"It's all over with me," groaned Capuzzi; "the hellhound has broken every bone in my body. I can't move a muscle."
"Let us see--let us see!" said Antonio; and he felt him all over, giving him, in the course of his examination, a pinch in the right leg of such shrewdness that Capuzzi uttered a yell.
"Saints and angels!" ejaculated Antonio, "your right leg is broken just at the most dangerous place. If it is not attended to immediately, you are a dead man; or, at the very least, lamed for life."
Capuzzi uttered a frightful howl. "Calm yourself, my dear Signor," said Antonio. "Although I am a painter now, I have not forgotten my surgery. We will carry you into Salvator's lodgings, and I will bandage you properly at once."
"Dear Signor Antonio," whined Capuzzi, "you are inimically minded towards me, I am aware."
"Ah!" interposed Salvator, "there can be no question of enmity in a case like this. You are in danger, and that is sufficient reason why the honourable Antonio should devote all his skill to your service. Take hold of him, friend Antonio."
Together they lifted the old man up softly and carefully, and carried him--crying out over the suffering which his broken leg caused him--to Salvator's lodgings.
Dame Caterina declared she had felt quite certain that something was going to happen, and consequently hadn't been able to go to bed. And when she saw the old gentleman and heard what had happened to him, she broke out into reproaches as to his works and ways. "I know well enough, Signor Pasquale, who it was that you were taking home, as usual. You think, as long as you have your pretty niece Marianna at home with you, you don't require any woman to do anything there, and you most shamefully and God-defiantly misuse that poor creature of a Pitichinaccio, whom you dress up in woman's clothes. But remember, ogni carne ha il mio osso--every flesh has its own bones. If you have a girl in the house, you can't do without women. Fate il passo secondo il gamba--don't stretch your legs farther than the bedcover goes, and don't do more, nor less, than what is right for your Marianna. Don't shut her up like a prisoner. Don't turn your house into a gaol. Asino punto convien che trotti--one who has started on the road must go along. You have a pretty niece, and you must arrange your life accordingly; that's to say, you mustn't do what she doesn't wish. But you are an ungallant, hard-hearted man, and (I'm afraid I must say, at your time of life), amorous and jealous into the bargain. You must pardon me for saying all this straight out to your face, but you know chi ha nel petto fiele, non pu sputar miele--what the heart is full of comes out at the lips. If you don't die of this accident of yours--as, at your time of life, it is to be feared you will--I hope it will be a warning to you, and you'll leave your niece at liberty to do what she wishes, and marry the charming young gentleman whom I think I know about."
Thus did the stream of Dame Caterina's words flow on, whilst Salvator and Antonio carefully undressed the old gentleman and laid him on the bed. Dame Caterina's words were dagger-thrusts, which went deep into his heart; but, whenever he tried to get in a word between them, Antonio impressed on him that anything in the nature of talking was fraught with the utmost danger, so that he was obliged to swallow the bitter pill of her utterances. Salvator at length sent her away to get some iced water, which Antonio had ordered.
Salvator and Antonio convinced themselves that the fellow whom they had employed had done his business most admirably. Beyond one or two blue marks, Capuzzi had not suffered the slightest damage, frightful as his tumble had the appearance of being. Antonio carefully put splints and bandages on his right foot and leg, so that he could not move; and at the same time they wrapped him in cloths soaked in iced water, on the pretext of keeping off fever, so that he shivered as if he were in an ague.