The Shame of Motley

rom the Castle a half-hour ago, we found the streets well-nigh deserted, the rebellious citize

me that within the courtyard a crowd would be waiting to receive and welcome me, and it beca

d thanks to Heaven for this signal victory," I muttered to the unsusp

with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those that would

e way for the High and

ee 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

d he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to stare at my armour, battered, dinted, a

vid 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 glasswo

nt and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my jester's

e me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and resume your true estate. Biancomonte

at the pride o

id I, "freely to give tha

h the anger tha

that mean?

, and you will be Lord of Pesaro no more. I have saved yo

to return and drive the usurper out. You must have faith in that, yourself, else

imself; and the better that he might bear himself among his cour

der of acclamation with which he was received; not only by his courtiers, but by the sol

n 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 follower

spering 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? T

when jealousy urged me almost headlong to that rashness. For in Madonna Paola's eyes there was a new expression as they rested

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.

paired 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

compassed, and that night, after they had supped, as merrily as though Duke Valentino had never been heard

instrument. There was a hush, succeeded by a burst of acclamation. They were in

d 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 o

iovanni 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

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 clos

oice ceased and the vibration of my last chord m

which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one noble woman kisse

lise 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

ing a white, bejewelled hand in an imperious demand for silence. Whe

chness 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

d when at last it had died down, the Lord Giovanni proved e

ely 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

toy weapons were they, meant more for ornament than offence, yet were they the earnest of the stouter arms tho

gestion of my illustrious cousin be acted upon, and let this gifted poet be arrayed in a man

bed as themselves. And with my outward trappings I cast off, too, the name

embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that followed that first Sunday

he 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

ing 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 t

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

o 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

cio, the fortunes of the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable match for one of its members is now sc

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

ession, and the orderliness that prevailed among the two thousand men-at-arms that he brought with h

im, and like the time-server that he was, h

us by his great size and red ugliness the Captain Ramiro del' Orca, who now seemed to act in many ways as

with Madonna Paola and two of her ladies, and three gentlemen attached to the person of the Lord Filippo. Cesare's only att

lencia, 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 t

ity 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 confirm

alentino'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

nistrators behind him to set right the affairs of Pesaro,

aved 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

f my intention, "do you, too, desert me? An

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

d a talisman to open wide for me the door to fortune. It did better service than that, Madon

ficed in my service. Yours must be a very noble nature that will

have sorted with my inclinations to have turned man-at-arms. This ring, Madonna

ed, recoiling, yet without any show of deeming p

rust 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 abi

, to treasure it as a buckler against danger, since by

er. "I would have you see in me no more than I am. But

o aid the mouse, my good La

her voice, and her e

nd His saints protect you. I will pray for you, and

om her presence that she might not see my deep emotion, nor hear the sob

THE OGRE