A Jay of Italy

as potential in its promise. What were to be the first-fruits of that cataclysmic revulsion of feeling in a nature so habitually frozen from all tenderness? If no more than a shy snowdrop

nwonted sweetness. Whence had he risen, the lovely singing-boy, spirit of change, harbinger of a new humanity? Whither had he gone? To the Duke's quarters-that was all they knew. They had seen him carried off, persuaded, fondled, revered by that very despot whom he had dared divinely to rebuke, and the doors had clanged and t

urotics, a confident diagnosis of his disease had proved the shortest means to its cure. Clever the doctor, too, who could make such a patient's treatment jump with his caprices; and with an inspired intuition Bernardo had so manoeuvred to reconcile the two. A whim much indulged may become a habit, and he was determined to encourage to the top of its bent this whim of reformation in the Duke. No ungrateful physicking of a soured bile for him; no uncomfortable philosophy of organic atoms recombined. He just rest

ined to withhold, especially on such a morning. Soft-footed cardinals, princes of the blood, nobles and jingling captains, vied with one another in obsequious attentions to our little neophyte of love. The reasons, apart from superstitious reverence, were plentiful: his sweetness,

he trial of certain causes, which, as coming immediately under the ducal jurisdiction, it was Galeazzo's sport often to preside over in person. Here he saw the boy, standing at his brother's shoulder by the judgment-seat-the comeliest figure, between Cupid and angel, he had ever beheld; frank, sweet, child-eyed-in every feature and quality, it would seem, the antithesis of himself. Messer Ludovico came up arm in arm, very condescendingly, with his excellency the Ser Simonetta, Secretary of State, a gentleman whom h

ce of his depended. His complexion being of a swarthiness to have earned him the surname of The Moor, he had acquired a habit of drooping his lids in company, lest the contrastive effect of white eyeballs moving in a dark, motionless face should betray him to the subjects of those covert side-long glances by which he was wont to observe unobserved. Even to his shoulders, which were slightly rounded by nature, he managed, when in his brother's presence, to give the suggestion of a self-deprecatory hump, as though the slight burden of State which they already endured were too much for them. His voice was low-toned; his expression generally of a soft and rather apologetic benignity. His manne

Simonetta more intimately, but still out of the twisted corner of his m

Parnassus and the spring. Tell me, now-'tis no uncommon choice of my

toothless from friction on its bars, had yet his i

arse, thin voice, 'what differentia

ico, 'perhaps a degre

y, 'is it not rather a d

responded to the attention with a condescending nod. Ludovico readdressed himself to the secretary.) 'How neatly you put things! It is a degree or two, as you say-between the intoxication of the spirit and the intoxication of

ighness,' said th

ed Ludovico. 'T

icers. The Duke, seated above, stroked his chin with a glance at the prisoner of sinister relish, which, on the thought, he smoothed, with a little apologetic cough, into an expression of mild benignancy. Messer Lanti, pla

less. He was voluble and nasal over his innocence, until one of t

'that is to give the poor ma

sound enough evidence, and stood sullen and desperate to hear his sentence. Galeazzo eyed him covetously a moment; then turning to a clerk of the court who knelt beside him with his tablets ready, bade that obsequious functionary proclaim the penal

his Magnificence appeal, with a smile,

hou hearest?

e that all might hear like a bird's song in the stillnes

is t

mood, he had dared to rais

e made to die-n

ken on the wh

e dog sha

ay no higher. Valuest thy life, then, at a pinch o

ip, and frowned, a

w, Bern

comparative experience. I pray thee p

n her form, and, half-killing, had despatched her. Why? asked Bembo. To still her telltale cries, intimated the wretched creature. Galeazzo's eyes gleamed; but still he call

ttle offence, in any case, an

rst he dared-that the law exacted the extremest penalty from the unauthorised killer o

didst thou w

to be goaded

r, I a

r-'a monster, to devou

ows I d

e why should it draw no distinction between the crimes o

f I have

anthropo

er

me of thy prince.' He chuckled again, and turned merrily on the Duke. 'Is the hare to be prince, or the prin

ptivated, half furi

k on his breach and send him flying. Nay!' he snarled, 'even that

er his brother's pleasantry, exclaimed audibly to Simonetta: 'This is the very wedding of huma

n; a sinewy figure, but eloquent, in his groping hands and bandaged face, of

n! I am one Lupo, an armo

the Duke. 'Ar

thing, 'let me see justice as

, on

k me for ever from the rolls of daylight, sith

hrugged hi

assailant-

, as ti

have made it good to thee. Now, an eye for-' but he c

uardian angel,' h

needs this revision by Heaven?' And he cried ter

the man see

come forth and write upon a forehead.' His eyes sparkled, as if

him,' thought Ludovico

tarted, and his lids lifted, and his mouth creased a moment to a little malevolent grin. For why? This Tassino, while too indi

ly curled and groomed as her Grace's lap-dog, and sharing, indeed, with Messer Tinopino the whole present caprice of their mistress's spoiling. His own base origin and inherent vulgarity, moreover, seeming to a

stared with insufferable insolen

t more than I thee, methinks. Wert we

mbo. 'Thou hast said it. It

to see these young wits opposed, the one

lying carle,' he cr

ietly, '"Let the false s

all ruffled and combat

ared. 'Didst th

made arrogant by spoiling. He had the greatest pity and tenderness for himself, and to any sense of his being lost would always respond with a lump in his throat. Now he suddenly realised his position, alone and baited be

u!' he crie

is thing?' rep

business

hou this

s word a

hou this

!' appeale

hou this

fairly burs

say

rose in his chair. He seemed as if furious to foreclose on a dénouement

t!' he s

rubbed his hands together, with a motion part gloating, part deprecatory. The Ser Ludovico

r Scrivener?' s

erk murmured fr

of these accidents. The condescens

pressed together, nodded

a condescension whi

f, with a deadly sw

for God's vicegerent, cal

beside the blubbered, resentful you

ine elbow of defacing God's image. Shall man dare the awful impiety to pronounce th

stillness of the hall. Then Bembo addressed

s rogue hath sweat

ed gold ducats, if a lire. Shook 'em in a leat

o no

he shall labour to provide other hund

re of his limbs,

yes! O, to be sure!

e Saint, 'but

rmur of popular approval. From all, that is to say, but Tassino, who saw his own fate looming big by comparison. He rose and looked about him de

l be restored; re

creamed in a sudden

ve me alone. It was his own faul

age of God his sight,

now I

spoken. Take ye this wicked thing, good officers, a

o veiled his sight, and, it might be said, his laughter. Tassino was

I say. What! would ye brave Madon

d Galeazzo, leaning lustfully forward.

instant fall from the heights! He was flaccid

! I could not suffer them and live. O, let me live, I pray thee!-anywh

elled, the Saint looked down w

in respect of that reason with which true justice doth hedge her reprisals, the Duke's mercy shall still allot thee an alternative. Sith thou canst not restore his honour or

it by and by. Already the paltry soul of the creature was struggling from its submersion, gasping, and blinking wickedly to see how it could retort upon its judge and deliverer. It had been better to have trodden it under for once and for good-better for the moral of the lesson, as for all who foresaw some hope for themselves in the crushing of an insufferable petty tyranny.

was on his feet, f

oared; 'acceptest t

tarted an

accept. I wil

m his own neck, and hung it abou

id, 'in earnest of

urned upo

e spoken hereafter by our dear monitor and p

acclaiming the boy Saint and Daniel. Messer Ludovico saluted him with fervour. He f

, brother,' said he. 'Keep thou thi

Bernardo learned the

piety such a stranger here that y

nd ask his opinion on all. A word from the child at that period would have floored a cardinal or a scaffolding, have clothed Aphrodite in a cassock, have made a fête champêtre of all Milan, or darkened its walls with mourning. Messer Lan

t but be glad that the old code beat itself out on his back. 'Twas a reptile

The oddest new attachment had come to supplant in him some ancient devotions that were the furthest from devout. He found himself in a very queer mood, between

ntain edge, fanning herself with a great leaf, and talking to a flushed, down-looking page, who, it seemed likely, had brought news from the court of a recent scandal and its sequel. Her shrewd, pretty face took curious stock of the new comers. She was a pale slip of a girl, lithe, bosomless, the green plum of womanhood. Her thin, plain dress was green, fitting her like a sheath its blade of corn, and she wore on her sl

ellowed in the passion of motherhood. Her eyes burned with the caress and entreaty of it-appealed in loveliness to the fathers of her desires. Her beauty, her stateliness, the very milk of h

, she bent and embraced her boy, and dismissed h

with a smile that quivered a little. 'O

t Gian,' said Galeazzo, 'in fears tha

brutality. It was his coward way, and, having asserted it,

her forehead, between wings of auburn hair, burned a great emerald. She seemed to Bernardo the loveliest, most gracious thing, a vision pers

the clear herald of our Christ-His mouthpiece and recorder.

No guile? No duplici

She looked at

know this Tassino

knew i

spared him had

I spare him

hame, its

e than to debauch innocence. Hi

t, bethink thee, she may

loathed, not l

f laughter, from the fountain; 'come and help me! I have caught a butt