'May I die but he shall not,' cried the girl.
'He shall, I say.'
'I will bite, and rake him with my nails.'
'The more fool you, to spoil a saint! Reproofs come not often in such a guise as this. Up, Bernardino, and parable her into submission!'
She made a show of resisting, in the midst of which Bembo won to his place deftly on the fore-saddle. At the moment of his success, the fool Cicada sprang from the tavern door, and, lurching with wild, glazed eyes, leapt, hooting, upon the crupper of the beast, almost bringing it upon its haunches. With an oath Lanti brought down his whip with such fury that the fool rolled in the dust.
'Drunken dog!' he roared, and would have ridden over the writhing body, had not Bembo backed the white palfrey to prevent him.
'Thou strik'st the livery, not the man!' he cried. 'Hast never thyself been drunk, and without the excuse of this poor fool to make a trade of folly?'
Messer Lanti glared, then in a moment laughed. The battered grasshopper took advantage of the diversion to rise and slink to the rear. The next moment the whole cavalcade was in motion.
CHAPTER II
They travelled on till sundown through the green plains; and, for one good hour dating from their start, not a word would Madam Beatrice utter. Then she gave out—Messer Carlo being a distance in advance—but with no grace at all.