f 'The Full
Moon' ask for the hostess, and tell her that you are to await an escort
there, begging her, meanwhile, to place you under her protection. She
is a worthy soul, or else I do not know one, and she will befriend you
readily. But see to it that you tell her nothing of your affairs."

"And then?" she inquired eagerly.

"Then, wait you there until to-night, or even until to-morrow morning,
for these knaves to rejoin you to the end that you may resume your
journey."

"But we--" began Giacopo. Scenting his protest, I cut him short.

"You four," said I, "shall escort me--for I shall replace Madonna in
the litter--you shall escort me towards Fabriano. Thus shall we draw the
pursuit upon ourselves, and assure your lady a clear road of escape."

They swore most roundly and with great circumstance of oaths that they
would lend themselves to no such madness, and it took me some moments to
persuade them that I was possessed of a talisman that should keep us all
from harm.

"Were it otherwise, dolts, do you think I should be eager to go with
you? Would any chance wayfarer so wantonly imperil his neck for the sake
of a lady with whom he can scarce be called acquainted?"

It was an argument that had weight with them, as indeed, it must have
had with the dullest. I flashed my ring before their eyes.

"This escutcheon," said I, "is the shield that shall stand between us
and danger from any of the house that bears these arms."

Thus I convinced and wrought upon them until they were ready to obey
me--the more ready since any alternative was really to be preferred to
their present situation. In danger they already stood from those that
followed as they well knew; and now it seemed to them that by obeying
one who was armed with such credentials, it might be theirs to escape
that danger. But even as I was convincing them, by the same arguments
was I sowing doubts in the lady's subtler mind.

"You are attached to that house?" quoth she, in accents of mistrust.
She wanted to say more. I saw it in her eyes that she was wondering was
there treachery underlying an action so singularly disinterested as to
justify suspicion.

"Madonna," said I, "if you would save yourself I implore that you will
trust me. Very soon your pursuers will be appearing on those heights,
and then your chance of flight will be lost to you. I will ask you but
this: Did I propose to betray you into their hands, could I have done
better than to have left