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The larger estates of the Piaveni family, then in Giacomo's hands, were in a famous cheese-making district, producing a delicious cheese: 'white as lambkins! the count would ejaculate most dolefully; and in a rapture of admiration, 'You would say, a marble quarry when you cut into it. The theme was afflicting, for all the estates of Giacomo were for the time forfeit, and the pleasant agitation produced among his senses by the mention of the cheese reminded him at the same instant that he had to support a widow with two children.
The duchess had obtained this mercy for her, and it was much; for Giacomo's scheme of revolt had been conceived with a subtlety of genius, and contrived on a scale sufficient to incense any despotic lord of such a glorious milch-cow as Lombardy. Unhappily the signora was more inspired by the remembrance of her husband than by consideration for her children.
Giacomo's voice was triumphant with delight as he pointed toward the distant flock with the motionless attendant. The girl's face shone, half in pleasure, half in fear. "Beautiful as a god" was more like the Italian she had read in her father's study in New York than were the phrases Giacomo and Assunta employed for every day.
"Very well, Tuttu, she has only a slight scratch.... Oh, my poor boy!" and Father Giacomo's voice broke. "Is it near evening?" said Tuttu, after a few minutes, during which he lay moving his head restlessly. "It soon will be," said the Padre. "Why do you ask, Tuttu?" "The fiasco.... Do you think I may put a bean in to-night, or was I too angry?"
The duchess had obtained this mercy for her, and it was much; for Giacomo's scheme of revolt had been conceived with a subtlety of genius, and contrived on a scale sufficient to incense any despotic lord of such a glorious milch-cow as Lombardy. Unhappily the signora was more inspired by the remembrance of her husband than by consideration for her children.
Only a little while before his death he wrote some verses, as Padre Giacomo's memorandum witnesses, "with a firm and steady hand," and the manner of his death was this, as recorded in the grave and simple words of my friend's note: "Finally, on the 17th of September, very early in the morning, a brother entering his chamber, asked him how he was.
But whereas one cold day I went into Master Giacomo's work-chamber in a red hood and a green cloak bordered with sable fur, he would thenceforth paint me in no other guise. At first he was fain to present me as going forth to church; then he deemed that he might not show forth my very look and seeming if I were limned with downcast head and eyes.
How far from the nearest land? Mention that fact, by all means, if you happen to remember." "Well, eccellenza, could the distance be measured, now I would think it would prove to be about as far not quite, S'nore, but, I say, about about as far as from the said Giacomo's largest fig-tree to the vines of Giovanni, his wife's cousin. Si I think, just about that distance."
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