CHAPTER III. MADONNA PAOLA
We gained the heights in the forenoon, and there we dismounted andpaused awhile to breathe our horses ere we took the path that was tolead us down to Cagli. The air was sharp and cold, for all that overheadwas spread a cloudless, cobalt dome of sky, and the sun poured downits light upon the wide expanse of snow-clad earth, of a whiteness sodazzling as to be hurtful to the sight.
Hitherto I had ridden stolidly ahead, as unheeding of that followingcompany as if I had been unconscious of its existence. But now thatwe paused, their fat, white-faced leader, whose name was Giacopo,approached me and sought to draw me into conversation. I yielded readilyenough, for I scented a mystery about that closely-curtained litter,and mysteries are ever provoking to such a mind as mine. For all thatit might profit me naught to learn who rode there, and why with allthis haste, yet these were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity wasaroused.
"Are you journeying beyond Cagli?" I asked him presently, in an idletone.
He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyesconfirming the existence of the mystery I scented.
"Yes," he answered, after a pause. "We hope to reach Urbino beforenight. And you? Are you journeying far?"
"That far, at least," I answered him, emulating the caution he hadshown.
And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of thelitter were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and sofar was the vision different from that which--for no reason that I cangive--I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. Alady--a very child, indeed--had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any ofthose grooms could offer her assistance.
She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, andto one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on femininebeauty it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of thatwriter's catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shapeand stature, despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicatelyfeatured and of an ivory pallor. Her eyes--blue as the heavensoverhead--were not of the colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor washer hair of the golden brown which that arbiter commends. Had Firenzuolaseen her, it may well be that he had altered or modified his views. Shewas sumptuously arrayed in a loose-sleeved camorra of grey velvet thatwas heavy with costly furs; above the lenza of fine linen on her headgleamed the gold thread of a jewelled net, and at her waist a girdle ofsurpassing richness, all set with gems, glowed like a thing of fire inthe bright sunshine.
She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then lookedabout her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached usacross the gleaming snow.
"Is this," she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfectmatch to the graceful charm of her whole presence, "the traveller who sokindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?"
Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.
"I am in your debt, sir," she protested, with an odd earnestness. "Youdo not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any timePaola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, youshall find me very willing."
White-faced, black-browed Giacopo scowled at this proclamation of heridentity.
I made her a low bow, and answered coldly, brusquely almost, for I hatedthe very name of Sforza, and every living thing that bore it.
"Madonna, you overrate my service. It so chanced that I was travellingthis way."
She looked more closely at me, as if she would have sought the reasonof my churlish tone, and I was strangely thankful that she could not seethe motley worn by the muffled stranger who confronted her. No doubtshe accounted me a clown, whose nature inclined to surliness, and so sheturned away, telling Giacopo that as soon as the horses were breathedthey might push on.
"We must rest them yet awhile, Madonna," answered he, "if they are tocarry us as far as Cagli. Heaven send that we may obtain fresh cattlethere, else is all lost."
Her frown proclaimed how much his words displeased her.
"You forget that if there are no horses for us, neither are there anyfor those others." And she waved her hand towards the valley belowand the road by which we had come. From this and from what was saidI gathered that they were a party of fugitives with pursuers at theirheels.
"They have a warrant which we have not," was Giacopo's answer, gloomilydelivered, "and they will seize cattle where they can find it."
With a little gesture of impatience, more at his fears than at the perilthat aroused them, she moved away towards her litter.
"Your horse would be better for the loan of your cloak, sir stranger,"said Giacopo to me.
I knew him to be right, but shrugged my shoulders.
"Better the horse should die of cold than I," I answered gruffly, andturning from him I set myself to pace the snow and stir the blood thatwas chilling in my veins.
There was a beauty in the white, sunlit landscape spread before me thatcompelled my glance. To some it might compare but ill with the luxuriantsplendour that is of the vernal season; but to me there was a wondrouslyimpressive charm about that solemn, silent, virginal expanse of snow,expressionless as the Sphinx, and imposing and majestic by virtue ofthat very lack of expression. From Fabriano, at our feet, was spread tothe east, the broad plain that lies twixt the Esino and the Masone, asfar as Mount Comero, which, in the distance, lifted its round shoulderfrom the haze of sea. To the west the country lay under the samewinding-sheet of snow as far as eye might range, to the towers ofdistant Perugia, to the Lake Trasimeno--a silver sheen that brokethe white monotony--to Etruscan Cortona, perched like an eyrie on itsmountain top, and to the line of Tuscan hills, like heavy, low-lyingclouds upon the blue horizon.
Lost was I in the contemplation of that scene when a cry, succeeded bya volley of horrid blasphemy, drew my attention of a sudden to mycompanions. They stood grouped together, and their eyes were on the roadby which we had scaled those heights. Their first expression of loudastonishment had been succeeded by an utter silence. I stepped forwardto command a better view of what they contemplated, and in the plainbelow, midway between Narni and the slopes, a mile or so behind us, Icaught a glitter as of a hundred mirrors in the sunshine. A company ofsome dozen men-at-arms it was, riding briskly along the tracks we hadleft behind us in the snow. Could these be the pursuers?
Even as I formed the question in my mind, the lady's silvery voice,behind me, put it into words. She had drawn aside the curtains of herlitter and she was leaning out, her eyes upon those dancing points ofbrilliance.
"Madonna," cried one of her grooms, in a quaver of alarm, "they areBorgia soldiers."
"Your fear is father to that opinion," she answered scornfully. "How canyou descry it at this distance?"
Now, either God had given that knave an eagle's sight, or else, as shesuggested, fear spurred his imagination and begot his certainty of whathe thought he saw.
"The leader's bannerol bears the device of a red bull," he answeredpromptly.
I thought she paled a little, and her brows contracted.
"In God's name, let us get forward, then!" cried Giacopo. "Orsu! Tohorse, knaves!"
No second bidding did they need. In the twinkling of an eye they were inthe saddle, and one of them had caught the bridle of the leading mule ofthe litter. Giacopo called to me to lead the way with him, with no moreceremony than if I had been one of themselves. But I made no ado. Achase is an interesting business, whatever your point of view, and if agreater safety lies with the hunter, there is a keener excitement withthe hunted.
Down that steep and slippery hillside we blundered, making for Cagli ata pace in which there lay a myriad-fold more danger than could menaceus from any party of pursuers. But fear was spur and whip to theunreasoning minds of those poltroons, and so from the danger behind uswe fled, and courted a more deadly and certain peril in the fleeing.At first I sought to remonstrate with Giacopo; but he was deaf to thewisdom that I spoke. He turned upon me a face which terror had r
enderedwhiter than its natural habit, white as the egg of a duck, with a hintof blue or green behind it. I had, besides, an ugly impression of teethand eyeballs.
"Death is behind us, sir," he snarled. "Let us get on."
"Death is more assuredly before you," I answered grimly. "If you willcourt it, go your way. As for me, I am over-young to break my neckand be left on the mountain-side to fatten crows. I shall follow at myleisure."
"Gesu!" he cried, through chattering teeth. "Are you a coward, then?"
The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than itwas; but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did nomore than provoke my mirth.
"Come on, then, valiant runagate," I laughed at him.
And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yardof moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than theserational animals that bestrode them. Twice did it chance that a man wasflung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have beenuttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching theplain with never so much as a broken bone.
Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed thedescent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than anamble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo. His head was everturned to look behind--unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyeswere ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to beholdthe flash of the pursuers' steel. The end soon followed. He drew reinand called a halt, sullenly sitting his horse like a man deprived ofwit--which is to pay him the compliment of supposing that he ever hadwit to be deprived of.
Instantly the curtain-rings rasped, and Madonna Paola's head appeared,her voice inquiring the reason of this fresh delay.
Sullenly Giacopo moved his horse nearer, and sullenly he answered her.
"Madonna, our horses are done. It is useless to go farther."
"Useless?" she cried, and I had an instance of how sharply could ringthe voice that I had heard so gentle. "Of what do you talk, you knave?Ride on at once."
"It is vain to ride on," he answered obdurately, insolence rising in hisvoice. "Another half-league--another league at most, and we are taken."
"Cagli is less than a league distant," she reminded him. "Once there, wecan obtain fresh horses. You will not fail me now, Giacopo!"
"There will be delays, perforce, at Cagli," he reminded her, "and,meanwhile, there are these to guide the Borgia sbirri." And he pointedto the tracks we were leaving in the snow.
She turned from him, and addressed herself to the other three.
"You will stand by me, my friends," she cried. "Giacopo, here, is acoward; but you are better men." They stirred, and one of them wasmomentarily moved into a faint semblance of valour.
"We will go with you, Madonna," he exclaimed. "Let Giacopo remainbehind, if so he will."
But Giacopo was a very ill-conditioned rogue; neither true himself, nortolerant, it seemed, of truth in others.
"You will be hanged for your pains when you are caught!" he exclaimed,"as caught you will be, and within the hour. If you would save yournecks, stay here and make surrender."
His speech was not without effect upon them, beholding which, Madonnaleapt from the litter, the better to confront them. The corners ofher sensitive little mouth were quivering now with the emotion thatpossessed her, and on her eyes there was a film of tears.
"You cowards!" she blazed at them, "you hinds, that lack the spirit evento run! Were I asking you to stand and fight in defence of me, you couldnot show yourselves more palsied. I was a fool," she sobbed, stampingher foot so that the snow squelched under it. "I was a fool to entrustmyself to you."
"Madonna," answered one of them, "if flight could still avail us, youshould not find us stubborn. But it were useless. I tell you again,Madonna, that when I espied them from the hill-top yonder, they were buta half-league behind. Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and weshall be seen."
"Fool!" she cried, "a half-league behind, you say; and you forget thatwe were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it. If you but presson we shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.Besides, Giacopo," she added, turning again to the leader, "you may beat fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accountingthem our pursuers."
The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
"Arnaldo, there, made no mistake. He told us what he saw."
"Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!" sheexclaimed, between grief and anger.
I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved. Ihave said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tenderchild to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compassof that hatred? I had inferred that her pursuers were of the House ofBorgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I mightprove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to serveher in this extremity. And to be of service to her, her winsome beautyhad already inflamed me. For there was I know not what about this childthat seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me that thereand then I would have risked my life in her good service. Oh, you maylaugh who read. Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed myself, Ithink, at the heroics to which I was yielding--I, the Fool, most base oflacqueys--over a damsel of the noble House of Santafior. It was shame ofmy motley, maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about meas I urged forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
"Lady," said I bluntly and without preamble, "can I assist you? I haveinferred your case from what I have overheard."
All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise--hers no less than hergrooms'.
"What can you do alone, sir?" she asked, her gentle glance upraised tomine.
"If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, Imay do something."
"They are," she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even,investing her tones.
It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken astranger into her confidence. Yet reflect upon the parlous condition inwhich she found herself. Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemieshot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, orto despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem. With bothhands she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of herdespair.
"Sir," she cried, "if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you couldnot find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but knowthe details of my sorry circumstance."
"That power, Madonna, it may be that I have," said I, and at those wordsof mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest. Theyleaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a suddenhopeful. "And," I continued, "if you will have utter faith in me, I seea way to render doubly certain your escape."
She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassuredher that I promised no more than I could accomplish. For the rest shehad to choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
"Sir," said she, "I do not know you, nor why you should interestyourself in the concerns of a desolated woman. But, Heaven knows, I amin no case to stand pondering the aid you offer, nor, indeed, do I doubtthe good faith that moves you. Let me hear, sir, how you would proposeto serve me."
"Whence are you?" I inquired.
"From Rome," she informed me without hesitation, "to seek at my cousin'sCourt of Pesaro shelter from a persecution to which the Borgia family issubmitting me."
At her cousin's Court of Pesaro! An odd coincidence, this--and while Iwas pondering it, it flashed into my mind that by helping her I mightassist myself. Had aught been needed o strengthen my purpose to serveher, I had it now.
"Yet," said I, surprise investing my voice, "at Pesaro there is MadonnaLucrezia of that same House
of Borgia."
She smiled away the doubt my words implied.
"Madonna Lucrezia is my friend," said she; "as sweet and gentle afriend as ever woman had, and she will stand by me even against her ownfamily."
Since she was satisfied of that, I waived the point, and returned towhat was of more immediate interest.
"And you fled," said I, "with these?" And I indicated her attendants."Not content to leave the clearest of tracks behind you in the snow, youhave had yourself attended by four grooms in the livery of Santafior.So that by asking a few questions any that were so inclined might followyou with ease."
She opened wide her eyes at that. Oftentimes have I observed that itneeds a fool to teach some elementary wisdom to the wise ones of thisworld. I leapt from my saddle and stood in the road beside her, thebridle on my arm.
"Listen now, Madonna. If you would make good your escape it firstimports that you should rid yourself of this valiant escort. Separatefrom it for a little while. Take you my horse--it is a very gentlebeast, and it wilt carry you with safety--and ride on, alone, to Cagli."
"Alone?" quoth she, in some surprise.
"Why, yes," I answered gruffly. "What of that? At the Inn of 'The FullMoon' ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escortthere, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection. Sheis a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend youreadily. But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs."
"And then?" she inquired eagerly.
"Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning,for these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume yourjourney."
"But we--" began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him short.
"You four," said I, "shall escort me--for I shall replace Madonna inthe litter--you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus shall we draw thepursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape."
They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that theywould lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments topersuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us allfrom harm.
"Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go withyou? Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sakeof a lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?"
It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must havehad with the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.
"This escutcheon," said I, "is the shield that shall stand between usand danger from any of the house that bears these arms."
Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obeyme--the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred totheir present situation. In danger they already stood from those thatfollowed as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeyingone who was armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escapethat danger. But even as I was convincing them, by the same argumentswas I sowing doubts in the lady's subtler mind.
"You are attached to that house?" quoth she, in accents of mistrust.She wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering wasthere treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as tojustify suspicion.
"Madonna," said I, "if you would save yourself I implore that you willtrust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights,and then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you butthis: Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have donebetter than to have left you with your grooms?"
Her face lighted. A sunny smile broke on me from her heavenly eyes.
"I should have thought of that," said she. And what more she would haveadded I put off by urging her to mount.
Sitting the man's saddle as best she might--well enough, indeed, tofill us all with surprise and admiration--she took her leave of me withpretty words of thanks, which again I interrupted.
"You have but to follow the road," said I, "and it will bring youstraight to Cagli. The distance is a short league, and you should comethere safely. Farewell, Madonna!"
"May I not know," she asked at parting, "the name of him that has sogenerously befriended me?"
I hesitated a second. Then--"They call me Boccadoro," answered I.
"If your mouth be as truly golden as your heart, then are youwell-named," said she. Then, gathering her mantle about her, and wavingme farewell, she rode off without so much as a glance at the cowardlyhinds who had failed her in the hour of her need.
A moment I stood watching her as she cantered away in the sunshine; thenstepping to the litter, I vaulted in.
"Now, rogues," said I to the escort, "strike me that road to Fabriano."
"I know you not, sir," protested Giacopo. "But this I know--that ifyou intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for yourpains."
"Fool!" I scorned him, "since when has it been worth the while of anyman to betray such creatures as are you? Plague me no more! Be moving,else I leave you to your coward's fate."
It was the tone best understood by hinds of their lily-livered quality.It quelled their faint spark of mutiny, and a moment later one of thoseknaves had caught the bridle of the leading mule and the litter movedforward, whilst Giacopo and the others came on behind at as brisk a paceas their weary horses would yield. In this guise we took the road south,in the direction opposite to that travelled by the lady. As we rode, Isummoned Giacopo to my side.
"Take your daggers," I bade him, "and rip me that blazon from yourcoats. See that you leave no sign about you to proclaim you of the Houseof Santafior, or all is lost. It is a precaution you would have takenearlier if God had given you the wit of a grasshopper."
He nodded that he understood my order, and scowled his disapproval of mycomment on his wit. For the rest, they did my bidding there and then.
Having satisfied myself that no betraying sign remained about them, Idrew the curtains of my litter, and reclining there I gave myself up topondering the manner in which I should greet the Borgia sbirri when theyovertook me. From that I passed on to the contemplation of the positionin which I found myself, and the thing that I had done. And theproportions of the jest that I was perpetrating afforded me no littleamusement. It was a burla not unworthy the peerless gifts of Boccadoro,and a fitting one on which to close his wild career of folly. For had Inot vowed that Boccadoro I would be no more once the errand on which Itravelled was accomplished? By Cesare Borgia's grace I looked to--
A sudden jolt brought me back to the immediate present, and therealisation that in the last few moments we had increased our pace. Iput out my head.
"Giacopo!" I shouted. He was at my side in an instant. "Why are wegalloping?"
"They are behind," he answered, and fear was again overspreading his fatface. "We caught a glimpse of them as we mounted the last hill."
"You caught a glimpse of whom?" quoth I.
"Why, of the Borgia soldiers."
"Animal," I answered him, "what have we to do with them? They may havemistaken us for some party of which they are in pursuit. But since weare not that party, let your jaded beasts travel at a more reasonablespeed. We do not wish to have the air of fugitives."
He understood me, and I was obeyed. For a half-hour we rode at a moregentle pace. That was about the time they took to come up with us, stilla league or so from Fabriano. We heard their cantering hoofs crushingthe snow, and then a loud imperious voice shouting to us a commandto stay. Instantly we brought up in unconcerned obedience, and theythundered alongside with cries of triumph at having run their prey toearth.
I cast aside my hat, and thrust my motleyed head through the curtainswith a jangle of bells, to inquire into the reason of this halt. Whom myappearance astounded the more--whether the lacqueys of Santafior, orthe Borgia men-at-arms that now encircled us--I cannot guess. But in thecrowd of faces that confronted me there was not one but wore a look ofdeep amazement.