A JAY OF ITALY

CHAPTER I

On a hot morning, in the year 1476 of poignantmemory, there drew up before an osteria on theMilan road a fair cavalcade of travellers. These wereMesser Carlo Lanti and his inamorata, together with asuite of tentmen, pages, falconers, bed-carriers, and otherpersonnel of a migratory lord on his way from the coolinghills to the Indian summer of the plains. The chief ofthe little party, halting in advance of his fellows, liftedhis plumed scarlet biretta with one strong young hand,and with the other, his reins hanging loose, ran a clusterof swarthy fingers through his black hair.

'O little host!' he boomed, blaspheming—for all goodCatholics, conscious of their exclusive caste, swore byGod prescriptively—'O little host, by the thirst of Christ'spassion, wine!'

'He will bring you hyssop—by the token, he will,'murmured the lady, who sat her white palfrey languidlybeside him. She was a slumberous, ivory-faced creaturewarm and insolent and lazy; and the little bells of herbridle tinkled sleepily, as her horse pawed, gentlyrocking her.

The cavalier grunted ferociously. 'Let me see him!'and, bonneting himself again, sat with right arm akimbo,glaring for a response to his cry. He looked on firstacquaintance a bully and profligate—which he was; but,for his times, with some redeeming features. His thigh,in its close violet hose, and the long blade which hung atit seemed somehow in a common accord of steel andmuscle. His jaw was underhung, his brows were verythick and black, but the eyes beneath weregood-humored, and he had a great dimple in his cheek.

A murmur of voices came from the inn, but no answerwhatever to the demand. The building, glaring white asa rock rolled into the plains from the great mountainsto the north, had a little bush of juniper thrust out on astaff above its door. It looked like a dry tongueprotruded in derision, and awoke the demon in MesserLanti. He turned to a Page:—'Ercole!' he roared,pointing; 'set a light there, and give these hinds alesson!'

The lady laughed, and, stirring a little, watched th

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