so well that when the bridge had been let down, he preceded
me with a couple of his men and gently but firmly pressed back those
that would have approached--among the first of whom were Madonna Paola
and her brother.

"Way!" he shouted. "Make way for the High and Mighty Lord of Pesaro!"

Thus I passed through, my half-shattered visor sufficiently closed still
to conceal my face, and in this manner I gained the door of the eastern
wing and dismounted. Two or three attendants sprang forward, ready to
go with me that they might assist me to disarm. But I waved them
imperiously back, and mounted the stairs alone. Alone I crossed the
ante-chamber, and tapped at the door of the Lord Giovanni's closet.
Instantly it opened, for he had watched my return and been awaiting me.
Hastily he drew me in and closed the door.

He was flushed with excitement and trembling like a leaf. Yet at the
sight that I presented he lost some of his high colour, and recoiled to
stare at my armour, battered, dinted, and splashed with browning stains,
which loudly proclaimed the fray through which I had been.

He fell to praising my valour, to speaking of the great service I had
rendered him, and of the gratitude that he would ever entertain for me,
all in terms of a fawning, cloying sweetness that disgusted me more than
ever his cruelties had done. I took off my helmet whilst he spoke, and
let it fall with a crash. The face I revealed to him was livid with
fatigue, and blackened with the dust that had caked upon my sweat. He
came forward again and helped hastily to strip off my harness, and when
that was done he fetched a great silver basin and a ewer of embossed
gold from which he poured me fragrant rose-water that I might wash.
Macerated sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better
that I might cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by
my ablutions, he poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that
seemed to infuse fresh life into my veins. And all the time he spoke
of the prowess I had shown, and lamented that all these years he should
have had me at his Court and never guessed my worth.

At length I turned to resume my clothes. And since it must excite
comment and perhaps arouse suspicion were I to appear in any but my
jester's garish livery, I once more assumed my foliated cape, my cap and
bells.

"Wear it yet for a little while," he said, "and thus complete the
service you have done me. Presently you may