A Jay of Italy

ry of Vercelli. With him went some four thousand troops, horse and footmen, a drain of bristling splendour from the city; yet the roaring hum of that city's life, and the flash and

or a time the intolerable

s foreign to its knowledge. Men felt it, and pondered, or laughed, or were sceptical according as their temperaments induced them. So, in droughty days, the little errant winds that blow from nowhere, rising and falling on a thought, affect us

nciscan monk, plump and rosy, but with inflammatory eyes, entering with Messer Jacopo through a private postern in the walls. He had saluted the jocund figure reverentially, as one necessarily sacred

it might be said, "Puer natus est nobis: et v

t Jacopo, who had shrugged, and answer

ntly and ingratiatory he had waddled up, and, putting a prosperous hand on Bernardo's s

y; Saul's ears are opened to the truth. The stars cannot lie. You sent for me, yourself their sainted em

ing the impatient summons of Jacopo, who was beckoning him towards a flight of open stairs niched

h reverence in his sensorium, and 'Cicca!' ha

er had been pro

ad snapped, lik

was

se. He is yet, and, being, is t

he is, w

t soon destined, if I read him a

dle. I will follow and ask the Prov

ere of fat, this moon-paunch, this great blob of star-jelly, this planet-counterfeiting frog, this astronomic globe stuffed out with pasties and or

now'st

erence of the fingers, that when I burn them, fire is near; or the inference of the nose, that when I sm

r wise

know what one and o

to be

h twins, when thy time comes. One o

t this holy father

ed by the stars short shrift for Galeazzo, and been invited to come and discuss his reasons, did prove unaccountably coy, though certainly seer to his own nativity. Imprimis, the astrologer was reported a Co

tly had withdrawn his hand, an ineffable expression, shrewd

hou art madder than an

he Fool; 'I am so

had repente

. But, indeed, I un

ing bait had tempted the

t, t

yse

I

's protégé? O, pretty, sweet decoy, to

the truth of these predictions? Alas! not I, nor

ou tell

ho

e D

told h

God keep the Fran

her to mean nothing more than that the Duke was designing, on his authority

to the stock of those first angels who knew the daughters of men-to the first fruits of an amazed and incredible sorrow. By so great a step was he close to the God his sires had offended; was close to the parting of the ways between earth and heaven, and with all the lore of the since-accumulated ages to instruct him in his choice of roads. O, believe little Bernardo that his was the true insight, the tru

elf luxuriantly on leagues of peaceful plain. He liked then to be left alone, or at the most to the sole company of his dogged henchman, the erst Fool. Cicada's gruff but jealous sympathy was an emollient to lacerated sensibilities; his wit was a tonic; h

ch occasionally must overtake every just judge-as he leaned upon the battlements,

suddenly, 'what m

' answered the

e name for our Master. He provideth, of the immensity of His love, for and against. He can do no further, nor foretell but by analogy the blundering spites of Circumstance.

go then, and poke him in the ribs,

iled and

lindness. What, in truth,

e and leaned

r known liberty. Sobriety and reason are empty terms to me. Ask of me no fruit but the fruit of mine inheritance. A dr

oulder and rested there. The creature's dim eyes were fi

nything above a specified income-must have disqualified a man for office. It is the ideal constitution. Corruption will enter else. Wealth, and the emulation of wealth, are the moth in stored state

ve Esau,' said

upon him; then suddenl

I twit thee, mine emancipator, with my curse to thralldom? Loves Esau, quotha! No cant his creed.

disengaging himself. 'Thou rebu

l of me I can tell:-as, for example, that my mother-exitus acta probat-was a fool, a sweet, p

retch!

aled her share in the Minotaur. Motley is th

I am an

y only, sir, I assure thee. Hast ever heard spe

las! to hi

a certain order of frailty. I inclined his way. Perhaps that was my salvation. The child most interests the

He made the

him. When the reckoning comes, the bu

s! Thy

. I need say no more

ic

and drink t

nk,

g. That was my easy time. He died in '47, and my majesty's Fooldom was appropriat

thou wilt

that applause and hand-clapping at Court! But Wisdom looked sour. "What, fool!" demanded the Duke: "dost question its merit?" "Nay," quoth Wisdom; "but only the sincerity of the praise. Sign thy next with my name, and mark its fate." He did-actually. Poor Wisdom! as if it had been truth the sonneteer desired! Never was poor doxy of a Muse worse treated. This was exalted like the other; but in a pillory. It made a day's

rted, in some wonder. He had not set eyes on this dandiprat since his public condemnation of him, and, if he thought of him at all, had believed h

ry pupation a very tiger-moth; but the soul of the ignoble larva yet obtained between the gorgeous wings. Truckling, insinuative

rned?'-for he guessed nothing of the truth. Then a kind thought s

found impossible to the craven meanness of his nature. To dare by instinct-how splendid! No doubt there is that fox of self-conscious pusillanimity gnawing at the ribs o

think how every minute of a delaye

ced the ot

I am! How could a hunted creatu

nte

r you to let loose the mad dog, and

d d

o quoting my rash simile. Hast

ine estate so pledged? I had no th

ndeed, but not for heaven! Had it not been for the good Jacopo t

hy fear distorted thy peril. He is a changed

jaw drop, affect

ce w

day of th

head, with a smile o

, they tell me, and should know. Yet may not a man and his conscience

nervous, as Bernardo regarded

than the truth? Think'st thou I should have dared reissue from my hiding, were Galeazzo still here to represent his o

n the wal

the nose, as St. Mark the lion. Well, I am a sinner, properly persecuted; yet, to my erring perceptives, 'tis hard to reconcile thy sa

chastisement"-were not those thy words? And Omniscience dethroned-a bewildered morta

sent

and see? I have

d clutch. Young strenuous hands mauled his prett

inhuman dogs are ye all!

gled feebly,

take thee: I a

was that same massy pile in whose bowels was situate the dreadful oubliette known as the 'Hermit's Cell': a grim, ironic title signifying deadness to the world, living entombment, utter abandonment and self-obliteration. It w

but by an occasional loop or eyelet hole. Its only entrance, indeed, was from the rampart-walk; its direct approach by way of the flying stair-way, up

preconcert with Tassino, no bar to his entrance. B

said shortly, opp

led a moment,

ongue,' snapped he,

g gained his point, produced a

?' said he, unstoppering i

worn all liquor,' said C

d the sentry, eye and body guarding

remoteness-that damning gurgle-come! a ducat

d over the flask. 'Done on that!' said he. But on the instant he

y filcher! Give

nd capered, dan

piece of silver to

hrew the flask into a corner, and, as the other dived for it, slipped by and disappeared into the tower. The sol

en silent witness, within the guard-room, of all the little scene, and wa

s by any reform of existing institutions-comprehensively, as to the menace this stranger was to their interests. It would be well to demonstrate to him the unreality of his influence wi

wd cricket at the boy's side, to leaven the horror for him with his song of cheer. The full impressiveness

r crossed his face, nor word his lips. He turned away, not having utte

han the strappado!' prayed

every whisper and shuffle of the footsteps he was pursuing. Sometimes, so deceptive were the echoes in that winding shaft, he fancied himself treading close upon the heels of the chase; yet each little loop-lighted landing found him, as

ror. The walls grew dank and viscous to his palm. A stumble, and all might end for him hideously. Then, at the same moment, weak light and a

orch he held upon a figure lying prostrate on the stones below. Cicada crept, and peered over his master's shoulder. The thing on the floor was grotesque, unnatural-a human skeleton

e, for a monk,' w

ardo was sprung into a Fury. He l

and hid it from

' cried the Fool. 'I w

d me?

foredoomed. Had I interfered, I had been lying mys

abroad, as if sweep

ke by them, and went flying and crying up into the daylight. He ran, without pause, by the wal

him. Then away he raced again, his hands full, and never stopped until the sentry, a new one, at the

?' pante

Provost-

boy tried

cared for. There is one withi

man was

ovost-Marshal?' cried t

ssed not to know. In any case, it

d on the battlements, and