behind his back, and one of the three
ambassadors, a man of great age and authority, named Fineo, espied on
his breast a great vermeil spot, not painted, but naturally imprinted
on his skin, after the fashion of what women here call _roses_. Seeing
this, there suddenly recurred to his memory a son of his who had been
carried off by corsairs fifteen years agone upon the coast of Lazistan
and of whom he had never since been able to learn any news; and
considering the age of the poor wretch who was scourged, he bethought
himself that, if his son were alive, he must be of such an age as
Pietro appeared to him. Wherefore he began to suspect by that token
that it must be he and bethought himself that, were he indeed his son,
he should still remember him of his name and that of his father and of
the Armenian tongue. Accordingly, as he drew near, he called out,
saying, 'Ho, Teodoro!' Pietro, hearing this, straightway lifted up his
head and Fineo, speaking in Armenian, said to him, 'What countryman
art thou and whose son?' The sergeants who had him in charge halted
with him, of respect for the nobleman, so that Pietro answered,
saying, 'I was of Armenia and son to one Fineo and was brought hither,
as a little child, by I know not what folk.'

Fineo, hearing this, knew him for certain to be the son whom he had
lost, wherefore he came down, weeping, with his companions, and ran to
embrace him among all the sergeants; then, casting over his shoulders
a mantle of the richest silk, which he had on his own back, he
besought the officer who was escorting him to execution to be pleased
to wait there till such time as commandment should come to him to
carry the prisoner back; to which he answered that he would well. Now
Fineo had already learned the reason for which Pietro was being led to
death, report having noised it abroad everywhere; wherefore he
straightway betook himself, with his companions and their retinue, to
Messer Currado and bespoke him thus: 'Sir, he whom you have doomed to
die, as a slave, is a free man and my son and is ready to take to
wife her whom it is said he hath bereft of her maidenhead; wherefore
may it please you to defer the execution till such time as it may be
learned if she will have him to husband, so, in case she be willing,
you may not be found to have done contrary to the law.' Messer
Currado, hearing that the condemned man was Fineo's son, marvelled and
confessing that which the latter said to be true,