I
'Allow me to present to you my friend Filippo Brandolini, a gentleman ofCitta di Castello.'
Then, turning to me, Matteo added, 'This is my cousin, Checco d'Orsi.'
Checco d'Orsi smiled and bowed.
'Messer Brandolini,' he said, 'I am most pleased to make youracquaintance; you are more than welcome to my house.'
'You are very kind,' I replied; 'Matteo has told me much of yourhospitality.'
Checco bowed courteously, and asked his cousin, 'You have just arrived,Matteo?'
'We arrived early this morning. I wished to come here directly, butFilippo, who suffers from a very insufferable vanity, insisted on goingto an inn and spending a couple of hours in the adornment of hisperson.'
'How did you employ those hours, Matteo?' asked Checco, looking ratherquestioningly at his cousin's dress and smiling.
Matteo looked at his boots and his coat.
'I am not elegant! But I felt too sentimental to attend to my personalappearance, and I had to restore myself with wine. You know, we arevery proud of our native Forli wine, Filippo.'
'I did not think you were in the habit of being sentimental, Matteo,'remarked Checco.
'It was quite terrifying this morning, when we arrived,' said I; 'hestruck attitudes and called it his beloved country, and wanted to lingerin the cold morning and tell me anecdotes about his childhood.'
'You professional sentimentalists will never let anyone sentimentalisebut yourselves.'
'I was hungry,' said I, laughing, 'and it didn't become you. Even yourhorse had his doubts.'
'Brute!' said Matteo. 'Of course, I was too excited to attend to myhorse, and he slipped over those confounded stones and nearly shot meoff--and Filippo, instead of sympathising, burst out laughing.'
'Evidently you must abandon sentiment,' said Checco.
'I'm afraid you are right. Now, Filippo can be romantic for hours at astretch, and, what is worse, he is--but nothing happens to him. But oncoming back to my native town after four years, I think it waspardonable.'
'We accept your apology, Matteo,' I said.
'But the fact is, Checco, that I am glad to get back. The sight of theold streets, the Palazzo, all fill me with a curious sensation ofjoy--and I feel--I don't know how I feel.'
'Make the utmost of your pleasure while you can; you may not always finda welcome in Forli,' said Checco, gravely.
'What the devil do you mean?' asked Matteo.
'Oh, we'll talk of these things later. You had better go and see myfather now, and then you can rest yourselves. You must be tired afteryour journey. To-night we have here a great gathering, where you willmeet your old friends. The Count has deigned to accept my invitation.'
'Deigned?' said Matteo, lifting his eyebrows and looking at his cousin.
Checco smiled bitterly.
'Times have changed since you were here, Matteo' he said; 'the Forlivesiare subjects and courtiers now.'
Putting aside Matteo's further questions, he bowed to me and left us.
'I wonder what it is?' said Matteo. 'What did you think of him?'
I had examined Checco d'Orsi curiously--a tall dark man, with full beardand moustache, apparently about forty. There was a distinct likenessbetween him and Matteo: they both had the same dark hair and eyes; butMatteo's face was broader, the bones more prominent, and the skinrougher from his soldier's life. Checco was thinner and graver, helooked a great deal more talented; Matteo, as I often told him, was notclever.
'He was very amiable,' I said, in reply to the question.
'A little haughty, but he means to be courteous. He is rather oppressedwith his dignity of head of the family.'
'But his father is still alive.'
'Yes, but he's eighty-five, and he's as deaf as a post and as blind as abat; so he remains quietly in his room while Checco pulls the strings,so that we poor devils have to knuckle under and do as he bids us.'
'I'm sure that must be very good for you,' I said. 'I'm curious to knowwhy Checco talks of the Count as he did; when I was here last they werebosom friends. However, let us go and drink, having done our duty.'
We went to the inn at which we had left our horses and ordered wine.
'Give us your best, my fat friend,' cried Matteo to mine host. 'Thisgentleman is a stranger, and does not know what wine is; he was broughtup on the sickly juice of Citta di Castello.'
'You live at Citta di Castello?' asked the innkeeper.
'I wish I did,' I answered.
'He was ejected from his country for his country's good,' remarkedMatteo.
'That is not true,' I replied, laughing. 'I left of my own free will.'
'Galloping as hard as you could, with four-and-twenty horsemen at yourheels.'
'Precisely! And so little did they want me to go, that when I thought achange of air would suit me they sent a troop of horse to induce me toreturn.'
'Your head would have made a pretty ornament stuck on a pike in thegrand piazza.'
'The thought amuses you,' I answered, 'but the comedy of it did notimpress me at the time.'
I remembered the occasion when news was brought me that the Vitelli, thetyrant of Castello, had signed a warrant for my arrest; whereupon,knowing the rapid way he had of dealing with his enemies, I had biddenfarewell to my hearth and home with somewhat indecent haste.... But theold man had lately died, and his son, proceeding to undo all hisfather's deeds, had called back the Fuorusciti, and strung up from thePalace windows such of his father's friends as had not had time toescape. I had come to Forli with Matteo, on my way home to takepossession of my confiscated property, hoping to find that theintermediate proprietor, who was dangling at a rope's end some hundredfeet from the ground, had made sundry necessary improvements.
'Well, what do you think of our wine?' said Matteo. 'Compare it withthat of Citta di Castello.'
'I really haven't tasted it yet,' I said, pretending to smile agreeably.'Strange wines I always drink at a gulp--like medicine.'
'_Brutta bestia!_' said Matteo. 'You are no judge.'
'It's passable,' I said, laughing, having sipped it with greatdeliberation.
Matteo shrugged his shoulders.
'These foreigners!' he said scornfully. 'Come here, fat man,' he calledto the innkeeper. 'Tell me how Count Girolamo and the gracious Caterinaare progressing? When I left Forli the common people struggled to lickthe ground they trod on.'
The innkeeper shrugged his shoulders.
'Gentlemen of my profession have to be careful in what they say.'
'Don't be a fool, man; I am not a spy.'
'Well, sir, the common people no longer struggle to lick the ground theCount treads on.'
'I see!'
'You understand, sir. Now that his father is dead--'
'When I was here last Sixtus was called his uncle.'
'Ah, they say he was too fond of him not to be his father, but, ofcourse, I know nothing. Far be it from me to say anything indisparagement of his Holiness, past or present.'
'However, go on.'
'Well, sir, when the Pope died the Count Girolamo found himself short ofmoney--and so the taxes that he had taken off he put on again.'
'And the result is--'
'Well, the people are beginning to murmur about his extravagance; andthey say that Caterina behaves as if she were a queen; whereas we allknow that she is only the bastard of old Sforza of Milan. But, ofcourse, it has nothing to do with me!'
Matteo and I were beginning to feel sleepy, for we had been riding hardall night; and we went upstairs, giving orders to be called in time forthe night's festivity. We were soon fast asleep.
In the evening Matteo came to me, and began examining my clothes.
'I have been considering, Filippo,' he said, 'that it behoves me on myfirst appearance before the eyes of my numerous lady loves to cut thebest figure I can.'
'I quite agree with you,' I answered; 'but I don't see what you aredoing with my clothes.'
'Nobody knows you, and
it is unimportant how you look; and, as you havesome very nice things here, I am going to take advantage of yourkindness and--'
'You're not going to take my clothes!' I said, springing out of bed.Matteo gathered up in his arms various garments and rushed out of theroom, slamming the door and locking it on the outside, so that I wasleft shut in, helpless.
I shouted abuse after him, but he went away laughing, and I had tomanage as best I could with what he had left me. In half an hour he cameto the door. 'Do you want to come out?' he said.
'Of course I do,' I answered, kicking the panel.
'Will you promise not to be violent?'
I hesitated.
'I shan't let you out unless you do.'
'Very well!' I answered, laughing.
Matteo opened the door and stood bolt upright on the threshold, deckedout from head to foot in my newest clothes.
'You villain!' I said, amazed at his effrontery.
'You don't look bad, considering,' he answered, looking at me calmly.