However, the more firmly Leonardo declined the task offered him, so much the more did the ladies insist.
'We beseech you, Messere! We all pray you with one voice. Tell us, tell us something entertaining!'
'Tell us how men are to fly!' suggested Madonna Fiordiligi.
'Nay, but speak to us of sorcery!' cried Madonna Ermellina; 'something of black magic! 'Tis so interesting, this necromancy. Explain to us how they raise the dead men from their graves!'
'I assure you, Madonna, I have never raised any dead person from his grave.'
'Then take some other theme, so it be terrible, and have no savour of mathematics.'
Leonardo was always hard put to it to refuse a beggar, and he could only repeat with embarrassment:—
'Truly, Madonna, I am incapable——'
But Ermellina interrupted him, clapping her hands.
'He consents! He consents! Silence for Messer Leonardo! Listen ye all!'