a small retinue, in which I was thankful not to be
+included.
+
+Two days later Madonna Lucrezia followed her husband, the fact that they
+journeyed not together, seeming to wear an ominous significance.  Her eyes
+had a swollen look, such as attends much weeping, which afterwards I took
+as proof that she knew for what purpose she was going, and was moved to
+bitter grief at the act to which her ambitious family was constraining
+her.
+
+After their departure things moved sluggishly at Pesaro.  The nobles of
+the Lord Giovanni's Court repaired to their several houses in the
+neighboring country, and save for the officers of the household the place
+became deserted.
+
+Madonna Paola remained at the Sforza Palace, and I saw her only once
+during the two mouths that followed, and then it was about the streets,
+and she had little more than a greeting for me as she passed.  At her side
+rode her brother, a splendid blaze of finery, falcon on wrist.
+
+My days were spent in reading and reflection, for there was naught else to
+do.  I might have gone my ways, had I so wished it, but something kept me
+there at Pesaro, curious to see the events with which the time was growing
+big.
+
+We grew sadly stagnant during Lent, and what with the uneventful course of
+things, and the lean fare proscribed by Mother Church, it was a very
+dispirited  Boccadoro that wandered aimlessly whither his dulling fancy
+took him.  But in Holy Week, at last, we received an abrupt stir which set
+a whirlpool of excitement in the Dead Sea of our lives.  It was the sudden
+reappearance of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+He came alone, dust-stained and haggard, on a horse that dropped dead from
+exhaustion the moment Pesaro was reached, and in his pallid cheek and
+hollow eye we read the tale of some great fear and some disaster.
+
+That night we heard the story of how he had performed the feat of riding
+all the way from Rome in four-and-twenty hours, fleeing for his life from
+the peril of assassination, of which Madonna Lucrezia had warned him.
+
+He went off to his Castle of Gradara, where he shut himself up with the
+trouble we could but guess at, and so in Pesaro, that brief excitement
+spent, we stagnated once again.
+
+I seemed an anomaly in so gloomy a place, and more than once did I think
+of departing and seeking out my poor old mother in her mountain home,
+contenting myself hereafter with labouring like any honest villano born to
+the soil.  But there ever seemed to be a voice that bade me stay and wait,
+and the voice bore a suggestion of Madonna Paola.  But why dissemble here?
+Why cast out hints of voices heard, supernatural in their flavour?  The
+voice, I doubt not, was just my own inclination, which bade me hope that
+once again it might be mine to serve that lady.
+
+An eventful year in the history of the families of Sforza and Borgia was
+that year of grace 1497.
+
+Spring came, and ere it had quite grown to summer we had news of the
+assassination of the Duke of Gandia, and the tale that he was done to
+death by his elder brother, Cesare Borgia; a tale which seemed to lack for
+reasonable substantiation, and which, despite the many voices that make
+bold to noise it broadcast, may or may not be true.
+
+In that same month of June messages passed between Rome and Pesaro, and
+gradually the burden of the messages leaked out in rumours that Pope
+Alexander and his family were pressing the Lord Giovanni to consent to a
+divorce.  At last he left Pesaro again; this time to journey to Milan and
+seek counsel with his powerful cousin, Lodovico, whom they called "The
+Moor."  When he returned he was more sulky and downcast than ever, and at
+Gradara he lived in an isolation that had been worthy of a hermit.
+
+And thus that miserable year wore itself out, and, at last, in December,
+we heard that the divorce was announced, and that Lucrezia Borgia was the
+Tyrant of Pesaro's wife no more.  The news of it and the reasons that were
+put forward as having led to it were roared across Italy in a great,
+derisive burst of laughter, of which the Lord Giovanni was the unfortunate
+and contemptible butt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
+
+
+And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine, it
+may be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of the
+next three years of the history of Pesaro.
+
+Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he
+seemed again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been
+before shame overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding.  Madonna
+Paola and her brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in Pesaro, where
+they now appeared to have taken up their permanent abode.  Madonna Paola--
+following her inclinations--withdrew to the Convent of Santa Caterina,
+there to pursue in peace the studies for which she had a taste, whilst her
+splendid, profligate brother became the ornament--the arbiter
+elegantiarum--of our court.
+
+Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics a
+stew was simmering that demanded all that family's attention, and of whose
+import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had flung
+aside his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer rein to the
+boundless ambition that consumed him.
+
+With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never
+been.  Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce left
+discernible any semblance of reality, for I was once again Boccadoro, the
+golden-mouthed Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every jester throughout
+Italy.  My shame that for a brief season had risen up in arms seemed to be
+laid to rest once more, and I was content with the burden that was mine.
+Money I had in plenty, for when I pleased him the Lord Giovanni's vails
+were often handsome, and much of my earnings went to my poor mother, who
+would sooner have died starving than have bought herself bread with those
+ducats could she have guessed at what manner of trade Lazzaro Biancomonte
+had earned them.
+
+The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa Caterina,
+whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to pay his duty to
+his fair cousin.  In the summer of 1500, she being then come to the age of
+eighteen, and as divinely beautiful a lady as you could find in Italy, she
+allowed herself to be persuaded by her brother--who, I make no doubt had
+been, in his turn, persuaded by the Lord of Pesaro--to leave her convent
+and her studies, and to take up her life at the Sforza Palace, where
+Filippo held by now a sort of petty court of his own.
+
+And now it fell out that the Lord Giovanni was oftener at the Palace than
+at the Castle, and during that summer Pesaro was given over to such
+merrymaking as it had never known before.  There was endless lute-
+thrumming and recitation of verses by a score of parasite poets whom the
+Lord Giovanni encouraged, posing now as a patron of letters; there were
+balls and masques and comedies beyond number, and we were as gay as though
+Italy held no Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who was sweeping
+northward with his all-conquering flood of mercenaries.
+
+But one there was who, though the very centre of all these merry doings,
+the very one in whose honour and for whose delectation they were set
+afoot, seemed listless and dispirited in that boisterous crowd.  This was
+Madonna Paola, to whom, rumour had it, that her kinsman, the Lord
+Giovanni, was paying a most ardent suit.
+
+I saw her daily now, and often would she choose me for her sole companion;
+often, sitting apart with me, would she unburden her heart and tell me
+much that I am assured she would have told no other.  A strange thing may
+it have seemed, this confidence between the Fool and the noble Lady of
+Santafior--my Holy Flower of the Quince, as in my thoughts I grew to name
+her.  Perhaps it may have been because she found me ever ready to be sober
+at her bidding, when she needed sober company as those other fools--the
+greater fools since they accounted themselves wise--could not afford her.
+
+That winter adventure betwixt Cagli and Pesaro was a link that bound us
+together, and caused her to see under my motley and my masking smile the
+true Lazzaro Biancomonte whom for a little season she had known.  And when
+we were alone it had become her wont to call me Lazzaro, leaving that
+other name that they had given me for use when others were at hand.  Yet
+never did she refer to my condition, or wound me by seeking to spur me to
+the ambition to become myself again.  Haply she was content that I should
+be as I sas, since had I sought to become different it must have entailed
+my quitting Pesaro, and this poor lady was so bereft of friends that she
+could not afford to lose even the sympathy of the despised jester.
+
+It was in those days that I first came to love her with as pure a flame as
+ever burned within the heart of man, for the very hopelessness of it
+preserved its holy whiteness.  What could I do, if I would love her, but
+love her as the dog may love his mistress?  More was surely not for me--
+and to seek more were surely a madness that must earn me less.  And so, I
+was content to let things be, and keep my heart in check, thanking God for
+the mercy of her company at times, and for the precious confidences she
+made me, and praying Heaven--for of my love was I grown devout--that her
+life might run a smooth and happy course, and ready, in the furtherance of
+such an object, to lay down my own should the need arise.  Indeed there
+were times when it seemed to me that it was a good thing to be a Fool to
+know a love of so rare a purity as that--such a love as I might never have
+known had I been of her station, and in such case as to have hoped to win
+her some day for my own.
+
+One evening of late August, when the vines were heavy with ripe fruit, and
+the scent of roses was permeating the tepid air, she drew me from the
+throng of courtiers that made merry in the Palace, and led me out into the
+noble gardens to seek counsel with me, she said, upon a matter of gravest
+moment.  There, under the sky of deepest blue, crimsoning to saffron where
+the sun had set, we paced awhile in silence, my own senses held in thrall
+by the beauty of the eventide, the ambient perfumes of the air and the
+strains of music that faintly reached us from the Palace.  Madonna's head
+was bent, and her eyes were set upon the ground and burdened, so my
+furtive glance assured me, with a gentle sorrow.  At length she spoke, and
+at the words she uttered my heart seemed for a moment to stand still.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, "they would have me marry."
+
+For a little spell there was a silence, my wits seeming to have grown too
+numbed to attempt to seek an answer.  I might be content, indeed, to love
+her from a distance, as the cloistered monk may love and worship some
+particular saint in Heaven; yet it seems that I was not proof against
+jealousy for all the abstract quality of my worship.
+
+"Lazzaro," she repeated presently, "did you hear me?  They would have me
+marry."
+
+"I have heard some such talk," I answered, rousing myself at last; "and
+they say that it is the Lord Giovanni who would prove worthy of your
+hand."
+
+"They say rightly, then," she acknowledged.  "The Lord Giovanni it is."
+
+Again there was a silence, and again it was she who broke it.
+
+"Well, Lazzaro?" she asked.  "Have you naught to say?"
+
+"What would you have me say, Madonna?  If this wedding accords with your
+own wishes, then am I glad."
+
+"Lazzaro, Lazzaro! you know that it does not."
+
+"How should I know it, Madonna?"
+
+"Because your wits are shrewd, and because you know me.  Think you this
+petty tyrant is such a man as I should find it in my heart to conceive
+affection for? Grateful to him am I for the shelter he has afforded us
+here; but my love--that is a thing I keep, or fain would keep, for some
+very different man.  When I love, I think it will be a valorous knight, a
+gentleman of lofty mind, of noble virtues and ready address."
+
+"An excellent principle on which to go in quest of a husband, Madonna mia.
+But where in this degenerate world do you look to find him?"
+
+"Are there, then, no such men?"
+
+"In the pages of Bojardo and those other poets whom you have read too
+earnestly there may be."
+
+"Nay, there speaks your cynicism," she chided me.  "But even if my ideals
+be too lofty, would you have me descend from the height of such a pinnacle
+to the level of the Lord Giovanni--a weak-spirited craven, as witnesses
+the manner in which he permitted the Borgias to mishandle him; a cruel and
+unjust tyrant, as witnesses his dealing with you, to seek no further
+instances; a weak, ignorant, pleasure-loving fool, devoid of wit and
+barren of ambition?  Such is the man they would have me wed.  Do not tell
+me, Lazzaro, that it were difficult to find a better one than this."
+
+"I do not mean to tell you that.  After all, though it be my trade to
+jest, it is not my way to deal in falsehood.  I think, Madonna, that if we
+were to have you write for us such an appreciation of the High and Mighty
+Giovanni Sforza, you would leave a very faithful portrait for the
+enlightenment of posterity."
+
+"Lazzaro, do not jest!" she cried.  "It is your help I need.  That is the
+reason why I am come to you with the tale of what they seek to force me
+into doing."
+
+"To force you?" I cried.  "Would they dare so much?"
+
+"Aye, if I resist them further."
+
+"Why, then," I answered, with a ready laugh, "do not resist them further."
+
+"Lazzaro!" she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by what she
+accounted a flippancy.
+
+"Mistake me not," I hastened to elucidate.  "It is lest they should employ
+force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I counsel you
+to offer no resistance.  Beg for a little time, vaguely suggesting that
+you are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni's suit."
+
+"That were deceit," she protested.
+
+"A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny," said I.
+
+"Well?  And then?" she questioned.  "Such a state of things cannot endure
+for ever.  It must end some day."
+
+I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full of
+confidence.
+
+"That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni's impatience
+transcends all bounds."
+
+She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression
+knitting her fine brows.
+
+"I do not take your meaning, my friend," she complained.
+
+"Then mark the enucleation.  I will expound this meaning of mine through
+the medium of a parable.  In Babylon of old, there dwelt a king whose name
+was Belshazzar, who, having fallen into habits of voluptuousness and
+luxury, was so enslaved by them as to feast and make merry whilst a
+certain Darius, King of the Medes, was marching in arms against his
+capital.  At a feast one night the fingers of a man's hand were seen to
+write upon the wall, and the words they wrote were a belated warning:
+'Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.'"
+
+She looked at me, her eyes round with inquiry, and a faint smile of
+uncertainty on her lips.
+
+"Let me confess that your elucidation helps me but little."
+
+"Ponder it, Madonna," I urged her.  "Substitute Giovanni Sforza for
+Belshazzar, Cesare Borgia for King Darius, and you have the key to my
+parable."
+
+"But is it indeed so?  Does danger threaten Pesaro from that quarter?"
+
+"Aye, does it," I answered, almost impatiently.  "The tide of war is
+surging up, and presently will whelm us utterly.  Yet here sits the Lord
+Giovanni making merry with balls and masques and burle and banquets,
+wholly unprepared, wholly unconscious of his peril.  There may be no hand
+to write a warning on his walls--or else, as in the case of Babylon, the
+hand will write when it is too late to avert the evil--yet there are not
+wanting other signs for those that have the wit to read them; nor is a
+wondrous penetration needed."
+
+"And you think then--" she began.
+
+"I think that if you are obdurate with him, he and your brother may hurry
+you by force into this union.  But if you temporise with half-promises,
+with suggestions that before Christmas you may grow reconciled to his
+wishes, he will be patient."
+
+"But what if Christmas comes and finds us still in this position?"
+
+"It will need a miracle for that; or, at least, the death of Cesare
+Borgia--an unlikely event, for they say he uses great precautions.
+Saving the miracle, and providing Cesare lives, I will give the 
+Lord Giovanni's reign in Pesaro at most two months."
+
+We had halted now, and were confronting each other in the descending
+gloom.
+
+"Lazzaro, dear friend," she cried, almost with gaiety, "I was wise to take
+counsel with you.  You have planted in my heart a very vigorous growth of
+hope."
+
+We turned soon after, and started to retrace our steps, for she might be
+ill-advised to remain absent overlong.
+
+I left her on the terrace in a very different spirit from that in which
+she had come to me, bearing with me her promise that she would act as I
+had advised her.  No doubt I had taken a load from her gentle soul, and
+oddly enough I had taken, too, a load from mine.
+
+Things fell out as I said they would in far as Giovanni Sforza and Filippo
+were concerned.  Madonna's seeming amenability to their wishes stayed
+their insistence, and they could but respect her wishes to let the
+betrothal be delayed yet a little while.  And during the weeks that
+followed, it was I scarce know whether more pitiable or more amusing to
+see the efforts that Giovanni made to win her ardently desired affection.
+
+Love has sharp eyes at times, and a dullard under the influence of the
+baby god will turn shrewd and exert rare wiles in the conduct of his
+wooing.  Giovanni, by some intuition usually foreign to his dull nature,
+seemed to divine what manner of man would be Madonna Paola's ideal, and
+strove to pass himself off as possessed of the attributes of that ideal,
+with an ardour that was pitiably comical.  He became an actor by the side
+of whom those comedians that played impromptus for his delectation were
+the merest bunglers with the art.  He gathered that Madonna Paola loved
+the poets and their stately diction, and so, to please her better, he
+became a poet for the season.
+
+"Poeta nascitur" the proverb runs, and that proverb's truth was doubtless
+forced home upon the Lord Giovanni at an early stage of his excursions
+into the flowery meads of prosody.  Fortunately he lacked the supreme
+vanity that is the attribute of most poetasters, and he was able to see
+that such things as after hours of midnight-labour he contrived to pen,
+would evoke nothing but her amusement--unless, indeed, it were her scorn--
+and render him the laughing-stock of all his Court.
+
+So, in the wisdom of despair, he came to me, and with a gentleness that in
+the past he had rarely manifested for me, he asked me was I skilled in
+writing verse.  There were not wanting others to whom he might have gone,
+for there was no lack of rhymsters about his Court; but perhaps he thought
+he could be more certain of my silence than of theirs.
+
+I answered him that were the subject to my taste, I might succeed in
+throwing off some passable lines upon it.  He pressed gold upon me, and
+bade me there and then set about fashioning an ode to Madonna Paola, and
+to forget, when they were done, under pain of a whipping to the bone, that
+I had written them.
+
+I obeyed him with a right good-will.  For what subject of all subjects
+possible was there that made so powerful an appeal to my inclinations?
+Within an hour he had the ode--not perhaps such a poem as might stand
+comparison with the verses of Messer Petrarca, yet a very passable
+effusion, chaste of conceit and palpitating with sincerity and adoration.
+It was in that that I addressed her as the "Holy Flower of the Quince,"
+which was the symbol of the House of Santafior.
+
+So great an impression made that ode that on the morrow the Lord Giovanni
+came to me with a second bribe and a second threat of torture.  I gave him
+a sonnet of Petrarchian manner which went near to outshining the merits of
+the ode.  And now, these requests of the Lord Giovanni's assumed an almost
+daily regularity, until it came to seem that did affairs continue in this
+manner for yet a little while, I should have earned me enough to have
+repurchased Biancomonte, and, so, ended my troubles.  And good was the
+value that I gave him for his gold.  How good, he never knew; for how was
+he, the clod, to guess that this despised jester of his Court was pouring
+out his very soul into the lines he wrote to the tyrant's orders?
+
+It is scant wonder that, at last, Madonna Paola who had begun by smiling,
+was touched and moved by the ardent worship that sighed from those
+perfervid verses.  So touched, indeed, was she as to believe the Lord
+Giovanni's love to be the pure and holy thing those lines presented it,
+and to conclude that his love had wrought in him a wondrous and ennobling
+transformation.  That so she thought I have the best of all reasons to
+affirm, for I had it from her very lips one day.
+
+"Lazzaro," she sighed, "it is occurring to me that I have done the Lord
+Giovanni an injustice.  I have misgauged his character.  I held him to be
+a shallow, unlettered clown, devoid of any finer feelings.  Yet his verses
+have a merit that is far above the common note of these writings, and they
+breathe such fine and lofty sentiments as could never spring from any but
+a fine and lofty soul."
+
+How I came to keep my tongue from wagging out the truth I scarcely know.
+It may be that I was frightened of the punishment that might overtake me
+did I betray my master; but I rather think that it was the fear of
+betraying myself, and so being flung into the outer darkness where there
+was no such radiant presence as Madonna Paola's.  For had I told her it
+was I had penned those poems that were the marvel of the Court, she must
+of necessity have guessed my secret, for to such quick wits as hers it
+must have been plain at once that they were no vapourings of artistry, but
+the hot expressions of a burning truth.  It was in that--in their supreme
+sincerity--that their chief virtue lay.
+
+Thus weeks wore on.  The vintage season came and went; the roses faded in
+the gardens of the Palazzo Sforza, and the trees put on their autumn garb
+of gold.  October was upon us, and with it came, at last, the fear that
+long ago should have spurred us into activity.  And now that it came it
+did not come to stimulate, but to palsy.  Terror-stricken at the
+conquering advance of Valentino--which was the name they now gave Cesare
+Borgia; a name derived from his Duchy of Valentinois--Giovanni Sforza
+abruptly ceased his revelling, and made a hurried appeal for help to
+Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua--his brother-in-law, through the Lord of
+Pesaro's first marriage.  The Mantuan Marquis sent him a hundred
+mercenaries under the command of an Albanian named Giacomo.  As well might
+he have sent him a hundred figs wherewith to pelt the army of Valentino!
+
+Disaster swooped down swiftly upon the Lord of Pesaro.  His very people,
+seeing in what case they were, and how unprepared was their tyrant to
+defend them, wisely resolved that they would run no risks of fire and
+pillage by aiding to oppose the irresistible force that was being hurled
+against us.
+
+It was on the second Sunday in October that the storm burst over the Lord
+Giovanni's head.  He was on the point of leaving the Castle to attend Mass
+at San Domenico, and in his company were Filippo Sforza of Santafior and
+Madonna Paola, besides courtiers and attendants, amounting in all to
+perhaps a score of gallant cavaliers and ladies.  The cavalcade was drawn
+up in the quadrangle, and Giovanni was on the point of mounting, when, of
+a sudden, a rumbling noise, as of distant thunder, but too continuous for
+that, arrested him, his foot already in the stirrup.
+
+"What is that?" he asked, an ashen pallor overspreading his effeminate
+face, as, doubtless, the thought of the enemy came uppermost in his mind.
+
+Men looked at one another with fear in their eyes and some of the ladies
+raised their voices in querulous beseeching for reassurance.  They had
+their answer even as they asked.  The Albanian Giacomo, who was now
+virtually the provost of the Castle, appeared suddenly at the gates with
+half a score of men.  He raised a warning hand, which compelled the Lord
+Giovanni to pause; then he rasped out a brisk command to his followers.
+The winches creaked, and the drawbridge swung up even as with a clank and
+rattle of chains the portcullis fell.
+
+That done, he came forward to impart the ominous news which one of his
+riders had brought him at the gallop from the Porta Romana.
+
+A party of some fifty men, commanded by one of Cesare's captains, had
+ridden on in advance of the main army to call upon Pesaro to yield to the
+forces of the Church.  And the people, without hesitation, had butchered
+the guard and thrown wide the gates, inviting the enemy to enter the town
+and seize the Castle.  And to the end that this might be the better
+achieved, a hundred or so had traitorously taken up arms, and were
+pressing forward to support the little company that came, with such
+contemptuous daring, to storm our fortress and prepare the way for
+Valentino.
+
+It was a pretty situation this for the Lord Giovanni, and here were fine
+opportunities for some brave acting under the eyes of his adored Madonna
+Paola.  How would he bear himself now? I wondered.
+
+He promised mighty well once the first shock of the news was overcome.
+
+"By God and His saints!" he roared, "though it may be all that it is given
+me to do, I'll strike a blow to punish these dastards who have betrayed
+me, and to crush the presumption of this captain who attacks us with fifty
+men.  It is a contempt which he shall bitterly repent him."
+
+Then he thundered to Giacomo to marshal his men, and he called upon those
+of his courtiers who were knights to put on their armour that they might
+support him.  Lastly he bade a page go help him to arm, that he might lead
+his little force in person.
+
+I saw Madonna Paola's eyes gleam with a sudden light of admiration, and I
+guessed that in the matter of Giovanni's valour her opinions were
+undergoing the same change as the verses had caused them to undergo in the
+matter of his intellect.
+
+Myself, I was amazed.  For here was a Lord Giovanni I seemed never to have
+known, and I was eager to behold the sequel to so fine a prologue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE FOOL-AT-ARMS
+
+
+That valorous bearing that the Lord Giovanni showed whilst, with Madonna
+Paola's glance upon him, his fear of seeming afraid was greater than his
+actual fear of our assailants, he cast aside like a mantle once he was
+within the walls of his Castle, and under the eyes of none save the page
+and myself, for I followed idly at a respectful distance.
+
+He stood irresolute and livid of countenance, his eagerness to arm and to
+lead his mercenaries and his knights all departed out of him.  It was that
+curiosity of mine to see the sequel to his stout words that had led me to
+follow him, and what I saw was, after all, no more than I might have
+looked for--the proof that his big talk of sallying forth to battle was
+but so much acting.  Yet it must have been acting of such a quality as to
+have deceived even his very self.
+
+Now, however, by the main steps, he halted in the cool gloom of the
+gallery, and I saw that fear had caught his heart in an icy grip and was
+squeezing it empty.  In his irresolution he turned about, and his gloomy
+eye fell upon me loitering in the porch.  At that he turned to the page
+who followed in obedience to his command.
+
+"Begone!" he growled at the lad, "I will have Boccadoro, there, to help me
+arm." And with a poor attempt at mirth--"The act is a madness," he
+muttered, "and so it is fitting that folly should put on my armour for it.
+Come with me, you," he bade me, and I, obediently, gladly, went forward
+and up the wide stone staircase after him, leaving the page to speculate
+as he listed on the matter of his abrupt dismissal.
+
+I read the Lord Giovanni's motives, as clearly as if they had been written
+for me by his own hand.  The opinion in which I might hold him was to him
+a matter of so small account that he little cared that I should be the
+witness of the weakness which he feared was about to overcome him--nay,
+which had overcome him already.  Was I not the one man in Pesaro who
+already knew his true nature, as revealed by that matter of the verses
+which I had written, and of which he had assumed the authorship?  He had
+no shame before me, for I already knew the very worst of him, and he was
+confident that I would not talk lest he should destroy me at my first
+word.  And yet, there was more than that in his motive for choosing me to
+go with him in that hour, as I was to learn once we were closeted in his
+chamber.
+
+"Boccadoro," he cried, "can you not find me some way out of this?"  Under
+his beard I saw the quiver of his lips as he put the question.
+
+"Out of this?" I echoed, scarce understanding him at first.
+
+"Aye, man--out of this Castle, out of Pesaro.  Bestir those wits of yours.
+Is there no way in which it might be done, no disguise under which I might
+escape?"
+
+"Escape?" quoth I, looking at him, and endeavouring to keep from my eyes
+the contempt that was in my heart.  Dear God!  Had revenge been all I
+sought of him, how I might have gloated over his miserable downfall!
+
+"Do not stand there staring with those hollow eyes," he cried, anger and
+fear blending horridly in his voice and rendering shrill its pitch.  "Find
+me a way.  Come, knave, find me a way, or I'll have you broken on the
+wheel.  Set your wits to save that long, lean body from destruction.
+Think, I bid you."
+
+He was moving restlessly as he spoke, swayed by the agitation of terror
+that possessed him like a devil.  I looked at him now without dissembling
+my scorn.  Even in such an hour as this the habit of hectoring cruelty
+remained him.
+
+"What shall it avail me to think?" I asked him in a voice that was as cold
+and steady as his was hot and quavering.  "Were you a bird I might suggest
+flight across the sea to you.  But you are a man, a very human, a very
+mortal man, although your father made you Lord of Pesaro."
+
+Even as I was speaking, the thunder of the besiegers reached our ears--
+such a dull roar it was as that of a stormy sea in winter time.  Maddened
+by his terror he stood over me now, his eyes flashing wildly in his white
+face.
+
+"Another word in such a tone," he rasped, his fingers on his dagger, "and
+I'll make an end of you.  I need your help, animal!"
+
+I shook my head, my glance meeting his without fear.  I was of twice his
+strength, we were alone, and the hour was one that levelled ranks.  Had he
+made the least attempt to carry out his threat, had he but drawn an inch
+of the steel he fingered, I think I should have slain him with my hands
+without fear or thought of consequences.
+
+"I have no help for you such as you need," I answered him.  "I am but the
+Fool of Pesaro.  Whoever looked to a Fool for miracles?"
+
+"But here is death," he almost moaned.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro," I reminded him, "your mercenaries are under arms by your
+command, and your knights are joining them.  They wait for the fulfilment
+of your promise to lead them out against the enemy.  Shall you fail them
+in such an hour as this?"
+
+He sank, limp as an empty scabbard, to a chair.
+
+"I dare not go.  It is death," he answered miserably.
+
+"And what but death is it to remain here?" I asked, torturing him with
+more zest than ever he had experienced over the agonies of some poor
+victim on the rack.  "In bearing yourself gallantly there lies a slender
+chance for you.  Your people seeing you in arms and ready to defend them
+may yet be moved to a return of loyalty."
+
+"A fig for their loyalty," was his peevish, craven answer.  "What shall it
+avail me when I'm slain!"
+
+God! was there ever such a coward as this, such a weak-souled, water-
+hearted dastard?
+
+"But you may not be slain," I urged him.  And then I sounded a fresh note.
+"Bethink you of Madonna Paola and of the brave things you promised her."
+
+He flushed a little, then paled again, then sat very still.  Shame had
+touched him at last, yet its grip was not enough to make a man of him.  A
+moment he remained irresolute, whilst that shame fought a hard battle with
+his fears.
+
+But those fears proved stronger in the end, and his shame was overthrown
+by them.
+
+"I dare not," he gasped, his slender, delicate hands clutching at the arms
+of his chair.  "Heaven knows I am not skilled in the use of arms."
+
+"It asks no skill," I assured him.  "Put on your armour, take a sword and
+lay about you.  The most ignorant scullion in your kitchens could perform
+it given that he had the spirit."
+
+He moistened his lips with his tongue, and his eyes looked dead as a
+snake's.  Suddenly he rose and took a step towards the armour that was
+piled about a great leathern chair.  Then he paused and turned to me once
+more.
+
+"Help me to put it on," he said in a voice that he strove to render
+steady.  Yet scarcely had I reached the pile and taken up the breast-
+plate, when he recoiled again from the task.  He broke into a torrent of
+blasphemy.
+
+"I will not sacrifice myself," he almost screamed.  "Jesus! not I.  I will
+find a way out of this.  I will live to return with an army and regain my
+throne."
+
+"A most wise purpose.  But, meanwhile, your men are waiting for you;
+Madonna Paola di Santafior is waiting for you, and--hark!--the bellowing
+crowd is waiting for you."
+
+"They wait in vain," he snarled.  "Who cares for them?  The Lord of Pesaro
+am I."
+
+"Care you, then, nothing for them?  Will you have your name written in
+history as that of a coward who would not lift his sword to strike one
+blow for honour's sake ere he was driven out like a beast by the mere
+sound of voices?"
+
+That touched him.  His vanity rose in arms.
+
+"Take up that corselet," he commanded hoarsely.  I did his bidding, and,
+without a word, he raised his arms that I might fit it to his breast.  Yet
+in the instant that I turned me to pick up the back-piece, a crash
+resounded through the chamber.  He had hurled the breastplate to the
+ground in a fresh access of terror-rage.  He strode towards me, his eyes
+glittering like a madman's.
+
+"Go you!" he cried, and with outstretched arms he pointed wildly across
+the courtyard.  "You are very ready with your counsels.  Let me behold
+your deeds, Do you put on the armour and go out to fight those animals."
+
+He raved, he ranted, he scarce knew what he said or did, and yet the words
+he uttered sank deep into my heart, and a sudden, wild ambition swelled my
+bosom.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro," I cried, in a voice so compelling that it sobered him,
+"if I do this thing what shall be my reward?"
+
+He stared at me stupidly for a moment.  Then he laughed in a silly,
+crackling fashion.
+
+"Eh?" he queried.  "Gesu!"  And he passed a hand over his damp brow, and
+threw back the hair that cumbered it.  "What is the thing that you would
+do, Fool?"
+
+"Why, the thing you bade me," I answered firmly.  "Put on your armour, and
+shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord Giovanni,
+Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides.  If I do this thing, and put to rout the
+rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my
+reward?"
+
+He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint
+colour kindling in his face.  He saw how easy the thing might be.  Perhaps
+he recalled that he had heard that I was skilled in arms--having spent my
+youth in the exercise of them, against the time when I might fling the
+challenge that had brought me to my Fool's estate.  Maybe he recalled how
+I had borne myself against long odds on that adventure with Madonna Paola,
+years ago.  Just such a vanity as had spurred him to have me write him
+verses that he might pretend were of his own making, moved him now to
+grasp at my proposal.  They would all think that Giovanni's armour
+contained Giovanni himself.  None would ever suspect Boccadoro the Fool
+within that shell of steel.  His honour would be vindicated,  and he would
+not lose the esteem of Madonna Paola.  Indeed, if I returned covered with
+glory, that glory would be his; and if he elected to fly thereafter, he
+might do so without hurt to his fair name, for he would have amply proved
+his mettle and his courage.
+
+In some such fashion I doubt not that the High and Mighty Giovanni Sforza
+reasoned during the seconds that we stood, face to face and eye to eye, in
+that room, the cries of the impatient ones below almost drowned in the
+roar of the multitude beyond.
+
+At last he put out his hands to seize mine, and drawing me to the light he
+scanned my face, Heaven alone knowing what it was he sought there.
+
+"If you do this," said he, "Biancomonte shall be yours again, if it
+remains in my power to bestow it upon you now or at any future time.  I
+swear it by my honour."
+
+"Swear it by your fear of Hell or by your hope of Heaven and the compact
+is made," I answered, and so palsied was he and so fallen in spirit that
+he showed no resentment at the scorn of his honour my words implied, but
+there and then took the oath I that demanded.
+
+"And now," I urged, "help me to put on this armour of yours."
+
+Hurriedly I cast off my jester's doublet and my head-dress with its
+jangling bells, and with a wild exultation, a joy so fierce as almost to
+bring tears to my eyes, I held my arms aloft whilst that poor craven
+strapped about my body the back and breast plates of his corselet.  I, the
+Fool, stood there as arrogant as any knight, whilst with his noble hands
+the Lord of Pesaro, kneeling, made  secure the greaves upon my legs, the
+sollerets with golden spurs, the cuissarts and the genouilleres.  Then he
+rose up, and with hands that trembled in his eagerness, he put on my
+brassarts and shoulder-plates, whilst I, myself, drew on my gauntlets.
+Next he adjusted the gorget, and handed me, last of all, the helm, a
+splendid head-piece of black and gold, surmounted by the Sforza lion.
+
+I took it from him and passed it over my head.  Then ere I snapped down
+the visor and hid the face of Boccadoro, I bade him, unless he would
+render futile all this masquerade, to lock the door of his closet, and lie
+there concealed till my return.  At that a sudden doubt assailed him.
+
+"And what," quoth he, "if you do not return?"
+
+In the fever that had possessed me this was a thing that had not entered
+into my calculations, nor should it now.  I laughed, and from the hollow
+of my helmet not a doubt but the sound must have seemed charged with
+mockery.  I pointed to the cap and doublet I had shed.
+
+"Why, then, Illustrious, it will but remain for you to complete the
+change."
+
+"Dog!" he cried; "beast, do you deride me?"
+
+My answer was to point out towards the yard.
+
+"They are clamouring," said I.  "They wax impatient.  I had better go
+before they come for you."  As I spoke I selected a heavy mace for only
+weapon, and swinging it to my shoulder I stepped to the door.  On the
+threshold he would have stayed me, purged by his fear of what might befall
+him did I not return.  But I heeded him not.
+
+"Fare you well, my Lord of Pesaro," said I.  "See that none penetrates to
+your closet.  Make fast the door."
+
+"Stay!" he called after me.  "Do you hear me?  Stay!"
+
+"Others will hear you if you commit this folly," I called back to him.
+"Get you to cover." And so I left him.
+
+Below, in the courtyard, my coming was hailed by a great, enthusiastic
+clamour.  They had all but abandoned hope of seeing the Lord Giovanni, so
+long had he been about his arming.  As they brought forward my charger, I
+sought with my eyes Madonna Paola.  I beheld her by her brother--who, it
+seemed, was not going with us--in the front rank of the spectators.  Her
+cheeks were tinged with a slight flush of excitement, and her eyes glowed
+at the brave sight of armed men.
+
+I mounted, and as I rode past her to take my place at the head of that
+company, I lowered my mace and bowed.  She detained me a moment, setting
+her hand upon the glossy neck of my black charger.
+
+"My Lord," she said, in a low voice, intended for my ear alone, "this is a
+brave and gallant thing you do, and however slight may be your hope of
+prevailing, yet your honour will be safe-guarded by this act, and men will
+remember you with respect should it come to pass that a usurper shall
+possess anon your throne.  Bear you that in mind to lend you a glad
+courage.  I shall pray for you, my Lord, till you return."
+
+I bowed, answering never a word lest my voice should betray me; and musing
+on the matter of the strange roads that lead to a woman's heart, I passed
+on, to gain the van.
+
+Two months ago, knowing Giovanni as he was, he had been detestable to her,
+and she contemplated with loathing the danger in which she stood of being
+allied to him by marriage.  Since then he had made good use of a poor
+jester's mental gifts to incline her by the fervour of some verses to a
+kindlier frame of mind, and now, making good use of that same jester's
+courage, he completed her subjection by the display of it.  She was
+prepared to wed the Lord Giovanni with a glad heart and a proud
+willingness whensoever he should desire it.
+
+But Giacomo was beside me now, and in the quadrangle a silence reigned,
+all waiting for my command.  From without there came such a din as seemed
+to argue that all hell was at the Castle gates.  There were shouts of
+defiance and screams of abuse, whilst a constant rain of stones beat
+against the raised drawbridge.
+
+They thought, no doubt, that Giovanni and his followers were at their
+prayers, cowering with terror.  No notion had they of the armed force,
+some six score strong, that waited to pour down upon them.  I briskly
+issued my command, and four men detached themselves and let down the
+bridge.  It fell with a crash, and ere those without had well grasped the
+situation we had hurled ourselves across and into them with the force of a
+wedge, flinging them to right and to left as we crashed through with
+hideous slaughter.  The bridge swung up again when the last of Giacomo's
+mercenaries was across, and we were shut out, in the midst of that fierce
+human maelstrom.
+
+For some five minutes there raged such a brief, hot fight as will be
+remembered as long as Pesaro stands.  No longer than that did it take for
+the crowd of citizens to realise that war was not their trade, and that
+they had better leave the fighting to Cesare Borgia's men; and so they
+fell away and left us a clear road to come at the men-at-arms.  But
+already some forty of our saddles were empty, and the fight, though brief,
+had proved exhausting to many of us.
+
+Before us, like an array of mirrors in the October sun, shone the serried
+ranks of the steel-cased Borgia soldiers, their lances in rest, waiting to
+receive us.  Their leader, a gigantic man whose head was armed by no more
+than a pot of burnished steel, from which escaped the long red ringlets of
+his hair, was that same Ramiro del' Orca who had commanded the party
+pursuing Madonna Paola three years ago.  He was, since, become the most
+redoubtable of Cesare's captains, and his name was, perhaps, the best
+hated in Italy for the grim stories that were connected with it.
+
+As we rode on he backed to join the foremost rank of his soldiers, and his
+voice--a voice that Stentor might have envied--trumpeted a laugh at sight
+of us.
+
+"Gesu!" he roared, so that I heard him above the thunder of our hoofs.
+"What has come to Giovanni Sforza.  Has he, perchance, become a man since
+Madonna Lucrezia divorced him?  I will bear her the news of it, my good
+Giovanni--my living thunderbolt of Jove!"
+
+His men echoed his boisterous mood, infected by it, and this, I argued,
+boded ill for the courage of those that followed me.  Another moment and
+we had swept into them, and many there were who laughed no more, or went
+to laugh with those in Hell.
+
+For myself I singled out the blustering Ramiro, and I let him know it by a
+swinging blow of my mace upon his morion.  It was a most finely-tempered
+piece of steel, for my stroke made no impression on it, though Ramiro
+winced and raised his stout sword to return the compliment.
+
+"Body of God!" he croaked, "you become a very god of war, Giovanni.  To
+me, then, my lusty Mars!  We'll make a fight of it that poets shall sing
+of over winter fires.  Look to yourself!"
+
+His sword caught me a cunning, well-aimed blow on the side of my helm, and
+thence, glanced to my shoulder.  But for the quality of Giovanni's head-
+piece of a truth there had been an end to the warring of a Fool.  I smote
+him back, a mighty blow upon his epauliere that shore the steel plate from
+his shoulder, and left him a vulnerable spot.  At that he swore
+ferociously, and his bloodshot eyes grew wicked as the fiend's.  A second
+time he essayed that side-long blow upon my helm, and with such force and
+ready address that he burst the fastening of my visor on the left, so that
+it swung down and left my beaver open.
+
+With a cry of triumph he closed with me, and shortened his sword to stab
+me in the face.  And then a second cry escaped him, for the countenance he
+beheld was not the countenance he had looked to see.  Instead of the fair
+skin, the handsome features and the bearded mouth of the Lord Giovanni, he
+beheld a shaven face, a hooked nose and a complexion swarthy as the
+devil's.
+
+"I know you, rogue," he roared.  "By the Host! your valour seemed too
+fierce for Giovanni Sforza.  You are Bocca--"
+
+Exerting all the strength that I had been gradually collecting, I hurled
+him back with a force that almost drove him from the saddle, and rising in
+my stirrups I rained blow after blow upon his morion ere he could recover.
+
+"Dog!" I muttered softly, "your knowledge shall be the death of you."
+
+He drew away from me at last, and during the moments that I spent in
+readjusting my visor he sallied, and charged me again.  His blustering was
+gone and his face grown pale, for such blows as mine could not have been
+without effect.  Not a doubt of it but he was taken with amazement to find
+such fighting qualities in a Fool--an amazement that must have eclipsed
+even that of finding Boccadoro in the armour of Giovanni Sforza.
+
+Again he swung his sword in that favourite stroke of his; but this time I
+caught the edge upon my mace, and ere he could recover I aimed a blow
+straight at his face.  He lowered his head, like a bull on the point of
+charging, and so my blow descended again upon his morion, but with a force
+that rolled him, senseless, from the saddle.
+
+Before I could take a breathing space I was beset by, at least, a dozen of
+his followers who had stood at hand during the encounter, never doubting
+that victory must be ultimately with their invincible captain.  They drove
+me back foot by foot, fighting lustily, and performing--it was said
+afterwards by the anxious ones that watched us from the Castle, among whom
+was Madonna Paola--such deeds of strength and prowess as never romancer
+sang of in his wildest flight of fancy.
+
+My men had suffered sorely, but the brave Giacomo still held them
+together, fired by the example that I set him, until in the end the day
+was ours.  Discouraged by the disabling of their captain, so soon as they
+had gathered him up our opponents thought of nothing but retreat; and
+retreat they did, hotly pursued by us, and never allowed to pause or
+slacken rein until we had hurled them out of the town of Pesaro, to get
+them back to Cesare Borgia with the tale of their ignominious
+discomfiture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE FALL OF PESARO
+
+
+As we rode back through the town of Pesaro, some fifty men of the six
+score that had sallied from the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the
+streets well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citizens having fled back to
+the shelter of their homes, like rats to their burrows in time of peril.
+
+As we advanced through the shambles that we had left about the Castle
+gates, it occurred to me that within the courtyard a crowd would be
+waiting to receive and welcome me, and it became necessary to devise some
+means of avoiding this reception.  I beckoned Giacomo to my side.
+
+"Let it be given out that I will speak to no man until I have rendered
+thanks to Heaven for this signal victory," I muttered to the unsuspecting
+Albanian.  "Do you clear a way for me so soon a we are within."
+
+He obeyed me so well that when the bridge had been let down, he preceded
+me with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those that
+would have approached--among the first of whom were Madonna Paola and her
+brother.
+
+"Way!" he shouted.  "Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of Pesaro!"
+
+Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed still
+to conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the eastern
+wing and  dismounted.  Two or three attendants sprang forward, ready to go
+with me that they might assist me to disarm.  But I waved them imperiously
+back, and mounted the stairs alone.  Alone I crossed the ante-chamber, and
+tapped at the door of the Lord Giovanni's closet.  Instantly it opened,
+for he had watched my return and been awaiting me.  Hastily he drew me in
+and closed the door.
+
+He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf.  Yet at the
+sight that I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to
+stare at my armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning stains,
+which loudly proclaimed the fray through which I had been.
+
+He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had
+rendered him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me,
+all in terms of a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more than
+ever his cruelties had done.  I took off my helmet whilst he spoke, and
+let it fall with a crash.  The face I revealed to him was livid with
+fatigue, and blackened with the dust that had caked upon my sweat.  He
+came forward again and helped hastily to strip off my harness, and when
+that was done he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer of embossed gold
+from which he poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash.  Macerated
+sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better that I might
+cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by my ablutions, he
+poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that seemed to infuse
+fresh life into my veins.  And all the time he spoke of the prowess I had
+shown, and lamented that all these years he should have had me at his
+Court and never guessed my worth.
+
+At length I turned to resume my clothes.  And since it must excite comment
+and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my jester's
+garish livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap and bells.
+
+"Wear it yet for a little while," he said, "and thus complete the service
+you have done me.  Presently you may doff it for all time, and resume your
+true estate.  Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours again.  The
+Lord of Pesaro does not betray his word."
+
+I smiled grimly at the pride of his utterance.
+
+"It is an easy thing," said I, "freely to give that which is no longer
+ours."
+
+He coloured with the anger that was ever ready.
+
+"What shall that mean?" he asked.
+
+"Why, that in a few days you will have Cesare Borgia here, and you will be
+Lord of Pesaro no more.  I have saved your honour for you.  More than that
+it were idle to attempt."
+
+"Think not that I shall submit," he cried.  "I shall find in Italy the
+help I need to return and drive the usurper out.  You must have faith in
+that, yourself, else had you never bargained with me as you have done for
+the return of your Estates."
+
+To that I answered nothing, but urged him to go below and show himself;
+and the better that he might bear himself among his courtiers, I detailed
+to him the most salient features of that fight.
+
+He went, not without a certain uneasiness which, however, was soon
+dispelled by the thunder of acclamation with which he was received; not
+only by his courtiers, but by the soldiers who had fought in that hot
+skirmish, and who believed that it was he had led them.
+
+Meanwhile I sat above, in the closet he had vacated, and thence I watched
+him, with such mingling feelings in my heart as baffle now my halting pen.
+Scorn there was in my mood and a hot contempt of him that he could stand
+there and accept their acclamation with an air of humility that I am
+persuaded was assumed: a certain envious anger was there, too, to think
+that such a weak-kneed, lily-livered craven should receive the plaudits of
+the deeds that I, his buffoon, had performed for him.  Those acclamations
+were not for him, although those who acclaimed him thought so.  They were
+for the man who had routed Ramiro del' Orca and his followers, and that
+man assuredly was I.  Yet there I crouched above, behind the velvet
+curtains where none might see me, whilst he stood smiling and toying with
+his brown beard and listening to the fine words of praise that, I could
+imagine, were falling from the lips of Madonna Paola, who had drawn near
+and was speaking to him.
+
+There is in my nature a certain love of effectiveness, a certain taste for
+theatrical parade and the contriving of odd situations.  This bent of mine
+was whispering to me then to throw wide the window, and, stemming their
+noisy plaudits, announce to them the truth of what had passed.  Yet what
+if I had done so?  They would have accounted it but a new jest of
+Boccadoro, the Fool, and one so ill-conceived that they might urge the
+Lord Giovanni to have him whipped for it.
+
+Aye, it would have been a folly, a futile act that would have earned me
+unbelief, contempt and anger.  And yet there was a moment when jealousy
+urged me almost headlong to that rashness.  For in Madonna Paola's eyes
+there was a new expression as they rested on the face of Giovanni Sforza--
+an expression that told me she had come to love this man whom a little
+while ago she had despised.
+
+God! was there ever such an irony?  Was there ever such a paradox?  She
+loved him, and yet it was not him she loved.  The man she loved was the
+man who had shown the qualities of his mind in the verses with which the
+Court was ringing; the man who had that morning given proof of his high
+mettle and knightly prowess by the deeds of arms he had performed.  I was
+that man--not he at whom so adoringly she looked.  And so--I argued, in my
+warped way and with the philosophy worthy of a Fool--it was I whom she
+loved, and Giovanni was but the symbol that stood for me.  He represented
+the songs and the deeds that were mine.
+
+But if I did not throw wide that window and proclaim the fact to ears that
+would have been deaf to the truth of them, what think you that I did?  I
+took a subtler vengeance.  I repaired to my own chamber, procured me pen
+and ink, and, there, with a heart that was brimming over with gall, I
+penned an epic modelled upon the stately lines of Virgil, wherein I sang
+the prowess of the Lord Giovanni Sforza, describing that morning's mighty
+feat of arms, and detailing each particular of the combat 'twixt Giovanni
+and Ramiro del' Orca.
+
+It was a brave thing when it was done; a finer and worthier poetical
+achievement than any that I had yet encompassed, and that night, after
+they had supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been heard
+of, and whilst they were still sitting at their wine, I got me a lute and
+stole down to the banqueting hall.
+
+I announced myself by leaping on a table and loudly twanging the strings
+of my instrument.  There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of acclamation.
+They were in a high good-humour, and the Fool with a new song was the very
+thing they craved.
+
+When silence was restored I began, and whilst my fingers moved sluggishly
+across the strings, striking here and there a chord, I recited the epic I
+had penned.  My voice swelled with a feverish enthusiasm whose colossal
+irony none there save one could guess.  He, at first surprised, grew angry
+presently, as I could see by the cloud that had settled on his brow.  Yet
+he restrained himself, and the rest of the company were too enthralled by
+the breathless quality of my poem to bestow their glances on any
+countenance save mine.
+
+Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro's right, and her blue eyes were
+round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded.  And when
+presently I came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro
+del' Orca, when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni's visor, was
+on the point of driving his sword into his adversary's face, I saw her
+shrink in a repetition of the morning's alarm, and her bosom heaved more
+swiftly, as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines and she
+were made anxious again for the life of the man whom she had learnt to
+love.
+
+I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling
+softly, after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety
+that had succeeded the Lord of Pesaro's brave exploits, and how upon his
+return from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his closet, his
+battered and bloody harness on his back, that he might kneel ere he
+disarmed and render thanks to God for the victory vouchsafed him.
+
+On that "Te Deum" I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
+vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my
+reward.
+
+Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the
+table on which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one
+noble woman kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth
+was indeed a mouth of gold.
+
+Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining with
+excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance, and I
+knew that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by causing
+her to realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure that I
+sang.  The sight of it almost turned me faint, and I would have eluded
+them and got away as I had come but that they lifted me up and bore me so
+to the table at which the Lord Giovanni sat.  He smiled, but his face was
+very pale.  Could it be that I had touched him?  Could it be that I had
+driven the iron into his soul, and that he could not bear to confront me,
+knowing what a dastard I must deem him?
+
+The splendid Filippo of Santafior had risen to his feet, and was waving a
+white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence.  When at last
+it came he spoke, his voice silvery and his accents mincing.
+
+"Lord of Pesaro; I demand a boon.  He who for years has suffered the
+ignominy of the motley is at last revealed to us as a poet of such
+magnitude of soul and richness of expression that he would not suffer by
+comparison with the great Bojardo or tim greater Virgil.  Let him be
+stripped for ever of that hideous garb he wears, and let him be treated,
+hereafter, with the dignity his high gifts deserve.  Thus shall the day
+come when Pesaro will take honour in calling him her son."
+
+Loud and long was the applause that succeeded his words, and when at last
+it had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved equal to the occasion, like the
+consummate actor that he was.
+
+"I would," said he, "that these high gifts, of which to-night he has
+afforded proof, could have been employed upon a worthier subject.  I fear
+me that since you have heard his epic you will be prone to overestimate
+the deed of which it tells the story.  I would, too, my friends," he
+continued, with a sigh, "that it were still mine to offer him such
+encouragement as he deserves.  But I am sorely afraid that my days in
+Pesaro are numbered, that my sands are all but run--at least, for a little
+while.  The conqueror is at our gates, and it would be vain to set against
+the overwhelming force of his numbers the handful of valiant knights and
+brave soldiers that to-day opposed and scattered his forerunners.  It is
+my intention to withdraw, now that my honour is safe by what has passed,
+and that none will dare to say that it was through fear that I fled.  Yet
+my absence, I trust, may be but brief.  I go to collect the necessary
+resources, for I have powerful friends in this Italy whose interests
+touching the Duca Valentino go hand in hand with mine, and who will, thus,
+be the readier to lend me assistance.  Once I have this, I shall return
+and then--woe to the vanquished!"
+
+The tide of enthusiasm that had been rising as he spoke, now overflowed.
+Swords leapt from their scabbards--mere toy weapons were they, meant more
+for ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest of the stouter arms
+those gentlemen were ready to wield when the time came.  He quieted their
+clamours with a dignified wave of the hand.
+
+"When that day comes I shall see to it that Boccadoro has his deserts.
+Meanwhile let the suggestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon, and
+let this gifted poet be arrayed in a manner that shall sort better with
+the nobility of his mind that to-night he has revealed to us."
+
+Thus was it that I came, at last, to shed the motley and move among men
+garbed as themselves.  And with my outward trappings I cast off, too, the
+name of Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro
+Biancomonte.
+
+But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon
+which I was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that
+followed that first Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the Lord
+Giovanni's Court passed out of being.
+
+It came about with his flight to Bologna, accompanied by the Albanian
+captain and his men, as well as by several of the knights who had joined
+in Sunday's fray.  Ardently, as I came afterwards to learn, did he urge
+Madonna Paola and her brother to go with them, and I believe that the lady
+would have done his will in this had not the Lord Filippo opposed the
+step.  He was no warrior himself, he swore--for it was a thing he made
+open boast of, affecting to despise all who followed the coarse trade of
+arms--and, as for his sister, it was not fitting that she should go with a
+fugitive party made up of a handful of knights and some fifty rough
+mercenaries, and be exposed to the hardships and perils that must be
+theirs.  Not even when he was reminded that the advancing conqueror was
+Cesare Borgia did it affect him, for despite his shallow, mincing ways,
+and his paraded scorn of war and warriors, the Lord Filippo was stout
+enough at heart.  He did not fear the Borgia, he answered serenely, and if
+he came, he would offer him such hospitality as lay within his power.
+
+He came at last, did the mighty Cesare, although between his coming and
+Giovanni's flight a full fortnight sped.  As for myself, I spent the time
+at the Sforza Palace, whither the Lord Filippo had carried me as his
+guest, he being greatly taken with me and determined to become my patron.
+We had news of Giovanni, first from Bologna and later from Ravenna,
+whither he was fled.  At first he talked of returning to Pesaro with three
+hundred men he hoped to have from the Marquis of Mantua.  But probably
+this was no more than another piece of that big talk of his, meant to
+impress the sorrowing and repining Madonna Paola, who suffered more for
+him, maybe, than he suffered himself.
+
+She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his
+mental gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and for
+all that my gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this injustice
+to myself, I held my peace.  Indeed, indeed, it was better so.  For all
+that I was no longer Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro Biancomonte, the
+poet, I was not so much better that I could indulge any mad aspirations of
+my own such as might have led me to betray the dastard who had arrayed his
+craven self in the peacock feathers of my achievements.
+
+In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me I
+made bold, on the eve of Cesare's arrival, to suggest to him that he
+should remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of
+Santa Caterina whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of her
+should remind Cesare of the old-time marriage plans which his family had
+centred round this lady, and lead to their revival.  Filippo heard me
+kindly, and thanked me freely for the solicitude which my counsel argued.
+For the rest, however, it was a counsel that he frankly admitted he saw no
+need to follow.
+
+"In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained such
+plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the fortunes of
+the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable match
+for one of its members is now scarcely worthy of their attention.  I do
+not think," he concluded, "that we have the least reason to fear a renewal
+of that suit."
+
+It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble motives
+in men's actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord Filippo would
+not be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to reopen
+negotiations for the bestowing of Madonna Paola's hand upon the Pope's
+nephew Ignacio.  That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in the three
+years had taken place and which, he contended, would render them more
+ambitious than to seek alliance with the House of Santafior, rendered
+them, nevertheless, in his eyes a more desirable family to be allied with
+than in the     days when he had counselled his sister's flight from Rome.
+And so, I thought, despite what stood between her and the Lord Giovanni,
+Filippo would know no scruple now in urging her into an alliance with the
+House of Borgia, should they manifest a willingness to have that old
+affair reopened.
+
+On the 29th of that same month of October, Cesare arrived in Pesaro.  His
+entry was a triumphant procession, and the orderliness that prevailed
+among the two thousand men-at-arms that he brought with him was a thing
+that spoke eloquently for the wondrous discipline enforced by this great
+condottiero.
+
+The Lord Filippo was among those that met him, and like the time-server
+that he was, he placed the Sforza Palace at his disposal.
+
+The Duca Valentino came with his retinue and the gentlemen of his
+household, among whom was ever conspicuous by his great size and red
+ugliness the Captain Ramiro del' Orca, who now seemed to act in many ways
+as Cesare's factotum.  This captain, for reasons which it is unnecessary
+to detail, I most sedulously avoided.
+
+On the evening of his arrival Cesare supped in private with Filippo and
+the members of Filippo's household--that is to say, with Madonna Paola and
+two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of the Lord
+Filippo.  Cesare's only attendants were two cavaliers of his retinue,
+Bartolomeo da Capranica, his Field-Marshal, and Dorio Savelli, a nobleman
+of Rome.
+
+Cesare Borgia, this man whose name had so terrible a sound in the ears of
+Italy's little princelings, this man whose power and whose great gifts of
+mind had made him the subject of such bitter envy and fear, until he was
+the best-hated gentleman in Italy--and, therefore, the most calumniated--
+was little changed from that Cardinal of Valencia, in whose service I had
+been for a brief season.  The pallor of his face was accentuated by the
+ill-health in which he found himself just then, and the air of feverish
+restlessness that had always pervaded him was grown more marked in the
+years that were sped, as was, after all, but natural, considering the
+nature of the work that had claimed him since he had deposed his priestly
+vestments.  He was splendidly arrayed, and he bore himself with an
+imperial dignity, a dignity, nevertheless, tempered with graciousness and
+charm, and as I regarded him then, it was borne in upon me that no fitter
+name could his godfathers have bestowed on him than that of Cesare.
+
+The Lord Filippo exerted all his powers worthily to entertain his noble
+and illustrious guest, and by his extreme, almost servile affability it
+not only would seem that he had forgotten the favour and shelter he had
+received at the hands of the Lord Giovanni, but it confirmed my suspicions
+of his willingness to advance his own fortunes by breaking with the fallen
+tyrant in so far as his sister was concerned.
+
+Short of actually making the proposal itself, it would seem that Filippo
+did all in his power to urge his sister upon the attention of Cesare.  But
+Duke Valentino's mind at that time was too full of the concerns of
+conquest and administration to find room for a matter to him so trifling
+as the enriching of his cousin Ignacio by a wealthy alliance.  To this
+alone, I thought, was it due that Madonna Paola escaped the persecution
+that might then have been hers.
+
+On the morrow Cesare moved on to Rimini, leaving his administrators behind
+him to set right the affairs of Pesaro, and ensure its proper governing,
+in his name, hereafter.
+
+And now that, for the present, my hopes of ever seeing my own wrongs
+redressed and my estates returned to me were too slender to justify my
+remaining longer in Pesaro, I craved of the Lord Filippo permission to
+withdraw, telling him frankly that my tardily aroused duty called me to my
+widowed mother, whom for some six years I had not seen.  He threw no
+difficulty in the way of my going; and I was free to depart.  And now came
+the hidden pain of my leave-taking of Madonna Paola.  She seemed to grieve
+at my departure.
+
+"Lazzaro," she cried, when I had told her of my intention, "do you, too,
+desert me?  And I have ever held you my best of friends."
+
+I told her of the mother and of the duty that I owed her, whereupon she
+remonstrated no more, nor sought to do other than urge me to go to her.
+And then I spoke of Madonna's kindness to me, and of the friendship with
+which she had honoured one so lowly, and in the end I swore, with my hand
+on my heart and my soul on my lips, that if ever she had work for me, she
+would not need to call me twice.
+
+"This ring, Madonna," said I, "was given me by the Lord Cesare Borgia, and
+was to have proved a talisman to open wide for me the door to fortune.  It
+did better service than that, Madonna.  It was the talisman that saved you
+from your pursuers that day at Cagli, three years ago."
+
+"You remind me, Lazzaro," she cried, "of how much you have sacrificed in
+my service.  Yours must be a very noble nature that will do so much to
+serve a helpless lady without any hope of guerdon."
+
+"Nay, nay," I answered lightly, "you must not make so much of it.  It
+would never have sorted with my inclinations to have turned man-at-arms.
+This ring, Madonna, that once has served you, I beg that you will keep,
+for it may serve you again."
+
+"I could not, Lazzaro!  I could not!" she exclaimed, recoiling, yet
+without any show of deeming presumptuous my words or of being offended by
+them.
+
+"If you would make me the reward that you say I have earned, you will do
+this for me.  It will make me happier, Madonna.  Take it"--I thrust it
+into her unwilling hand--"and if ever you should need me send it back to
+me.  That ring and the name of the place where you abide by the lips of
+the messenger you choose, and with a glad heart, as fast as horse can bear
+me, shall I ride to serve you once again."
+
+"In such a spirit, yes," said she.  "I take it willingly, to treasure it
+as a buckler against danger, since by means of it I can bring you to my
+aid in time of peril."
+
+"Madonna, do not overestimate my powers," I besought her.  "I would have
+you see in me no more than I am.  But it sometimes happens that the mouse
+may aid the lion."
+
+"And when I need the lion to aid the mouse, my good Lazzaro, I will send
+for you."
+
+There were tears in her voice, and her eyes were very bright.
+
+"Addio, Lazzaro," she murmured brokenly.  "May God and His saints protect
+you.  I will pray for you, and I shall hope to see you again some day, my
+friend."
+
+"Addio, Madonna!" was all that I could trust myself to say ere I fled from
+her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the sobs
+that were threatening to betray the anguish that was ravaging my soul.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE OGRE OF CESENA
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MADONNA'S SUMMONS
+
+However great the part that my mother--sainted woman that she was--may
+have played in my life, she nowise enters into the affairs of this
+chronicle, so that it would be an irrelevance and an impertinence to
+introduce her into these pages.  Of the joy with which she welcomed me to
+the little home near Biancomonte, in which the earnings of Boccadoro the
+Fool had placed her, it could interest you but little to read in detail,
+nor could it interest you to know of the gentle patience with which she
+cheered and humoured me during the period that I sojourned there, tilling
+the little plot she owned, reaping and garnering like any born villano.
+With a woman's quick intuition she guessed perhaps the canker that was
+eating at my heart, and with a mother's blessed charity she sought to
+soothe and mitigate my pain.
+
+It was during this period of my existence that the poetic gifts I had
+discovered myself possessed of whilst at Pesaro, burst into full bloom;
+and not a little relief did I find in the penning of those love-songs--the
+true expression of what was in my heart--which have since been given to
+the world under the title of Le Rime di Boccadoro.  And what time I tended
+my mother's land by day, and wrote by night of the feverish, despairing
+love that was consuming me, I waited for the call that, sooner or later, I
+knew must come.  What prophetic instinct it was had rooted that certainty
+in my heart I do not pretend to say.  Perhaps my hope was of such a
+strength that it assumed the form of certainty to solace the period of my
+hermitage.  But that some day Madonna Paola's messenger would arrive
+bringing me the Borgia ring, I was as confident as that some day I must
+die.
+
+Two years went by, and we were in the Autumn of 1502, yet my faith knew no
+abating, my confidence was strong as ever.  And, at last, that confidence
+was justified.  One night of early October, as I sat at supper with my
+mother after the labours of the day, a sound of hoofs disturbed the peace
+of the silent night.  It drew rapidly nearer, and long before the knock
+fell upon our door, I knew that it was the messenger from my lady.
+
+My mother looked at me across the board, an expression of alarm
+overspreading her old face.  "Who," her eyes seemed to ask me, "was this
+horseman that rode so late?"
+
+My hound rose from the hearth with a growl, and stood bristling, his eyes
+upon the door.  White-haired old Silvio, the last remaining retainer of
+the House of Biancomonte, came forth from the kitchen, with inquiry and
+fear blending on his wrinkled, weather-beaten countenance.
+
+And I, seeing all these signs of alarm, yet knowing what awaited me on the
+threshold, rose with a laugh, and in a bound had crossed the intervening
+space.  I flung wide the door, and from the gloom without a man's voice
+greeted me with a question.
+
+"Is this the house of Messer Lazzaro Biancomonte?"
+
+"I am that Lazzaro Biancomonte," answered I.  "What may your pleasure be?"
+
+The stranger advanced until he came within the light.  He was plainly
+dressed, and wore a jerkin of leather and long boots.  From his air I
+judged him a servant or a courier.  He doffed his hat respectfully, and
+held out his right hand in which something was gleaming yellow.  It was
+the Borgia ring.
+
+"Pesaro," was all he said.
+
+I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh himself
+ere he returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
+
+"I am not returning," the man informed me.  "I am a courier riding to
+Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in passing."
+
+Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set
+before him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him to
+tell me what he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news there
+was of the Lord Giovanni.  He had little enough to tell.  Pesaro was
+flourishing and prospering under the Borgia dominion.  Of the Lord
+Giovanni there was little news, saving that he was living under the
+protection of the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so long as he was content
+to abide there the Borgias seemed disposed to give him peace.
+
+Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and Madonna
+Paola.  On this subject he was better informed.  Madonna Paola was well
+and still lived with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro.  The Lord
+Filippo was high in favour with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had been
+frequently his guest at Pesaro, whilst once, for a few days, the Lord
+Ignacio de Borgia had accompanied his illustrious cousin.
+
+I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her summons
+no longer asked conjecture.  It was an easy thing for me, knowing what I
+knew, to fill in the details which the courier omitted in ignorance from
+the story.
+
+The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister
+upon the notice of the Borgia family--perhaps even approached Cesare--in
+such a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to
+Ignacio, who had, meanwhile, remained unmarried.  I could read that
+opportunist's motives as easily as if he had written them down for my
+instruction.  Giovanni Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I
+could imagine how he had plied his wits to aid his sister to forget him,
+or else to remember him no longer with affection.  Whether he had
+succeeded or not I could not say until I had seen her; but meanwhile,
+deeming ripe the soil of her heart for the new attachment that should
+redound so much to his own credit--now that the House of Borgia had risen
+to such splendid heights--he was driving her into this alliance with
+Ignacio.
+
+Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out that
+same night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising to
+return as soon as might be.  All night I rode, my soul now tortured with
+anxiety, now exalted at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which was so
+soon to be mine.  I was at the gates of Pesaro before matins, and within
+the Palazzo Sforza ere its inmates had broken their fast.
+
+The Lord Filippo welcomed me with a certain effusion, chiding me for my
+long absence and the ingratitude it had seemed to indicate, and never
+dreaming by what summons I was brought back.
+
+"You are well-returned," he told me in conclusion.  "We shall need you
+soon, to write an epithalamium."
+
+"You are to be wed, Magnificent?" quoth I at last, at which he laughed
+consumedly.
+
+"Nay, we shall need the song for my sister's nuptials.  She is to wed the
+Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas."
+
+"A lofty theme," I answered with humility, "and one that may well demand
+resources nobler than those of my poor pen."
+
+"Then get you to work at once upon it.  I will have your chamber
+prepared."
+
+He sent for his seneschal, a person--like most Of the servants at the
+Palace--strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be sumptuously
+lodged.  He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity that
+seemed to surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had undergone
+such changes and been so enriched during the past two years as to go near
+defying recognition.
+
+When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for me, I
+made bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
+
+"She is in the garden, Illustrious," answered the seneschal, deeming me,
+no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had indicated
+should be shown me.  "Madonna has the wisdom to seek the little sunshine
+the year still holds.  Winter will be soon upon us."
+
+I agreed with the old man, and dismissed him.  So soon as he was gone, I
+quitted my chamber, and all dust staineded as I was I made my way down to
+the garden.  A turn in one of the boxwood-bordered alleys brought me
+suddenly face to face with Madonna Paola.
+
+A moment we stood looking at each other, my heart swelling within me until
+I thought that it must burst.  Then I advanced a step and sank on one knee
+before her.
+
+"You sent for me, Madonna.  I am here."  There was a pause, and when
+presently I looked up into her blessed face I saw a smile of infinite
+sorrow on her lips, blending oddly with the gladness that shone from her
+sweet eyes.
+
+"You faithful one," she murmured at last.  "Dear Lazzaro, I did not look
+for you so soon."
+
+"Within an hour of your messenger's arrival I was in the saddle, nor did I
+pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro.  I am here to serve you to
+the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails me is
+that my power may be all too small for the service that you need."
+
+"Is its nature known to you?" she asked in wonder.  Then, ere I had
+answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
+
+"I have guessed it," answered I, "guided by such scraps of information as
+from your messenger I gleaned.  It concerns, unless I err, the Lord
+Ignacio Borgia."
+
+"Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness," she said, with a sad
+smile, "and I doubt me you know all."
+
+"The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me--that you are
+to be wed before Christmas.  He has ordered me to write your
+epithalamium."
+
+She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by side,
+and, as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to make a
+carpet for our fret, she told me in her own way more or less what I have
+set down, even to her brother's self-seeking share in the transaction that
+she dubbed hideous and abhorrent.
+
+She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped.  She
+was in her twenty-first year, but in reality she seemed to me no older
+than she had been on that day when first I saw her arguing with her grooms
+upon the road to Cagli.  And from this I reassured myself that she had not
+been fretted overmuch by the absence of the Lord Giovanni.
+
+Presently she spoke of him and of her plighted word which her brother and
+those supple gentlemen of the House of Borgia were inducing her to
+dishonour.
+
+"Once before, in a case almost identical, when all seemed lost, you came--
+as if Heaven directed--to my rescue.  This it is that gives me confidence
+in such aid as you might lend me now."
+
+"Alas! Madonna," I sighed, "but the times are sorely changed and the
+situations with them.  What is there now that I can do?"
+
+"What you did then.  Take me beyond their reach."
+
+"Ah!  But whither?"
+
+"Whither but to the Lord Giovanni?  Is it not to him that my troth is
+plighted?"
+
+I shook my head in sorrow, a thrust of jealousy cutting me the while.
+
+"That may not be," said I.  "It were not seemly, unless the Lord Giovanni
+were here himself to take you hence."
+
+"Then I will write to the Lord Giovanni," she cried.  "I will write, and
+you shall bear my letter."
+
+"What think you will the Lord Giovanni do?" I burst out, with a scorn that
+must have puzzled her.  "Think you his safety does not give him care
+enough in the hiding-place to which he has crept, that he should draw upon
+himself the vengeance of the Borgias?"
+
+She stared at me in ineffable surprise.  "But the Lord Giovanni is brave
+and valiant," she cried, and down in my heart I laughed in bitter mockery.
+
+"Do you love the Lord Giovanni, Madonna?" I asked bluntly.
+
+My question seemed to awaken fresh astonishment.  It may well be that it
+awakened, too, reflection.  She was silent for a little space.  Then--
+
+"I honour and respect him for a noble, chivalrous and gifted gentleman,"
+she answered me, and her answer made me singularly content, spreading a
+balm upon the wounds my soul had taken.  But to her fresh intercessions
+that I should carry a letter to him, I shook my head again.  My mood was
+stubborn.
+
+"Believe me, Madonna, it were not only unwise, but futile."
+
+She protested.
+
+"I swear it would be," I insisted, with a convincing force that left her
+staring at me and wondering whence I derived so much assurance.  "We must
+wait.  From now till Christmas we have more than two months.  In two
+months much may befall.  As a last resource we may consider communication
+with the Lord Giovanni.  But it is a forlorn hope, Madonna, and so we will
+leave it until all else has failed us."
+
+She brightened at my promise that at least if other measures proved
+unavailing, we should adopt that course, and her brightening flattered me,
+for it bore witness to the supreme confidence she had in me.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, "I know you will not fail me.  I trust you more than
+any living mam; more, I think, than even the Lord Giovanni, whom, if God
+pleases, I shall some day wed."
+
+"Thanks, Madonna mia," I answered, gratefully indeed.  "It is a trust that
+I shall ever strive to justify.  Meanwhile have faith and hope, and wait."
+
+Once before, when, to escape the schemes of her brother who would have wed
+her to the Lord Giovanni, she had appealed to me, the counsel I had given
+her had been much the same as that which I gave her now.  At the irony of
+it I could have laughed had any other been in question but Madonna Paola--
+this tender White Flower of the Quince that was like to be rudely wilted
+by the ruthless hands of scheming men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GOVERNOR OF CESENA
+
+
+That night I would have supped in my own quarters but that Filippo sent
+for me and bade me join him and swell the little court he kept.  At times
+I believe he almost thought that he was the true Lord of Pesaro--an
+opinion that may have been shared by not a few of the citizens themselves.
+Certainly he kept a greater state and was better housed than the duke of
+Valentinois' governor.
+
+It was a jovial company of perhaps a dozen nobles and ladies that met
+about his board, and Filippo bade his servants lay for me beside him.  As
+we ate he questioned me touching the occupation that I had found during my
+absence from Pesaro.  I used the greatest frankness with him, and answered
+that my life had been partly a peasants, partly a poet's.
+
+"Tell me what you wrote," he bade me his eyes resting on my face with a
+new look of interest, for his love of letters was one of the few things
+about him that was not affected.
+
+"A few novelle, dealing with court-life; but chiefly verses," answered I.
+
+"And with these verses--what have you done?"
+
+"I have them by me, Illustrious," I answered.  He smiled, seemingly well
+pleased.
+
+"You must read them to us," he cried.  "If they rival that epic of yours,
+which I have never forgotten, they should be worth hearing."
+
+And presently, supper being done, I went at his bidding to my chamber for
+my precious manuscripts, and, returning, I entertained the company with
+the reading of a portion of what I had written.  They heard me with an
+attention that might have rendered me vain had my ambition really lain in
+being accounted a great writer; and when I paused, now and again, there
+was a murmur of applause, and many a pat on the shoulder from Filippo
+whenever a line, a phrase or a stanza took his fancy.
+
+I was perhaps too absorbed to pay any great attention to the impression my
+verses were producing, but presently, in one of my pauses, the Lord
+Filippo startled me with words that awoke me to a sense of my imprudence.
+
+"Do you know, Lazzaro, of what your lines remind me in an extraordinary
+measure?"
+
+"Of what, Excellency?" I asked politely, raising my eyes from my
+manuscript.  They chanced to meet the glance of Madonna Paola.  It was
+riveted upon me, and its expression was one I could not understand.
+
+"Of the love-songs of the Lord Giovanni Sforza," answered he.  "They
+resemble those poems infinitely more than they resemble the epic you wrote
+two years ago."
+
+I stammered something about the similarity being merely one of subject.
+But he shook his head at that, and took good note of my confusion.
+
+"No," said he, "the resemblance goes deeper.  There is the same facile
+beauty of the rhymes the same freshness of the rhythm--remotely resembling
+that of Petrarca, yet very different.  Conceits similar to those that were
+the beauty spots of the Lord Giovanni's verses are ubiquitous in yours,
+and above all there is the same fervent earnestness, the same burning tone
+of sincerity that rendered his strambotti so worthy of admiration."
+
+"It may be," I answered him, my confusion growing under the steady gaze of
+Madonna Paola, "it may be that having heard the verses of the Lord
+Giovanni, I may, unconsciously, have modelled my own lines upon those that
+made so deep an impression on me."
+
+He looked at me gravely for a moment.
+
+"That might be an explanation," he answered deliberately, "but frankly,
+if I were asked, I should give a very different one."
+
+"And that would be?" came, sharp and compelling, the voice of Madonna.
+
+He turned to her, shrugged his shoulders and laughed.  "Why, since you ask
+me," he said, "I should hazard the opinion that Lazzaro, here, was of
+considerable assistance to the Lord Giovanni in the penning of those
+verses with which he delighted us all--and you, Madonna, I believe,
+particularly."
+
+Madonna Paola crimsoned, and her eyes fell.  The others looked at us with
+inquiring glances--at her, at Filippo and at me.  With a fresh laugh
+Filippo turned to me.
+
+"Confess now, am I not right?" he asked good-humouredly.
+
+"Magnificent," I murmured in tones of protest, "ask yourself the question.
+Was it a likely thing that the Lord Giovanni would enlist the services of
+his jester in such a task?"
+
+"Give me a straightforward answer," he insisted.  "Am I right or wrong?"
+
+"I am giving you more than a straightforward answer, my lord," I still
+evaded him, and more boldly now.  "I am setting you on the high-road to
+solve the matter for yourself by an appeal to your own good sense and
+reason.  Was it in the least likely, I repeat, that the Lord Giovanni
+would seek the services of his Fool to aid him write the verses in honour
+of the lady of his heart?"
+
+With a burst of mocking laughter, Filippo smote the table a blow of his
+clenched hand.
+
+"Your prevarications answer me," he cried.  "You will not say that I am
+wrong."
+
+"But I do say that you are wrong!" I exclaimed, suddenly inspired.  "I did
+not assist the Lord Giovanni with his verses.  I swear it."
+
+His laughter faded; and his eyes surveyed me with a sudden solemnity.
+
+"Then why did you evade my question?" he demanded shrewdly.  And then his
+countenance changed as swiftly again.  It was illumined by the light of
+sudden understanding.  "I have it," he cried.  "The answer is plain.  You
+did not assist the Lord Giovanni to write them.  Why?  Because you wrote
+them yourself, and you gave them to him that he might pass them off as his
+own."
+
+It was a merciful thing for me that the whole company fell into a burst of
+laughter and applauded Filippo's quick discernment, which they never
+doubted.  All talked at once, and a hundred proofs were advanced in
+support of Filippo's opinion.  The Lord Giovanni's celebrated dullness of
+mind, amounting almost to stupidity, was cited, and they reminded one
+another of the profound astonishment with which they had listened to the
+compositions that had suddenly burst from him.
+
+Filippo turned to his sister, on whose pale face I saw it written that she
+was as convinced as any there, and my feelings were those of a dastard who
+has broken faith with the man who trusted him.
+
+"Do you appreciate now, Madonna," he murmured, "the deceits and wiles by
+which that craven crept like a snake into your esteem?"
+
+I guessed at once that by that thrust he sought to incline her more to the
+union he had in view for her.
+
+"At least he was no craven," answered she.  "His burning desire to please
+me may have betrayed him into this foolish duplicity.  But he still must
+live in my memory as a brave and gallant gentleman; or have you forgotten,
+Filippo, that noble combat with the forces of Ramiro del' Orca?"
+
+To such a question Filippo had no answer, and presently his mood sobered a
+little.  For myself, I was glad when the time came to withdraw from that
+company that twitted and pestered me and played upon my sense of shame at
+the imprudence I had committed.
+
+Now that I look back, I can scarce conceive why it should have so wrought
+upon me; for, in truth, the little love I bore the Lord Giovanni might
+rather have led me to rejoice that his imposture should be laid bare to
+the eyes of all the world.  I think that really there was an element of
+fear in my feelings--fear that, upon reflection, Madonna Paola might ask
+herself how came that burning sincerity into the love-songs written in her
+honour which it was now disclosed that I had penned.  The answer she might
+find to such a question was one that might arouse her pride and so outrage
+it as to lead her to cast me out of her friendship and never again suffer
+me to approach her.
+
+Such a conclusion, however, she fortunately did not arrive at.  Haply she
+accounted the fervour of those lines assumed, for when on the morrow she
+met me, she did no more than gently chide me for the deceit that I had had
+a hand in practising upon her.  She accepted my explanation that my share
+in that affair had been wrung from me with threats of torture, and putting
+it from her mind she returned to the matter of the approaching alliance
+she sought to elude, renewing her prayers that I should aid her.
+
+"I have," she told me then, "one other friend who might assist us, and who
+has the power perhaps if he but has the will.  He is the Governor of
+Cesena, and for all that he holds service under Cesare Borgia, yet he
+seems much devoted to me, and I do not doubt that to further my interests
+he would even consent to pit his wits against those of the family he
+serves."
+
+"In which case, Madonna," answered I, spurred to it, perhaps, by an
+insensate pang of jealousy at the thought that there should be another
+beside myself to have her confidence, "he would be a traitor.  And it is
+ever an ill thing to trust a traitor.  Who once betrays may betray again."
+
+That she manifested no resentment, but, on the contrary, readily agreed
+with me, showed me how idle had been that jealousy of mine, and made me
+ashamed of it.
+
+"Why yes," she mused, "it is the very thought that had occurred to me, and
+caused me to spurn the aid he proffered when last he was here."
+
+"Ah!" I cried.  "What aid was that?"
+
+"You must know, Lazzaro," said she, "that he comes often to Pesaro from
+Cesena, being a man in whom the Duke places great trust, and on whom he
+has bestowed considerable powers.  He never fails to lie at the Palace
+when he comes, and he seems to--to have conceived a regard for me.  He is
+a man of twice my years," she added hurriedly, "and haply looks upon me as
+he might upon a daughter."
+
+I sniffed the air.  I had heard of such men.
+
+"A week ago, when last he came, I was cast down and grieved by the affair
+of this marriage, which Filippo had that day disclosed to me.  The
+Governor of Cesena, observing my sadness, sought my confidence with a
+kindliness of which you would scarce believe him capable; for he is a
+fierce and blustering man of war.  In the fulness of my heart there was
+nothing that seemed so desirable as a friendly ear into which I might pour
+the tale of my affliction.  He heard me gravely, and when I had done he
+placed himself at my disposal, assuring me that if I would but trust
+myself to him, he would defeat the ends of the House of Borgia.  Not until
+then did I seem to bethink me that he was the servant of that house, and
+his readiness to betray the hand that paid him sowed mistrust and a
+certain loathing of him in my mind.  I let him see it, perhaps, which was
+unwise, and, may be, even ungrateful.  He seemed deeply wounded, and the
+subject was abandoned.  But I have since thought that perhaps I acted with
+a rashness that was--"
+
+"With a rashness that was eminently justifiable," I interrupted her.  "You
+could not have been better advised than to have mistrusted such a man."
+
+But touching this same Governor of Cesena, there was a fine surprise in
+store for me.  At dusk some two days later there was a sudden commotion in
+the courtyard of the Palace, and when I inquired of a groom into its
+cause, I was informed that his Excellency the Governor of Cesena had
+arrived.
+
+Curious to see this man whose willingness to betray the house he served,
+where Madonna was concerned, was by no means difficult to probe, I
+descended to the banqueting-hall at supper time.
+
+They were not yet at table when I entered, and a group was gathered in the
+centre of the room about a huge man, at sight of whose red head and
+crimson, brutal face I would have turned and sought again the refuge of my
+own quarters but that his wolf's eye had already fastened on me.
+
+"Body of God!" he swore, and that was all.  But his eyes were on me in a
+marvellous stare, as were now--impelled by that oath of his--the eyes of
+all the company.  We looked at each other for a moment, then a great laugh
+burst from him, shaking his vast bulk and wrinkling his hideous face.  He
+thrust the intervening men aside as if they had been a growth of sedges he
+would penetrate, and he advanced towards me; the Lord Filippo and his
+sister looking on with all the rest in interested surprise.
+
+In front of me he halted, and setting his hands on his hips he regarded me
+with a brutal mirth.
+
+"What may your trade be now?" he asked at last contemptuously.
+
+I had taken rapid stock of him in the seconds that were sped, and from the
+surpassing richness of his apparel, his gold-broidered doublet and
+crimson, fur-edged surcoat, I knew that Messer Ramiro del' Orca was grown
+to the high estate of Governor of Cesena.
+
+"A new trade even as yours," I answered him.
+
+"Nay, that is no answer," he cried, overlooking my offensiveness.  "Do you
+still follow the trade of arms?"
+
+"I think," Filippo interposed, "that our Excellency is in some error.
+This gentleman is Lazzaro Biancomonte, a poet of whom Italy will one day
+be proud, despite the fact that for a time he acted as the Lord Giovanni
+Sforza's Fool."
+
+Ramiro looked at his interlocutor, as the mastiff may look at the lap dog.
+He grunted, and blew out his cheeks.
+
+"There is yet another part he played," said he, "as I have good cause to
+remember--for he is the only man that can boast of having unhorsed Ramiro
+del' Orca.  He was for a brief season the Lord Giovanni Sforza himself."
+
+"How?" asked the profoundly amazed Filippo, whilst all present pressed
+closer to miss nothing of the disclosure that seemed to impend.  Myself, I
+groaned.  There was naught that I could say to stem the tide of revelation
+that was coming.
+
+"Do you then keep this paladin here arrayed like a clerk?" quoth Ramiro in
+his sardonic way.  "And can it be that the secret of his feat of arms has
+been guarded so well that you are still in ignorance of it?"
+
+Filippo's wits worked swiftly, and swiftly they pieced together the hints
+that Ramiro had let fall.
+
+"You will tell us," said he, "that the fight in the streets of Pesaro, in
+which your Excellency's party suffered defeat, was led by Biancomonte in
+the armour of Giovanni Sforza?"
+
+Ramiro looked at him with that displeasure with which the jester visits
+the man who by anticipation robs his story of its points.
+
+"It was known to you?" growled he.
+
+"Not so.  I have but learnt it from you.  But it nowise astonishes me."
+
+And he looked at his sister, whose eyes devoured me, as if they would read
+in my soul whether this thing were indeed true.  Under her eyes I dropped
+my glance like a man ashamed at hearing a disgraceful act of his paraded.
+
+"Had it indeed been the Lord Giovanni, he had been dead that day," laughed
+Ramiro grimly.  "Indeed it was nothing but my astonishment at sight of the
+face I was about to stab, after having broken the fastenings of his visor
+that stayed my hand for long enough to give him the advantage.  But I bear
+you no grudge for that," he ended, turning on me with a ferocious smile,
+"nor yet for that other trick by which--as Boccadoro the Fool--you bested
+me.  I am not a sweet man when thwarted, yet I can admire wit and respect
+courage.  But see to it," he ended, with a sudden and most unreasonable
+ferocity, his visage empurpling if possible still more, "see to it that
+you pit neither that courage nor that wit against me again.  I have heard
+the story of how you came to be Fool of the Court of Pesaro.  Cesena is a
+dull place, and we might enliven it by the presence of a jester of such
+nimble wits as yours."
+
+He turned without awaiting my reply, and strode away to take his place at
+table, whilst I walked slowly to my accustomed seat, and took little part
+in the conversation that ensued, which, as you may imagine, had me and
+that exploit of mine for scope.
+
+Anon an elephantine trumpeting of laughter seemed to set the air
+a-quivering.  Ramiro was lying back in his chair a prey to such a passion
+of mirth that it swelled the veins of his throat and brow until I thought
+that they must burst--and, from my soul, I hoped they would.  Adown his
+rugged cheeks two tears were slowly trickling.  The Lord Filippo, as
+presently transpired, had been telling him of the epic I had written in
+praise of the Lord Giovanni's prowess.  Naught would now satisfy that ogre
+but he must have the epic read, and Filippo, who had retained a copy of
+it, went in quest of it, and himself read it aloud for the delight of all
+assembled and the torture of myself who saw in Madonna Paola's eyes that
+she accounted the deception I had practised on her a thing beyond pardon.
+
+Filippo had a taste for letters, as I think I have made clear, and he read
+those lines with the same fire and fervour that I, myself, had breathed
+into them two years ago.  But instead of the rapt and breathless attention
+with which my reading had been attended, the present company listened with
+a smile, whilst ever and anon a short laugh or a quiet chuckle would mark
+how well they understood to-night the subtle ironies which had originally
+escaped them.
+
+I crept away, sick at heart, while they were still making sport over my
+work, cursing the Lord Giovanni, who had forced me to these things, and my
+own mad mood that had permitted me in an evil hour to be so forced.  Yet
+my grief and bitterness were little things that night compared with what
+Madonna was to make them on the morrow.
+
+She sent for me betimes, and I went in fear and trembling of her wrath and
+scorn.  How shall I speak of that interview?  How shall I describe the
+immeasurable contempt with which she visited me, and which I felt was
+perhaps no more than I deserved.
+
+"Messer Biancomonte," said she coldly, "I have ever accounted you my
+friend, and disinterested the motives that inspired a heart seemingly
+noble to do service to a forlorn and helpless lady.  It seems that I was
+wrong.  That the indulging of a warped and malignant spirit was the
+inspiration you had to appear to befriend me."
+
+"Madonna, you are over-cruel," I cried out, wounded to the very soul of
+me.
+
+"Am I so?" she asked, with a cold smile upon her ivory face.  "Is it not
+rather you who were cruel?  Was it a fine thing to do to trick a lady into
+giving her affection to a man for gifts which he did not possess?  You
+know in what manner of regard I held the Lord Giovanni Sforza so long as I
+saw him with the eyes of reason and in the light of truth.  And you, who
+were my one professed friend, the one man who spoke so loudly of dying in
+my service, you falsified my vision, you masked him--either at his own and
+at my brother's bidding, or else out of the malignancy of your nature--in
+a garb that should render him agreeable in my eyes.  Do you realise what
+you have done?  Does not your conscience tell you? You have contrived that
+I have plighted my troth to a man such as I believed the Lord Giovanni to
+be.  Mother of Mercy!" she ended, with a scorn ineffable; "when I dwell
+upon it now, it almost seems that it was to you I gave my heart, for yours
+were the deeds that earned my regard--not his."
+
+Such was the very argument that I had hugged to my starving soul, at the
+time the things she spoke of had befallen, and it had consoled me as
+naught in life could have consoled me.  Yet now that she employed it with
+such a scornful emphasis as to make me realise how far beneath her I
+really was, how immeasurably beyond my reach was she, it was as much
+consolation to me as confession without absolution may be to the perishing
+sinner.  I answered nothing.  I could not trust myself to speak.  Besides,
+what was there that I could say?
+
+"I summoned you back to Pesaro," she continued pitilessly, "trusting in
+your fine words and deeming honest the offer of services you made me.  Now
+that I know you, you are free to depart from Pesaro when you will."
+
+Despite my shame, I dared, at last, to raise my eyes.  But her face was
+averted, and she saw nothing of the entreaty, nothing of the grief that
+might have told her how false were her conclusions.  One thing alone there
+was might have explained my actions, might have revealed them in a new
+light; but that one thing I could not speak of.
+
+I turned in silence, and in silence I quitted the room; for that, I
+thought, was, after all, the wisest answer I could make.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+POISON
+
+
+Despite Madonna Paola's dismissal, I remained in Pesaro.  Indeed, had I
+attempted to leave, it is probable that the Lord Filippo would have
+deterred me, for I was much grown in his esteem since the disclosures that
+had earned me the disfavour of Madonna.  But I had no thought of going.  I
+hoped against hope that anon she might melt to a kinder mood, or else that
+by yet aiding her, despite herself, to elude the Borgia alliance, I might
+earn her forgiveness for those matters in which she held that I had so
+gravely sinned against her.
+
+The epithalamium, meanwhile, was forgotten utterly and I spent my days in
+conceiving wild plans to save her from the Lord Ignacio, only to abandon
+them when in more sober moments their impracticable quality was borne in
+upon me.
+
+In this fashion some six weeks went by, and during the time she never once
+addressed me.  We saw much during those days of the Governor of Cesena.
+Indeed his time seemed mainly spent in coming and going 'twixt Cesena and
+Pesaro, and it needed no keen penetration to discern the attraction that
+brought him.  He was ever all attention to Madonna, and there were times
+when I feared that perhaps she had been drawn into accepting the aid that
+once before he had proffered.  But these fears were short-lived, for, as
+time sped, Madonna's aversion to the man grew plain for all to see.  Yet
+he persisted until the very eve, almost, of her betrothal to Ignacio.
+
+One evening in early December I chanced, through the purest accident, to
+overhear her sharp repulsion of the suit that he had evidently been
+pressing.
+
+"Madonna," I heard him answer, with a snarl, "I may yet prove to you that
+you have been unwise so to use Ramiro del' Orca."
+
+"If you so much as venture to address me again upon the subject," she
+returned in the very chilliest accents, "I will lay this matter of your
+odious suit before your master Cesare Borgia."
+
+They must have caught the sound of my footsteps in the gallery in which
+they stood, and Ramiro moved away, his purple face pale for once, and his
+eyes malevolent as Satan's.
+
+I reflected with pleasure that perhaps we had now seen the last of him,
+and that before that threat of Madonna's he would see fit to ride home to
+Cesena and remain there.  But I was wrong.  With incredible effrontery and
+daring he lingered.  The morrow was a Sunday, and, on the Tuesday or
+Wednesday following, Cesare Borgia and his cousin Ignacio were expected.
+Filippo was in the best of moods, and paid more heed to the Governor of
+Cesena's presence at Pesaro than he did to mine.  It may be that he
+imagined Ramiro del' Orca to be acting under Cesare's instructions.
+
+That Sunday night we supped together, and we were all tolerably gay, the
+topic of our talk being the coming of the bridegroom.  Madonna's was the
+only downcast face at the board.  She was pale and worn, and there were
+dark circles round her eyes that did much to mar the beauty of her angel
+face, and inspired me with a deep and sorrowing pity.
+
+Ramiro announced his intention of leaving Pesaro on the morrow, and ere he
+went he begged leave to pledge the beautiful Lady of Santafior, who was so
+soon to become the bride of the valiant and mighty Ignacio Borgia.  It was
+a toast that was eagerly received, so eager and uproariously that even
+that poor lady herself was forced to smile, for all that I saw it in her
+eyes that her heart was on the point of breaking.
+
+I remember how, when we had drunk, she raised her goblet--a beautiful
+chaste cup of solid gold--and drank, herself, in acknowledgment; and I
+remember, too, how, chancing to move my head, I caught a most singular,
+ill-omened smile upon the coarse lips of Messer Ramiro.
+
+At the time I thought of it no more, but in the morning when the horrible
+news that spread through the Palace gained my ears, that smile of Ramiro
+del' Orca recurred to me at once.
+
+It was from the seneschal of the Palace that I first heard that tragic
+news.  I had but risen, and I was descending from my quarters, when I came
+upon him, his old face white as death, a palsy in his limbs.
+
+"Have you heard the news, Ser Lazzaro?" he cried in a quavering voice.
+
+"The news of what?" I asked, struck by the horror in his face.
+
+"Madonna Paola is dead," he told me, with a sob.
+
+I stared at him in speechless consternation, and for a moment I seemed
+forlorn of sense and understanding.
+
+"Dead?" I remember whispering.  "What is it you say?"  And I leaned
+forward towards him, peering into his face.  "What is it you say?"
+
+"Well may you doubt your ears," he groaned.  "But, Vergine Santissima! it
+is the  truth.  Madonna Paola, that sweet angel of God, lies cold and
+stiff.  They found her so this morning."
+
+"God of Heaven!" I cried out, and leaving him abruptly I dashed down the
+steps.
+
+Scarce knowing what I did, acting upon an impulsive instinct that was as
+irresistible as it was unreasoning, I made for the apartments of Madonna
+Paola.  In the antechamber I found a crowd assembled, and on every face
+was pallid consternation written.  Of my own countenance I had a glimpse
+in a mirror as I passed; it was ashen, and my hollow eyes were wild as a
+madman's.
+
+Someone caught me by the arm.  I turned.  It was the Lord Filippo, pale as
+the rest, his affectations all fallen from him, and the man himself
+revealed by the hand of an overwhelming sorrow.  With him was a grave,
+white-bearded gentleman, whose sober robe proclaimed the physician.
+
+"This is a black and monstrous affair, my friend," he murmured.
+
+"Is it true, is it really true, my lord?" I cried in such a voice that all
+eyes were turned upon me.
+
+"Your grief is a welcome homage to my own," he said.  "Alas, Dio Santo! it
+is most hideously true.  She lies there cold and white as marble, I have
+just seen her.  Come hither, Lazzaro." He drew me aside, away from the
+crowd and out of that antechamber, into a closet that had been Madonna's
+oratory.  With us came the physician.
+
+"This worthy doctor tells me that he suspects she has been poisoned,
+Lazzaro."
+
+"Poisoned?" I echoed.  "Body of God! but by whom?  We all loved her.
+There was not in Pesaro a man worthy of the name but would have laid down
+his life in her service.  Who was there, then, to poison that dear saint?"
+
+It was then that the memory of Ramiro del' Orca, and the look that in his
+eyes I had surprised whilst Madonna drank, flashed back into my mind.
+
+"Where is the Governor of Cesena?" I cried suddenly.  Filippo looked at me
+with quick surprise.
+
+"He departed betimes this morning for his castle.  Why do you ask?"
+
+I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro's attentions to
+Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he had
+seemed to threaten.  Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done he
+shook his head.
+
+"Why, all being as you say, should he work so wanton a destruction?" he
+asked stupidly, as if jealousy were not cause enough to drive an evil man
+to destroy that which he may not possess.  "Nay, nay, your wits are
+disordered.  You remember that he looked at Madonna whilst she drank, and
+you construe that into a proof that he had poisoned the cup she drank
+from.  But then it is probable that we all looked at her in that same
+moment."
+
+"But not with such eyes as his," I insisted.
+
+"Could he have administered the poison with his own hands?" asked the
+doctor gravely.
+
+"No," said I, "that were a difficult matter.  But he might have bribed a
+servant to drop a powder in her wine."
+
+"Why then," said he, "it should be an easy thing to find the servant.  Do
+you chance to remember who served the wine?"
+
+"I remember," answered Filippo readily.
+
+"Let the man be questioned; let him be racked if necessary.  Thus shall
+you probably arrive at a true knowledge; thus discover under whose
+directions he was working."
+
+It was the only thing to do, and Filippo sent me about it there and then,
+telling me the servant in question was a Venetian of the name of
+Zabatello.  If confirmation had been needed that this fellow had been the
+tool of the poisoner--there was no reason to suppose that he would have
+done the thing to have served any ends of his own--that confirmation I had
+upon discovering that Zabatello was fled from Pesaro, leaving no trace
+behind him.
+
+Men were sent out by the Lord Filippo in every direction to endeavour to
+find the rogue and bring him back.  Whether they caught him or not seemed,
+after all  a little thing to me.  She was dead; that was the one all-
+absorbing, all-effacing fact that took possession of my mind, blotting out
+all minor matters that might be concerned with it.  Even the now assured
+fact that she had been poisoned was a thing that found little room in my
+consideration on that day of my burning grief.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead!  The hideous phrase boomed again and again
+through my distracted mind.  Compared with that overwhelming catastrophe,
+what signified to me the how or why or when she had died.  She was dead,
+and the world was empty.
+
+For hours I sat on the rocks, alone by the sea, on that stormy day of
+December, and I indulged my grief where no prying eyes could witness it,
+amid the solitude of wild and angry Nature.  And the moan and thud with
+which the great waves hurled themselves against the base of the black rock
+on which I was perched afforded but a feeble echo of the storm that raged
+and beat within my desolated soul.
+
+She was dead, dead, dead!  The waves seemed to shout it as they leapt up
+and spattered me with brine; the wind now moaned it piteously, now
+shrieked it fiercely as it scudded by, wrapping its invisible coils about
+me, and seeming intent on tearing me from my resting-place.
+
+Towards evening, at last, I rose, and skirting the Castle, I entered the
+town, dishevelled and bedraggled, yet caring nothing what spectacle I
+might afford.  And presently a grim procession overtook me, and at sight
+of the black, cowled and visored figures that advanced in the lurid light
+of their wax torches, I fell on my knees there in the street, and so
+remained, my knees deep in the mud, my head bowed, until her sainted body
+had been borne past.  None heeded me.  They bore her to San Domenico, and
+thither I followed presently, and in the shadow of one of the pillars of
+the aisle I crouched whilst the monks chanted their funereal psalms.
+
+The singing ended, the friars departed, and presently those of the Court
+and the sight-seers from the streets began to leave the church.  In an
+hour I was alone--alone with the beloved dead, and there, on my knees, I
+stayed, and whether I prayed or blasphemed during that horrid hour, my
+memory will not let me say.
+
+It may have been towards the third hour of night when at last I staggered
+up--stiff and cramped from my long kneeling on the cold stone.  Slowly, in
+a half-dazed condition, I move down the aisle and gained the door of the
+church.  I essayed to open it.  It resisted my efforts, and then I
+realised that it was locked for the night.
+
+The appreciation of my position afforded me not the slightest dismay.  On
+the contrary, I think my feelings were rather of relief.  I had not known
+whither I should repair--so distraught was my mood--and now chance had
+settled the matter for me by decreeing that I should remain.
+
+I turned and slowly I paced back until I stood beside the great black
+catafalque, at each corner of which a tall wax taper was burning.  My
+footsteps rang with a hollow sound through the vast, gloomy spaces of that
+cold, empty church; my very breathing seemed to find an echo in it.  But
+these were not things to occupy my mind in such a season, no more than was
+the icy cold by which I was half-numbed--yet of which I seemed to remain
+unconscious in the absorbing anguish that possessed me.
+
+Near the foot of the bier there was a bench, and there I sat me down, and
+resting my elbows on my knees I took my dishevelled head between my frozen
+hands.  My thoughts were all of her whose poor murdered clay was there
+encased above me.  I reviewed, I think, each scene of my life where it had
+touched on hers; I evoked every word she had addressed to me since first I
+had met her on the road to Cagli.
+
+And anon my mood changed, and, from cold and frozen that it had been by
+grief, it grew ablaze with the fire of anger and the lust to wreak
+vengeance upon him that had brought her to this condition.  Let Filippo
+fear to move without proofs, let him doubt such proofs as I had set before
+him and deem them overslender to warrant action.  Such scruples should not
+serve to restrain me.  I was no lukewarm brother.  Here in Pesaro I would
+remain until her poor body was delivered to the earth, and then I would
+set out upon a last emprise.  Messer Ramiro del' Orca should account to me
+for this vile deed.
+
+There in the House of Peace I sat gnawing my hands and maturing my bloody
+plans whilst the night wore on.  Later a still more frenzied mood obsessed
+me--a burning desire to look again upon the sweet face of her I had loved,
+the sainted visage of Madonna Paola.  What was there to deter me?  Who was
+there to gainsay me?
+
+I stood up and uttered that challenge aloud in my madness.  My voice
+echoed mournfully up the aisles, and the sound of the echo chilled me, yet
+my purpose gathered strength.
+
+I advanced, and after a moment's pause, with the silver-broidered hem of
+the pall in my hands, I suddenly swept off that mantle of black cloth,
+setting up such a gust of wind as all but quenched the tapers.  I caught
+up the bench on which I had been sitting, and, dragging it forward, I
+mounted it and stood now with my breast on a level with the coffin-lid.  I
+laid hands on it and found it unfastened.  Without thought or care of how
+I went about the thing, I raised it and let it crash over to the ground.
+It fell on the stone flags with a noise like that of thunder, which boomed
+and reverberated along the gloomy vault above.
+
+A figure, all in purest white, lay there under my eyes, the face covered
+by a veil.  With deepest reverence, and a prayer to her sainted soul to
+forgive the desecration of my loving hands, I tremblingly drew that veil
+aside.  How beautiful she was in the calm peace of death!  She lay there
+like one gently sleeping, the faintest smile upon her lips, and as I
+looked it seemed hard to believe that she was truly dead.  Why, her lips
+had lost nothing of their colour; they were as rosy red--or nearly so--as
+ever I had seen them in life.  How could this be?  The lips of the dead
+are wont to put on a livid hue.  I stared a moment, my reverence and grief
+almost effaced by the intensity of my wonder.  This face, so ivory pale,
+wore not the ashen aspect of one that would never wake again.  There was a
+warmth about that pallor.  And then I caught my nether lip in my teeth
+until it bled, and it is a miracle that I did not scream, seeing how
+overwrought was my condition.
+
+For it had seemed to me that the draperies on her bosom had slightly
+moved, a gentle, almost imperceptible heave as if she breathed.  I looked,
+and there it came again.
+
+God! into what madness was I come that my eyes could so deceive me?  It
+was the draught that stirred the air about the church and blew great
+shrouds of wax adown the taper's yellow sides.  I manned myself to a more
+sober mood, and looked again.
+
+And now my doubts were all dispelled.  I knew that I had mastered any
+errant fancy, and that my eyes were grown wise and discriminating, and I
+knew, too, that she lived.  Her bosom slowly rose and fell; the colour of
+her lips, the hue of her cheeks confirmed the assurance that she breathed.
+The poison had failed in its work.
+
+I paused a second yet to ponder.  That morning her appearance had been
+such that the physician had been deceived by it, and had pronounced her
+cold.  Yet now there were these signs of life.  What could it portend but
+that the effects of the poison were passing off and that she was
+recovering?
+
+In the wild madness of joy that sent the blood drumming and beating
+through my brain, my first impulse was to run for help.  Then I bethought
+me of the closed doors, and I realised that no matter how I shouted none
+would hear me.  I must succour her myself as best I could, and meanwhile
+she must be protected from the chill air of that December night in that
+church that was colder than the tomb.  I had my cloak, a heavy,
+serviceable garment; and if more were needed, there was the pall which I
+had removed, and which lay in a heap about the legs of my bench.
+
+I leaned forward, and passing my hand under her head, I gently raised it.
+Then slipping it downwards, I thrust my arm after it until I had her round
+the waist in a firm grip.  Thus I raised her from the coffin, and the
+warmth of her body on my arm, the ready, supple bending of her limbs, were
+so many added proofs that she was not dead.
+
+Gently and reverently I lifted her in my arms, an intoxication of holy joy
+pervading me, and the prayers falling faster from my lips than ever they
+had done since as a lad I had recited them at my mother's knee.  A moment
+I laid her on the bench, whilst I divested myself of my cloak.  Then
+suddenly I paused, and stood listening, holding my breath.
+
+Steps were advancing towards the door.
+
+My first impulse was to rush forward and call to those who came, shouting
+my news and imploring their help.  Then a sudden, an almost instinctive
+suspicion caught and chilled me.  Who was it came at such an hour?  What
+could any man seek in the Church of San Domenico at dead of night?  Was
+the church indeed their goal, or were they but passers-by?
+
+That last question went not long unanswered.  The steps came nearer,
+whilst I stood appalled, my skin roughening like a dog's.  They halted at
+the door.  Something heavy hurtled against it.
+
+A voice, the voice of Ramiro del' Orca--I knew it upon the instant--
+reached my ears which concentration had rendered superacute.
+
+"It is locked, Baldassare.  Get out those tools of yours and force it."
+
+My wits were working now at fever-pace.  It may be that I am swift of
+thought beyond the ordinary man, or it may be that what then came to me
+was either a flash of inspiration or the conclusion to which I leapt by
+instinct.  But in that moment the whole plot of Madonna's poisoning was
+revealed to me.  Poisoned she had been--aye, but by some drug that did but
+produce for a little while the outward appearance of death so truly
+simulated as to deceive the most experienced of doctors.  I had heard of
+such poisons, and here, in very truth, was one of them at work.  His
+vengeance on her for her indifference to his suit was not so clumsy and
+primitive as that of simply slaying her.  He had, by his infernal
+artifice, intended, secretly, to bear her off.  To-morrow when men found a
+broken church-door and a violated bier, they would set the sacrilege down
+to some wizard who had need of the body for his dark practices of magic.
+
+I cursed myself in that hour that I had not earlier been moved to peer
+into her coffin whilst yet there might have been time to have saved her.
+Now?  The sweat stood out in beads upon my brow.  At that door there were,
+to judge by the sound of footsteps and of voices, some three or four men
+besides Messer Ramiro.  For only weapon I had my dagger.  What could I do
+with that to defend her?  Ramiro's plan would suffer no frustration
+through my discovery; when to-morrow the sacrilege was discovered the cold
+body of Lazzaro Biancomonte lying beside the desecrated bier would be but
+an item in the work of profanation they would find--an item that nowise
+would modify the conclusion to which I anticipated they would come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+REQUIESCAT!
+
+
+A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human mind.
+Some it renders incapable of thought or action, paralysing their limbs and
+stagnating the blood in their veins; such creatures die in anticipating
+death.  Others under the stress of that grim passion have their wits
+preternaturally sharpened.  The instinct of self-preservation assumes
+command of all their senses, and urges them to swift and feverish action.
+
+I thank God with a full heart that to this latter class do I belong.
+After one gelid moment, spent with eyes and mouth agape, my hands fallen
+limp beside me and my hair bristling with affright, I became myself again
+and never calmer than in that dread moment.  I went to work with
+superhuman swiftness.  My cheeks may have been livid, my very lips
+bloodless; but my hands were steady and my wits under full control.
+
+Concealment--concealment for myself and her--was the thing that now
+imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were
+devised.  Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case to be
+exacting, and since they were the best the place afforded I must trust to
+them without demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might lack the wit
+to search.  And with that fresh hope it came to me that I must find a way
+so to dispose as to make him believe that to search would be a futile
+waste of energy.
+
+The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal.  Yet a little
+time there was.  The door was stout, and Messer Ramiro might take no
+violent means of bursting it, lest the noise should arouse the street--and
+I well could guess how little he would relish having lights to shine upon
+this deed of night of his.
+
+With what tools his sbirro was at work I could not say; but surely they
+must be such as would leave me a few moments.  Already the fellow had
+begun.  I could make out a soft crunching sound, as of steel biting into
+wood.  To act, then!
+
+With movements swift as a cat's, and as silent, I went to work.  Like a
+ghost I glided round the coffin to the other side, where the lid was
+lying.  I took it up, and when for a moment I had deposited Madonna Paola
+on the ground, I mounted the bench and gently but quickly set back that
+lid as it had been.  Next, I gathered up the cumbrous pall, and mounting
+the bench once more I spread it across the coffin.  This way and that I
+pulled it, straightening it into the shape that it had worn when first I
+had entered, and casting its folds into regular lines that would lend it
+the appearance of having remained undisturbed.
+
+And what time I toiled, the half of my mind intent upon my task, the other
+half was as intent upon the progress of the worker at the door.
+
+At last it was done.  I set the bench where first it had been, at the foot
+of the catafalque, and gathering up Madonna in my arms, as though her
+weight had been an infant's, I bore her swiftly out of the circle of light
+of those four tapers into the black, impenetrable gloom beyond.  On I sped
+towards the high-altar, flying now as men fly in evil dreams, with the
+sensation of an enemy upon them and their progress a mere standing-still.
+
+Thus I gained the chancel, hurtling against the railing as I passed, and
+pausing for an instant, wondering whether those without could have heard
+the noise which in my clumsiness I had made.  But the grinding sound
+continued uninterrupted, and I breathed more freely.  I mounted the altar-
+steps, the distant light behind me still feebly guiding me; I ran round to
+the right, and heaved a great sigh of relief to find my hopes verified,
+and that the altar of San Domenico was as the altar of other churches I
+had known.  It stood a pace or so from the wall, and behind it there was
+just such narrow hiding-room as I had looked to find.
+
+I paused at the mouth of that black opening, and even as I paused,
+something hard that gave out a metallic sound fell at the far end of the
+church.  Instinct told me it was the lock which those miscreants had cut
+from the door.  I waited for no more, but like a beast scudding to cover I
+plunged into that black space.
+
+Madonna, wrapped in my cloak as she was, I set down upon the ground, and
+then I crept forward on hands and knees and thrust out my head, trusting
+to the darkness to envelop me.
+
+I waited thus for some seconds, my heart beating now against my ribs as if
+it would hurl itself out of my bosom, my head and face on fire with the
+fever of reaction that succeeded my late cold pallor.
+
+From where I watched it was impossible to see the door hidden in the black
+gloom.  Away in the centre of the church, an island of light in that vast
+sea of blackness, stood the catafalque with its four wax torches.
+Something creaked, and almost immediately I saw the flames of those tapers
+bend towards me, beaten over by the gust that smote them from the door.
+Thus I surmised that Ramiro and his men had entered.  The soft fall of
+their feet; for they were treading lightly now, succeeded, and at last
+they came into view, shadowy at first, then sharply outlined as they
+approached the light.
+
+A moment they stood in half-whispered conversation, their voices a mere
+boom of sound in which no word was to be distinguished.  Then I saw Ramiro
+suddenly step forward--I knew him by his great height--and drag away, even
+as I had done, the pall that hid the coffin.  Next he seized the bench and
+gave a brisk order to his men in a less cautious voice, so that I caught
+his words.
+
+"Spread a cloak," said he, and, in obedience, the four that were with him
+took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners.  It was thus
+that he meant to bear her with him.
+
+He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind he
+put out his hands to remove the coffin-lid.  As well as if his soul had
+been transformed into a book conceived for my amusement did I surmise the
+exultant mood that then possessed him.  He had tricked Filippo; he had
+out-witted us all--Madonna herself, included--and he was leaving no trace
+behind him that should warrant any so much as to dare to think that this
+vile deed was the work of Messer Ramiro del' Orca, Governor of Cessna
+
+But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the gods, delights in mighty
+contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and hollow lures
+on the very eve of working our discomfiture.  From the soul that but a
+moment back had been aglow with evil satisfaction there burst a sudden
+blasphemous cry of rage that disregarded utterly the sanctity of that
+consecrated place.
+
+"By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!"
+
+It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy crash
+as he let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder sound awoke
+the night-echoes of that silent place.  In a burst of maniacal frenzy he
+had caught the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty fist, and hurled it
+from its trestles.
+
+Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds in
+the excitement that possessed him.
+
+"It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo," he cried.  "They have
+laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves."
+
+I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling
+veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror
+spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though
+he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
+
+"Out of this!" he growled at them.  "See that your swords hang ready.
+Away!"
+
+One of them murmured something that I could not catch.  Mother in Heaven!
+if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a
+suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it?  But
+Ramiro's answer speedily relieved my fears.
+
+"I'll take no risks," he barked.  "Come! Let us go separately.  I first,
+and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can."  His voice
+grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words, "Cesena"
+and "to-morrow night," from which I gathered that he was appointing that
+as their next meeting-place.
+
+Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere the
+others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that was
+here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by their
+still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
+
+Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it had
+lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those
+ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola.  Her breathing was grown more
+heavy and more regular, so that in all respects she was as one sleeping
+healthily.  Soon I hoped that she might awaken, for to seek to bear her
+thence and to the Palace in my arms would have been a madness.  And now it
+occurred to me that I should have restoratives at hand against the time of
+her regaining consciousness.  Inspiration suggested to me the wine that
+should be stored in the sacristy for altar purposes.  It was
+unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in using it.
+
+I crept round to the front of the altar.  At the angle a candle-branch
+protruded, standing no higher than my head.  It held some three or four
+tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at early
+Mass on dark winter mornings.  I plucked one of the candles from its
+socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the
+burning tapers of the bier.  Screening it with my hand, I retraced my
+steps and regained the chancel.  Then turning to the left, I made for a
+door that I knew should give access to the sacristy.  It yielded to my
+touch, and I passed down a short stone-flagged passage, and entered the
+spacious chamber beyond.  An oak settle was placed against one wall, and
+above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix.  Facing it against the
+other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard, half-buffet.
+On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a few
+vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere and
+white-washed chamber.  Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one of
+the drawers.  It was full of garments of different kinds, among which I
+noticed several monks' habits.  I rummaged to the bottom only to find some
+odd pairs of sandals.
+
+Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better
+fortune.  Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and
+fragrant with rosemary.  I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to
+the cupboard above.  It was locked, but the key was there.  It opened, and
+my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated
+chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid
+gold, set with precious stones.  But in a corner I espied a dark-brown,
+gourd-shaped object.  It was a skin of wine, and, with a half-suppressed
+cry of joy, I seized it.  In that instant a piercing scream rang through
+the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I stood there for
+some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping to my
+mind.
+
+Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned?  Did the scream mean that
+Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
+
+A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that
+its first utterance had cast over me.  Dropping the leather bottle, I sped
+back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the chancel.
+
+There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and
+ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays
+of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs were
+hung.  She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very natural
+fear consequent upon awakening in such a place that had provoked the cry I
+had heard.
+
+"Madonna," I called, advancing swiftly towards her.  "Madonna Paola!"
+There was a gasp, a moment's stillness, then--
+
+"Lazzaro?" She cried, questioningly.  "What has happened?  Why am I here?"
+
+I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
+
+"Something horrible has happened, Madonna," I answered.  "But it is over
+now, and the evil is averted."
+
+"But how came I here?"
+
+"That you shall learn."  I stooped to gather up the cloak which had
+slipped from her shoulders as she advanced.  "Do you wrap this about you,"
+I urged her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in that
+mantle.  "Are you faint, Madonna?" I asked.
+
+"I scarce know," she answered in a frightened voice.  "There is a black
+horror upon me.  Tell me," she implored again, "what does it mean?"
+
+I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once
+she were out of these forbidding surroundings.  I led her to the sacristy
+and seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once again.
+
+At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was
+insistent.
+
+"It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna," I told her.  "The wine
+will warm and revive you.  Come Madonna mia, drink."
+
+She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she drank
+a lusty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour to
+replace the ashen pallor of her cheeks.
+
+"I am so cold, Lazzaro," she complained.
+
+I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks' habits, and
+pulling one out I held it for her to don.  She sat there now, in that
+garment of coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder, the
+fairest postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
+
+"You are good to me, Lazzaro," she murmured plaintively, "and I have used
+you very ill."  She paused a second, passing her hand across her brow.
+Then--"What is the hour?" she asked.
+
+It was a question that I left unheeded.  I bade her brace herself and have
+courage for the tale I was to tell.  I assured her that the horror of it
+was all passed and that she had naught to fear.  So soon as her natural
+curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to her brother
+at the Palace.
+
+"But how came I thence?" she cried.  "I must have lain in a swoon, for I
+remember nothing."  And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable
+conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered
+catafalque which she had seen--"Did they account me dead, Lazzaro?" she
+asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they were
+turned upon my own.
+
+"Yes, Madonna," answered I, "you were accounted dead."  And, with that, I
+told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I left my
+own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune presence in the
+church.  When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she shuddered
+and closed her eyes in very awe.  At length, when I had done, she opened
+them again, and again she turned them full upon me.  Their brightness
+seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that she was quietly weeping.
+
+"And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?" she murmured brokenly.  "Lazzaro
+mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of you.  You are
+indeed my one true friend--the one true friend that never fails me."
+
+"Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?" I asked abruptly, roughly almost.
+
+"Yes, I am stronger." She stood up as if to test her strength.  "Indeed
+little ails me saving the horror of this thing.  The thought of it seems
+to turn me sick and dizzy."
+
+"Sit then and rest," said I.  "Presently, when you are more recovered, we
+will set out."
+
+"Whither shall we go?" she asked.
+
+"Why, to the Palace, to your brother."
+
+"Why, yes," she answered, as though it were the last suggestion that she
+had been expecting, "And to-morrow--it will be to-morrow, will it not?--
+comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride.  He will owe you no mean
+thanks, Lazzaro."
+
+There was a pause.  I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my
+mind, but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be from
+matins, and how soon we might be discovered by the monks.  Presently she
+spoke again.
+
+"Lazzaro," she inquired very gently, "what was it brought you to the
+church?"
+
+"I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service," answered I, and
+fearing such questions as might follow--questions that I had been dreading
+ever since I had brought her to the sacristy--"If you are recovered we had
+best be going," I told her gruffly.
+
+"Nay, I am not yet enough recovered," answered she.  "And before we go,
+there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have you make
+clear to me.  Meanwhile, we are very well here.  If the good fathers come
+upon us, what shall it signify?"
+
+I groaned inwardly, and I grew, I think, more afraid than when Ramiro and
+his men had broken into the church an hour ago.
+
+"What kept you here after all were gone?"
+
+"I remained to pray, Madonna," I answered brusquely.  "Is aught else to be
+done in a church?"
+
+"To pray for me, Lazzaro?" she asked.
+
+"Assuredly, Madonna."
+
+"Faithful heart," she murmured.  "And I had used you so cruelly for the
+deception you practised.  But you merited my cruelty, did you not,
+Lazzaro?  Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse."
+
+"Perhaps I deserved it, Madonna.  But perhaps not so much as you bestowed,
+had you but understood my motives," I said unguardedly.
+
+"If I had understood your motives?" she mused.  "Aye, there is much I do
+not understand.  Even in this night's transactions there are not wanting
+things that remain mysterious despite the explanations you have supplied
+me.  Tell me, Lazzaro, what was it led you to suppose that I still lived?
+
+"I did not suppose it," I blundered like a fool, never seeing whither her
+question led.
+
+"You did not?" she cried, in deep surprise; and now, when it was too late,
+I understood.  "What was it, then, induced you to lift the coffin-lid?"
+
+"You ask me more than I can tell you," I answered, almost roughly.  "Do
+you thank God, Madonna, that it was so, and never plague your mind to
+learn the 'why' of it."
+
+She looked at me with eyes that were singularly luminous.
+
+"But I must know," she insisted.  "Have I not the right?  Tell me now: Was
+it that you wished to see my face again before they gave me over to the
+grave?"
+
+"Perhaps it was that, Madonna," I answered in confusion, avoiding her
+glance.  Then--"Shall we be going?" I suggested fiercely.  But she never
+heeded that suggestion.
+
+She spoke as if she had not heard, and the words she uttered seemed to
+turn me into stone.
+
+"Did you love me then so much, dear Lazzaro?"
+
+I swung round to face her now, and I know that my face was white--whiter
+than hers had been when I had beheld her in her coffin.  My eyes seemed to
+burn in their sockets as they met hers.  A madness overtook me and whelmed
+my better judgment.  I had undergone so much that day through grief, and
+that night through a hundred emotions, that I was no longer fully master
+of myself.  Her words robbed me, I think, of my last lingering shred of
+reason.
+
+"Love you, Madonna?" I echoed, in a voice that was as unlike my own as was
+the mood that then possessed me.  "You are the air I breathe, the sun that
+lights my miserable world.  You are dearer to me than honour, sweeter than
+life.  You are the guardian angel of my existence, the saint to whom I
+have turned morning and evening in my prayers for grace.  Do I love you,
+Madonna--?"
+
+And there I paused.  The thought of what I did and what the consequences
+must be rushed suddenly upon me.  I shivered as a man shivers in awaking.
+I dropped on my knees before her, bowing my head and flinging wide my
+arms.
+
+"Forgive, Madonna," I cried entreatingly.  "Forgive and forget.  Never
+again will I offend."
+
+"Neither forgive nor forget will I," came her voice, charged with an
+ineffable sweetness, and her hands descended on my bowed bead, as if she
+would bless and soothe me.  "I am conscious of no offence that craves
+forgiveness, and what you have said I would not forget if I could.  Whence
+springs this fear of yours, dear Lazzaro?  Am I more than woman, or you
+less than man that you should tremble for the confession that in a wild
+moment I have dragged from you?  For that wild moment I shall be thankful
+to my life's end; for your words have been the sweetest ever my poor ears
+listened to.  Once I thought that I loved the Lord Giovanni Sforza.  But
+it was you I loved; for the deeds that earned him my affection were deeds
+of yours and not of his.  Once I told you so in scorn.  Yet since then I
+have come soberly to ponder it.  I account you, Lazzaro, the noblest
+friend, the bravest gentleman and the truest lover that the world has
+known.  Need it surprise you, then, that I love you and that mine would be
+a happy life if I might spend it in growing worthy of this noble love of
+yours?"
+
+There was a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes--a matter at which I
+take no shame.  Air seemed to fail me for a moment, and I almost thought
+that I should swoon, so overcome was I.  Transport the blackest soul from
+among the damned of Hell, wash it white of its sins and seat it on one of
+the glorious thrones of Heaven, then ponder its emotions, and you may
+learn something of what I felt.  At last, when I had mastered the
+exquisite torture of my joy--
+
+"Madonna mia," I cried, "bethink you of what you say.  You are the noble
+lady of Santafior, and I--"
+
+"No more of this," she interrupted me.  "You are Lazzaro Biancomonte, of
+patrician birth, no matter to what odd shifts a cruel fortune may have
+driven you.  Will you take me?"
+
+She had my face between her palms, and she forced my glance to meet her
+own saintly eyes.
+
+"Will you take me, Lazaro?" she repeated.
+
+"Holy Flower of the Quince!" was all that I could murmur, whereat she
+gently smiled.  "Santo Fior di Cotogno!"
+
+And then a great sadness overwhelmed me.  A tide that neaped the frail
+bark of happiness high and dry upon the shores of black despair.
+
+"To-morrow Madonna, comes the Lord Ignacio Borgia," I groaned.
+
+"I know, I know," said she.  "But I have thought of that.  Paula Sforza di
+Santafior is dead.  Requiescat!  We must dispose that they will let her
+rest in peace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AN ILL ENCOUNTER
+
+
+Speechless I stared at her a moment, so taken was I with the immensity of
+the thing that she suggested.  Fear, amazement, and joy jostled one
+another for the possession of my mind.
+
+"Why do you look so, Lazzaro?" she exclaimed at last.  "What is it daunts
+you?
+
+"How is the thing possible?" quoth I.
+
+"What difficulty does it present?" she questioned back.  "The Governor of
+Cesena has rendered very possible what I propose.  We may look on him
+to-morrow as our best friend."
+
+"But Ramiro knows," I reminded her.
+
+"True, but do you think that he will dare to tell the world what he knows?
+He might be asked to say how he comes by his knowledge, and that should
+prove a difficult question to answer.  Tell me, Lazzaro," she continued,
+"if he had succeeded in carrying me away, what think you would have been
+said in Pesaro to-morrow when the coffin was found empty?"
+
+"They would assume that your body had been stolen by some wizard or some
+daring student of anatomy."
+
+"Ah!  And if we were quietly to quit the church and be clear of Pesaro
+before morning, would not the same be said?"
+
+"Probably," answered I.
+
+"Then why hesitate?  Is it that you do not love me enough, Lazzaro?"
+
+I smiled, and my eyes must have told her more than any protestation could.
+Then I sighed.  "I hesitate, Madonna, because I would not have you do now
+what you might come, hereafter, bitterly to repent.  I would not let you
+be misled by the impulse of a moment into an act whose consequences must
+endure as long as life itself."
+
+"Is that the reasoning of a lover?" she asked me, very quietly.  "Is this
+cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the stormy passion
+you professed so lately?"
+
+"It is," I answered stoutly.  "It is because I love you more than I love
+myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life upon such
+a broken raft as mine.  You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and I--"
+
+"Enough of that," she interrupted me, rising.  She swept towards me, and
+before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and
+her blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
+
+"Lazzaro," said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in her low
+tones, "moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me, and
+bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time.  Will you wait
+until escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered, before you
+will decide to save me, and to grasp with both hands this happiness of
+ours that is not twice offered in a lifetime?"
+
+She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her heart.
+Some subtle perfume reaching me and combining with the dominion that her
+eyes seemed to have established over me completed my subjugation.  I was
+as warm wax in her hands.  Forgotten were all considerations of rank and
+station.  We were just a man and a woman whose fates were linked
+irrevocably by love.  I stooped suddenly, under the sway of an impulse, I
+could not resist, and kissed her upturned face, turning almost dizzy in
+the act.  Then I broke from her clasp, and bracing myself for the task to
+which we stood committed by that kiss--
+
+"Paola," said I, "we must devise the means to get away.  I will bear you
+to my mother's home near Biancomonte, that you may dwell there at least
+until we are wed.  But the thing that exercises my mind is how to make
+our unobserved escape from Pesaro."
+
+"I have thought of it already," she informed me quietly.
+
+"You have thought of it?" I cried.  "And of what have you thought?"
+
+For answer she stepped back a pace, and drew the cowl of the monk's habit
+over her head until her features were lost in the shadows of it.  She
+stood before me now, a diminutive Dominican brother.  Her meaning was
+clear to me at once.  With a cry of gladness I turned to the drawer whence
+I had taken the habit in which she was arrayed, and selecting another one
+I hastily donned it above the garments that I wore.
+
+No sooner was it done than I caught her by the arm.
+
+"Come, Madonna," I bade her in an urgent voice.  At the first step she
+stumbled.  The habit was so long that it cumbered her feet.  But that was
+a difficulty soon conquered.  With my dagger I cut a piece from the skirt
+of it, enough to leave her freedom of movement; and, that accomplished, we
+set out.
+
+We crossed the church swiftly and silently, and a moment I left her in the
+porch whilst I surveyed the street.  All was quiet.  Pesaro still slept,
+and it must have wanted some two hours or more to the dawn.
+
+A fine rain was falling as we sallied out, and there was a sting in the
+December wind which made us draw our cowls the tighter about our face.
+Abandoning the main street, I led her down some narrow alleys, deserted
+like all the rest of the city, and not so much as a stray cat abroad in
+that foul weather.  It was very dark, and a hundred times we stumbled,
+whilst in some places I almost carried her bodily to avoid the filth of
+the quarter we were traversing.  At length we gained the space in front of
+the gates that open on to the northern road, known as Porta Venezia, and I
+would have blundered on and roused the guard to let us out, using the
+Borgia ring once more--that talisman whose power had grown during these
+years, so that it would now open me almost any door in Italy.  But Paola
+stayed me.  Wisely she counselled that we should do nothing that might
+draw too much attention upon ourselves, and she urged me to wait until the
+dawn, when the guard would be astir and the gates opened.
+
+So we fled to the shelter of a porch, and there we waited, huddling
+ourselves out of the reach of the icy rain.  We talked little during the
+time we spent there.  For my own part I had overmuch food for thought, and
+a very natural anxiety racked me.  Soon the monks would be descending to
+the church, and they would discover the havoc there, and spread the alarm.
+
+Who could say but that they might even discover the abstraction of the two
+habits from the sacristy, and the hue and cry for two men in the sackcloth
+of Dominicans would be afoot--for they would infer that two men so
+disguised had made off with the body of Madonna Paola.  The thought
+stirred me like a goad.  I stood up.  The night was growing thinner, and,
+suddenly, even as I rose, a light gleamed from one of the Windows of the
+guard-house.
+
+"God be thanked for that fellow's early rising," I cried out.  "Come,
+Madonna, let us be moving."
+
+And I added my newly-conceived reasons for quitting the place without
+further delay.
+
+Cursing us for being so early abroad--a curse to which I responded with a
+sonorous "Pax Domini sit tecum" the still somnolent sentinel opened the
+post and let us pass.  I was glad in the end that we had waited and thus
+avoided the necessity of showing my ring, for should inquiries be made
+concerning two monks, that ring of mine might have betrayed the identity
+of one of them.  I gave thanks to Heaven that I knew the country well.  A
+quarter of a league or so from Pesaro we quitted the high-road and took to
+the by-paths with which I was well acquainted.
+
+Day came, grey and forbidding at first, but presently the rain ceased and
+the sun flashed out a thousand diamonds from the drenched hedge-rows.
+
+We plodded on; and at length, towards noon, when we had gained the
+neighbourhood of the village of Cattolica, we halted at the hut of a
+peasant on a small campagna.  I had divested myself of my monk's habit,
+and cut away the cowl from Madonna's.  She had thereafter fashioned it by
+means that were mysterious to my dull man's mind into a more feminine-
+looking garb.
+
+Thus we now presented ourselves to the old man who was the sole tenant of
+that lonely and squalid house.  A ducat opened his door as wide as it
+would go, and gave us free access to every cranny of his dwelling.  Food
+he procured us--rough black bread, some pieces of roasted goat, and some
+goat's milk--and on this we regaled ourselves as though it had been a
+ducal banquet, for hunger had set us in the mood to account anything
+delicious.  And when we had eaten we fell to talking, the old man having
+left us to go about such peasant duties as claimed his attention, and our
+talk concerned ourselves, our future first, and later on our past.  I
+remember that Madonna returned to the matter of the deception that I had
+practised, seeking to learn what reasons had impelled me, and I answered
+her in all truth.
+
+"Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love.  When Giovanni
+Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook the
+task with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out the
+tale of the passion that was consuming my poor heart.  It occurred to me
+that if those verses were worthy, you might come to love their author for
+their beauty, and so I strove to render them beautiful.  It was the same
+spirit urged me to don the Lord Giovanni's armour and fight in that
+splendid if futile skirmish.  Even as you had come to love the author for
+his verses, so might you come to love the warrior for his valour.  That
+you should account the one and the other the work of Giovanni Sforza was
+to me a little thing, since I was well content to think that you but loved
+him because you accounted his the things that I had performed.  Therefore
+was I the one you truly loved, although you did not know it.  Could you
+but conceive what consolation that reflection was to me, you would deal
+lightly with me for my deceit."
+
+"I can conceive it," she answered, very gently, her eyes downcast; "and
+now that I know the motives that impelled you, I almost love you for that
+deceit itself, for it seems to me that it holds some quality well worthy
+of devotion."
+
+Such was our talk, all of a nature to help us to a better understanding of
+each other, and all seeming to endear us more and more by showing us how
+close the past had already drawn us.
+
+Later I rose and announced my intention of adventuring into Cattolica,
+there to procure her garments more seemly than those she wore, in which
+she might journey on and come into the presence of my mother.  Also, there
+was in Cattolica a man I knew, of whom I hoped for the loan of enough
+money to enable me to purchase mules, to the end that we might journey in
+more dignity and comfort.  It was then about the twentieth hour, and I
+hoped to return by nightfall.  I took my leave of Madonna, enjoining her
+to rest and to seek sleep whilst I was absent; and with that I set out.
+
+Cattolica was no more than a half-league distant, and I looked to reach it
+in a half-hour or so.  I fell into thought as I trudged along, and I was
+building plans for the sunlit future that was to be ours.  I was a man
+transformed that day, and I could have sung in spite of the chill December
+wind that buffeted me, so full of joy and gladness was my heart.
+
+At Biancomonte I was likely to spend my days as little better than a
+peasant, but surely a peasant's estate with such a companion as was to be
+mine was preferable to an emperor's throne without her.
+
+The bleak landscape seemed to me invested with a beauty that at no other
+time I should have noticed.  God was good.  I swore a thousand times, the
+world was a good world--so good that Heaven could scarce be better.
+
+I had come, perhaps, the better half of the distance I had to travel, and
+I was giving full rein to my joyous fancy, when suddenly I espied ahead a
+company of horsemen.  They were approaching me at a brisk pace, but I took
+no thought of them, accounting myself secure from any molestation.  If it
+so happened that it was a search party from Pesaro, seeking two men
+disguised as monks who had ravished the coffin of Madonna Paola di
+Santafior, what should they want of Lazzaro Biancomonte?  And so, in my
+confidence, I advanced even as they trotted quickly towards me.
+
+Not until they were within a matter of a hundred paces did I raise my eyes
+to take their measure; and then I halted on my step, smitten of a sudden
+by an unreasoning and unreasonable fear, to see at their head the bulky
+form of the Governor of Cesena.  He saw me, too, and, what was worse, he
+recognised me on the instant, for he clapped spurs to his horse and came
+at me as if he would ride me down.  Within three paces of me he drew up
+his steed.  Whether the memory of the other two occasions on which I had
+thwarted him arose now in his mind and made him wonder had not some
+fatality brought me across his path again to send awry his pretty schemes
+concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for certain; yet some suspicion of
+it occurred to me and filled me with apprehension.
+
+"Body of Bacchus!" he roared.  "Is it truly you, Boccadoro?"
+
+"They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent," I answered him.  But my tone
+was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
+
+"A fig for what they call you," he snapped contemptuously.  "Whence are
+you?"
+
+"From Pesaro," I answered truthfully.
+
+"From Pesaro?  But you are travelling towards it."
+
+"True.  I was making for Cattolica, but I missed my way in seeking to
+shorten it.  I am now returning by the high-road."
+
+The explanation satisfied him on that point, and being satisfied, he asked
+me when I had left Pesaro.  A moment I hesitated.
+
+"Late last night," said I at last.  He looked, at me, my foolish
+hesitation having perhaps unslipped a suspicion that was straining at its
+leash.
+
+"In that case," said he, "you can scarcely have heard the strange story
+that is being told there?"
+
+I looked at him, as if puzzled, for a second.  "If you mean the story of
+Madonna Paoia's end, I heard it yesterday."
+
+"Why, what story was that?" quoth he in some surprise, his beetling brows
+coming together in one broad line of fur.
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.  "Men said that she had been poisoned."
+
+"Oh, that," he cried indifferently.  "But men say to-day that her body was
+stolen from the Church of San Domenico where it lay.  An odd happening, is
+it not?"  And his eyes covered me in a fierce scrutiny that again
+suggested to me those suspicions of his that I might be the man who had
+anticipated him.  I was soon to learn that he had more grounds than at
+first I thought for those same suspicions.
+
+"Odd, indeed," I answered calmly, for all that I felt my pulses quickening
+with apprehension.  "But is it true?" I added.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.  "Rumour's habit is to lie," he answered.  "Yet
+for such a lie as that, so monstrous an imagination would be needed that,
+rather, am I inclined to account it truth.  There are no more poets in
+Pesaro since you left.  But at what hour was it that you quitted the
+city?"
+
+To hesitate again were to betray myself; it were to suggest that I was
+seeking an answer that should sort well with the rest of my story.
+Besides, what could the hour signify?"
+
+"It would be about the first hour of night," I said.  He looked at me with
+increasing strangeness.
+
+"You must indeed have wandered from your road to have got no farther than
+this in all that time.  Perhaps you were hampered by some heavy burden?"
+He leered evilly, and I turned cold.
+
+"I was burdened with nothing heavier than this body of mine and a rather
+uneasy conscience."
+
+"Where, then, have you tarried?"
+
+At this I thought it time to rebel.  Were I too meekly to submit to this
+examination, my very meekness might afford him fresh grounds for doubts.
+
+"Once have I told you," I answered wearily, "that I lost my way.  And,
+however much it may flatter me to have your Excellency evincing such an
+interest in my concerns, I am at a loss to find a reason for it."
+
+He leered prodigiously once more, and his eyebrows shot up to the level of
+his cap.
+
+"I will tell you, brute beast," he answered me.  "I question you because I
+suspect that you are hiding something from me."
+
+"What should I hide from your Excellency?"
+
+He dared not enlighten me on that point, for should his suspicions prove
+unfounded he would have uselessly betrayed himself.
+
+"If you are honest, why do you lie?"
+
+"I?" I ejaculated.  "In what have I lied?"
+
+"In that you have told me that you left Pesaro at the first hour of night.
+At the third hour you were still in the Church of San Domenico, whither
+you followed Madonna Paola's bier."
+
+It was my turn to knit my brows.  "Was I indeed?" quoth I.  "Why, yes, it
+may well be.  But what of that?  Is the hour in which I quitted Pesaro a
+matter of such moment as to be worth lying over?  If I said that I left
+about the first hour, it is because I was under the impression that it was
+so.  But I was so distraught by grief at Madonna's death that I may have
+been careless in my account of time."
+
+"More lies," he blazed with sudden passion.  "It may have been the third
+hour, you say.  Fool, the gates of Pesaro close at the second hour of
+night.  Where are your wits?"
+
+Outwardly calm, but inwardly in a panic--more for Madonna's sake than for
+my own--I promptly held out the hand on which I wore the Borgia ring.  In
+a flash of inspiration did that counter suggest itself to me.
+
+"There is a key that will open any gate in Romagna at any hour."
+
+He looked at the ring, and of what passed in his mind I can but offer a
+surmise.  He may have remembered that once before I had fooled him with
+the help of that gold circlet; or he may have thought that I was secretly
+in the service of the Borgias, and that, acting in their interests, I had
+carried off Madonna Paola.  Be that as it may, the sight of the ring threw
+him into a fury.  He turned on his horse.
+
+"Lucagnolo!" he called, and a man of officer's rank detached himself from
+the score of men-at-arms and rode forward.  "Let six men escort me home
+to Cesena.  Take you the remainder and beat up the country for three
+leagues about this spot.  Do not leave a house outside Cattolica
+unsearched.  You know what we are seeking?"
+
+The man inclined his head.
+
+"If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it," he
+answered confidently.
+
+"Set about it," was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me.
+"You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro," he sneered.  "We
+shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me.  Woe betide you,
+should it be so.  We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena."
+
+"So be it then," I answered as calmly as I might.  "Meanwhile, perhaps you
+will now suffer me to go my ways."
+
+"The readier since your way must lie with ours."
+
+"Not so, Magnificent, I am for Cattolica."
+
+"Not so, animal," he mimicked me with elephantine grace, "you are for
+Cesena, and you had best go with a good will.  Our manner of constraining
+men is reputed rude."  He turned again.  "Ercole, take you this man behind
+you.  Assist him, Stefano."
+
+And so it was done, and a few minutes later I was riding, strapped to the
+steel-clad Ercole, away from Paola at every stride.  Thus at every stride
+the anguish that possessed me increased, as the fear that they must find
+her rose ever higher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE CITADEL OF CESENA
+
+
+I will not harass you at any further length with the feelings that were
+mine as we sped northward towards Cesena.  If you are a person of some
+imagination and not destitute of human sympathy you will be able to
+surmise them; if you are not--why then, my tale is not for you, and it is
+more than probable that you will have wearied of it and flung it aside
+long before you reach this page.
+
+We rode so hard that by sunset Cesena was in sight, and ere night had
+fallen we were within the walls of the citadel.  It was when we had
+dismounted and I stood in the courtyard between Ercole and another of the
+soldiers that Ramiro again addressed me.
+
+"Animal," said he, "they tell me that I bear a name for harsh measures and
+rough ways.  You shall be a witness hereafter of how deeply I am maligned.
+For instead of putting you to the question and loosening your lying tongue
+with the rack, I am content to keep you a prisoner until my men return
+with that which I suspect you to be hiding from me.  But if I then
+discover that you have sought to fool me, you shall flutter from Ramiro
+del' Orca's flagstaff."
+
+He pointed up to the tower of the Castle, from which a beam protruded,
+laden at that moment with a ghastly burden just discernible in the
+thickening gloom.  He named it well when he called it his "flagstaff," and
+the miserable banner of carrion that hung from it was a fitting pennon for
+the ruthless Governor of Cesena.  Worthy was he to have worn the silver
+hauberk of Werner von Urslingen with its motto, "The enemy of God, of pity
+and of mercy."
+
+Forbidding, black-browed men caught me with rough hands and dragged me off
+to a dank, unlighted prison, as empty of furniture as it was full of
+noisome smells.  And there they left me to my ugly thoughts and my deeply
+despondent mood what time the Governor of Cesena supped with his officers
+in the hall of the Castle.
+
+Ramiro drank deep that night as was his habit, and being overladen with
+wine it entered his mind that in one of his dungeons lay Lazzaro
+Biancomonte, who, at one time, had been known as Boccadoro, the merriest
+Fool in Italy.  In his drunkenness he grew merry, and when Ramiro del'
+Orca grew merry men crossed themselves and betook them to their prayers.
+He would fain be amused, and to serve that end he summoned one of his
+sbirri and bade the fellow drag Boccadoro from his dungeon and fetch him
+into his presence.
+
+When they came for me I turned cold with fear that Madonna was already
+taken, and, by contrast with such a fear as that, the reflection that he
+might carry out his threat to hang me from that black beam of his, faded
+into insignificant proportions.
+
+They ushered me into a great hall, not ill-furnished, the floor strewed
+plentifully with rushes, and warmed by an enormous fire of blazing oak.
+By the door stood two pikemen in armour, like a pair of statues; in the
+centre of the floor was a heavy oaken board, laden now with flagons and
+beakers, at which sat Ramiro with a pair of gossips so villainous to look
+at, that the sight of them reminded me of the adage "God makes a man and
+then accompanies him."
+
+The Governor made a hideous noise at sight of me, which I was constrained
+to accept as an expression of horrid glee.
+
+"Boccadoro," said he, "do you recall that when last I had the honour of
+being entertained by your pert tongue, I promised you that did you ever
+cross my path again I would raise you to the dignity of Fool of my Court
+of Cesena?"
+
+Into what magniloquence does vanity betray us! His Court of Cesena!  As
+well might you describe a pig-sty as a bower of roses.
+
+But his words, despite the unsavoury thing of which they seemed to hold a
+promise, fell sweetly on my ear, inasmuch as for the time they relieved my
+fears touching Madonna.  It was not to advise me of her capture that he
+had had me haled into his odious presence.  I gathered courage.
+
+"Have you not fools enough already at Cesena?" I asked him.
+
+A moment he looked as if he were inclining to anger.  Then he burst into a
+coarse laugh, and turned to one of his gossips.
+
+"Did I not tell you, Lampugnani, that his wit was quick and penetrating?
+Hear him, rogue.  Already has he discerned your quality." He laughed
+consumedly at his own jest, and turning to me he pointed to a crimson
+bundle on a chair beside me.  "Take those garments," he roughly bade me.
+"Go dress yourself in them, then come you back and entertain us."
+
+Without answering him, and already anticipating the nature of the clothes
+he bade me don, I lifted one of the garments from the heap.  It was a
+foliated jester's cap, with a bell hanging from every point, which gave
+out a tinkling sound as I picked it up.  I let it fall again as though it
+had scorched me, the memory of what stood between Madonna Paola and me
+rising like a warning spectre in my mind.  I would not again defile myself
+by the garb of folly; not again would I incur the shame of playing the
+Fool for the amusement of others.
+
+"May it please your Excellency to excuse me," I answered in a firm tone.
+"I have made a vow never again to put on motley."
+
+He eyed me sardonically for a moment, as if enjoying in anticipation the
+pleasure of compelling me against my will.  He sat back in his chair and
+threw one heavily-booted leg across the other.
+
+"In the Citadel of Cesena," said he, "we fear neither God nor Devil, and
+vows are as water to us--things we cannot stomach.  It does not please me
+to excuse you."
+
+I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he
+accompanied his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
+
+"It is not," said I, "a question of what a vow may be to you and yours,
+but of what a vow is to me.  It is a thing I cannot break."
+
+"Sangue di Cristo!," he snarled, "we will break it for you, then--that or
+your bones.  Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the rack--or yet, if
+you prefer it, there is the cord yonder."  And he pointed to the far end
+of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a pulley, the implements
+of the ghastly torture of the cord.  Of such a nature was this monster
+that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
+
+"Let the rogue make acquaintance with it," laughed Lampugnani, showing a
+mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
+"I'll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his quips.
+Swing him up, Illustrious."
+
+But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
+
+"You shall have five minutes in which to decide," he informed me
+presently.  "They say that I am cruel.  Behold how patient is my clemency.
+Five minutes shall you have where many another would hang you out of hand
+for bearding him as you have done me."
+
+"You may begin at once," said I.  "neither five minutes nor five years
+will alter my determination."
+
+His brow grew black with anger.  "We shall see," was all he said.
+
+There was a silence now in which we waited, a storm of thoughts battling
+in my mind.  Presently Ramiro caught up one of the flagons and applied it
+to his cup.  It proved empty, and in a gust of passion he hurled it
+against the wall where it burst into a thousand pieces.  Clearly he was
+very angry, and it taxed my wits to account for the little measure of
+patience he was showing me.
+
+"Beppo!" he called.  A page lounging by the buffet sprang to attention.
+He was a slender, rather delicate lad, fair of hair and blue of eyes, not
+more than twelve years of age.  An elderly man who stood beside him--one
+Mariani, the seneschal of Cesena--stepped forward also, solicitude in his
+glance.
+
+"Bring me wine," bawled the ogre.  "Must I tell you what I need?  If you
+do not put those eyes of yours to better service, I'll have them plucked
+from your empty head.  Bestir, animal."
+
+The old man caught up a beaker from the buffet and handed it to the boy.
+
+"Here, my son," said he.  "Hasten to his Excellency."
+
+The lad took the beaker from his father's hands, and trembling in his fear
+of Ramiro's anger, he sprang forward to serve him.  In his haste the poor
+youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes.  In seeking to
+recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the halberdiers that
+guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at Ramiro's feet,
+flooding the Governor's legs with the wine he carried.
+
+How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
+
+For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes
+glowing like a madman's.  Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one hand
+to the boy's belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin.  Feeling himself
+lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him, poor Beppo
+uttered a single scream of terror.  Then Ramiro swung him round with an
+ease that displayed the man's prodigious strength.  For just a second he
+seemed to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle that he held.  Then,
+as if suddenly taking his resolve, that devil hurled the lad across the
+little intervening space, straight into the heart of the blazing fire.
+
+Beppo hurtled against the logs with a sickening crash, and a thousand
+sparks leapt up and vanished in the cavern of the chimney.  Ramiro wheeled
+sharply about, and snatching the pike from the hands of one of my guards,
+he pinned down the poor body of the boy to make sure of his victim's
+entire destruction.
+
+Away by the buffet old Mariani looked on with a face as grey as ashes, his
+eyes protruding in horror at the thing they witnessed.  One glimpse I had
+of him, and I scarce know which was the sight that sickened me more, the
+fathers anguish or the twitching limbs of the burning child.  Two legs and
+two arms protruded from the blaze and writhed and wriggled horribly what
+time the flames peeled the garments from them and licked the flesh from
+the bones.  At length they fell still and sank down into the white heat of
+the logs, a hideous, pungent odour spreading through the chamber.  From
+the old man by the buffet, who had stood spellbound during this ghastly
+scene, there broke at last an anguished cry.
+
+"Mercy, my lord, mercy!"
+
+The Governor of Cesena straightened himself from his task, pulled the pike
+from the flames, and restored it to the man-at-arms.  Then turning to
+Mariani:
+
+"Fetch me wine," he bade him curtly, as he seated himself once more upon
+the chair from which he had risen to perform that deed of ghastly
+ruthlessness.
+
+A torch spluttered suddenly in its sconce, and the fierce hissing of the
+fire--like some monster licking its chops over a bloody meal--were the
+only sounds that disturbed the stillness that ensued.
+
+Every man there, including Ramiro's table companions, was white to the
+lips; for  accustomed though they might be to horrors in that brigand's
+nest, this was a horror that surpassed anything they had ever witnessed.
+The silence irked Messer Ramiro.  He looked round from under his shaggy
+brows, and he spluttered out an oath.
+
+"Will you bring me this wine, pig?" he growled at the almost senseless
+Mariani, and in his air and voice there was a promise of such terrific
+things that the old man put aside his horror to make room for his fears,
+and mechanically seizing another flagon he hurried forward to minister to
+the wants of his fearful lord.
+
+Ramiro eyed him with cynical amusement.
+
+"Your hand shakes, Mariani," he derided him.  "Are you cold?  Go warm
+yourself," he added, with a brutal laugh and a jerk of his thumb towards
+the fire.
+
+My eyes have looked upon some gruesome sights, and I have heard such tales
+of ruthless cruelty as you would deem almost passing possibility.  I have
+read of the awful doings of the Lord Bernabo Visconti at Milan in the
+olden time, but I believe that compared with this monster of Cesena that
+same Bernabo was no worse than a sucking dove.  How it befell that men
+permitted him to live, how it was that none bethought him to put poison in
+his wine or a knife in his back, is something that I shall never wholly
+understand.  Could it be that these robbers of whom he made a hedge for
+his protection were no better than himself, or was it that the man's
+terrific brutality was on such a scale that it filled them with an almost
+supernatural awe of him?  To men better versed than am I in the mysterious
+ways of human nature do I leave the answering of these questions.
+
+The ogre turned his bloodshot eyes upon me, as with his hand he caressed
+his tawny beard.  He seemed to have cooled a little now, and to have
+regained some mastery of his drunken self.  Old Mariani tottered back to
+his buffet, and stood leaning against it, his eyes wandering, with the
+look of a man demented, to the fire that had devoured his child.  There,
+indeed, if he escaped the madness with which the poignancy of his grief
+was threatening him, was a tool that might turn its edge against this
+inhuman monster, this devil, this bloody carnifex of a Governor.
+
+"Chance," said Ramiro, "has designed that you should see something of how
+we deal with clumsy knaves at Cesena, Boccadoro.  To disobedient ones I
+can assure you that we are not half so merciful.  There is no such short
+shrift for them.  You have had more than the time I promised you for
+reflection.  The garments await you yonder.  Let us know--"
+
+The door opened suddenly, and a servant entered.
+
+"A courier from the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli, Tyrant of Citt� di Castello,"
+he announced, unwittingly breaking in upon Ramiro's words, "with urgent
+messages for the high and Mighty Governor of Cesena."
+
+On the instant Ramiro rose, the expression of his face changing from
+cynical amusement to sober concern, the task upon which he was engaged
+forgotten.
+
+"Admit him instantly," he commanded.  And whilst he waited he paced the
+chamber in long strides, his chin thrust slightly forward, suggestive of
+deep thought.  And during that pause, I, too, was thinking.  Not indeed of
+him, nor vainly speculating upon such matters as might be involved in the
+message, the announcement of which seemed so deeply to engage his mind,
+but chiefly of my own and Madonna Paola's concerns.
+
+It was not fear of what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new
+channel and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del' Orca's
+behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his
+diversion.  It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what the
+consequences of my death might be to Paola di Santafior.
+
+However desperate a position may seem, unlooked-for loopholes often
+present themselves, and so long as we live and have sound limbs to aid us
+to seize such opportunities as may offer, it is a weak thing utterly to
+abandon hope.
+
+Was it, then, not better to submit to the shame of the motley once again
+for a little time, when by so doing I might perhaps live to work my own
+salvation, and Madonna's should she suffer capture, rather than stubbornly
+to invite him to put me to death out of a feeling of false pride?
+
+The very resolve seemed to lend me strength and to revive the hope that
+lay moribund in my breast.  And then, scarce was it taken, when the door
+again opened, and a man, who was splashed from head to foot with mud, in
+earnest of how hard he had ridden, was ushered in.
+
+He advanced to Meser Ramiro, bowed and presented a package.  Ramiro broke
+the seal, and standing with his back to the fire, immediately in the light
+shed by one of the wax torches, he read the letter.  Then his eyes
+wandered to the man who had brought it, and to me it seemed that they
+dwelt particularly upon the hat the courier was holding in his hand.
+
+"Take this good fellow to the kitchen," he bade the servant that had
+introduced him, "let him be fed and rested."  Then, turning to the man,
+himself, "I shall require you to set out at daybreak with my answer," he
+said; and so, with a wave of the hand, he dismissed him.  As the messenger
+departed Ramiro returned to the table, filled himself a cup of wine and
+drank.
+
+"What says the Lord Vitelli?" Lampugnani ventured to ask him.
+
+"If he knew you," answered Ramiro, with a scowl, "he would counsel me to
+strangle some of the over-inquisitive rascals that surround me."
+
+"Over-inquisitive?" echoed Lampugnani boldly.  "Body of God!  It were
+enough to wake the curiosity of an ecstatic hermit to have a mud-splashed
+courier from Citta di Castello at Cesena three times within one little
+week."
+
+Ramiro looked at him, and by his glance it was plain to see that the words
+had jarred his temper.  Whatever it was that Vitelli wrote to Ramiro, this
+gentleman was not minded to divulge it.
+
+"If you have supped, Lampugnani," said the Governor slowly, his eyes upon
+his offending officer, "perhaps you will find some duty to perform ere you
+seek your bed."
+
+Lampugnani turned crimson, and for a moment seemed to hesitate.  Then he
+rose.  He was a man of choleric aspect, and that he served under Ramiro
+del' Orca was as much a danger to the Governor as to himself.  He had not
+the air of one whom it was wise to threaten in however veiled a manner.
+
+"Shall I fetch you this fellow's hat ere I sleep?" he inquired, with
+contemptuous insolence.
+
+Not a word did Ramiro answer him, but his glance fastened upon Lampugnani
+with an expression before which that impudent ruffian lowered his own bold
+eyes.  Thus for a moment; then with an awkward laugh to cover the
+intimidation that he felt, Lampugnani walked heavily from the room and
+banged the door after him.
+
+There was about it all a strangeness that set my wits to work in a mighty
+busy fashion.  That work suffered interruption by the harsh voice of
+Ramiro.
+
+"Are you resolved, Boccadoro?" he growled at me.  "Have you decided for
+the motley or the cord?"
+
+Instantly I fell into the part I was to play.
+
+"Did I choose the latter," said I, with an assumption of sudden airiness
+and such a grimace as was part and parcel of my old-time trade, "then were
+I truly worthy of the former, for I should have proved myself, indeed, a
+fool.  Yet if I choose the former, I pray that you'll not follow the same
+course of reasoning, and hold me worthy of the latter."
+
+When he had understood its subtleties; for his wits were of a quality that
+would have disgraced a calf, he roared at the conceit, and seemingly
+thrown into a better humour by the promise of more such entertainment, he
+bade my guards release me, and urged me to assume the motley without more
+delay.
+
+What time I was obeying him my mind was returning to that matter of
+Lampugnani's words, and it is not difficult to understand how I should
+arrive at the only possible conclusion they suggested.  The hats of the
+other messengers from Vitelli, that the officer had mentioned, had been
+brought to Ramiro.  The reason for this that at once arose in my mind was
+that within the messenger's hat there was a second and more secret
+communication for the Governor.
+
+This secrecy and Ramiro's display of anger at seeing a hint of it betrayed
+by Lampugnani struck me, not unnaturally, as suspicious.  What were these
+hidden communications that passed between Vitellozzo Vitelli and the
+Governor of Cesena?  It was a matter of which I could not pretend to offer
+a solution, but, nevertheless, it was one, I thought, that promised to
+repay investigation.
+
+Ramiro grew impatient, and my reflections suffered interruption by his
+rough command that I should hasten.  One of the men-at-arms helped me to
+truss my points, and when that was done I stepped forward--Boccadoro the
+Fool once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE SENESCHAL
+
+For an hour or so that night I played the Fool for Messer Ramiro's
+entertainment in a manner which did high justice to the fame that at
+Pesaro I had earned for the name of Boccadoro.
+
+Beginning with quip and jest and paradox, aimed now at him, now at the
+officer who had remained to keep him company in his cups, now at the
+servants who ministered to him, now at the guards standing at attention, I
+passed on later to play the part of narrator, and I delighted his foul and
+prurient mind with the story of Andreuccio da Perugia and another of the
+more licentious tales of Messer Giovanni Boccacci.  I crimson now with
+shame at the manner in which I set myself to pander to his mood that with
+my wit I might defend my life and limbs, and preserve them for the service
+of my Holy Flower of the Quince in the hour of her need.
+
+One man alone of all those present did I spare my banter.  This was the
+old seneschal, Miriani.  He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever and
+anon he would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro's cup in obedience
+to the monsters imperious orders.
+
+What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so
+calm?  His face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and
+rigid, its colour ashen.  But his step was tolerably firm, and his hand
+seemed to have lost the trembling that had assailed it under the first
+shock of the horror he had witnessed.
+
+As I watched him furtively I thought that were I Ramiro I should beware of
+him.  That frozen calm argued to me some terrible labour of the mind
+beneath that livid mask.  But the Governor of Cesena appeared insensible,
+or else he was contemptuous of danger from that quarter.  It may even have
+delighted his outrageous nature to behold a man whose son he had done to
+death with such brutality continue obedient and submissive to his will,
+for it may have flattered his vanity by the concession that bearing seemed
+to make to his grim power.
+
+An hour went by, my second tale was done, and I was now entrancing Messer
+Ramiro with some impromptu verses upon the divorce of Giovanni Sforza, a
+theme set me by himself, when I was interrupted by the arrival of a
+soldier, who entered unannounced.
+
+I paled and turned cold at the cry with which Ramiro rose to greet him,
+and the words he dropped, which told me that here was one of the riders of
+the party that, under Lucagnolo, had been ordered to search the country
+about Cattolica.  Had they found Madonna?
+
+"Messer Lucagnolo," the fellow announced, "has sent me to report to you the
+failure of his search to the west and north of Cattolica.  He has beaten
+the country thoroughly for three leagues of the town on those two sides,
+as you desired him, but unfortunately without result.  He is now spreading
+his search to the south, and not a house is being left unvisited.  By
+morning he hopes to report again to your Excellency."
+
+A wild wave of joy swept through my soul.  They had ransacked the country
+west and north of Cattolica without result.  Why then, assuredly, they had
+missed the peasant's hut that sheltered her, and where she waited yet for
+my return.  Their search to the south I knew would prove equally futile.
+I could have fallen on my knees in a prayer of thanksgiving had my
+surroundings been other than they were.
+
+Ramiro's eye wandered round to me and settled on me in a lowering glance.
+By his face it was plain that the message disappointed him.
+
+"I wonder," said he, "whether we could make you talk?"  And from me his
+eyes roamed on to the instrument of torture at the end of that long
+chamber.  I grew sick with fear, for if he were to do this thing, and maim
+me by it, how should I avail myself or her hereafter?
+
+"Excellency," I cried, "since you met me you have hinted at something that
+I am hiding from you, at something touching which I could give you
+information did I choose.  What it may be passes all thought of mine.  But
+this I do assure you: no torture could make me tell you what I do not
+know, nor is any torture needed to extract from me such information as I
+may be possessed of.  I do but beg that you wilt frankly question me upon
+this matter, whatever it may be, and your Excellency shall be answered to
+the best of my knowledge."
+
+He looked at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the
+seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that he
+believed me.  A moment he hesitated yet; then--
+
+"I am seeking knowledge concerning Madonna Paolo di Santafior," he said
+presently, resuming, as he spoke, his seat at table.  "As I told you, the
+body, which was believed to be dead, was stolen in the night from San
+Domenico.  Know you aught of this?"
+
+It may be an ignoble thing to lie, but with what other weapon was I to
+fight this brigand?  Surely if an exception can be made to the rule, and a
+lie become a meritorious thing, such an occasion as this would surely
+justify such an exception.
+
+"I know nothing," I answered boldly, unhesitatingly, and even with a ring
+of truth and sincerity that was calculated to convince, "nor can I even
+believe this rumour.  It is a wild story.  That the body has been stolen
+may be true enough.  Such things occur; though he was a bold man who laid
+hands upon the body of a person of such importance.  But that she lives--
+Gesu! that is an old wife's tale.  I had, myself, the word of the Lord
+Filippo's physician that she was dead."
+
+"Nevertheless, this old wife's tale, as you dub it, is one of which I have
+had confirmation.  Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall not regret
+it.  Exercise them now, and conjecture me who could have abstracted the
+body from the church.  In seeking this information I am acting in the
+interests of the noble House of Borgia which I serve and to which she was
+to have been allied, as you well know."
+
+I could have laughed to see how the apparent sincerity of my denial had
+convinced him to such an extent that he even sought my help to discover
+the true thief, and to account for his interest in the matter he lied to
+me of his service to the House of Borgia.
+
+"I will gladly lend you these wits," said I, "to disprove to you the
+rumour of which you say that you have confirmation.  Let us accept the
+statement that the body has been stolen.  That much, no doubt, is true,
+for even rumours require some slight foundation.  But who in all this
+world could say that when the body was taken it was not dead?  Clearly but
+one man--he that administered the poison.  And, I ask your Excellency,
+would he be likely to tell the world what he had done?"
+
+He might have answered me: "I am that man."  But he did not.  Instead, he
+hung his head, as if pondering the words of wisdom I had uttered--words
+meant to convince him of my own innocence in the matter; and this they
+achieved, at least in part.  He flashed me a look of sudden suspicion, it
+is true; but it faded almost as soon as it shone from his brooding eye.
+
+"Maybe I am a fool that I do not string you up and test the truth of what
+you say," he grumbled.  "But I incline to believe you, and you are a merry
+rogue.  You shall remain and have peace and comfort so long as you amuse
+me.  But tremble if I discover that you have sought to deceive me.  You
+shall have the cord first and other things after, and your death shall be
+the thing you'll pray for long before it takes you from my vengeance.  If
+you know aught, speak now and you shall find me merciful.  Your life and
+liberty shall be the recompense of your honesty towards me."
+
+"I repeat, Excellency," I answered, without changing colour, "that all
+that I know have I already told you."
+
+He was convinced, I think, for the time being.
+
+"Get you gone, then," he bade me.  "I have other business to deal with ere
+I sleep.  Mariani, see that Boccadoro is well lodged."
+
+The old man bowed, and lifting a torch from its socket, he silently
+motioned me to go with him.  I made Messer Ramiro a profound obeisance,
+and withdrew in the wake of the seneschal.
+
+He led me up a flight of stairs that rose from the hall and along a
+gallery that ran half round it, then plunging down a corridor he halted
+presently, and, opening a door, ushered me into a tolerably furnished
+room.
+
+A servant followed hanging the clothes that I had worn when I arrived.
+
+The old man lingered a moment after the servant had withdrawn, and his
+hollow eyes rested on me for a second.  I thought that he was on the point
+of saying something, and I waited returning his glance with one that
+quailed before the anguish of his own.  I feared to speak, to offer an
+expression of the sympathy that filled my heart; for in that strange place
+I could not tell how far a man was to be trusted--even a man so wronged as
+this one.  On his own part it may be that a like doubt beset him
+concerning me, for in the end he departed as he had come, no word having
+passed his ashen lips.
+
+Left alone, I surveyed my surroundings by the light of the taper he had
+left in the iron sconce on the wall.  The single window overlooked the
+courtyard, so that even had I been disposed and able to cut through the
+iron that barred it, I should but succeed in falling into the hands of the
+guards who abounded in that nest of infamy.
+
+So that, for the night at least, the notion of flight must be abandoned.
+What the morrow would bring forth we must wait and see.  Perhaps some way
+of escape would offer itself.  Then my thoughts returned to Paola, and I
+was tortured by surmises as to her fate, and chiefly as to how she could
+have eluded the search that must have been made for her in the hut where I
+had left her.  Had the peasant befriended her, I wondered; and what did
+she think of my protracted absence?  I sat on the edge of the bed and gave
+rein to my conjectures.  The noises in the castle had all ceased, and
+still I sat on, unconscious of time, my taper burning low.
+
+It may have been midnight when I was startled by the sound of a stealthy
+step in the corridor near my door.  A heavy footfall I should have left
+unheeded, but this soft tread aroused me on the instant, and I sat
+listening.
+
+It halted at my door, and was succeeded by a soft, scratching sound.
+Noiselessly I rose, and with ready hands I waited, prepared, in the
+instinct of self-preservation, to fall upon the intruder, however futile
+the act might be.  But the door did not open as I expected.  Instead, the
+scratching sound continued, growing slightly louder.  Then it occurred to
+me, at last, that whoever came might be a friend craving admittance, and
+proceeding stealthily that others in the castle might not overhear him.
+
+Swiftly I crossed to the door, and opened.  On the threshold a dark figure
+straightened itself from a stooping posture, and the light of the taper
+behind me fell on a face of a pallor that seemed to glisten in its
+intensity.  It was the face of Mariani, the seneschal of the Castle of
+Cessna.
+
+One glance we exchanged, and intuitively I seemed to apprehend the motive
+of this midnight visit.  He came either to bring me aid or to seek mine,
+with vengeance for his guerdon.  I stood aside, and silently he entered my
+room and closed the door.
+
+"Quench your taper," he bade me in a husky whisper.
+
+Without hesitation I obeyed him, a strange excitement thrilling me.  For a
+second we stood in the dark, then another light gleamed as he plucked away
+the cloak that masked a lanthorn which he had brought with him.  He set
+the lanthorn on the floor, and held the cloak in his hand, ready at a
+moment's notice to conceal the light in its folds.  Then pulling me down
+beside him on the bed, where he had perched himself:
+
+"My friend," said he, "it may be that I bring you assistance."
+
+"Speak, then," I bade him.  "You shall not find me slow to act if there is
+the need or the way."
+
+"So I had surmised," he said.  "Are you not that same Boccadoro, Fool of
+the Court of Pesaro, who donned the Lord Giovanni's armour and rode out to
+do battle in his stead?"
+
+I answered him that I was that man.
+
+"I have heard the tale," said he.  "Indeed, all Italy has heard it, and
+knows you for a man of steel, as strong and audacious as you are cunning
+and resourceful.  I know against what desperate odds you fought that day,
+and how you overcame this terrible Ramiro.  This it is that leads me to
+hope that in the service of your own ends you may become the instrument of
+my vengeance."
+
+"Unfold your project, man," I muttered, fiercely almost, in my burning
+eagerness.  "Let me hear what you would have me do."
+
+He did not answer me until a sob had shaken his old frame.
+
+"That boy," he muttered brokenly, "that golden-haired angel sent me for
+the consolation of my decaying years, that lad whom Ramiro destroyed so
+foully and wantonly, was my son.  Futile though the attempt had proved, I
+had certainly set my hands at the tyrants neck, but that I founded hopes
+on you of a surer and more terrible revenge.  That thought has manned me
+and upheld me when anguish was near to slaying me outright.  To see the
+boy burn so under my very eyes!  God of mercy and pity!  That I should
+have lived so long!"
+
+"Your child burned but a moment, suffered but an instant; for the deed,
+Ramiro will burn in Hell through countless generations, through
+interminable ages."
+
+It was a paltry consolation, perhaps, but it was the best that then
+occurred to me.
+
+"Meanwhile," I begged him, "do you tell me what you would have me do."
+
+I urged him to it that he might, thereby, suffer his mind to rest a moment
+from pondering that ghastly thing that he had witnessed, that scene that
+would live before his eyes until they closed in their last sleep.
+
+"You heard Lampugnani quip Ramiro with the fact that three messengers have
+ridden desperately within the week from Citta di Castello to Cesena, and
+you heard, perhaps, his obscure reference to the hat?"
+
+"I heard both, and both I weighed," said I.  The old man looked at me as
+if surprised.
+
+"And what," he asked, "was the conclusion you arrived at?"
+
+"Why, simply this: that whilst the messenger bore some letter from Vitelli
+to Ramiro that should serve to lull the suspicions of any who, wondering
+at so much traffic between these two, should be moved to take a peep into
+those missives, the true letter with which the courier rides is concealed
+within the lining of his hat--probably unknown even to himself."
+
+He stared at me as though I had been a wizard.
+
+"Messer Boccadoro--" he began.
+
+"My name," I corrected him, "is Biancomonte--Lazzaro Biancomonte."
+
+"Whatever be your name," he returned, "of the quality of your wits there
+can be no question.  You have guessed for yourself the half of what I was
+come to tell you.  Has your shrewdness borne you any further?  Have you
+concluded aught concerning the nature of those letters?"
+
+"I have concluded that it might repay some trouble to discover what is
+contained in letters that are sent with so much secrecy.  I can conceive
+nothing that might lie between the Lord of Citta di Castello and this
+ruffian of Cesena, and yet--treason lurks often where least it is
+expected, and treason makes stranger bed-fellows than misfortune."
+
+"Lampugnani was no fool, and yet a great fool," the old man murmured.  He
+surmised what you have surmised.  With each of the messengers Ramiro has
+dealt in the same manner.  He has sent each to be fed and refreshed whilst
+waiting to return with the answer he was penning.  For their refreshment
+he has ordered a very full, stout wine--not drugged, for that they might
+discover upon awaking; but a wine that of itself would do the work of
+setting them to sleep very soundly.  Then, when all slept, and only he
+remained at table, like the drunkard that he is, it has been his habit to
+descend himself to the kitchen and possess himself of the messenger's hat.
+With this he has returned to the hall, opened the lining and withdrawn a
+letter.
+
+"Then, as I suppose, he has penned his answer, thrust it into the lining,
+where the other one had been, and secured it, as it was before, with his
+own hands.  He has returned the hat to the place from whence he took it,
+and when the courier awakens in the morning there is another letter put
+into his hand, and he is bidden to bear it to Vitelli."
+
+He paused a moment; then continued: "Lampugnani must have suspected
+something and watched Ramiro to make sure that his suspicions were well
+founded.  In that he was wise, but he was a fool to allow Ramiro to see
+what lie he had discovered.  Already he has paid the penalty.  He is lying
+with a dagger in his throat, for an hour ago Ramiro stabbed him while he
+slept."
+
+I shuddered.  What a place of blood was this!  Could it be that Cesare
+Borgia had no knowledge of what things were being performed by his
+Governor of Cesena?
+
+"Poor Lampugnani!" I sighed.  "God rest his soul."
+
+"I doubt but he is in Hell," answered Mariani, without emotion.  "He was
+as great a villain as his master, and he has gone to answer for his
+villainy even as this ugly monster of a Ramiro shall.  But let Lampugnani
+be.  I am not come to talk of him.
+
+"Returning from his bloody act, Ramiro ordered me to bed.  I went, and as
+I passed Lampugnani's room I saw the door standing wide.  It was thus that
+I learnt what had befallen.  I remembered his words concerning the hat and
+I remembered old suspicions of my own aroused by the thought of the potent
+wine which Ramiro had ordered me to see given to the couriers.  I sped
+back to the gallery that overlooks the hall.  Ramiro was absent, and I
+surmised at once that he was gone to the kitchen.  Then was it that I
+thought of you and of what service you might render if things were indeed
+as I now more than suspected.  Like an inspiration it came to me how I
+might prepare your way.  I ran down to the hall, sweating in my terror
+that he should return ere I had performed the task I went on.  From the
+buffet I drew a flagon of that same stout wine that Ramiro used upon his
+messengers.  I ripped away the seal and crimson cord by which it is
+distinguished, and placing it on the table I removed the flagon I had set
+for him before I had first departed.
+
+"Then I fled back to the gallery, and from the shadows I watched for his
+return.  Soon he came, bearing a hat in his hand; and from that hat he
+took a letter, all as you have surmised.  He read it, and I saw his face
+lighten with a fierce excitement.  Then he helped himself freely to wine,
+and drank thirstily, for all that he was overladen with it.  One of the
+qualities of this wine is that in quenching thirst it produces yet a
+greater.  Ramiro drank again, then sat with the letter before him in the
+light of the single taper I had left burning.  Presently he grew sleepy.
+He shook himself and drank again.  Then again he sat conning his epistle,
+and thus I left him and came hither in quest of you."
+
+There followed a pause.
+
+"Well?" I asked at length.  "What is it you would have me do?  Stab him as
+he sleeps?"
+
+He shook his head.  "That were too sweet and sudden a death for him.  If
+it had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent me
+strength enough.  But think you it would repay me for having seen my boy
+pinned by that monster's pike to the burning logs?"
+
+"What is it, then, you ask of me?"
+
+"If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if its
+treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia--it could scarce be aimed at
+another--would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it?"
+
+"Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone--what then?  You know
+this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would ransack
+the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive were
+forthcoming."
+
+"That," he groaned, "is what deterred me.  If I had the means of getting
+the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from
+Cesena, I should not have hesitated.  Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza,
+and I could ride there in a day.  But it would be impossible for me to
+leave the place before morning.  I have duties to perform in the town, and
+I might get away whilst I am about them, but before then the letter will
+have been missed, and no one will be allowed to leave the citadel."
+
+"Why then," said I, "the only hope lies in abstracting that letter in such
+a manner that he shall not suspect the loss; and that seems a very
+desperate hope."
+
+We sat in silence for some moments, during which I thought intently to
+little purpose.
+
+"Does he sleep yet, think you?" I asked presently.
+
+"Assuredly he must."
+
+"And if I were to go to the gallery, is there any fear that I should be
+discovered by others?"
+
+"None.  All at Cesena are asleep by now."
+
+"Then," said I, rising, "let us take a look at him.  Who knows what may
+suggest itself?  Come." I moved towards the door, and he took up his
+lanthorn and followed me, enjoining me to tread lightly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE LETTER
+
+
+On tiptoe I crept down that corridor to the gallery above the banqueting-
+hall, secure from sight in the enveloping darkness, and intent upon
+allowing no sound to betray my presence, lest Ramiro should have awakened.
+Behind me, treading as lightly, came Messer Mariani.
+
+Thus we gained the gallery.  I leaned against the stout oaken balustrade,
+and looked down into the black pit of the hall, broken in the centre by
+the circle of light from the two tapers that burnt upon the table.  The
+other torches had all been quenched.
+
+At the table sat Messer Ramiro, his head fallen forward and sideways upon
+his right arm which was outstretched and limp along the board.  Before him
+lay a paper which I inferred to be the letter whose possession might mean
+so much.
+
+I could hear the old man breathing heavily beside me as I leaned there in
+the dark, and sought to devise a means by which that paper might be
+obtained.  No doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to snatch
+it away without disturbing him.  But there was always to be considered
+that when he waked and missed the letter we should have to reckon with his
+measures to regain possession of it.
+
+It became necessary, therefore, to go about it in a manner that should
+leave him unsuspicious of the theft.  A little while I pondered this,
+deeming the thing desperate at first.  Then an idea came to me on a
+sudden, and turning to Mariani I asked him could he find me a sheet of
+paper of about the size of that letter held by Ramiro.  He answered me
+that he could, and bade me wait there until he should return.
+
+I waited, watching the sleeper below, my excitement waxing with every
+second of the delay.  Ramiro was snoring now--a loud, sonorous snore that
+rang like a  trumpet-blast through that vast empty hall.
+
+At last Mariani returned, bringing the sheet of paper I had asked for, and
+he was full of questions of what I intended.  But neither the place nor
+the time was one in which to stand unfolding plans.  Every moment wasted
+increased the uncertainty of the success of my design.  Someone might
+come, or Ramiro might awaken despite the potency of the wine he had been
+given--for on so well-seasoned a toper the most potent of wines could have
+but a transient effect.
+
+So I left Mariani, and moved swiftly and silently to the head of the
+staircase.
+
+I had gone down two steps, when, in the dark, I missed the third, the
+bells in my cap jangling at the shock.  I brought my teeth together and
+stood breathless in apprehension, fearing that the noise might awaken him,
+and cursing myself for a careless fool to have forgotten those infernal
+bells.  Above me I heard a warning hiss from old Mariani, which, if
+anything, increased my dread.  But Ramiro snored on, and I was reassured.
+
+A moment I stood debating whether I should go on, or first return to
+divest myself of that cap of mine.  In the end I decided to pursue the
+latter course. The need for swift and sudden movement might come ere I was
+done with this adventure, and those bells might easily be the undoing of
+me.  So back I went to the surprise and infinite dismay of Mariani until I
+had whispered in his ear the reason.  We retreated together to the
+corridor, and there, with his help, I removed my jangling headgear, which
+I left him to restore to my chamber.
+
+Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this
+time I gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the
+hall.  Ramiro's back was towards me.  On my right stood the tall buffet
+from which the boy had fetched him wine that evening; this I marked out as
+the cover to which I must fly in case of need.
+
+A second I stood hesitating, still considering my course; then I went
+softly forward, my feet making no sound in the rushes of the floor.  I had
+covered half the distance, and, growing bolder, I was advancing more
+swiftly and with less caution, when suddenly my knee came in contact with
+a three-legged stool that had been carelessly left where none would have
+suspected it.  The blow may have hurt afterwards, indeed, I was conscious
+of a soreness at the knee; but at the moment I had no thought or care for
+physical pain.  The bench went over with a crash, and for all that the
+rushes may have deadened in part the sound of its fall, to my nervous ear
+it boomed like the report of a cannon through the stillness of the place.
+
+I turned cold as ice, and the sweat of fear sprang out to moisten me from
+head to foot.  Instantly I dropped on all fours, lest Ramiro, awaking
+suddenly, should turn; and I waited for the least sign that should render
+advisable my seeking the cover of the buffet.  In the gallery above I
+could picture old Mariani clenching his teeth at the noise, his knees
+knocking together, and his face white with horror; for Ramiro's snoring
+had abruptly ceased.  It came to an end with a choking catch of the
+breath, and I looked to see him raise his head and start up to ascertain
+what it was that had aroused him.  But he never stirred, and for all that
+he no longer snored, his breathing continued heavy and regular, so that I
+was cheered by the assurance that I had but disturbed his slumber, not
+dispelled it.
+
+Yet, since I had disturbed and lightened it, a greater precaution was now
+necessary, and I waited there for some ten minutes maybe, a period that
+must have proved a very eternity to the old man upstairs.  At last I had
+the reward of hearing the snoring recommence; lightly at first, but soon
+with all its former fullness.
+
+I rose and proceeded now with a caution that must guard me from any more
+unlooked-for obstacles.  Moreover, as I approached, the darkness was
+dispelled more and more at every stride in the direction of the light.  At
+last I reached the table, and stood silent as a spectre at Ramiro's side,
+looking down upon the features of the sleeping man.
+
+His face was flushed, and his tawny hair tumbled about his damp brow; his
+lips quivered as he breathed.  For a moment, as I stood gazing on him,
+there was murder in my mind.  His dagger hung temptingly in his girdle.
+To have drawn it and rid the world of this monster might have been a
+worthy deed, acceptable in the eyes of Heaven.  But how should it profit
+me?  Rather must it prove my destruction at the hands of his followers,
+and to be destroyed just then, with Paola depending upon me, and life full
+of promise once I regained my liberty, was something I had no mind to
+risk.
+
+My eyes wandered to the letter lying on the table.  If this were of the
+nature we suspected, it should prove a safer tool for his destruction.
+
+To read it as it lay was an easy matter, and it came to me then that ere I
+decided upon my course it might be well that I should do so.  If by chance
+it were innocent of treason, why, then, I might resort to the risk of that
+other and more desperate weapon--his own dagger.
+
+At the foot of the short flight of steps that led from the hall to the
+courtyard I could hear the slow pacing of the sentry placed there by
+Ramiro.  But unless he were summoned, it was extremely unlikely that the
+fellow would leave his post, so that, I concluded, I had little to fear
+from that quarter.  I drew back and taking up a position behind Ramiro's
+chair--a position more favourable to escape in the untoward event of his
+awaking--I craned forward to read the letter over his shoulder.  I thanked
+God in that hour for two things: that my sight was keen, and that
+Vitellozzo Vitelli wrote a large, bold hand.
+
+Scarcely breathing, and distracted the while by the mad racing of my
+pulses, I read; and this, as nearly as I can remember, is what the letter
+contained:
+
+"ILLUSTRIOUS RAMIRO--Your answer to my last letter reached me safely, and
+it rejoiced me to learn that you had found a man for our undertaking.  See
+that you have him in readiness, for the hour of action is at hand.  Cesare
+goes south on the second or third day of the New Year, and he has
+announced to me his intention of passing through Cesena on his way, there
+to investigate certain charges of maladministration which have been
+preferred against you.  These concern, in particular, certain
+misappropriation of grain and stores, and an excessive severity of rule,
+of which complaints have reached him.  From this you will gather that out
+of a spirit of self-defence, if not to earn the reward which we have bound
+ourselves to pay you, it is expedient that you should not fail us.  The
+occasion of the Duke's visit to Cesena will be, of all, the most
+propitious for our purpose.  Have your arbalister posed, and may God
+strengthen his arm and render true his aim to the end that Italy may be
+rid of a tyrant.  I commend myself to your Excellency, and I shall
+anxiously await your news.
+
+"VITELLOZZO VITELLI."
+
+Here indeed were my hopes realised.  A plot there was, and it aimed at
+nothing less than the Duca Valentino's life.  Let that letter be borne to
+Cesare Borgia at Faenza, and I would warrant that within a dozen hours of
+his receipt of it he would so dispose that all who had suffered by the
+cruel tyranny of Ramiro del' Orca would be avenged, and those who were
+still suffering would be relieved.  In this letter lay my own freedom and
+the salvation of Madonna Paula, and this letter it behoved me at once to
+become possessed.  It was a safer far alternative than that dagger of his.
+
+A moment I stood pondering the matter for the last time, then stepping
+sideways and forward, so that I was again beside him, I put out my hand
+and swiftly whipped the letter from the table.  Then standing very still,
+to prevent the slightest rustle, I remained a second or two observing him.
+He snored on, undisturbed by my light-fingered action.
+
+I drew away a pace or two, as lightly as I might, and folding the letter I
+thrust it into my girdle.  Then from my open doublet I drew the sheet that
+Mariani had supplied me, and, advancing again, I placed it on the table in
+a position almost identical with that which the original had occupied,
+saving that it was removed a half-finger's breadth from his hand, for I
+feared to allow it actually to touch him lest it should arouse him.
+
+Holding my breath, for now was I come to the most desperate part of my
+undertaking, I caught up one of the tapers and set fire to a corner of the
+sheet.  That done, I left the candle lying on its side against the paper,
+so as to convey the impression to him, when presently he awakened, that it
+had fallen from it sconce.  Then, without waiting for more, I backed
+swiftly away, watching the progress of the flames as they devoured the
+paper and presently reached his hand and scorched it.
+
+At that I dropped again on all fours, and having gained the corner of the
+buffet, I crouched there, even as with a sudden scream of pain he woke and
+sprang upright, shaking his blistered hand.  As a matter of instinct he
+looked about to see what it was had hurt him.  Then his eyes fell upon the
+charred paper on the table, and the fallen candle, which was still burning
+across one end of it, and even to the dull wits of Ramiro del' Orca the
+only possible conclusion was suggested.  He stared at it a moment, then
+swept that flimsy sheet of ashes from the table with an oath, and sank
+back once more into his great leathern chair.
+
+"Body of God!" he swore aloud, "it is well that I had read it a dozen
+times.  Better that it should have been burnt than that someone should
+have read it whilst I slept."
+
+The idea of such a possibility seemed to rouse him to fresh action, for
+seizing the fallen candle and replacing it in its socket, he rose once
+more, and holding it high above his head he looked about the hall.
+
+The light it shed may have been feeble, and the shadows about my buffet
+thick; but, as I have said, my doublet was open, and some ray of that weak
+candlelight must have found out the white shirt that was showing at my
+breast, for with a sudden cry he pushed back his chair and took a step
+towards me, no doubt intent upon investigating that white something that
+he saw gleaming there.
+
+I waited for no more.  I had no fancy to be caught in that corner, utterly
+at his mercy.  I stood up suddenly.
+
+"Magnificent, it is I," I announced, with a calm and boundless effrontery.
+
+The boldness of it may have staggered him a little, for he paused,
+although his eyes were glowing horribly with the frenzy that possessed
+him, the half of which was drunkenness, the other fear and wrath lest I
+should have seen his treacherous communication from Vitelli.
+
+"What make you here?" he questioned threateningly.
+
+"I thirsted, Excellency," I answered glibly.  "I thirsted, and I bethought
+me of this buffet where you keep your wine."
+
+He continued to eye me, some six paces off, his half-drunken wits no doubt
+weighing the plausibility of my answer.  At last--
+
+"If that be all, what cause had you to hide?" he asked me shrewdly.
+
+"One of your candles fell over and awakened you," said I.  "I feared you
+might resent my presence, and so I hid."
+
+"You came not near the table?" he inquired.  "You saw nothing of the paper
+that I held?  Nay, by the Host!  I'll take no risks.  You were born 'neath
+an unlucky star, fool; for be your reason for your presence here no more
+than you assert, you have come in a season that must be fatal to you."
+
+He set the candle on the table, then carrying his hand to his girdle he
+withdrew it sharply, and I caught the gleam of a dagger.
+
+In that instant I thought of Mariani waiting above, and like a flash it
+came to me that if I could outpace this drunken brigand, and, gaining the
+gallery well ahead of him, transfer that letter to the old man's hands, I
+should not die in vain.  Cesare Borgia would avenge me, and Madonna Paola,
+at least, would be safe from this villain.  If Mariani could reach
+Valentino at Faenza, I would answer for it that within four-and-twenty
+hours Messer Ramiro del' Orca would be the banner on that ghastly beam
+that he facetiously dubbed his flagstaff; and he would be the blackest,
+dirtiest banner that ever yet had fluttered there.
+
+The thought conceived in the twinkling of an eye, I acted upon without a
+second's hesitation.  Ere Ramiro had taken his first step towards me, I
+had sprung to the stairs and I was leaping up them with the frantic speed
+of one upon whose heels death is treading closely.
+
+A singular, fierce joy was blent with my measure of fear; a joy at the
+thought that even now, in this extremity, I was outwitting him, for never
+a doubt had he that the burnt paper he had found on the table was all that
+was left of Vitelli's letter.  His fears were that I might have read it,
+but never a suspicion crossed his mind of such a trick as I had played
+upon him.
+
+So I sped on, the gigantic Ramiro blundering after me, panting and
+blaspheming, for although powerful, his bulk and the wine he had taken
+left him no nimbleness.  The distance between us widened, and if only
+Mariani would have the presence of mind to wait for me at the mouth of the
+passage, all would be as I could wish it before his dagger found my heart.
+
+I was assuring myself of this when in the dark I stumbled, and striking my
+legs against a stair I hurtled forward.  I recovered almost immediately,
+but, in my frenzy of haste to make up for the instant lost, I stumbled a
+second time ere I was well upon my feet.
+
+With a roar Ramiro must have hurled himself forward, for I felt my ankle
+caught in a grip from which there was no escaping, and I was roughly and
+brutally dragged back and down those stairs; now my head, now my breast
+beating against the steps as I descended them one by one.
+
+But even in that hour the letter was my first thought, and I found a way
+to thrust it farther under my girdle so that it should not be seen.
+
+At last I reached the hall, half-stunned, and with all the misery of
+defeat and the certainty of the futility of my death to further torture my
+last moments.  Over me stood Ramiro, his dagger upheld, ready to strike.
+
+"Dog!" he taunted me, "your sands are run."
+
+"Mercy, Magnificent," I gasped.  "I have done nothing to deserve your
+poniard."
+
+He laughed brutally, delaying his stroke that he might prolong my agony
+for his drunken entertainment.
+
+"Address your prayers to Heaven," he mocked me, "and let them concern your
+soul."
+
+And then, like a flash of inspiration came the words that should delay his
+hand.
+
+"Spare me," I cried "for I am in mortal sin."
+
+Impious, abandoned villain, though he was, he said too much when he
+boasted that he feared neither God nor Devil.  He was prone to forget his
+God, and the lessons that as a babe he had learnt at his mother's knee--
+for I take it that even Ramiro del' Orca had once been a babe--but deep
+down in his soul there had remained the fear of Hell and an almost
+instinctive obedience to the laws of Mother Church.  He could perform such
+ruthless cruelties as that of hurling a page into the fire to punish his
+clumsiness; he could rack and stab and hang men with the least shadow of
+compunction or twinge of conscience, but to slay a man who professed
+himself to be in mortal sin was a deed too appalling even for this
+ruthless butcher.
+
+He hesitated a second, then he lowered his hand, his face telling me
+clearly how deeply he grudged me the respite which, yet, he dared not do
+other than accord me.
+
+"Where shall I find me a priest?" he grumbled.  "Think you the Citadel of
+Cesena is a monastery?  I will wait while you make an act of contrition
+for your sins.  It is all the shrift I can afford you.  And get it done,
+for it is time I was abed.  You shall have five minutes in which to clear
+your soul."
+
+By this it seemed to me--as it may well seem to you--that matters were but
+little mended, and instead of employing the respite he accorded me in the
+pious collecting of thoughts which he enjoined, I sat up--very sore from
+my descent of the stairs--and employed those precious moments in putting
+forward arguments to turn him from, his murderous purpose.
+
+"I have lived too ungodly a life," I protested, "to be able to squeeze
+into Paradise through so narrow a tate.  As you would hope for your own
+ultimate salvation, Excellency, I do beseech you not to imperil mine."
+
+This disposed him, at least, to listen to me, and proceeded to assure him
+of the harmless nature of my visit to the hall in quest of wine to quench
+my thirst.  I was running the grave risk of dying with lies on my lips,
+but I was too desperate to give the matter thought just then.  His mood
+seemed to relent; the delay, perhaps, had calmed his first access of
+passion, and he was grown more reasonable.  But when Ramiro cooled he was,
+perhaps, more malignant than ever, for it meant a return to natural
+condition, and Ramiro's natural condition was one of cruelty unsurpassed.
+
+"It may be as you say," he answered me at last, sheathing his dagger, "and
+at least you have my word that I will not slay you without first assuring
+myself that you have lied.  For to-night you shall remain in durance.
+To-morrow we will apply the question to you."
+
+The hope that had been reviving in my breast fell dead once more, and I
+turned cold at that threat.  And yet, between now and to-morrow, much
+might betide, and I had cause for thankfulness, perhaps, for this respite.
+Thus I sought to cheer myself.  But I fear I failed.  To-morrow he would
+torture me, not so much to ascertain whether I had spoken truly, but
+because to his diseased mind it afforded diversion to witness a man's
+anguish.  No doubt it was that had urged him now to spare my life and
+accord me this merciless piece of mercy.
+
+In a loud voice he called the sentry who was pacing below; and in a moment
+the man appeared in answer to that summons.
+
+"You will take this knave to the chamber set apart for him up there, and
+you will leave him secure under lock and bar, bringing me the key of his
+door."
+
+The fellow informed himself which was the chamber, then turning to me he
+curtly bade me go with him.  Thus was I haled back to my room, with the
+promise of horrors on the morrow, but with the night before me in which to
+scheme and pray for some miracle that might yet save me.  But the days of
+miracles were long past.  I lay on my bed and deplored with many a sigh
+that bitter fact.  And if aught had been wanting to increase the weight of
+fear and anguish on my already over-burdened mind, and to aid in what
+almost seemed an infernal plot to utterly distract me, I had it in fresh,
+wild conjectures touching Madonna Paola.  Where indeed could she be that
+Ramiro's men had failed to find her for all that they had scoured that
+part of the country in which I had left her to wait for my return?  What
+if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture with which Ramiro's
+lieutenant was charged?
+
+With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter
+inability to take a step in her service, I lay.  There for an hour or so
+in such agony of mind as is begotten only of suspense.  In my girdle still
+reposed the treasonable letter from Vitelli to Ramiro, a mighty weapon
+with which to accomplish the butcher's overthrow.  But how was I to wield
+it imprisoned here?
+
+I wondered why Mariani had not returned, only to remember that the soldier
+who had locked me in had carried the key of my prison-chamber to Ramiro.
+
+Suddenly the stillness was disturbed by a faint tap at my door.  My
+instincts and my reason told me it must be Mariani at last.  In an instant
+I had leapt from the bed and whispered through the keyhole:
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"It is I--Mariani--the seneschal," came the old man's voice, very softly,
+but nevertheless distinctly.  "They have taken the key."
+
+I groaned, then in a gust of passion I fell to cursing Ramiro for that
+precaution.
+
+"You have the letter?" came Mariani's voice again.
+
+"Aye, I have it still," I answered.
+
+"Have you seen what it contains?"
+
+"A plot to assassinate the Duke--no less.  Enough to get this bloody
+Ramiro broken on the wheel."
+
+I was answered by a sound that was as a gasp of malicious joy.  Then the
+old man's voice added:
+
+"Can you pass it under the door?  There is a sufficient gap."
+
+I felt, and found that he was right; I could pass the half of my hand
+underneath.  I took the letter and thrust it through.  His hands fastened
+on it instantly, almost snatching it from my fingers before they were
+ready to release it.
+
+"Have courage," he bade me.  "Listen.  I shall endeavour to leave Cesena
+in the morning, and I shall ride straight for Faenza.  If I find the Duke
+there when I arrive, he should be here within some twelve or fourteen
+hours of my departure.  Fence with Ramiro, temporise if you can till then,
+and all will be well with you."
+
+"I will do what I can," I answered him.  "But if he slays me in the
+meantime, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that he will
+not be long in following me."
+
+"May God shield you," he said fervently.
+
+"May God speed you," I answered him, with a still greater fervour.
+
+That night, as you may well conceive, I slept but little, and that little
+ill.  The morning, instead of relieving the fears that in the darkness had
+been with me, seemed to increase them.  For now was the time for Mariani
+to act, and I was fearful as to how he might succeed.  I was full of
+doubts lest some obstacle should have arisen to prevent his departure from
+Cesena, and I spent my morning in wearisome speculation.
+
+I took an almost childish satisfaction in the thought that since, being a
+prisoner, I could no longer count myself the Fool of the Court of Cesena,
+I was free to strip the motley and assume the more sober garments in which
+I had been taken, and which--as you may recall--had been placed in my
+chamber on the previous evening.  It was the very plainest raiment.  For
+doublet I wore a buff brigandine, quilted and dagger-proof, and caught at
+the waist by a girdle of hammered steel; my wine-coloured hose was stout
+and serviceable, as were my long boots of untanned leather.  Yet prouder
+was I of this sober apparel than ever king of his ermine.
+
+It may have been an hour or so past noon when, at last, my solitude was
+invaded by a soldier who came to order me into the presence of the
+Governor.  I had been sitting at the window, leaning against the bars and
+looking out at the desolate white landscape, for there had been a heavy
+fall of snow in the night, which reminded me--as snow ever did--of my
+first meeting with Madonna Paola.
+
+I rose upon the instant, and my fears rose with me.  But I kept a bold
+front as I went down into the hall, where Ramiro and the blackguards of
+his Court were sitting, with three or four men-at-arms at attention by the
+door.  Close to the pulleys appertaining to the torture of the cord stood
+two leather-clad ruffians--Ramiro's executioners.
+
+At the head of the board, which was still strewn with fragments of food-
+for they had but dined--sat Ramiro del' Orca.  With him were half a dozen
+of his officers, whose villainous appearance pronounced them worthy of
+their brutal leader.  The air was heavy with the pungent odour of viands.
+I looked round for Mariani, and I took some comfort from the fact that he
+was absent.  Might heaven please that he was even then on his way to
+Faenza.
+
+Ramiro watched my advance with a smile in which mockery was blent with
+satisfaction, for all that of the resumption of my proper raiment he
+seemed to take no heed.  No doubt he had dined well, and he was now
+disposing himself to be amused.
+
+"Messer Bocadaro," said he, when I had come to a standstill, "there was
+last night a matter that was not cleared up between us and concerning
+which I expressed an intention of questioning you to-day.  I should
+proceed to do so at once, were it not that there is yet another matter on
+which I am, if possible, still more desirous you should tell us all you
+know.  Once already have you evaded my questions with answers which at the
+time I half believed.  Even now I do not say that I utterly disbelieve
+them, but I wish to assure myself that you told the truth; for if you
+lied, why then we may still be assisted by such information the cord shall
+squeeze from you.  I am referring to the mysterious disappearance of
+Madonna Paola di Santafior--a disappearance of which you have assured me
+that you knew nothing, being even in ignorance of the fact that the lady
+was not really dead.  I had confidently expected that the party searching
+for Madonna Paola would have succeeded ere this in finding her.  But this
+morning my hopes suffered disappointment.  My men have returned empty-
+handed once more."
+
+"For which mercy may Heaven be praised!" I burst out.
+
+He scowled at me; then he laughed evilly.
+
+"My men have returned--all save three.  Captain Lucagnolo with two of his
+followers, has undertaken to go beyond the area I appointed for the
+search, and to proceed to the village of Cattolica.  While he is pursuing
+his inquiries there, I have resolved to pursue my own here.  I now call
+upon you, Boccadoro, to tell us what you know of Madonna Paola's
+whereabouts."
+
+"I know nothing," I answered stoutly.  "I am prepared to take oath that I
+know nothing of her whereabouts."
+
+"Tell me, then, at least," said he, "where you bestowed her."
+
+I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
+
+"Do you think that I would tell you if I had the knowledge?" was the
+scornful question with which I answered him.  "You may pursue your
+inquiries as you will and where you will, but I pray God they may all
+prove as futile as must those that you would pursue here and upon my own
+person."
+
+This was how I fenced with him, this was the manner in which I followed
+Mariani's sound advice that I should temporise!  Oh! I know that my words
+were the words of a fool, yet no fear that Ramiro would inspire me could
+have restrained them.
+
+There was a murmur at the table, and his fellows turned their eyes on
+Ramiro to see how he would receive this bearding.  He smiled quietly, and
+raising his hand he made a sign to the executioners.
+
+Rude hands seized me from behind, and the doublet was torn from my back by
+fingers that never paused to untruss my points.
+
+They turned me about, and hurried me along until I stood under the pulleys
+of the torture, and one of the men held me securely whilst the other
+passed the cords about my wrists.  Then both the executioners stepped
+back, to be ready to hoist me at the Governor's signal.
+
+He delayed it, much as an epicure delays the consumption of a delectable
+morsel, heightening by suspense the keen desire of his palate.  He watched
+me closely, and had my lips quivered or my eyelids fluttered, he would
+have hailed with joy such signs of weakness.  But I take pride in
+truthfully writing that I stood bold and impassively before him, and if I
+was pale I thank Heaven that pallor was the habit of my countenance, so
+that from that he could gather no satisfaction.  And standing there, I
+gave him back look for look, and waited.
+
+"For the last time, Boccadoro," he said slowly, attempting by words to
+shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of the cord,
+"I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this stubbornness.
+If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the third, the
+torture will compel you to disclose what you may know.  Would you not be
+better advised to speak at once, while your limbs are soundly planted in
+their sockets, rather than let yourself be maimed, perhaps for life, ere
+you will do so?"
+
+There was a stir of hoofs without.  They thundered on the planks of the
+drawbridge and clattered on the stones of the courtyard.  The thought of
+Cesare Borgia rose to my mind.  But never did drowning man clutch at a
+more illusory straw.  Cold reason quenched my hope at once.  If the
+greatest imaginable success attended Mariani's journey, the Duke could not
+reach Cesena before midnight, and to that it wanted some ten hours at
+least.  Moreover, the company that came was small to judge by the sound--a
+half-dozen horses at the most.
+
+But Ramiro's attention had been diverted from me by the noise.  Half-
+turning in his chair, he called to one of the men-at-arms to ascertain who
+came.  Before the fellow could do his bidding, the door was thrust open
+and Lucagnolo appeared on the threshold, jaded and worn with hard riding.
+
+A certain excitement arose in me at sight of him, despite my confidence
+that he must be returning empty-handed.
+
+Ramiro rose, pushed back his chair and advanced towards the new-comer.
+
+"Well?" he demanded.  "What news?"
+
+"Excellency, the girl is here."
+
+That answer seemed to turn me into stone, so great was the shock of this
+sudden shattering of the confidence that had sustained me.
+
+"My search in the country failing," pursued the captain, as he came
+forward, "I made bold to exceed your orders by pushing my inquiries as far
+as the village of Cattolica.  There I found her after some little labour."
+
+Surely I dreamt.  Surely, I told myself, this was not possible.  There was
+some mistake.  Lucagnolo had drought some wench whom he believed to be
+Madonna Paola.
+
+But even as I was assuring myself of this, the door opened again, and
+between two men-at-arms, white as death, her garments stained with mud and
+all but reduced to rags, and her eyes wild with a great fear, came my
+beloved Paola.
+
+With a sound that was as a grunt of satisfaction, Ramiro strode forward to
+meet her.  But her eyes travelled past him and rested upon me, standing
+there between the leather-clad executioners with the cords of the torture
+pinioning my wrists, and I saw the anguish deepen in their blue depths.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+DOOMED
+
+Across the length of that hall our eyes met--hers and mine--and held each
+other's glances.  To me the room and all within it formed an indistinct
+and misty picture, from out of which there clearly gleamed my Paola's
+sweet, white face.
+
+All at the table had risen with Ramiro, and now, copying their leader,
+they bared their heads in outward token of such respect as certainly would
+have been felt by any men less abandoned than were they before so much
+saintly beauty and distress.
+
+Lucagnolo had stepped aside, and Ramiro was now bowing low and
+ceremoniously before Madonna.  His face I could not see, since his back
+was towards me, but his tones, as they floated across the hall to where I
+stood, came laden with subservience.
+
+"Madonna, I give praise and thanks to Heaven for this," said he.  "I was
+afflicted by the gravest misgivings for your safety, and I am more than
+thankful to behold you safe and sound."
+
+There was a hypocritical flavour of courtliness about his words, and a
+mincing of his tones that suggested the efforts of a bull-calf to imitate
+the warbling of a throstle.
+
+Madonna paid him no heed; indeed, she appeared not to have heard him, for
+her eyes continued to look past him and at me.  At last her lips parted,
+and although she scarcely seemed to raise her voice above a whisper, the
+word uttered reached my ears across the stillness of the great room, and
+the word was "Lazzaro!"
+
+At mention of my name, and at the tone in which it was uttered--a tone
+that betrayed same measure of what was in her heart--Ramiro wheeled
+sharply in my direction, his brows wrinkling.  A certain craftiness he
+had, for all that I ever accounted him the dullest-witted clod that ever
+rose to his degree of honour.  He must have realised how expedient it was
+that in all he did he should present himself to Madonna in a favourite
+light.
+
+"Release him," he bade the executioners that held me, and in an instant I
+was set free.  The order given, he turned again to Madonna.
+
+"You have been torturing him," she cried, and her words were hard and
+fierce, her eyes blazing.  "You shall repent it, Ser Ramiro.  The Lord
+Cesare Borgia shall hear of it."
+
+Her anger betrayed her more and more, and however hidden it may have been
+to her, to me it was exceeding clear that she was encompassing my
+destruction.  Ramiro laughed easily.
+
+"Madonna, you are at fault.  We have not been torturing him, though I
+confess that we were on the point of putting him to the question.  But
+your timely arrival has saved his limbs, for the question we were asking
+him concerned your whereabouts!"
+
+I would have shouted to her to be wary how she answered him, for some
+premonition how he was about to trick her entered my mind.  But realising
+the futility of such a course, I held my peace and waited agonisedly.
+
+"You had tortured him in vain then," she answered scornfully.  "For
+Lazzaro Biancomonte would never have betrayed me.  Nor could he have
+betrayed me if he would, for after your men had searched the hut in which
+I was hidden, I walked to Cattolica thinking foolishly that I should be
+safer there."
+
+Lackaday!  She had told him the very thing he had sought to know.  Yet to
+make doubly sure he pursued the scent a little farther.
+
+"Indeed it seems to me that had I tortured him I had given him no more
+than he deserved for having abandoned you in that hut.  Madonna, I tremble
+to think of the harm that might have come to you through that knave's
+desertion."  And he scowled across at me, much as the Pharisee might have
+scowled upon the publican.
+
+"He is no knave," she answered, and I could have groaned to hear her
+working my undoing, though not by so much as a sign might I inspire her
+with caution, for that sign must have been seen by others.  "Nor did he
+abandon me.  He left me  only to go in quest of the necessaries for our
+journey.  If harm has come to me the blame of it must not rest on him."
+
+"Of what harm do you speak, Madonna?" he cried, in a voice laden with
+concern.
+
+"Of what harm," she echoed, eyeing him with a scorn that would have slain
+him had he any manhood left.  "Of what harm?  Mother of Mercy, defend me!
+Do you ask the question?  What greater harm could have come to me than to
+have fallen into the hands of Ramiro del' Orca and his brigands?"
+
+He stood looking at her, and I doubt not that his face was a very picture
+of simulated consternation.
+
+"Surely, Madonna, you do not understand that we are your friends, that you
+can so abuse us.  But you will be faint, Madonna," he cried, with a fresh
+and deep solicitude.  "A cup of wine." And he waved his hand towards the
+table.
+
+"It would poison me, I think," she answered coldly.
+
+"You are cruel, and--alas!--mistrustful," said he.  "Can you guess nothing
+of the anxiety that has been mine these two days, of the fears that have
+haunted me as I thought of you and your wanderings?"
+
+Her lip curled, and her face took on some slight vestige of colour.  Her
+spirit was a thing for which I might then have come to love her had it not
+been that already I loved her to distraction.
+
+"Yes," said she, "I can guess something of your dismay when you found your
+schemes frustrated; when you found that you had come too late to San
+Domenico."
+
+"Will you not forgive me that shift to which my adoration drove me?" he
+implored, in a honeyed voice--and a more fearful thing than Ramiro the
+butcher was Ramiro the lover.
+
+At that scarcely covert avowal of his passion she recoiled a step as she
+might before a thing unclean.  The little colour faded from her cheek, the
+scorn departed from her lip, and a sickly, deadly fear overspread her
+lovely face.  God! that I should stand there and witness this insult to
+the woman I adored and worshipped with a fervour that the Church seeks to
+instil into us for those about the throne of Heaven.  It might not be.  A
+blind access of fury took me.  Of the consequences I thought nothing.
+Reason left me utterly, and the slight hope that might lie in temporising
+was disregarded.
+
+Before those about me could guess my purpose, or those others, too
+engrossed in the scene at the far end of the hall, could intervene, I had
+sprung from between the executioners and dashed across the space that
+separated me from the Governor of Cesena.  One well-aimed blow, and there
+should be an end to Messer Ramiro.  That was the only thought that found
+room in my disordered mind.
+
+One or two there were who cried out as I sped past them, swift as the
+hound when it speeds after the fleeing hare.  But I was upon Ramiro ere
+any could have sufficiently mastered his surprise to interfere.
+
+By the nape of his great neck I caught him from behind, and setting my
+knee at his spine I wrenched him backward, and so flung him over on the
+floor.  Down I went with him, my hand reaching for the dagger at his
+jewelled girdle, and I had found and drawn it in that swift action of mine
+ere he had bethought him of his hands.  Up it flashed and down.  I sank it
+through the crimson velvet of his rich doublets straight at the spot where
+his heart should be--if he were so human as to have a heart.  The next
+instant I turned cold and sick.  My desperate effort had been all for
+nothing.  In my hand I was left with the bronze hilt of his great poniard;
+the blade had broken off against the mesh of steel the coward wore beneath
+his finery.
+
+There was a rush of feet about us, a piercing scream from Madonna Paola,
+and it was to her that I owed my life in that grim moment.  A dozen blades
+were naked and would have transfixed me as I lay, but that she covered my
+body with her own and bade them strike at me through her.
+
+A moment later and the powerful hands of the Governor of Cesena were at my
+throat.  I was lifted and tossed aside, as though I had been a hound and
+he the bull I had beset.  And as he swung me over and crushed me to the
+ground, he knelt above me and grinned horribly into my purpling face.
+
+A second we stayed so, and I thought indeed that my hour was come, when
+suddenly I felt the blood in my head released once more.  He had taken his
+hands from my throat.  He seized me now by the collar and dragged me
+rudely to my feet.
+
+"Take this knave and lock him in his chamber," he bade a couple of his
+bravi.  "I may have need of him ere he dies."
+
+"Messer Ramiro," came the interceding voice of Madonna Paola, "what he
+did, he did for me.  You will not let him die for it?"
+
+There was a pause during which he looked at her, whilst the men were
+roughly dragging me across the hall.
+
+"Who knows, Madonna?" he said, with a bow and an infernal smile.  "If you
+were to beg his life, it might even come to pass that I might spare it."
+
+He did not wait for her answer, but stepping after me he called to the men
+that led me.  In obedience they halted, and he came forward.  We were now
+at the foot of the staircase.
+
+"Boccadoro," said he, planting himself before me, and eyeing me with eyes
+that were very full of malice, "you will recall the punishment I promised
+you if I came to discover it was you had thwarted me in Pesaro.  It is the
+second time you have fooled Ramiro del' Orca.  There does not live the man
+who can boast that he did it thrice, nor will I risk it that you be that
+man.  Make your peace with Heaven, for at sunset--in an hour's time--you
+hang.  There is one little thing that might save you even yet, and if you
+find life sweet, you would do well to pray that that little thing may come
+to pass."
+
+I answered him nothing, but I bowed my head in token that I had heard and
+he signed to the men to proceed with me, whilst turning on his heel he
+stepped down the hall again to where Madonna Paola, overcome with
+weakness, had sunk upon a stool.
+
+As I was leaving the gallery I had a last glimpse of her, sitting there
+with drawn face and haggard eyes that followed me as I passed from her
+sight, whilst Ramiro del' Orca stood beside her murmuring words that did
+not reach me.  His so-called courtiers and his men-at-arms were trooping
+out of the room, no doubt in obedience to his dismissal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SUNSET
+
+
+I have heard tell of the calm that comes upon brave men when hope is dead
+and their doom has been pronounced.  Uncertainty may have tortured and
+made cowards of them; but once that uncertainty is dissolved and suspense
+is at an end, resignation enters their soul, and, possessing it, gives to
+their bearing a noble and dignified peace.  By the mercy of Heaven they
+are made, maybe, to see how poor and evanescent a thing is life; and they
+come to realise that since to die is a necessity there is no avoiding, as
+well might it betide to-day as ten years hence.
+
+Such a mood, however, came not to soothe that last hour of mine, and yet I
+account myself no coward.  It was an hour of such torture and anguish as
+never before I had experienced--much though I had undergone--and the
+source of all my suffering lay in the fact that Madonna Paola was in the
+hands of the ogre of Cesena.  Had it not been for that most untoward
+circumstance I almost believe that while I waited for the sun to set on
+that December afternoon, my mood had not only been calm but even in some
+measure joyous, for it must have comforted my last moments to reflect that
+for all that Messer Ramiro was about to hang me, yet had I sown the seeds
+of his own destruction ere he had brought me to this pass.
+
+I did, indeed, reflect upon it, and it may even be that, in spite of all,
+I culled some grain of comfort from the reflection.  But let that be.  My
+narrative would drag wearily were I to digress that I might tell you at
+length the ugly course of my thoughts whilst the sands of my last hour
+were running swiftly out.  For, after all, my concern and yours is with
+the story of Lazzaro Biancomonte, sometime known as Boccadoro the Fool,
+and not with his philosophies--philosophies so unprofitable that it can
+benefit no man that I should set them down.
+
+My windows faced west, and so I was able to watch the fall of the sun, and
+measure by its shortening distance from the horizon the ebbing of my poor
+life. At last the nether rim of that round, fiery orb was on the point of
+touching the line of distant hills, and it was casting a crimson glow
+along the white, snow-sheeted landscape that was singularly suggestive of
+a tide of blood--a very fitting tide to flow and ebb about the walls of
+the Castle of Cesena.
+
+One little thing there was might save me, Ramiro had said.  But I had shut
+the thought out of my mind to keep me from utter distraction.  The only
+little thing in which I held that my salvation could lie would be in the
+miraculous arrival of Cesare Borgia, and of that not the faintest hope
+existed.  If the greatest luck attended Mariani's errand and the greatest
+speed were made by the Duke once he received the letter, he could not
+reach Cesena in less than another eight hours.  And another eight minutes,
+to reckon by the swift sinking of the sun would see the time appointed for
+my hanging.  I thought of Joshua in that grim hour, and in a mood that
+approached the whimsical I envied him his gift.  If I could have stayed
+the setting of the sun, and held it where it was till midnight, all might
+yet be well if Mariani had been diligent and Cesare swift.
+
+The key grating in the lock put an end to my vague musings, and reminded
+me of the fact that I had neglected to employ that last hour as would have
+become a good son of Mother Church.  For an instant I believe that my
+heart turned me to thoughts of God, and sent up a prayer for mercy for my
+poor sinful soul.  Then the door swung wide.  Two halberdiers and a
+carnifex in his odious leathern apron stood before me.  Clearly Ramiro
+sought to be exact, and to have me hanging the instant the sun should
+vanish.
+
+"It is time," said one of the soldiers, whilst the executioner, stepping
+into my chamber, pinioned my wrists behind me, and retaining hold of the
+cord bade me march.  He followed, holding that slender cord, and so, like
+a beast to the shambles, went I.
+
+Once more they led me into the hall, where the shadows were lengthening in
+dark contrast to the splashes of sunlight that lingered on the floor, and
+whose blood-red hue was deepened by the gules of the windows through which
+it was filtered.
+
+Ramiro was waiting for me, and six of his officers were in attendance.
+But, for once, there were no men-at-arms at hand.  On a chair, the one
+usually occupied by Ramiro, himself, sat Madonna Paola, still in her torn
+and bedraggled raiment, her face white, her eyes wild as they had been
+when first she had been haled into Ramiro's presence, some two hours ago,
+and her features so rigidly composed that it told the tale of the awful
+self-control she must be exerting--a self-control that might end with a
+sudden snap that would plunge her into madness.
+
+A wild rage possessed me at sight of her.  Let Ramiro be ruthless and
+cruel where men were concerned; that was a thing for which forgiveness
+might be found him.  But that he should submit a lady, delicately nurtured
+as was Madonna, to such horrors as she had undergone since she had
+awakened from his sleeping-potion in the Church of San Domenico, was
+something for which no Hell could punish him condignly.
+
+Ramiro met me with a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I
+could espy his wicked, infernal mockery peeping forth.
+
+"I deplore your end, Lazzaro Biancomonte," said he slowly, "for you are a
+brave man, and brave men are rare.  You were worthy of better things, but
+you chose to cross swords with Ramiro del' Orca, and you have got your
+death-blow.  May God have mercy on your soul."
+
+"I am praying," said I, "for just so much mercy as you shall have justice.
+If my prayer is heard, I should be well-content."
+
+He changed countenance a little.  So, too, I thought, did Madonna Paola.
+My firmness may have yielded her some grain of comfort.  Ramiro set his
+hands on his hips, and eyed me squarely.
+
+"You are a dauntless rogue," he confessed.
+
+I laughed for answer, and in that moment it entered my mind that I might
+yet enjoy some measure of revenge in this life.  More than that, I might
+benefit Madonna.  For were the seed I was about to sow to take root in the
+craven heart of Ramiro del' Orca, it would so fully occupy his mind that
+he would have little time to bestow on Paola in the few hours that were
+left him.  But before I could bethink me of words, he was speaking again.
+
+"I held out to you a slender hope," said he.  "I told you that there was
+one little thing might save you.  That hope has borne no fruit; the little
+thing, I spoke of has not come to pass.  It rested with Madonna Paola,
+here.  She had it in her hands to effect your salvation, but she has
+refused.  Your blood rests on her head."
+
+She shuddered at the words, and a low moan escaped her.  She covered her
+face with her hands.  A moment I stood looking at her; then I shifted my
+glance to Ramiro.
+
+"Will it please you, Illustrious, to allow me a few moments' conversation
+with Madonna Paola di Santafior?"
+
+I invested my tones with a weight of meaning that did not escape him.  His
+face suddenly lightened; whilst one of his officers--a fellow very fitly
+named Lupone--laughed outright.
+
+"Your hero seems none so heroic after all," he said derisively to the
+Governor.  "The imminence of death makes him amenable."
+
+Ramiro scowled on him for answer.  Then, turning to me--"Do you think you
+could bend her stubbornness?" quoth he.
+
+"I might attempt it," answered I.
+
+His eyes flashed with evil hope; his lips parted in a smile.  He shot a
+glance at Madonna, who had withdrawn her hands from her face and was
+regarding me now with a strange expression of horror and incredulity--
+marvelling, no doubt, to find me such a craven as I must have seemed.
+
+Ramiro looked at the diminishing sunlight on the floor.
+
+"In some five minutes the sun will have completely set," said he.  "Those
+five minutes you shall have to seek to enlist Madonna's aid on your
+behalf.  If you succeed--and she may tell you on what terms you are to
+have your life--you shall depart from Cesena to-night a free man."
+
+He paused a moment, and his eyes, lighted by an odious smile, rested once
+more on Madonna Paula.  Then he bade all withdraw, and went with them into
+an adjoining chamber, fondly nurturing the hopes that were begotten of his
+belief that Lazzaro Biancomonte was a villain.
+
+When we were alone, she and I, I stood a moment where they had left me, my
+hands pinioned behind me, and the cord which the executioner had held
+trailing the ground like a lambent tail.  Then I went slowly forward until
+I stood close before her.  Her eyes were on my face, still with that same
+look of unbelief.
+
+"Madonna mia," said I, "do not for an instant think that it is my purpose
+to ask of you any sacrifice that might save my worthless life.  Rather was
+my purpose in seeking these few moments with you, to strengthen and
+encourage you by such news as it is mine to bring."
+
+She looked now as if she scarcely understood.
+
+"If I will wed him to-night, he has promised that you shall go free," she
+said in a whisper.  "He says that he can bring a priest from the
+neighbourhood at a moment's notice."
+
+"Do not heed him," I cried sternly.
+
+"I do not heed him," said she, more composedly.  "If he seeks to force me,
+I shall find a way of setting myself free.  Dear Mother of Heaven! death
+were a sweet and restful thing after all that I have suffered in these
+days."
+
+Then she fell suddenly to weeping.
+
+"Think me not an utter coward, Lazzaro.  Willingly would I do this thing
+to save so noble a life as yours, did I not think that you must hate me
+for it.  I was stout and firm in my refusal, confident that you would have
+had me so.  Was I not right, my poor, poor Lazzaro?"
+
+"Madonna, you were right," I answered firmly and calmly.
+
+"And you are to die, amor mio," she murmured passionately.  "You are to
+die when the promise of happiness seemed held out to us.  And yet, were
+you to live at the price at which life is offered you, would your life be
+endurable?  Tell me the truth, Lazzaro; swear it to me.  For if life is
+the dearer thing to you, why then, you shall have your life."
+
+"Need you ask me, Paola?" questioned I.  "Does not your heart tell you how
+much easier is death than would be such life as I must lead hereafter,
+even if we could trust Ramiro, which we cannot.  Be brave, Madonna, and
+help me to be brave and to bear thyself with a becoming fortitude.  Now
+listen to what I have to tell you.  Ramiro del' Orca is a traitor who is
+plotting the death of his overlord.  Proofs of it are by now in the hands
+of Cesare Borgia, and in some seven or eight hours the Duke himself should
+be here to put this monster to the question touching these matters.  I
+will say a word in his ear ere I depart that will fill his mind with a
+very wholesome fear, and you will find that during the few hours left him
+he will have little leisure to think of you and afflict you with his
+odious wooing.  Be strong, then, for a little while, for Cesare is coming
+to set you free."
+
+She looked at me now with eyes that were wide open.  Suddenly--
+
+"Could we not gain time?" she cried, and in her eagerness she rose and set
+her hands upon my shoulders.  "Could I not pretend to acquiesce to his
+wishes, and so delay your end?"
+
+"I have thought of it," I answered gloomily, "but the thought has brought
+me no hope.  Ramiro is not to be trusted.  He might tell you that he sets
+me free, but he dare not do so; he fears that I may have knowledge of his
+dealings with Vitelli, and assuredly he would break faith with us.  Again
+the coming of the Duke might be delayed.  Alas!" I ended in despair,
+"there is nothing to be done but to let things run their course."
+
+There was even more in my mind than I expressed.  My mistrust of Ramiro
+went further than I had explained, and concerning Madonna more closely
+than it did me.
+
+"Nay, Lazzaro mine," she still protested, "I will attempt it.  It is, at
+least, well worth the risk.
+
+"You forget," said I, "that even when Cesare comes we cannot say how he
+will bear himself towards you.  You were to have been betrothed to his
+cousin, Ignacio.  It is a matter upon which he may insist."
+
+She looked at me for a moment with anguish in her eyes that turned my
+misery into torture.
+
+"Lazzaro," she moaned, "was ever woman so beset!  I think that Heaven must
+have laid some curse upon me."
+
+Her face was close to mine.  I stooped forward and kissed her on her brow.
+
+"May God have you in His keeping, Madonna mia," I murmured.  "The sun is
+gone."
+
+"Lazzaro!"  It was the cry of a breaking heart.  Her arms went round my
+neck, and in a passion of grief her kisses burned on my lips.
+
+Then the door of the anteroom opened--and I thanked God for the mercy of
+that interruption.  I whispered a word to her, and in obedience she sprang
+back, and sank limp and broken on the chair once again.
+
+Ramiro entered, his men behind him, his face alit with eagerness.  There
+and then I swamped his hopes.
+
+"The sun is gone, Magnificent," said I.  "You had best get me hanged."
+
+His brow darkened, for there was a note of mockery and triumph in my
+voice.
+
+"You have fooled me, animal," he cried.  His jaw set, and his eyes
+continued to regard me with an evil glow.  Then he laughed terribly,
+shrugged his shoulders, and spoke again.  "After all, it shall avail you
+little."  He turned to the carnifex.  "Federigo, do your work," said he,
+whereupon the fellow stepped behind me, and the halberdiers ranged
+themselves one on either side of me again.
+
+"A word ere I go, Messer del' Orca," I demanded insolently.
+
+He looked at me sharply, wondering, maybe, at the fresh tone I took.
+
+"Say it and begone," he sullenly permitted me.
+
+I paused a moment to choose fitting words for that portentous death-song
+of mine.  At length--
+
+"You boasted to me a little while ago," said I, smiling grimly, "that the
+man did not live who had thrice fooled you.  That man does live, for that
+man am I."
+
+"Bah!" he returned contemptuously, thinking, no doubt, that I referred to
+my interview with Madonna Paola.  "You may take what pride you will from
+such a thought.  You are upon the threshold of death."
+
+"True, but the thought is one that affords me more comfort and joy than
+pride.  As much comfort and joy as you shall take horror when I tell you
+in what manner I have fooled you." I paused to heighten the sensation of
+my words.
+
+"To such good purpose have I used my wits that ere another sun shall rise
+and set you will have followed me along the black road that I am now
+treading--the road whose bourne is the gallows.  Bethink you of the
+charred paper that last night you brushed from this table when you awoke
+to find a candle fallen on the treacherous letter Vitellozzo Vitelli sent
+you in the lining of a hat."
+
+His jaw fell, his face flamed redder than ever for a second, then it went
+grey as ashes.
+
+"Of what do you prate, fool?" he questioned huskily, seeking to bluster it
+before the startled glances of his officers.
+
+"I speak," said I, "of that charred paper.  It was I who laid the candle
+across it; but it was a virgin sheet I burned.  Vitelli's letter I had
+first abstracted."
+
+"You lie!" he almost screamed.
+
+"To prove that I do not, I will tell you what it contained.  It held proof
+that bribed by the Tyrant of Citta di Castello you had undertaken to pose
+an arbalister to slay the Duke on the occasion of his coming visit to
+Cesena."
+
+He glared at me a moment in furious amazement.  Then he turned to his
+officers.
+
+"Do not heed him," he bade them.  "The dog lies to sow doubts in your
+minds ere he goes out to hang.  It is a puerile revenge."
+
+I laughed with amused confidence.  There was one among them had heard
+Lampugnani's words touching the messenger's hat--words that had cost the
+fellow his life.  But my concern was little with the effect my words might
+produce upon his followers.
+
+"By to-morrow you will know whether I have lied or not.  Nay, before then
+shall you know it, for by midnight Cesare Borgia should be at Cesena.
+Vitellozzo Vitelli's letter is in his hands by now."
+
+At that Ramiro burst into a laugh.  So convinced was he of the
+impossibility of my having got the letter to the Duke, even if what I had
+said of its abstraction were true, that he gathered assurance from what
+seemed to him so monstrous an exaggeration.
+
+"By your own words are you confounded," said he.  "Out of your own mouth
+have you proven your lies.  Assuming that all you say were true, how could
+you, who since last night have been a prisoner, have got a messenger to
+bear anything from you to Cesare Borgia?"
+
+I looked at him with a contemptuous amusement that daunted him.
+
+"Where is Mariani?" I asked quietly.  "Where is the father of the lad you
+so brutally and wantonly slew yesternight?  Seek him throughout Cesena,
+and when you find him not, perhaps you will realise that one who had seen
+his own son suffer such an outrageous and cruel death at your brigand's
+hands would be a willing and ready instrument in an act that should avenge
+him."
+
+Vergine santa!  What a consternation was his.  He must have missed Mariani
+early in the day, for he took no measure, asked no questions that might
+confirm or refute the thing I announced.  His face grew livid, and his
+knees loosened.  He sank on to a chair and mopped the cold sweat from his
+brow with his great brown hand.  No thought had he now for the eyes of his
+officers or their opinions.  Fear, icy and horrid, such fear as in his
+time he had inspired in a thousand hearts was now possessed of his.  Sweet
+indeed was the flavour of my vengeance.
+
+His officers instinctively drew away from him before the guilt so clearly
+written on his face, and their eyes were full of doubt as to how they
+should proceed and of some fear--for it must have been passing through
+their minds that they stood, themselves, in danger of being involved with
+him in the Duke's punishment of his disloyalty.
+
+This was more than had ever entered into my calculations or found room in
+my hopes.  By a brisk appeal to them, it almost seemed that I might work
+my salvation in this eleventh hour.
+
+Madonna watched the scene with eyes that suggested to me that the same
+hope had arisen in her own mind.  My halberdiers and the carnifex alone
+stood stolidly indifferent.  Ramiro was to them the man that hired them;
+with his intriguing they had no concern.
+
+For a moment or two there was a silence, and Ramiro sat staring before
+him, his white face glistening with the sweat of fear.  A very coward at
+heart was this overbearing ogre of Cesena, who for years had been the
+terror and scourge of the countryside.  At last he mastered his emotion
+and sprang to his feet.
+
+"You have had the laugh of me," he snarled, fury now ringing in his voice.
+"But ere you die you may regret it that you mocked me."
+
+He turned to the executioner.
+
+"Strip him," he commanded fiercely.  "He shall not hang as I intended--at
+least not before we have torn every bone of his body from its socket.  To
+the cord with him!"  And he pointed to the torture at the end of the hall.
+
+The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola leapt
+to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new excitement.
+
+"Is there none here," he cried, appealing to Ramiro's officers, "that will
+draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the Duca Valentino?  There
+stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his loyalty to Cesare
+Borgia.  The Duke is likely to demand a heavy price for the life of that
+faithful one to whose warning he owes his escape of assassination.  Will
+none of you side now with the right that anon you may stand well with
+Cesare Borgia when he comes?  Or, by idly allowing this traitor to have
+his way, will you participate in the punishment that must be his?"
+
+It was the very spur they needed.  And scarce was that final question of
+hers flung at those knaves, when the answer came from one of them.  It was
+that same sturdy Lupone.
+
+"I, for one, am for the Duke," said he, and his sword leapt from its
+scabbard.  "I draw my iron for Valentino.  Let every loyal man do likewise
+and seize this traitor."  And with his sword he pointed at Ramiro.
+
+In an instant three others bared their weapons and ranged themselves
+beside him.  The remaining two--of whom was Lucagnolo--folded their hands,
+manifesting by that impassivity that they were minded to take neither one
+side nor the other.
+
+The carnifex paused in his labours of undressing me, and the affair
+promised to grow interesting.  But Ramiro did not stand his ground.  Fury
+swelling his veins and crimsoning his huge face, he sprang to the door and
+bellowed to his guards.  Six men trooped in almost at once, and reinforced
+by the halberdiers that had been guarding me, they made short work of the
+resistance of those four officers.  In as little time as it takes me to
+record it, they were disarmed and ranged against the wall behind those
+guards and others that had come to their support--to be dealt with by
+Ramiro after he had dealt with me.
+
+His fear of Cesare's coming was put by for the moment in his fierce lust
+to be avenged upon me who had betrayed him and the officers who had turned
+against him.  Madonna sank back once more in her despair.  The little
+spark that she had so bravely fanned to life had been quenched almost as
+soon as it had shown itself.
+
+"Now, Federigo," said Ramiro grimly, "I am waiting."
+
+The executioner resumed his work, and in an instant I stood stripped of my
+brigandine.  As the fellow led me, unresisting, to the torture--for what
+resistance could have availed me now?--I tried to pray for strength to
+endure what was to come.  I was done with life; for some portion of an
+hour I must go through the cruellest of agonies; and then, when it pleased
+God in His mercy that I should swoon, it would be to wake no more in this
+world.  For they would bear out my unconscious body, and hang it by the
+neck from that black beam they called Ramiro del' Orca's flagstaff.
+
+I cast a last glance at Madonna.  She had fallen on her knees, and with
+folded hands was praying intently, none heeding her.
+
+Federigo halted me beneath the pulleys, and his horrid hands grew busy
+adjusting the ropes to my wrists.
+
+And then, when the last ray of hope had faded, but before the executioner
+had completed his hideous task, a trumpet-blast, winding a challenge to
+the gates of the Castle of Cesena, suddenly rang out upon the evening air,
+and startled us all by its sudden and imperious note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+AVE CAESAR!
+
+
+For just an instant I allowed myself to be tortured by the hope that a
+miracle had happened, and here was Cesare Borgia come a good eight hours
+before it was possible for Mariani to have fetched him from Faenza.  The
+same doubt may have crossed Ramiro's mind, for he changed colour and
+sprang to the door to bawl an order forbidding his men to lower the
+bridge.
+
+But he was too late.  Before he was answered by his followers, we heard
+the creaking of the hinges and the rattle of the running chains, ending in
+a thud that told us the drawbridge had dropped across the moat.  Then came
+the loud continuous thunder of many hoofs upon its timbers.  Paralysed by
+fear Ramiro stood where he had halted, turning his eyes wildly in this
+direction and in that, but never moving one way or the other.
+
+It must be Cesare, I swore to myself.  Who else could ride to Cessna with
+such numbers?  But then, if it was Cesare, it could not be that he had
+seen Mariani, for he could not have ridden from Faenza.  Madonna had risen
+too, and with a white face and straining eyes she was looking towards the
+door.
+
+And then our doubts were at last ended.  There was a jangle of spurs and
+the fall of feet, and through the open door stepped a straight, martial
+figure in a doublet of deep crimson velvet, trimmed with costly lynx furs
+and slashed with satin in the sleeves and shoulder-puffs; jewels gleamed
+in the massive chain across his breast and at the marroquin girdle that
+carried his bronze-hilted sword; his hose was of red silk, and his great
+black boots were armed with golden spurs.  But to crown all this very
+regal splendour was the beautiful, pale, cold face of Cesare Borgia, from
+out of which two black eyes flashed and played like sword-points on the
+company.
+
+Behind him surged a press of mercenaries, in steel, their weapons naked in
+their hands, so that no doubt was left of the character of this visit.
+
+Collecting himself, and bethinking him that after all, he had best
+dissemble a good countenance; Ramiro advanced respectfully to meet his
+overlord.  But ere he had taken three steps the Duke stayed him.
+
+"Stand where you are, traitor," was the imperious command.  "I'll trust
+you no nearer to my person."  And to emphasise his words he raised his
+gloved left hand, which had been resting on his sword-hilt, and in which I
+now observed that he held a paper.
+
+Whether Ramiro recognised it, or whether it was that the mere sight of a
+paper reminded him of the letter which on my testimony should be in
+Cesare's keeping, or whether again the word "traitor" with which Cesare
+branded him drove the iron deeper into his soul, I cannot say; but to this
+I can testify: that he turned a livid green, and stood there before his
+formidable master in an attitude so stricken as to have aroused pity for
+any man less a villain than was he.
+
+And now Cesare's eye, travelling round, alighted on Madonna Paola,
+standing back in the shadows to which she had instinctively withdrawn at
+his coming.  At sight of her he recoiled a pace, deeming, no doubt, that
+it was an apparition stood before him.  Then he looked again, and being a
+man whose mind was above puerile superstitions, he assured himself that by
+what miracle the thing was wrought, the figure before him was the living
+body of Madonna Paola Sforza di Santafior.  He swept the velvet cap with
+its jewelled plume from off his auburn locks, and bowed low before her.
+
+"In God's name, Madonna, how are you come to life again, and how do I find
+you here of all places?"
+
+She made no ado about enlightening him.
+
+"That villain," said she, and her finger pointed straight and firmly at
+Ramiro, "put a sleeping-potion in my wine on the last night he dined with
+us at Pesaro, and when all thought me dead he came to the Church of San
+Domenico with his men to carry off my sleeping body.  He would have
+succeeded in his fell design but that Lazzaro Biancomonte there, whom you
+have stayed him in the act of torturing to death, was beforehand and saved
+me from his clutches for a time.  This morning at Cattolica his searching
+sbirri discovered me and brought me hither, where I have been for the past
+three hours, and where, but for your Excellency's timely arrival, I
+shudder to think of the indignities I might have suffered."
+
+"I thank you, Madonna, for this clear succinctness," answered Cesare
+coldly, as was his habit.  They say he was a passionate man, and such
+indeed I do believe him to have been; but even in the hottest frenzy of
+rage, outwardly he was ever the same--icily cold and tranquil.  And this,
+no doubt, was the thing that made him terrible.
+
+"Presently, Madonna," he pursued, "I shall ask you to tell me how it
+chanced that, having saved you, Messer Biancomonte did not bear you to
+your brother's house.  But first I have business with my Governor of
+Cesena--a score which is rendered, if possible, heavier than it already
+stood by this thing that you have told me."
+
+"My lord," cried out Ramiro, finding his tongue at last, "Madonna has
+misinformed you.  I know nothing of who administered the sleeping-potion.
+Certainly it was not I.  I heard a rumour that her body had been stolen,
+and--"
+
+"Silence!" Cesare commanded sternly.  "Did I question you, dog?"
+
+His beautiful, terrible eyes fastened upon Ramiro in a glance that defied
+the man to answer him.  Cowed, like a hound at sight of the whip, Ramiro
+whimpered into silence.
+
+Cesare waved his hand in his direction, half-turning to the men-at-arms
+behind him.
+
+"Take and disarm him," was his passionless command.  And while they were
+doing his bidding, he turned to me and ordered the executioner beside me
+to unbind my hands and set me at liberty.
+
+"I owe you a heavy debt, Messer Biancomonte," he said, without any warmth,
+even now that his voice was laden with a message of gratitude.  "It shall
+be discharged.  It is thanks to your daring and resource that the
+seneschal Mariani was able to bring me this letter, this piece of
+culminating proof against Ramiro del' Orca.  It is fortunate for you that
+Mariani was not put to it to ride to Faenza to find me, or else I am
+afraid we had not reached Cesena in time to save your life.  I met him
+some leagues this side of Faenza, as I was on my way to Sinigaglia."
+
+He turned abruptly to Ramiro.
+
+"In this letter which Vitelli wrote you," said he, "it is suggested that
+there are others in the conspiracy.  Tell me now, who are those others?
+See that you answer me with truth, for I shall compel proofs from you of
+such accusations as you may make."
+
+Ramiro looked at him with eyes rendered dull by agony.  He moistened his
+lips with his tongue, and turning his head towards his men--
+
+"Wine," he gasped, from very force of habit.  "A cup of wine!"
+
+"Let it be supplied him," said Cesare coldly, and we all stood waiting
+while a servant filled him a cup.  Ramiro gulped the wine avidly, never
+pausing until the goblet was empty.
+
+"Now," said Cesare, who had been watching him, "will it please you to
+answer my question?"
+
+"My lord," said Ramiro, revived and strengthened in spirit by the draught,
+"I must ask your Excellency to be a little plainer with me.  To what
+conspiracy is it that you refer?  I know of none.  What is this letter
+which you say Vitelli wrote me?  I take it you refer to the Lord of Citta
+di Castello.  But I can recall no letters passing between us.  My
+acquaintance with him is of the slightest."
+
+Cesare looked at him a second.
+
+"Approach," he curtly bade him, and Ramiro came forward, one of the Borgia
+halberdiers on either side of him, each holding him by an arm.  The Duke
+thrust the letter under his eyes.  "Have you never seen that before?"
+
+Ramiro looked at it a moment, and his attempt at dissembling bewilderment
+was a ludicrous thing to witness.
+
+"Never," he said brazenly at last.
+
+Cesare folded the letter and slipped it into the breast of his doublet.
+From his girdle he took a second paper.  He turned from Ramiro.
+
+"Don Miguel," he called.
+
+From behind his men-at-arms a tall man, all dressed in black, stood
+forward.  It was Cesare's Spanish captain, one whose name was as well
+known and as well-dreaded in Italy as Cesare's own.  The Duke held out to
+him the paper that he had produced.
+
+"You heard the question that I asked Messer del' Orca?" he inquired.
+
+"I heard, Illustrious" answered Miguel, with a bow.
+
+"See that you obtain me an answer to it, as well as an account of the
+other matters that I have noted on this list--concerning the
+misappropriation of stores, the retention of taxes illicitly levied, and
+the wanton cruelty towards my good citizens of Cesena.  Put him to the
+question without delay, and record me his replies.  The implements are
+yonder."
+
+And with the same calm indifference which characterised his every word and
+action Cesare pointed to the torture, and turned to Madonna Paola, as
+though he gave the matter of Ramiro del' Orca and his misdeeds not another
+thought.
+
+"Mercy, my lord," rang now the voice of Ramiro, laden with horrid fear.
+"I will speak."
+
+"Then do so--to Don Miguel.  He will question you in my name."  Again he
+turned to Madonna.  "Madonna Paola, may I conduct you hence?  Things may
+perhaps occur which it is not seemly your gentle eyes should witness.
+Messer Biancomonte, attend us."
+
+Now, in spite of all that Ramiro had made me suffer, I should have been
+loath to have remained and witnessed his examination.  That they would
+torture him was now inevitable.  His chance of answering freely was gone.
+Even if he returned meek replies to Don Miguel's questions, that gentleman
+would, no doubt, still submit him to the cord by way of assuring himself
+that such replies were true ones.
+
+Gladly, then, did I turn to follow the Duke and Madonna Paola into the
+adjoining chamber to which Cesare led the way, even as Don Miguel's voice
+was raised to command his men to clear the hall, to the end that he might
+conduct his examination in private.
+
+The three of us stood in the anteroom.  A servant had lighted the tapers
+and closed the doors, and the Duke turned to me.
+
+"First, Messer Biancomonte, to discharge my debt.  You are, if I am not
+misinformed, the lord by right of birth of certain lands that bear your
+name, which suffered sequestration during the reign of the late Costanzo,
+Tyrant of Pesaro, whose son Giovanni upheld that confiscation.  Am I
+right?"
+
+"Your Excellency is very well informed.  The Lord of Pesaro did make me
+tardy restitution--so tardy, indeed, that the lands which he restored to
+me had already virtually passed from his possession."
+
+Cesare smiled.
+
+"In recompense for the service you have rendered me this day," said he,
+and my heart thrilled at the words and at the thought of the joy which I
+was about to bear to my old mother, "I reinvest you in your lands of
+Biancomonte for so long as you are content to recognise in me your
+overlord, and to be loyal, true and faithful to my rule."
+
+I bowed, murmuring something of the joy I felt and the devotion I should
+entertain.
+
+"Then that is done with.  You shall have the deed from my hand by morning.
+And now, Madonna, will you grant me some explanation of your conduct in
+leaving Pesaro in this man's company, instead of repairing to your
+brother's house, when you awakened from the effects of the potion Ramiro
+gave you, or must I seek the explanation from Messer Biancomonte?"
+
+Her eyes fell before the scrutiny of his, and when they were raised again
+it was to meet my glance, and if Cesare could not, for himself, read the
+message of those eyes, why then, his penetration was by no means what the
+world accounted it.
+
+"My lord," I cried, "let me explain.  I love Madonna Paola.  It was love
+of her that led me to the church and kept me there that night.  It was
+love of her and the overmastering passion of my grief at her so sudden
+death that led me, in a madness, to desire once more to look upon her face
+ere they delivered it to earth's keeping.  Thus was it that I came to
+discover that she lived; thus was it that I anticipated Ramiro del' Orca.
+He came upon us almost before I had raised her from the coffin, yet love
+lent me strength and craft to delude him.  We hid awhile in the sacristy,
+and it was there, after Madonna had revived, that the pent-up passion of
+years burst the bond with which reason had bidden me restrain it."
+
+"By the Host!" cried Cesare, his brows drawn down in a frown.  "You are a
+bold man to tell me this.  And you, Madonna," he cried, turning suddenly
+to her, "what have you to say?"
+
+"Only, my lord, that I have suffered more I think in these past few days
+than has ever fallen to the life-time's share of another woman.  I think,
+my lord, that I have suffered enough to have earned me a little peace and
+a little happiness for the remainder of my days.  All my life have men
+plagued me with marriages that were hateful to me, and this has culminated
+in the brutal act of Ramiro del' Orca.  Do you not think that I have
+endured enough?"
+
+He stared at her for a moment.
+
+"Then you love this fellow?" he gasped.  "You, Madonna Paola Sforza di
+Santafior, one of the noblest ladies in all Italy, confess to love this
+lordling of a few barren acres?"
+
+"I loved him, Illustrious, when he was less, much less, than that.  I
+loved him when he was little better than the Fool of the Court of Pesaro,
+and not even the shame of the motley that disgraced him could stay the
+impulse of my affections."
+
+He laughed curiously.
+
+"By my faith," said he, "I have gone through life complaining of the want
+of frankness in the men and women I have met.  But you two seem to deal in
+it liberally enough to satisfy the most ardent seeker after truth.  I
+would that Pontius Pilate could have known you."  Then he grew sterner.
+"But what account of this evening's adventure am I to bear to my cousin
+Ignacio?"
+
+She hung her head in silence, whilst my own spirit trembled.  Then
+suddenly I spoke.
+
+"My lord," said I, "if you take her back to Pesaro, you may keep the deed
+of Biancomonte.  For unless Madonna Paola goes thither with me, your gift
+is a barren one, your reward of no account or value to me."
+
+"I would not have it so," said he, his head on one side and his fingers
+toying with his auburn beard.  "You saved my life, and you must be
+rewarded fittingly."
+
+"Then, Illustrious, in payment for my preservation of your life, do you
+render happy mine, and we shall thus be quits."
+
+"My lord," cried Paola, putting forth her hands in supplication, "if you
+have ever loved, befriend us now."
+
+A shadow darkened his face for an instant, then it was gone, and his
+expression was as inscrutable as ever.  Yet he took her hands in his and
+looked down into her eyes.
+
+"They say that I am hard, bloodthirsty and unfeeling," he said in tones
+that were almost of complaint.  "But I am not proof against so much
+appeal.  Ignacio must find him a bride in Spain; and if he is wise and
+would taste the sweets of life, he will see to it that he finds him a
+willing one."
+
+"As for you two, Cesare Borgia shalt stand your friend.  He owes you no
+less.  I will be godfather to your nuptials.  Thus shall the blame and
+consequences rest on me.  Paola Sforza di Santafior is dead, men think.
+We will leave them thinking it.  Filippo must know the truth.  But you can
+trust me to make your brother take a reasonable view of what has come to
+pass.  After all, there may be a disparity in your ranks.  But it is
+purely adventitious, for noble though you may be, Madonna Paola, you are
+wedding one who seems no less noble at heart, whatever the parts he may
+have played in life."  He smiled inscrutably, as he added:  "I have in
+mind that you once sought service with me Messer Biancomonte, and if a
+martial life allures you still, I'll make you lord of something better far
+than Biancomonte."
+
+I thanked him, and Madonna joined me in that expression of gratitude--an
+expression that fell very short of all that was in our hearts.  But
+touching that offer of his that I should follow his fortunes, I begged him
+not to insist.
+
+"The possession of Biancomonte has from my cradle been the goal of all my
+hopes.  It is patrimony enough for me, and there, with Madonna Paola, I'll
+take a long farewell of ambition, which is but the seed of discontent."
+
+"Why, as you will," he sighed.  And then, before more could be said, there
+came from the adjoining room a piercing scream.
+
+Cesare raised his head, and his lips parted in the faintest vestige of a
+smile.
+
+"They are exacting the truth from the Governor of Cesena," said he.  "I
+think, Madonna, that we had better move a little farther off.  Ramiro's
+voice makes indifferent music for a lady's ear."
+
+She was white as death at the horrid noise and all the things of which it
+may have reminded her, and so we passed from the antechamber and sought
+the more distant places of the castle.
+
+Here let me pause.  We were married on the morrow which was Christmas eve,
+and in the grey dawn of the Christmas morning we set out for Biancomonte
+with the escort which Cesare Borgia placed at our disposal.
+
+As we rode out from the Citadel of Cesena, we saw the last of Ramiro del'
+Orca.  Beyond the gates, in the centre of the public square, a block stood
+planted in the snow.  On the side nearer the castle there was a dark mass
+over which a rich mantle had been thrown; it was of purple colour, and in
+the uncertain light it was not easy to tell where the cloak ended, and the
+stain that embrued the snow began.  On the other side of the block a
+decapitated head stood mounted on an upright pike, and the sightless eyes
+of Ramiro del' Orca looked from his grinning face upon the town of Cesena,
+which he had so wantonly misruled.
+
+Madonna shuddered and turned her head aside as we rode past that dread
+emblem of the Borgia justice.
+
+To efface from her mind the memory of such a thing on such a day, I talked
+to her, as we cantered out into the country, of the life to come, of the
+mother that waited to welcome us, and of the glad tidings with which we
+were to rejoice her on that Christmas day.
+
+There is no moral to my story.  I may not end with one of those graceful
+admonitions beloved of Messer Boccacci to whom in my jester's days I owed
+so much.  Not mine is it to say with him "Wherefore, gentle ladies"--or
+"noble sirs--beware of this, avoid that other thing."
+
+Mine is a plain tale, written in the belief that some account of those old
+happenings that befell me may offer you some measure of entertainment, and
+written, too, in the support of certain truths which my contemporaries
+have been shamefully inclined and simoniacally induced to suppress.  Many
+chroniclers set forth how the Lord Vitellozzo Vitelli and his associates
+were barbarously strangled by Cesare's orders at Sinigaglia, and
+wilfully--for I cannot believe that it results from ignorance--are they
+silent touching the reason, leaving you to imagine that it was done in
+obedience to a ruthlessness of character beyond parallel, so that you may
+come to consider Cesare Borgia as black as they were paid to paint him.
+
+To confute them do I set down these facts of which my knowledge cannot be
+called in question, and also that you may know the true story of Paola di
+Santafior--and more particularly that part of it which lies beyond the
+death she did not die.
+
+The sun of that Christmas day was setting as we drew near to Biancomonte
+and the humble dwelling of my old mother.  We fell into talk of her once
+more.  Suddenly Paola turned in her saddle to confront me.
+
+"Tell me, Lord of Biancomonte, will she love me a little, think you?" she
+asked, to plague me.
+
+"Who would not love you, Lady of Biancomonte?" counter-questioned I.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext The Shame of Motley, by Rafael Sabatini
+
diff --git a/old/shmot10.zip b/old/shmot10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b384551
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/shmot10.zip