rain of a toad and the eyes of serpents, and
even jewels that are authentically known to have fallen from the moon.
We will select the rarest, and have a pair of slippers encrusted with
them, in which you shall dance for me."

"Highness," cried Eglamore, with anger and terror at odds in his
breast, "Highness, I love this girl!"

"Ah, then you cannot ever be her husband," Duke Alessandro returned.
"You would have suited otherwise. No, no, we must seek out some other
person of discretion. It will all be very amusing, for I think that
she is now quite innocent, as pure as the high angels are. See,
Eglamore, she cannot speak, she stays still as a lark that has been
taken in a snare. It will be very marvelous to make her as I
am. . . ." He meditated, as, obscurely aware of opposition, his
shoulders twitched fretfully, and momentarily his eyes lightened like
the glare of a cannon through its smoke. "You made a beast of me, some
long-faced people say. Beware lest the beast turn and rend you."

Count Eglamore plucked aimlessly at his chin. Then he laughed as a dog
yelps. He dropped the gloves which he had held till this,
deliberately, as if the act were a rite. His shoulders straightened
and purpose seemed to flow into the man. "No," he said quietly, "I
will not have it. It was not altogether I who made a brain-sick beast
of you, my prince; but even so, I have never been too nice to profit by
your vices. I have taken my thrifty toll of abomination, I have stood
by contentedly, not urging you on, yet never trying to stay you, as you
waded deeper and ever deeper into the filth of your debaucheries,
because meanwhile you left me so much power. Yes, in some part it is
my own handiwork which is my ruin. I accept it. Nevertheless, you
shall not harm this child."

"I venture to remind you, Eglamore, that I am still the master of this
duchy." Alessandro was languidly amused, and had begun to regard his
adversary with real curiosity.

"Oh, yes, but that is nothing to me. At court you are the master. At
court I have seen mothers raise the veil from their daughters' faces,
with smiles that were more loathsome than the grimaces of a fiend,
because you happened to be passing. But here in these woods, your
highness, I see only the woman I love and the man who has insulted her."

"This is very admirable fooling," the Duke considered. "So all the
world is changed and Pandarus is transformed into Hector? These are
so