"Well done, I declare!" called out a deep bass voice from the garden-door, at the very moment when she playfully pushed the boy away from her. It was Master Spazzo.
"Ah, is it you?" said Praxedis, perfectly unabashed. "You are just in time, Sir Chamberlain, to assist us in fixing this canvass. I shall never get it done, with that silly boy!"
"So it appears," said Master Spazzo, with a cutting look at the cloister-pupil, who, standing rather in awe of the chamberlain's fierce-looking moustache, slipped away between some rose-bushes. Astronomy and the metrics, Aristotle in the original language, and red girlish lips, formed a strange medley in the youthful mind.
"Are there no fitter objects for kisses in this castle, gentle maiden?" asked Master Spazzo.
"If one should ever feel so inclined," was Praxedis' answer, "the fitter objects ride away and stray about in night and darkness; and when they return at daytime, they look as if they had been chasing the will-o'-the-wisps all night."
Herewith, Master Spazzo was answered. He had made a vow not to betray a single word of his nightly adventures; cuckoo, and vince luna included.
"In what way can I help you?" said he humbly.
"In making a bower," said Praxedis. "In the cool hours of the evening, the Duchess will hold court here, and then stories are to be told; old stories, Sir chamberlain, the more wonderful, the better! Our Mistress has grown tired of Latin, and wishes for something else. Something original, that has not yet been written down,--you are also expected to contribute your mite!"
"The Lord protect my soul!" exclaimed Master Spazzo. "If under the reign of a woman everything was not wondrously strange, I really should begin to wonder at this. Are there no wandering minstrels and lute-players left, who, for a helmet full of wine, and a leg of deer, will sing themselves hoarse with such tales? We are rising in estimation! 'Vagabonds, jugglers, bards and the like strolling idlers, are to be flogged, and if they complain, they are to receive a man's shadow on a wall, as an indemnification.'[[2]] I thank you for that honour!"
"You will do what you are commanded, like a faithful vassal, who, moreover has still to render a report about a certain business, transacted over the monastic wine-jug," said Praxedis. "It will be merrier at any rate, than to spell out Latin! Have you no desire to out-rival the learned Master Ekkehard?"