CHAPTER IV. THE COZENING OF RAMIRO
The cavalcade that had overtaken us proved to number some twentymen-at-arms, whose leader was no less a person than Ramiro del'Orca--that same mountain of a man who had attended my departure fromthe Vatican three nights ago. From the circumstance that so importanta personage should have been charged with the pursuit of the Lady ofSantafior, I inferred that great issues were at stake.
He was clad in mail and leather, and from his lance fluttered thebannerol bearing the Borgia arms, which had announced his quality toMadonna's servants.
At sight of me his bloodshot eyes grew round with wonder, and for alittle season a deathly calm preceded the thunder of his voice.
"Sainted Host!" he roared at last. "What trickery may this be?" Andsidling his horse nearer he tore aside the curtains of my litter.
Out of faces pale as death the craven grooms looked on, to behold mereclining there, my cloak flung down across my legs to hide my boots,and my motley garb of red and black and yellow all revealed. I believetheir astonishment by far surpassed the Captain's own.
"You are choicely met, Ser Ramiro," I greeted him. Then, seeing thathe only stared, and made no shift to speak: "Maybe," quoth I, "you'llexplain why you detain me. I am in haste."
"Explain?" he thundered. "Sangue di Cristo! The burden of explaininglies with you. What make you here?"
"Why," answered I, in tones of deep astonishment, "I am about thebusiness of the Lord Cardinal of Valencia, our master."
"Davvero?" he jeered. He stretched out a mighty paw, and took me by thecollar of my doublet. "Now, bethink you how you answer me, or there willbe a fool the less in the world."
"Indeed, the world might spare more."
He scowled at my pleasantry. To him, apparently, the situation affordedno scope for philosophical reflections.
"Where is the girl?" he asked abruptly.
"Girl?" quoth I. "What girl? Am I a mother-abbess, that you should setme such a question?"
Two dark lines showed between his brows. His voice quivered withpassion.
"I ask you again--where is the girl?"
I laughed like one who is a little wearied by the entertainment providedfor him.
"Here be no girls, Messer del' Orca," I answered him in the same tone."Nor can I think what this babble of girls portends."
My seeming innocence, and the assurance with which I maintained theexpression of it, whispered a doubt into his mind. He released me, andturned upon his men, a baffled look in his eyes.
"Was not this the party?" he inquired ferociously. "Have you misled me,beasts?
"It seemed the party, Illustrious," answered one of them.
"Do you dare tell me that 'it seemed'?" he roared, seeking to fatherupon them the blunder he was beginning to fear that he had made."But--What is the livery of these knaves?
"They wear none," someone answered him, and at that answer he seemed toturn limp and lose his fierce assurance.
Then he bridled afresh.
"Yet the party, I'll swear, is this!" he insisted; and turning once moreto me: "Explain, animal!" he bade me in terrifying tones. "Explain, or,by the Host! be you ignorant or not, I'll have you hanged."
I accounted it high time to take another tone with him. Hanging was adiscomfort I was never less minded to suffer.
"Draw nearer, fool," said I contemptuously, and at the epithet, sogreatly did my audacity amaze him, he mildly did my bidding.
"I know not what doubts are battling in your thick head, sir captain,"I pursued. "But this I know--that if you persist in hindering me, orcommit the egregious folly of offering me violence, you will answer forit, hereafter, to the Lord Cardinal of Valencia.
"I am going upon a secret mission"--and here I sank my voice to awhisper for his ears alone--"in the service of the house that hires you,as for yourself you might easily have inferred. Behold." And I revealedmy ring. "Detain me longer at your peril."
He must have had some notion of the fact that I was journeying in CesareBorgia's service, and this coupled with the sight of that talismaneffected in his manner a swift and wholesome change. Had I, arrayed inthe panoply of Mother Church, defied the devil, my victory could nothave been more complete.
He looked about him like a man whose wits have been scattered suddenlyto the four winds of Heaven.
"But this litter," he mumbled, riveting his dazed eyes upon me, "andthese four knaves--?"
"Tell me," I questioned, with sudden earnestness, "are you in quest ofjust such a party?"
"Aye that I am," he answered sharply, intelligence returning to hisglance, inquiry burning in it.
"And would the men, peradventure, be wearing the livery of the House ofSantafior?"
His quick assent came almost choked in a company of oaths.
"Why then, if that be your quarry, you are but wasting time. Such aparty passed us at the gallop about an hour ago. It would be an hour,would it not, Giacopo?"
"I should say an hour," answered the lacquey dully.
"In what direction?" came Ramiro's frenzied question. He doubted me nolonger.
"In the direction of Fabriano I should say," I answered. "Although itmay well be that they were making for Sinigaglia. The road branchesfarther on."
He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the pricelessinformation I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarsecommand to his followers. A moment later and they were cantering pastus, the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last ofthem had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only indicationof the halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown where theirhorses had crushed the snow.
I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozeningof Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so muchrelief and relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on the cushionsof my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughterwhich was interrupted ere it was half done by Giacopo, who haddismounted and approached me.
"You have fooled us finely," said he, with venom.
I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he, andwere his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the manwho had saved them?
"You have fooled us finely," he insisted in a louder voice.
"That, knave, is my trade," said I. "But it rather seems to me that itwas Messer Ramiro del' Orca whom I fooled."
"Aye," he answered querulously. "But what when he discerns how you haveplayed upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you havethrown him off the scent? What when he returns?"
"Spare me," I begged, "I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture."
"Nay, but you shall answer me," he cried, livid with a passion that mybantering tone had quickened.
"Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when hereturns?" I questioned meekly.
"I am," he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.
"It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity thatactuates you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn."
"That will not I," he vowed.
"Nor I, nor I, nor I!" chorused his followers.
"Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it ofours how Messer del' Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for Cagli. Seek herat the sign of 'The Full Moon,' and then away for Pesaro. If you arebrisk you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza's fortresslong before Messer del' Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, heever does so."
Giacopo laughed derisively till his fat body shook with the scornfulmirth of him.
"By my faith, I'm done with the business," he cried, and the other threeexpressed a very hearty agreement with that attitude.
"How done with it?" I asked.
"I shall make my way back across the hills and so retrace my steps toRome. I'll risk my head no more for any lady or any Fool."
"
If you should ever chance to risk it for yourself," said I, withunmeasured scorn, "you'll risk it for the greatest fool and thecowardliest rogue that ever shamed the name of man. And your mistress?Is she to wait at Cagli until doomsday? If anywhere within the bulk ofthat elephant's body there lurks the heart of a rabbit, you'll get youto horse and ride to the help of that poor lady."
They resented my tone, and showed their resentment plainly. MesserGiacopo went the length of raising his hand to me. But I am a man ofamazing strength--amazing inasmuch as being slender of shape I do nothave the air of it. Leaping suddenly from the litter, I caught thatmiserable vassal by the breast of his doublet, shook him once or twice,then tossed him headlong into a drift of snow by the roadside.
At that they bared their knives and made shift to attack me. But I flungmyself on to one of the mules of the litter, and showing them the stoutPistoja dagger that I carried, I presented with it a bold and truculentfront, no whit intimidated by their numbers. Four to one though theywere, they thought better of it. A moment they stood off, consultingamong themselves; then Giacopo mounted, and with some mocking counsel asto how I should dispose of the litter and the mules, they made off, nodoubt, to find their way back to Rome. Giacopo, as I was afterwards todiscover, was Madonna Paola's purse-bearer, so that they would not lackfor means.
Awhile I stayed there, cursing them for the white-livered cravens thatthey were, and thinking of that poor child who had ridden on to Cagli,and who would await them in vain. There, on the mule, I sat in thenoontide sunlight, and pondered this, so absorbed in her affairs as tohave grown forgetful of my own. At last I resolved to ride on to Caglialone, and inform her that her men were fled.
There was no time to lose, for as that rogue Giacopo had said, Ramirodel' Orca might discover at any moment how he had been tricked, andreturn hot-foot to find me and extort the truth from me by such means asI had no stomach for enduring.
First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leavingno sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which Ihad tricked him. Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.Slowly, then, did I consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way backto Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, SerRamiro would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up thetrail. I remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my muleback to that as fast as it would travel with the litter and the othermule attached to it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on thevery edge of that shallow precipice. Then exerting all my strength, Icontrived to roll the litter over. Down that steep incline it went, overand over, gathering more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinkingat last into the drift at the bottom. There were signs enough to showits presence, but those signs would hardly be read by any but thesharpest eyes, or by such as might be looking for it in precisely sucha position. I must trust to luck that it escaped the notice of MesserRamiro. But even if he did discover it, I did not think that it wouldtell him overmuch.
That done I resumed my hat and cloak--which I had retained--mounted oncemore, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as mightbe for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That distancecovered, again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I stripped oneof the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind ahedge, then I drove the beast loose into a field. The peasant-owner ofthat land might conclude upon the morrow that it had rained asses in thenight.
And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so Ihad passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse ofthe four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse attheir cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on towardsCagli. It was a short league farther, and in little more than half anhour, my mule half-dead, I halted at the door of "The Full Moon."
Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in mycloak, and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed allCagli had seemed when I rode up. She came forward--a woman with a brown,full face, and large kindly eyes--and I asked her whether a lady hadarrived there in safety that morning. At first she seemed mistrustful,but when I had assured her that I was in that lady's service, shefrankly owned that Madonna was safe in her own room. Thither I allowedher to lead me, at once eager and reluctant. Eager with my own eyes toassure myself of her perfect safety; reluctant that, since a man may notpenetrate to a lady's chamber hat on head, by uncovering I must disclosemy shameful trade. Yet there was nothing for it but a bold face, andas I mounted the stairs in the woman's wake, I told myself that I wasdoubly a fool to be tormented by qualms of such a nature.
Hat in hand I followed the hostess into Madonna's room. The lady rosefrom the window-seat to greet me, her face pale and her gentle eyeswearing an anxious look. At sight of my head crowned with the crested,horned hood of folly, a frown of bewilderment drew her brows together,and she looked more closely to see whether I was indeed the man who hadbefriended her that morning in her extremity. In the eyes of the hostessI caught a gleam of recognition. She knew me for the merry loon who hadentertained her guests one night a fortnight since, when on my way fromPesaro to Rome. But before she could give expression to this discoveryof hers, the lady spoke.
"Leave us awhile, my woman," she commanded. But I stayed the hostess asshe was withdrawing.
"This lady," said I, "will need an escort of three or four stout knavesupon a journey that she is going. She will be setting out as soon as maybe."
"But what of my grooms?" cried the lady.
"Madonna," I informed her, "they have deserted you. That is thereason of my presence here. You shall hear the story of it presently.Meanwhile, we must arrange to replace them." And I turned again to thehostess.
She was standing in thought, a doubtful expression on her face. But as Ilooked at her she shook her head.
"There is no such escort to be found to-day in Cagli," she made answer."The town is all but empty, and every lusty man is either gone on thepilgrimage to the Holy House of Loretto, or else is at Pesaro for theFeast of the Epiphany."
It was in vain that I protested that a couple of knaves might surelybe found. She answered me that such as were in Cagli were there becausethey would not be elsewhere.
The lady's face grew clouded as she listened, for from my insistence sheshrewdly inferred that it imported to be gone.
"There is your ostler," quoth I at last. "He will do for one."
"He is the only man I have. My husband and my sons are gone to Pesaro."
"Yet spare us this one, and you shall be well paid his services."
But no bribe could tempt her to give way, and no doubt she waswell-advised, for she contended that there was work to be done such aswas beyond her years and strength, and that if she sent her ostler off,as well might she close her inn--a thing that was impossible.
Here, then, was an obstacle with which I had not reckoned. It wasimpossible to send the lady off alone, to travel a distance of someten leagues, and the most of it by night--for if she would make sure ofescaping, she must journey now without pause until she came to Pesaro.
And then, in a flash, it occurred to me that here lay the means, readyto my hand, by avail of which I might boldly re-enter Pesaro despitemy banishment, and discharge my errand to Lucrezia Borgia. For, surely,considering the mission on which ostensibly I should be returning--asthe saviour and protector of his kinswoman--Giovanni Sforza could notenforce that ban against me. Next I bethought me of the other aspectthat the business wore. In fooling Ramiro I had thwarted the Borgiaends; in rescuing Madonna Paola I had perhaps set at naught the Cardinalof Valencia's aims. If so, what then? It would seem that because thelady's eyes were mild and sweet, and because her beauty had so deeplywrought upon me, I had indeed fooled away my chance of salvation fromthe life and trade that were grown hateful to me. For back to Rome andCesare Borgia I should dare go no more. Clearly I had burned my boats,and I had
done it almost unthinkingly, acting upon the good impulse tobefriend this lady, and never reckoning the cost down to its total. Forall that the thing I had done, and what I might yet do, should offer methe means I needed to enter Pesaro without danger to my neck, I did notsee that I was to derive great profit in the end--unless my profit layin knowing that I had advanced the ruin of Giovanni Sforza by deliveringmy letter to Lucrezia. That at any rate was enough incentive clearly todefine for me the line that I should take through this tangle into whichthe ever-jesting Fates had thrust me.
I was still at my thoughts, still pondering this most perplexingsituation, the hostess standing silent by the door, when suddenlyMadonna Paola spoke.
"Sir," said she, in faltering accents, "I--I have not the right to askyou, and I stand already so deeply in your debt. Not a doubt of it, butit will have inconvenienced you to have journeyed thus far to informme of the flight of my grooms. Yet if you could--" She paused, timid ofproceeding, and her glance fell.
The hostess was all ears, struck by the respectful manner in which thisvery evidently noble lady addressed a Fool. I opened the door for her.
"You may leave us now," said I. "I will come to you presently."
When she was gone I turned once more to the lady, my course resolvedupon. My hate had conquered my last doubt. What first imported was thatI should get to Pesaro and to Madonna Lucrezia.
"You were about to ask me," said I, "that I should accompany you toPesaro."
"I hesitated, sir," she murmured. I bowed respectfully.
"There was not the need, Madonna," I assured her. "I am at yourservice."
"But, Messer Boccadoro, I have no claim upon you."
"Surely," said I, "the claim that every distressed lady has upon a manof heart. Let us say no more. It were best not to delay in setting out,although I can scarcely think that there is any imminent danger fromRamiro del' Orca now."
"Who is he?" she inquired.
"I told her, whereupon--"
"Did they come up with you?" she asked. "What passed between you?"
Succinctly I related what had chanced, and how I had sent Ramiro on afool's errand, adding the particulars of the flight of her grooms, andof how I had rid myself of the litter and the second mule. She heard me,her eyes sparkling, and at times she clapped her hands with a glee thatwas almost childish, vowing that this was splendid, that was brave. Iallayed what little fears remained her by pointing out how effectivelywe had effaced our tracks, and how vainly now Messer del' Orca mightbeat the country in quest of a lady in a litter, escorted by fourgrooms.
And now she beset me with fresh thanks and fresh expressions of wonderat my generous readiness to befriend her--a wonder all devoid ofsuspicion touching the single-mindedness of my purpose. But I remindedher that we had little leisure to stand talking, and left her to makeher preparations for the journey, whilst I went below to see that mymule and her horse were saddled. I made bold to pay the reckoning, andwhen presently she spoke of it, with flaming cheeks, and would havepledged me a jewel, I bade her look upon it as a loan which anon shemight repay me when I had brought her safely to her kinsman's Court atPesaro.
Thus, at last, we left Cagli, and took the road north, riding side byside and talking pleasantly the while, ever concerning the matter of herflight and of her hopes of shelter at Pesaro, which, being nearest toher heart, found readiest expression. I went wrapped in my cloak oncemore, my head-dress hidden 'neath my broad-brimmed hat, so that the fewwayfarers we chanced on need not marvel to see a lady in such friendlyintercourse with a Fool. And so dull was I that day as not to marvel,myself, at such a state of things.
The sun was declining, a red ball of fire, towards the mountains on ourleft, casting a blood-red glow upon the snow that everywhere encompassedus, as we cantered briskly on towards Fossombrone.
In that hour I fell to pondering, and I even caught myself hoping thatMesser Ramiro del' Orca might not chance upon the discovery of howegregiously I had fooled him. He was dull-witted and slow at inference,and upon that I built the hope that he might fail to associate me withMadonna Paola's elusion of his pursuit. Thus the chance might yet bemine of returning to Rome and the honourable employment Cesare Borgiahad promised me. If only that were so to fall out, I might yet contriveto mend the wreckage of my life. I was returned, it seems, to theways of early youth, when we build our hopes of future greatness uponuntenable foundations!
Great hopes and great ambitions rose within my breast that Januaryevening, fired by the gentle child that rode beside me. Fate had sentme to her aid that day, and I seemed to have acquired, by virtue of thatcircumstance, a certain right in her. Had Fate no other favours for mein her lap! I bethought me of the very House of Sforza, to which I hadbeen so shamefully attached, and of its humble source in that peasant,Giacomuzzo Attendolo, surnamed Sforza for his abnormal strength of body,who rose to great and princely heights.
Assuredly I had the advantage of such an one, and were the chance butgiven me--
I went no further. Down in my heart I laughed to scorn my own wildmusings. Cesare Borgia would come to know--he must, whether Ramiro toldhim, or whether he inferred it for himself from the account Ramiro mustgive him of our meeting--how I had thwarted him in one thing, whilst Ihad served him in another. Fate was against me. I had fallen too low toever rise again, and no dreams indulged in a sunset hour, and inspired,perhaps, by a child who was beautiful as one of the saints of God, wouldever come to be realised by poor Boccadoro.
Night was falling as we clattered through the slippery streets ofFossombrone.