Don Tarquinio: A Kataleptic Phantasmatic Romance (Valancourt eClassics) Read Online Free PDF Page A

one hour of Our private pillory , distended as to arms and legs , not stringently enough to harm , but stringently enough , with divers apt and commodious actions on the flesh of his bare back. For which cause , O well-beloved Pietrogorio , by the affection which thou dost nourish for Us, thy trusty kinsman , We lay it upon thee to treat our said slave conveniently as aforesaid , with all other order known to thy piety , that he may have amended his said naughty ways before Our return. And so earn Our gratitude.
    “ C. CAR AL DE VALENCIA .”
     
    When we were permitted to peruse the screed, Gioffredo denounced it as nonsense. Ippolito uttered the opinion that it meant what it did not say. But I, being perplexed and angry, gave favour to my tongue.
    Cesare, having guffawed at our stolidity, said:
    “Be it known unto these princes that Our use is to keep, in every city, at least one adolescent on whom We may depend in need. Such an one in Velletri is Pietrogorio, prepared for any emergency, prompt to serve; and he will know what ought to be done. Furthermore, if the Kelts, or Colonna, or Orsini, or Savelli, or Dellarovere, or Cajetani, or any other bandits, shall catch the runner of such a message as this, having read it, will they not rather most hilariously hasten him on to his whipping?”
    We iij laughed, conceding the point.
    Messer Nerone presently entered, indulging himself in a phrenetic spasm of obeisances, chirruping like a slow tomtit. He was antique, humpty-backed. He spoke always in monotone, using a high shrill scream with most exasperating deliberation.
    At whom Ippolito rushed, explaining what was to be done. We others stuffed our kerchieves in our nostrils, standing laughing near Lo Skoto, anxious to see the doing.
    But the physician forthwith crossed the room to the table where the wine was and the water, prattling of the virtues of belladonna and stramonium. There, standing with his back to Lo Skoto and having taken ij little silver pots from his burse, he put a pinch from each into a cup of wine. This cup he put on a salver with another similar cup which he filled with pure water; and so he brought them both to the runner.
    As this was being done, the ij cardinals and Gioffredo held a parley on the cushions: but I moved toward the window, whence I watched all, unseen, breathing cleaner air.
    Messer Nerone offered the water to the runner. Lo Skoto reluctantly sipped it, longingly leering at the wine. The mage, having pretended to assure himself that no one was observing, simulated a sudden access of liberality; and offered the wine instead. It was done most admirably, with absolute art.
    Lo Skoto gulched down the infected potion, stroking himself, vacuously grinning.
    The mage replaced the salver with the cups on the ivory table. The Cardinal of Valencia took the ij little silver pots from him, and pouched them: giving him the jewel with its slight chains from the back of his own hand, and putting him outside the ivory door in the antechamber among the Numidians with a word of dismissal.
    As he went, I touched his hump for luck; for it seemed that I needed all the aids which fortune had in store, my stars being most malignant. We heard the shrill whining of his voice dying away as he was escorted beyond the antechambers.
    The door having been shut, we continued to entertain ourselves, paying no attention to the drugged runner, except with the corners of our eyes.
    But I was staring at the innumerable lights of the waxen torches, reflected in endless vistas in the polished ivory of the circular walls and the dome of the roof, until mine eyes were dazzled by the sheen. And I chafed: being in that agony of bewilderment when the whole world seems to whirl round, near, very near, but just out of reach. For nothing is more exasperating than to find oneself still and alone, when everything else is in myriads violently moving, eluding one’s grasp.
    Anon, the runner suddenly started as though a phantom had touched