A Jay of Italy

in a velvet frame. The occasion which had given, which was still giving, Carlo a tough thought or two to digest, she had already, on the morning following her discomfiture, as

less where she desired and doubted it on her account in another. What she hath done she hath done; and what she hath failed to do slumbers for her among the unrealities-among things unborn-seeds in the womb of Romance, which, though she be the first subject for it, she understands as little as she does beauty. From the outset hat

te; yet the only quarrel he had with himself was for that mad vow of temperance, not for the vice which had exacted it of him. The tongue in his head was like a heater in an iron. Tantalus draughts lipped and bubbled against his palate. The parched soil of his heart, he

is aching head-everything and every one, in short, but the author of his misery. Him he could not curse-not more than if that preposterous relat

Messer Lanti, himself in a curiously sober mood, indulged his most acrid sallies with a good-humoured tolerance which, contemptuously

'look'st as sour as a green crab. What! if we are to rid

t on his stirrup, lo

illustrate

said Carlo. 'He will be no cu

nto the beast's flanks, drove forward. Lanti, with a w

r?' said he, with a leer. 'I

ittle Bembo was preparing to mount a steed with which he had been accommodated, since the lady

in a leash, sith Sanctity, stopping w

this is a text!' and be

he roared, 'a text

ably, pointing his bauble at Madam Beatrice, w

gained to

her hath w

d I be joggi

sly. Cicada, slipping from h

me! I am sound. It is folly

t into a v

o. I think I am in a r

se and fell in absolute tranquillity. She bestirred herself only, when Bembo rode near, to lavish ostentatious fondness on her Carlo, a regard which her Carlo repaid with a like ostentation of attention towards his little saint. It was an open consp

t opening to the side. A groom, walking there in attendance, led her palfrey by the bridle. Lanti and his guest, with the Fool for company, rode a distance ahead. The young noblem

a sour face, 'when I was invited to a feast,

He thought this was some allusion

, 'the feast was not

crow. 'But I spoke of my lord's brains, whic

between himse

rablist. He offered to serve himself up to me, and, when I

further side

ill sport with us. They love not in this Italy the joke which tells against themselves-of that a poor motley

s, and posted to the rear of the litter. The moment he was awa

id he. 'O Carlo, dear! the base bright metal

ars. She had not deigned, equally in confessing her predilections as her shame, to utter them out of the common hearin

he uttered before he was casting down his eyes and mumbling inarticulate under the piercing gaze of an honesty which would have been even less effective had it spoken. Then had he s

deed to hear truth so fearles

wing. Then suddenly, with an oath, he clapped spurs to his horse, and galloped a furlong, and, circli

ray you, on my sincerity, turn your horse'

hope, Carlo,' said t

ok here: dost think I am so concerned to have this intrigue proved the common stuff of passion? I care not the feather in thy cap, Bernardino. Nay, I

y my f

nd grunted, and

ashion for just a year and a day, shouldering us, every one, poor gallants, to the wall? Why should I love thee for that? and I love thee nevertheless. There thou

iled ver

all His sword and

ucified,' said

the boy, 'that He might make f

years or so in His place, that's all. I hope the right heir may prove h

sing so sweetly as he rode, that the other, after a grun

all, bony jaw, like a pike's, underhung, black-tufted, viciousness incarnate; his pursed, overlapping brow, with the dirty specks of eyes set fixedly in the under-hollows-in all, the mean smallness of his features, contrasted with the slouching, fleshly bulk below, suggested one of those antediluvian monsters, whose huge bodies and little mouths and throttles give one

respond, with a secret movement of his hand, towards the place. Something glittered momen

frankness, and began to exhibit certain tokens of a wakening devil with which they had plenty of reason to be familiar. Perhaps he wanted his dinner. Perhaps the near-approaching termination of his summer idyll-for they were long now in the great Lombardy plain, and the towers o

tal of his promised estate of love. Blue and small, swimming far away in the sun mists of the plains, he felt that he could clasp it all in his arms, and carry it to the foot of the Throne. His eyes brightened with clear tears: this salvage of

all crushed of sunshine and green shadows. It was the vine-goddess come home, soft, sensual, making a lust of fatigue. Her lids were half-closed; her teeth showed in a small, indolent smile; light, reflected from the purple clusters, slept on the warm ivory of her skin.

never know. Not a hair would she turn though, like Alth

red his eyes

Madonna were more tempered. I co

o free with my property. I hold her yet about the waist, see

ty's,' put

i ho

he would the hangman. Wilt throw off thy belt, Beatrice? I gave a thou

ll her to unclasp it, Carlo, and let me look? I see it is all hinged o

adies' g

the coins. Methinks I recog

ers, with a little yawn expr

he shall parable us for grace to meat, while these laggard

in as impassive throughout her own discussing by the others as a slave being negotiated in a market. No

hat had come into his hands with the trinket. His lips were parted a little, hi

denarius of Tiberius, in the thirty-first year of Ou

ake the troub

roare

ng forth one of those odd, shy accompaniments of h

erius was

ver pieces bea

s betray

ayed to blood-guil

e Temple, and madd

w elders e

d coins, accurs

ted as c

each other, were sil

ed. We need a plac

r take these,

ld, o'er which we

utlay bring us

nscience-clean

r, was bought "Th

icked, damned

of traffic, the

on where

Hope, and change

one led to h

Faith, and Faith

l, what had bet

used to betra

little silence succeeded. Then, like one spent,

denarius of the C?sar that betr

eaves, and fanned herself furiousl

; and began to bite his moust

s there no love in nature? You

roke in sc

shall be a virgin immaculate, and her bosom a shrine for the white lambs of chastity to fold in

h some fierce reco

t prevail there, unless by convincing

he still fingered the strings of his lute. Now suddenly, stead

ept me

hours t

east, lik

it, sweet

ime the

and

time th

hours t

was tha

cared c

it and

and

not, swe

thee g

ven is

is star

saint i

and

e end-flesh startled out of ivory-the face of a wakened Galatea. Narcisso coming at the moment to place the fi

ted the dish before her, and held it out with a nervous smile. 'Let

tted his brow in a sudden frown, a

' said Beatrice, a

is madrigal he had pushed his lute, in

ifications. Feeling is half-way to curing, and the best recommended physicia

her feet. She kissed the rim of the dish.

whipped into the classics for nothing? Quod ali cibus est

d to turn

if Madonna condescends?' and the ex

or two Lan

s thee, B

not hu

sh from under her hands, turned, and dashed it with its contents full in the face of Narcisso, who waited, with others, behind.

!' he roared. 'It was meant for my g

eature, through his filt

been running. She had voice no more than to gasp across, '

dered Carlo. 'Down with

ted arm was caugh

is mine! Give me the knif

one moment, the powerful creature turn

ronger!

r his foot, while the company, landlord and all, stood huddle

the right is thine, as thou sayest. Tak

he vines; then threw himself on his knees, and, with

wouldst have slain Love! Ah, fool,

n,' roared Carlo, 'if

cast himself upon his breast,

ld him!' Then to Lanti: 'Ah, dear, d

and fled, bloody and bemired, from the arbour. Madonna, see

vanishing prey; yet he w

this-so damned to folly! There, let go.

wered

t the fruits of her teaching.

pu

gives life, Carlo; and all life i

t th

thine honou

e at least

hich is life, which is God's. Wouldst ea

Art bey

, and life is honour-

? I da

u must k

my vengeance; and with that, and having ex

e tuam lucem!'