as the
Lord Giovanni piped, that wise young man chose life and folly. But was
that choice indeed so wise? The story ends not there. That young men
whose early life had been one of hardships found himself, indeed,
well-housed and fed as the Lord Giovanni had promised him, and so he
fell into a slothful spirit, and was content to play the Fool for bed
and board.

"There were times when conscience knocked loudly at my heart, and I was
tortured with shame to see myself in the garb of Fools, the sport of
all, from prince to scullion. But in the three years that I had dwelt at
Pesaro my identity had been forgotten by the few who had ever been aware
of it. Moreover, a court is a place of changes, and in three years there
had been such comings and goings at the Court of Giovanni Sforza, that
not more than one or two remained of those that had inhabited it when
first I entered on my existence there. Thus had my position grown
steadily more bearable. I was just a jester and no more, and so, in
a measure--though I blush to say it--I grew content. I gathered
consolation from the fact that there were not any who now remembered the
story of my coming to Pesaro, or who knew of the cowardliness I had been
guilty of when I consented to mask myself in the motley and assume the
name of Boccadoro. I counted on the Lord Giovanni's generosity to let
things continue thus, and, meanwhile, I provided for my mother out of
the vails that were earned me by my shame. But there came a day when
Giovanni in evil wantonness of spirit chose to make merry at the Fool's
expense.

"To be held up to scorn and ridicule is a part of the trade of such
as I, and had it been just Boccadoro whom Giovanni had exposed to the
derision of his Court, haply I had been his jester still. But such sport
as that would have satisfied but ill the deep-seated malice of his soul.
The man whom his cruel mockery crucified for their entertainment was
Lazzaro Biancomonte, whom he revealed to them, relating in his own
fashion the tale I have told you.

"At that I rebelled, and I said such things to him in that hour, before
all his Court, as a man may not say to a prince and live. Passion surged
up in him, and he ordered his castellan to flog me to the bone--in
short, to slay me with a whip.

"From that punishment I was saved by the intercessions of Madonna
Lucrezia. But I was driven out of Pesaro that very night, and so it
happens that I am a wanderer now."

At that I left i