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"If it is within the circle you have appointed, we will find it," he answered confidently. "Set about it," was the surly command, and Ramiro turned again to me. "You have gone a little pale, good Messer Boccadoro," he sneered. "We shall soon learn whether you have sought to fool me. Woe betide you, should it be so. We bear a name for swift justice at Cesena."
While he is pursuing his inquiries there, I have resolved to pursue my own here. I now call upon you, Boccadoro, to tell us what you know of Madonna Paola's whereabouts." "I know nothing," I answered stoutly. "I am prepared to take oath that I know nothing of her whereabouts." "Tell me, then, at least," said he, "where you bestowed her." I shook my head, pressing my lips tight.
My head was pillowed in a woman's lap, and it took me a moment or two to realise that that lap was Madonna Paula's, as was hers the voice that had reached my awakening senses, the voice that now welcomed me back to life in terms that were very different from the last that I could remember her having used towards me. "Thank God, Messer Boccadoro!" she exclaimed, as she bent over me.
The distance is a short league, and you should come there safely. Farewell, Madonna!" "May I not know," she asked at parting, "the name of him that has so generously 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 you well-named," said she.
"For the last time, Boccadoro," he said slowly, attempting by words to shake a demeanour that was proof against the impending facts of the cord, "I ask you to remember what must be the consequences of this stubbornness. If not at the first hoist, why then at the second or the third, the torture will compel you to disclose what you may know.
He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant. Then bidding the servant see to the courier's refreshment, he dismissed them both. A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro were, there and then, forgotten by us all.
"Body of Bacchus!" he roared. "Is it truly you, Boccadoro?" "They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent," I answered him. But my tone was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him. "A fig for what they call you," he snapped contemptuously. "Whence are you?" "From Pesaro," I answered truthfully. "From Pesaro? But you are travelling towards it." "True.
At that he turned to the page who followed in obedience to his command. "Begone!" he growled at the lad, "I will have Boccadoro, there, to help me arm." And with a poor attempt at mirth "The act is a madness," he muttered, "and so it is fitting that folly should put on my armour for it.
Such things occur; though he was a bold man who laid hands upon the body of a person of such importance. But that she lives Gesu! that is an old wife's tale. I had, myself, the word of the Lord Filippo's physician that she was dead." "Nevertheless, this old wife's tale, as you dub it, is one of which I have had confirmation. Lend me your wits, Boccadoro, and you shall not regret it.
He had no shame before me, for I already knew the very worst of him, and he was confident that I would not talk lest he should destroy me at my first word. And yet, there was more than that in his motive for choosing me to go with him in that hour, as I was to learn once we were closeted in his chamber. "Boccadoro," he cried, "can you not find me some way out of this?"
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