The herald., 1898-10-23
The Rest Of the Racas Took Fright the Fate Of Their Comrades

|
a neat stab through the windpipe, and
ne. dropping his weapon and clapping
his hand upon the blood-spurting orr
| flee, took the occasion to search with
the point Of my rapier. delicately and
skilfully, for his vermiform appendix.
with the result, as is usual in such
operations. that he at once succumbed.
The rest of the rascals now took
| fright at the speedy fate Of their COM
rades, and beat a hasty retreat to the
regions below.
And when thy father, the noble Ar
nolfo de- Pazzi." said Ippofita, who was
still busy with the fire which she had
| started in the small charcoal furnace,
shall come at last to cross the river
| Styx,-"
| "Ippolfta," I exclaimed, with some
irritation in my voice. for 1 was heart
| lily sick by this time of the small black
| devils of the stature of a cubit, "if
| thou hast not yet finished with thy
tale, l prythee, put the completion of
it off until some more auspicious mo-
ment."
| l felt sure that was doing wrong
| to listen to this sort of thing about a
| line of ancestors which I had adopted,
especially from a female who was evi-
IDENTIFY designed to perpetuate the no.
| BILE race
| 60 to, do assure thee that 1t doth
! in no way inconvenience me to tell Vt
thee. And when thy father, the noble
Arnolfe de- Pazzi, shall come at last to
cross the river Styx,-"
| did not tell her that he had already
crossed, but I went out upon the land
ing and, to escape the further hearing
| OF the story, l made a great noise by
| throwing around the bodies Of the dead
| thieves. Ever and anon, however
| there came to me from Ippolita certain
| sentences which led me to believe that
my father, the noble Arnolfo, and even
I myself, were faring no better in her
discourse than had the unfortunate
| Sigismondo and Lodovico.
| That which l was doing with the
| three corpses was a necessary piece of
work, and l have reason to believe that
I made of it 'un capo dicpera." laid
| one upon the other, head tU feet, on
| the edge of the platform towards the
| stairway, jamming them down into a
compact mass, so that they formed a
secure and solid bulwark, Of a height
! of about three feet, against the fur
| ther onslaught of their fellows.
The rogues were now gathered again
in group at the bottom Of the stairs,
| and presently two of the stoutest and
most expert swordsmen Of the lot. by
evident agreement, left their COM
rades and came upward to attack me.
When they had reached the top, one
| of them stopped down, that he might
cut me, and the other prepared to
thrust at me over the head Of his COM
panton.
| My opponents knew next to nothing
about the noble art Of fence, and it Is
even a question with me whether they
could distinguish quartz from tierce,
or knew the difference between one,
/ two, and cut and disengage; they were,
however, very muscular and ugly GUS
| toners, and I can assure you that I
had my hands fun even from the very
| first. When I say hands, speak un-
derstandingly, for, with my left, I had
caught up the topmost Of my three
previous victims, by the scruff Of the
neck, and I now managed 20 hold the
defunct, so that he partly shielded my
body from the furious attacks of his
living fellows had a suspicion. as
did this, that the rogue was not as
dead as he looked. for 1t seemed to me
that he squirmed in my grasp every
time that he was perforated by my enc
mics. When, however. they had filled
HIM with as many holes as a sieve, he
ceased his contortions and gave me NO
more trouble. I now concluded that
| IT was tinse to do something. there
fore made the eight parades. one after
| the other. followed them up with q