Love-at-Arms

riar, finding himself no match for the fool in words, and being as broad and stout of girth and limb as the other was puny and misshapen, he had plucked off his sandal

, he never saw the figure that lay half-hidden in the bracken, and might never have guessed its p

o whose sides he had dug his flying feet. The two looked at one anothe

olitely; for by the mien and inches of the man he had

s well he might; for an odder figur

s fell from that same hood-which tightly framed his ugly little face-a foliated cape, from every point of which there hung a tiny silver bell that glimmered in th

ing he received. Then the man checked his anger and broke into

I crave it, Illustrious," said the f

a tone not free from a sudden

in the gross flesh and sembl

" came the an

l between your shoulders, as did I, you wo

wit to answer with," quoth the other, anger ever

He is over-fat to run, or you had seen him at my heels, arrayed in that

hither," was t

ot go near him till his anger cools-not if you made me

him impatiently, a

houlder, and then, after a momen

's affray, it was very gorgeous still, and in the velvet cap upon his head a string of jewels was entwined. Yet not so much by the richness of his trappings was the fool impressed, as by the fact that one so manifestly noble should address by such a title, and in a tone of so much deference, this indifferently apparelled fellow over whom he had stumbled. Then his gaze wandered back to the man who lay s

" he murmured, scra

ipped him by the shoulder, and Fanfulla'

ge his Excellency's presence here, or take

rful haste, his hand upon the hilt,

Count, with a smile at the hunchback's sudde

to go upon his errand, Franc

e said, with an easy smile. "What sh

n, there may be safety in flight. Into the territory of Babbiano I shall never again set foot whilst Gian Maria is Duke, unless I be weary of this world. But of the seventh-yourself-you heard old Lod

And t

s we found on you-the hopes of every man in Babbiano worthy of the name-would

s great girth than from any inflated sense of the dignity of his calling. He bowed before Fanfulla until his great crimson face

n medicine?" quoth

knowledge,

this gentle

, and he would have added other questions as pregnant, but that Aqui

sir p

ne upon his knees, but that Francesco, seeing with wha

stand," said he, submitting hi

invited him to bind it up. To this Fra Domenico replied that he had neither unguents nor linen, but Fanfulla sugges

jester. Francesco spread his cloak, and lay down again, whilst the fool, cra

fool?" quoth the Coun

and feeds me, noble sir, b

nd does he

s unto himself wise, which flatters his conceit. Again, perhaps, because I am so muc

ot?" the Coun

uila should lie here, roughly clad, a w

eyed him w

is a very monster of bloodthirstiness. With me it is different. I am a man of very gentle ways, as you may have heard, Messer Buffo

h a stricken manner. And then through the glade came a voice-a wo

ling me," quoth the fo

er," laughed the Count. "It would pleasure me to behold the

you but turn your hea

ction in which the fool was already walking. And on the instant his whole expression changed. The amused

camorra of green velvet, and a choicely wrought girdle of gold. But it was the glory of her peerless face that caught and held his glance in such ecstatic awe; the miracle of her eyes,

nd gazed and gazed, his mind running on visions

ht him of the deference due to one so clearly noble, and leaping to his feet, his wound forgotten, he bowed