certain
clown dressed in the scanty guise of the shepherd Paris, who proffered
her the apple of beauty with the mean-souled flattery that since
beholding her he had been forced to alter his old-time judgment in
favour of Venus.

He lied, like the brazen, self-seeking adulator that he was, and for
which he should have been soundly whipped. Her nose was a shade too
long, her chin a shade too short to admit, even remotely, of such
comparisons. Still, that she had a certain gracious beauty, as I have
said, it is not mine to deny. There was an almost childish freshness in
her face, an almost childish innocence in her fine gray eyes, and, above
all, a golden and resplendent hair as brought to mind the tresses of
God's angels.

That fair child--for no more than a child was she--drew a chair to my
bedside.

There she sate herself, whilst I thanked her for her concern on my
behalf, and answered that I was doing well enough, and should be abroad
again in a day or two.

"Brave lad," she murmured, patting my hand, which lay upon the coverlet,
as though she had been my sister and I anything but a Fool, "count me
ever your friend hereafter, for what you have done for Madonna Paola.
For although it was my own family you thwarted, yet you did so to serve
one who is more to me than any family, more than any sister could be."

"What I did, Madonna," I answered, "I did with the better heart since it
opened out a way that was barred me, solved me a riddle which my Lord,
your Illustrious brother, set me--one that otherwise might well have
overtaxed my wits."

"Ah?" Her gray eyes fell on me in a swift and searching glance, a glance
that revealed to the full their matchless beauty. Care seemed of
a sudden to have aged her face. The question of her eyes needed no
translation into words.

"The Lord Cardinal of Valencia entrusted me with a letter for you, in
answer to your own," I informed her, and from underneath my pillow I
drew the package, which during Magistri's absence I had abstracted from
my boot that I might have it in readiness when she came.

She sighed as she took it, and a wistful smile invested the corners of
her mouth.

"I had hoped he would have found better employment for you," she said.

"His Excellency promised that he would more fitly employ me in the
future did I discharge this errand with secrecy and despatch. But by
aiding Madonna Paola I have burned my boats against returning to claim
the redemption of that