It had been snowing for the past hour, and the ground was white in the courtyard when we descended.
At our appearance there was a movement of serving-men and a fall of hoofs, m.u.f.fled by the snow. Some held torches that cast a ruddy glare upon the all-encompa.s.sing whiteness, and a groom was leading forward the horse that was destined to bear me. I donned my broad-brimmed hat, and wrapped my cloak about me. Some murmurs of farewell caught my ears, from those minions with whom I had herded during my three days at the Vatican. Then Messer del" Orca thrust me forward.
"Mount, Fool, and be off," he rasped.
I mounted, and turned to him. He was a surly dog; if ever surly dog wore human shape, and the shape was the only human thing about Captain Ramiro.
"Brother, farewell," I simpered.
"No brother of yours, Fool," snarled he.
"True--my cousin only. The fool of art is no brother to the fool of nature."
"A whip!" he roared to his grooms. "Fetch me a whip."
I left him calling for it, as I urged my nag across the snow and over the narrow drawbridge. Beyond, I stayed a moment to look over my shoulder. They stood gazing after me, a group of some half-dozen men, looking black against the whiteness of the ground. Behind them rose the brown walls of the rocca illumined by the flare of torches, from which the smell of rosin reached my nostrils as I paused. I waved my hat to them in token of farewell, and digging my spurless heels into the flanks of my horse, I ambled down through the biting wind and drifting snow, into the town.
The streets were deserted and dark, save for the ray that here fell from a window, and there stole through the c.h.i.n.k of a door to glow upon the snow in earnest of the snug warmth within. Silence reigned, broken only by the moan of the wind under the eaves, for although it was no more than approaching the second hour of night, yet who but the wight whom necessity compelled would be abroad in such weather?
All night I rode despite that weather"s foulness--a foulness that might have given pause to one whose haste to bear a letter was less attuned to his own supreme desires.
Betimes next morning I paused at a small locanda on the road to Magliano, and there I broke my fast and took some rest. My horse had suffered by the journey more than had I, and I would have taken a fresh one at Magliano, but there was none to be had--so they told me--this side of Narni, wherefore I was forced to set out once more upon that poor jaded beast that had carried me all night.
It was high noon when I came, at last, to Narni, the last league of the journey accomplished at a walk, for my nag could go no faster. Here I paused to dine, but here, again, they told me that no horses might be had. And so, leading by the bridle the animal I dared no longer ride, lest I should kill it outright, I entered the territory of Urbino on foot, and trudged wearily amain through the snow that was some inches deep by now. In this miserable fashion I covered the seven leagues, or so, to Spoleto, where I arrived exhausted as night was falling.
There, at the Osteria del Sole, I supped and lay. I found a company of gentlemen in the common-room, who upon espying my motley--when I had thrown off my sodden cloak and hat--pressed me, w.i.l.l.y-nilly, into amusing them. And so I spent the night at my Fool"s trade, giving them drolleries from the works of Boccacci and Sacchetti--the horn-books of all jesters.
I obtained a fresh horse next morning, and I set out betimes, intending to travel with a better speed. The snow was thick and soft at first, but as I approached the hills it grew more crisp. Overhead the sky was of an unbroken blue, and for all that the air was sharp there was warmth in the sunshine. All day I rode hard, and never rested until towards nightfall I found myself on the spurs of the Apennines in the neighborhood of Gualdo, the better half of my journey well-accomplished.
The weather had changed again at sunset. It was snowing anew, and the north wind was howling like a choir of the d.a.m.ned.
Before me gleamed the lights of a little wayside tavern, and since it might suit me better to lie there than to journey on to Gualdo, I drew rein before that humble door, and got down from my wearied horse.
Despite the early hour the door was already barred, for the bedding of travellers formed no part of the traffic of so lowly a house as this nameless, wayside wine-shop. Theirs was a trade that ended with the daylight. Nevertheless I was a.s.sured they could be made to find me a rag of straw to lie on, and so I knocked boldly with my whip.
The taverner who opened for me, and stood a moment surveying me by the light of the torch he held aloft, was a slim, mild-mannered man, not over-clean. Behind him surged the figure of his wife; just such a woman as you might look to find the mate of such a man: broad and tall of frame and most scurvily cross-grained of face. It may well be that had he bidden me welcome, she had driven me back into the night; but since he made some demur when I asked for lodging, and protested that in his house was but accommodation too rude to offer my magnificence, the woman thrust him aside, and loudly bade me enter.
I obeyed her readily, hat on head and cloak about me, lest my interests should suffer were my trade disclosed. I bade the man see to my horse, and then escorted by the woman, I made my way to the single room above, which, in obedience to my demand, she made haste to set at my convenience.
It was an evil-smelling, squalid hole; a bed of wattles in a corner, and in the centre a greasy table with a three-legged stool and a crazy chair beside it. The floor was black with age and filth, and broken everywhere by rat-holes. She set her noisome, smoking oil lamp on the table, and with some apology for the rudeness of the chamber she asked in tones almost defiant if my excellency would be content.
"Perforce," said I ungraciously, perceiving surliness to be the key to the respect of such a creature; "a king might thank Heaven for a kennel on such a night as this."
She bent her back in a clumsy bow, and with a growing humility wondered had I supped. I had not, but sooner would I have starved than have been poisoned by such foulnesses as they might have set before me. So I answered her that all I needed was a cup of wine.
When she had brought me that, and, at last, I was alone, I closed the door. It had no lock, nor any sort of fastening, so I set the three legged stool against it that it might give me warning of intrusion. Next I threw off my cloak and hat and boots, and all dressed as I was I flung myself upon my miserable couch. But jaded though I might be, it was not yet my intent to sleep. Now that the half of my journey was accomplished, I found myself beset by doubts which had not before a.s.sailed me, touching the manner in which this mission of mine was to be accomplished. It would prove no easy thing for me to penetrate unnoticed into the town of Pesaro, much less into the Sforza Court, where for three years I had pursued my Fool"s trade. There was scarce a man, a woman or a child in the entire domains of Giovanni Sforza to whom Boccadoro, the Fool, was not known; and many a villano, who had never noticed the features of the Lord of Pesaro, could have told you the very colour of his jester"s eyes; which, after all, is no strange thing, for--sad reflection!--in a world in which Wisdom may be overlooked, Folly goes never disregarded.
The garments I wore might be well enough to journey in; but if I would gain the presence of Lucrezia Borgia I must see that I arrived in others. And then my thoughts wandered into speculation. What might be this momentous letter that I carried? What was this secret traffic "twixt Cesare Borgia and his sister? Since Cesare had said that it meant the ruin of Giovanni Sforza--a ruin so utter, so complete and humiliating that it must provoke the scornful mirth of all Italy--the knowledge of it must soon be mine. Meanwhile I was an agent of that ruin. Dear G.o.d! how that reflection warmed me! What joy I took in the thought that, though he knew it not, nor could come to know it, I Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he had abused and whose spirit he had broken--was become a tool to expedite the work of abas.e.m.e.nt and destruction that was ripening for him. And realizing all this, that letter I vowed to Heaven I would carry, suffering no obstacle to daunt me, suffering nothing to turn me from my path.
And then another voice seemed to arise within me, to cry out impatiently: "Yes, yes; but how?"
I rose, and approaching the table, I took up the jug of wine and poured myself a draught. I drank it off, and cast the dregs at an inquisitive rat that had thrust its head above the boards. Then I quenched the light, and flung myself once more upon my bed, in the hope that darkness would prove a stimulant to thought and bring me to the solution I was seeking. It brought me sleep instead. Unconsciously I sank to it, my riddle all unsolved.
I did not wake until the pale sun of that January morning was drawing the pattern of my lattice on the ceiling. The stormy night had been succeeded by a calm and sunlit day. And by its light the place wore a more loathsome look than it had done last night, so that at the very sight of it I leapt from my couch and grew eager to be gone. I set a ducat on the table, and going to the door I called my hostess. The stairs creaked presently "neath her portentous weight, and, panting slightly, she stood before me.
At sight of me, for I was without my cloak, and my motley was revealed in the cold, morning light, she cried out in amazement first, and then in rage--deeming me one of those parasites who tramp the world in the garb of folly, seeking here a dinner, there a bed, in exchange for some scurvy tumbling or some witless jests.
"Ossa di Cristo!" was her cry. "Have I housed a Fool?"
"If I am the first you have housed, your tumbling ruin of a tavern has been a singularly choice resort. Woman--"
"Would you "woman" me?" she stormed.
"Why, no," said I politely. "I was at fault. I"ll keep the t.i.tle for your husband--G.o.d help him!"
She smiled grimly.
"And are these," she asked, with a ferocious sarcasm, "the jests with which you pay the score?"
"Jests?" quoth I. "Score? Pish! More eyes, less tongue would more befit a hostess who has never housed a fool." And with a splendid gesture I pointed to the ducat gleaming on the table. At sight of the gold her eyes grew big with greed.
"My master--" she began, and coming forward took the piece in her hand, to a.s.sure herself that she was not the dupe of magic. "A fool with gold!" she marvelled.
"Is a shame to his calling," I acknowledged. Then--"Get me a needle and a length of thread," said I. She scuttled off to do my bidding, like nothing so much as one of the rats that tenanted her unclean sty. She was back in a moment, all servility, and wondering whether there was a rent about me she might make bold to st.i.tch. What a key to courtesy is gold, my masters! I drove her out, and eager to conciliate me, she went at once.
With my own hands I effected in my doublet the slight repair of which it stood in need. Then I donned my hat, and, cloak on shoulder, made my way below, calling for my horse as I descended.
I scorned the wine they proffered me ere I departed. That last night"s draught had quenched my thirst for ever of such grape-juice as it was theirs to tender. I urged the taverner to hasten with my horse, and stood waiting in the squalid common-room, my mind divided "twixt impatience to resume the road to Pesaro and fresh speculations upon the means I was to adopt to enter it and yet save my neck--for this was now become an obsessing problem.
As I stood waiting, there broke upon my ears the sound of an approaching cavalcade: the noise of voices and the soft fall of hoofs upon the thick snow carpet. The company halted at the door, and a loud, gruff voice was raised to cry:
"Locandiere! Afoot, sluggard!"
I stepped to the door, with very natural curiosity, a company of four mounted men escorting a mule-litter, the curtains of which were drawn so that nothing might be seen of him or her that rode within. Grooms were those four, as all the world might see at the first glance, and the livery they wore was that of the n.o.ble House of Santafior--the holy white flower of the quince being embroidered on the breast of their gabardines.
They bore upon them such signs of hard and hasty travelling that it was soon guessed they had spent the night in the saddle. Their horses were in a foam of sweat; and the men themselves were splashed with mud from foot to cap.
Even as I was going forward to regard them the taverner appeared, leading my horse by the bridle. Now at an inn the traveller that arrives is ever of more importance than he that departs. At sight of those hors.e.m.e.n, the taverner forgot my impatience, for he paused to bow in welcome to the one that seemed the leader.
"Most Magnificent," said he to that liveried hind, "command me."
"We need a guide," the fellow answered with an ill grace.
"A guide, Ill.u.s.trious?" quoth the host. "A guide?"
"I said a guide, fool," answered him the groom. "Heard you never of such animals? We need a man who knows the hills, to lead us by the shortest road to Cagli."
The taverner shook his grey head stupidly. He bowed again until I fancied I could hear the creak of his old joints.
"Here be no guides, Magnificent," he deplored. "Perhaps at Gualdo--"