num_pages: 29
description: It was late in November 1456. The snow fell over Paris with rigorous relentless persistence; sometimes the wind made a sally and scattered it in flying vortices; sometimes there was a lull and flake after flake descended out of the black night air silent circuitous interminable. To poor people looking up under moist eyebrows it seemed a wonder where it all came from. Master Francis Villon had propounded an alternative that afternoon at a tavern window: was it only Pagan Jupiter plucking geese upon Olympus or were the holy angels moulting? He was only a poor Master of Arts he went on; and as the question somewhat touched upon divinity he durst not venture to conclude. A silly old priest from Montargis who was among the company treated the young rascal to a bottle of wine in honor of the jest and the grimaces with which it was accompanied and swore on his own white beard that he had been just such another irreverent dog when he was Villons age.
language: English
title: A Lodging for the Night
publisher: Faligi Editore