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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. 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