chord,
I recited the epic I had penned. My voice swelled with a feverish
enthusiasm whose colossal irony none there save one could guess. He, at
first surprised, grew angry presently, as I could see by the cloud that
had settled on his brow. Yet he restrained himself, and the rest of
the company were too enthralled by the breathless quality of my poem to
bestow their glances on any countenance save mine.

Madonna Paola sat upon the Lord of Pesaro's right, and her blue eyes
were round and her lips parted with enthusiasm as I proceeded. And when
presently I came to that point in the fight betwixt Giovanni and Ramiro
del' Orca, when Ramiro, having broken down the Lord Giovanni's visor,
was on the point of driving his sword into his adversary's face, I saw
her shrink in a repetition of the morning's alarm, and her bosom heaved
more swiftly, as though the issue of that combat hung now upon my lines
and she were made anxious again for the life of the man whom she had
learnt to love.

I finished on a slow and stately rhythm, my voice rising and falling
softly, after the manner of a Gregorian chant, as I dwelt on the piety
that had succeeded the Lord of Pesaro's brave exploits, and how upon his
return from the stricken field he had repaired straight to his closet,
his battered and bloody harness on his back, that he might kneel ere he
disarmed and render thanks to God for the victory vouchsafed him.

On that "Te Deum" I finished softly, and as my voice ceased and the
vibration of my last chord melted away, a thunder of applause was my
reward.

Men leapt from their chairs in their enthusiasm, and crowded round the
table on which I was perched, whilst, when presently I sprang down, one
noble woman kissed me on the lips before them all, saying that my mouth
was indeed a mouth of gold.

Madonna Paola was leaning towards the Lord Giovanni, her eyes shining
with excitement and filmed with tears as they proudly met his glance,
and I knew that my song had but served to endear him the more to her by
causing her to realise more keenly the brave qualities of the adventure
that I sang. The sight of it almost turned me faint, and I would have
eluded them and got away as I had come but that they lifted me up and
bore me so to the table at which the Lord Giovanni sat. He smiled, but
his face was very pale. Could it be that I had touched him? Could it be
that I had driven the iron into his soul, and that he could not bear to
confront me