“At his words I went crimson from chin to brow.

“‘Do you disdain me?’ I questioned, choking with rage.  He turned, with a shrug and a laugh, and bade one of his men to give this cavalier his glove, and conduct him from the castle.  Several that had stood at hand made shift to obey him, whereat I fell into such a blind, unreasoning fury that incontinently I drew my sword, and laid about me.  They were many, I was but one; and they were not long in overpowering me and dragging me from my horse.

“They bound me fast, and Giovanni bade them let me have a priest, then get me hanged without delay.  Had he done that, the world being as it is, perhaps none could blame him.  But he elected to spare my life, yet on such terms as I could never have accepted had it not been for the consideration of my poor widowed mother, whom I had left in the hills of Biancomonte whilst I went forth to seek my fortune—­such was the tale I had told her.  I was her sole support, her only hope in life; and my death must have been her own, if not from grief, why, then from very want.  The thought of that poor old woman crushed my spirit as I sat in durance waiting for my end, and when the priest came, whom they had sent to shrive me, he found me weeping, which he took to argue a contrite heart.  He bore the tale of it to Giovanni, and the Lord of Pesaro came to visit me in consequence, and found me sorely changed from my furious mood of some hours earlier.

“I was a very coward, I own; but it was for my mother’s sake.  If I feared death, it was because I bethought me of what it must mean to her.”

“At sight of Giovanni I cast myself at his feet, and with tears in my eyes and in heartrending tones, bespeaking a humility as great as had been my erstwhile arrogance, I begged my life of him.  I told him the truth—­that for myself I was not afraid to die, but that I had a mother in the hills who was dependent on me, and who must starve if I were thus cut off.

“He watched me with his moody eyes, a saturnine smile about his lips.  Then of a sudden he shook with a silent mirth, whose evil, malicious depth I was far indeed from suspecting.  He asked me would I take solemn oath that if he spared my life I would never again raise my hand against him.  That oath I took with a greediness born of my fear of the death that was impending.

“‘You have been wise,’ said he,’ and you shall have your life on one condition—­that you devote it to my service.’

“‘Even that will I do,’ I answered readily.  He turned to an attendant, and ordered him to go fetch a suit of motley.  No word passed between us until that man returned with those garish garments.  Then Giovanni smiled on me in his mocking, infernal way.

“‘Not that,’ I cried, guessing his purpose.

“‘Aye, that,’ he answered me; ’that or the hangman’s noose.  A man who could devise so monstrous a jest as was your challenge to the Tyrant of Pesaro should be a merry fellow if he would.  I need such a one.  There are two Fools at my Court, but they are mere tumblers, deformed vermin that excite as much disgust as mirth.  I need a sprightlier man, a man of some learning and more drollery; such a man, in short, as you would seem to be.’