had no stomach for enduring.

First, then, it was of moment thoroughly to efface our tracks, leaving
no sign that might guide Meser Ramiro to repair the error into which I
had tricked him. Slowly, says the proverb, one journeys far and safely.
Slowly, then, did I consider! The escort was, no doubt, on its way back
to Rome, and if I could but rid myself of that cumbrous litter, Ser
Ramiro would find himself mightily hard put to it to again pick up the
trail. I remembered a ravine a little way behind, and I rode my mule
back to that as fast as it would travel with the litter and the other
mule attached to it. Arrived there, I unharnessed the beasts on the
very edge of that shallow precipice. Then exerting all my strength, I
contrived to roll the litter over. Down that steep incline it went, over
and over, gathering more snow to itself at every revolution, and sinking
at last into the drift at the bottom. There were signs enough to show
its presence, but those signs would hardly be read by any but the
sharpest eyes, or by such as might be looking for it in precisely such
a position. I must trust to luck that it escaped the notice of Messer
Ramiro. But even if he did discover it, I did not think that it would
tell him overmuch.

That done I resumed my hat and cloak--which I had retained--mounted once
more, and urging the other mule along, I proceeded thus as fast as might
be for a half-league or so in the direction of Cagli. That distance
covered, again I halted. There was not a soul in sight. I stripped one
of the mules of all its harness, which I buried in the snow, behind a
hedge, then I drove the beast loose into a field. The peasant-owner of
that land might conclude upon the morrow that it had rained asses in the
night.

And now I was able to travel at a brisker pace, and in an hour or so I
had passed the point where the road diverged, and I caught a glimpse of
the four grooms, already high up in the hills which they were crossing.
Whether they saw me or not I do not know, but with a last curse at
their cowardice I put them from my mind, and cantered briskly on towards
Cagli. It was a short league farther, and in little more than half an
hour, my mule half-dead, I halted at the door of "The Full Moon."

Flinging my reins to the ostler, I strode into the inn, swaddled in my
cloak, and called for the hostess. The place was empty, as indeed all
Cagli had seemed when I rode up. She came forward--a woman with a brown,
f