The Valley Of Decision

who viewed with a jealous eye those of his noblesinclined to absent themselves from court and rewarded their presencewith privileges and preferments. At the same tim

f Pianura, and was yet in the fulness of youth andvivacity, could not resign herself to an existence no better, as shedeclared, than that of any herdsman's wife upon the mountains. Here wasneither music nor cards, scandal nor l

ugh Donna Laura disdained notto call these to her chamber and question them for news, yet theircountry-side scandal

rescorre had been appointed Master ofthe Horse, to the indignation of the Bishop, who desired the place forhis nephew, Don Serafino; that the Duke and Duchess were never together;that the Duchess was suspected of being in secret correspondence withthe Austrians, and that the young Marquess of Cerveno was gone to thebaths of Lucca to recover from an attack of tertian fever contracted theprevious autumn at the Duke's hunting-lodge near Pontesordo. Odolistened for some mention of his humpbacked friend, or of Momola thefoundling; but the abate's talk kept a higher level and no one less t

to Odo, who would creepinto the ingle beside Bruno and beg for some story of his ancestors. Theold man was never weary of rehearsing the feats and gestures of thelords of Donnaz, and Odo heard again and again how they had fought thesavage Switzers north of the Alps and the Dauphin's men in the west; howthey had marched with Savoy against Montferrat and with France againstthe Republic of Genoa. Better still he liked to hear of the MarquessGualberto, who had been the Duke of Milan's ally and had brought homethe great Milanese painter to adorn his banqueting-room at Donnaz. Thelords of Donnaz had never been noted for learning, and Odo's grandfatherwas fond of declaring that a nobleman need not be a scholar; but thegreat Marquess Gualberto, if himself unlettered, had been the patron ofpoets and painters and had kept learned clerks to write down the annalsof

t any day with a blastof their magic horns summon the porter to the gates of Donnaz. Foremostamong them, a figure towering above even Rinaldo, Arthur and the EmperorFrederic, was that Co

when Conrad did wrong, his governors, insteadof punishing him, beat his twelve companions; an

ou punish my companions instead of me?""Becau

ch on himself,lest his sinning should work harm to others. This was the story of KingConrad; and much as Odo loved the clash of

quess introduced as the lord of Valdu, a neighbouring seigneurie ofno great account. Though his lands marched with the Marquess's, it wasyears since the Count had visited Donnaz, being one of the King'schamberlains and always in attendance on his Majesty; and it was amazingto see with what smirks and grimaces, and ejaculations in PiedmonteseFrench, he complimented the Marchioness on her appearance, and exclaimedat

e castle. "For having livedat court myself," said she, "I know to what your excellency isaccustomed, and can the better value your condescension in exposingyourself, at this rigorous season, to the hardships of ourmountain-top."The Marquess at thi

omplaisance; yet wondered to seethe smile with which she presently received the Count's half-banteringdisparagement of Pianura. For the duchy, by his showing, was a place ofsmall consequence, an asylum of superannuated fashions; whereas noFrenchman of quality ever visited Turin without exclaiming on itsresemblance to Paris, and vowing that none who had the entree ofStupinigi need cross the Alps to see Versailles. As to the Marquess'sdepriving the court of Donna Laura's presence, their guest protestedagainst it as an act of

Valdu. Here, for the first time, Odo saw thespectacle of a neglected estate, its last penny wrung from it for theabsent master's pleasure by a bailiff who was expected to extract hispay from the sale of clandestine concessions to the tenants. Ridingbeside the Marquess, who swore under his breath at the ravages of theundyked stream and the sight of good arable land run w

her was to become the propertyof an old gentleman whom he guessed to be of his grandfather's age, andwhose enamoured grimaces recalled the antics of her favourite monkey,and the boy's face reflected the blush of embarrassment with which DonnaLaura imparted the news; but the children of that day were trained to apassive acquiescence, and had she informed him that she was to bechained in the keep on bread and water, Odo would have accepted the factwit

nding the flow of the stream, and an angle turret that turned oneslit to the valley, the other to the garden lying below like a tranquilwell of scent and brightness: its box trees clipped to the shape ofpeacocks and lions, its clove pinks and simples set in a border ofthrift, and a pear tree basking on its sunny wall. These pleasantspaces, which Odo had to himself save when the canonesses walked thereto recite t