Then they laid the young man down, Antonio stripping off his cloak and
making a pillow of it; and Bena brought the horses, for they had led one
with them for Antonio, in case there should be need of it; and they were
but just mounted when twenty of the Duke's Guard appeared three hundred
yards away, ascending the crest of the hill.
"Thank Heaven there are so many," said Antonio, "for now we can flee
without shame;" and they set spurs to their horses and fled. And certain
of the Duke's Guard pursued, but only two or three were so well mounted
as to be able to come near them; and these two or three, finding that
they would be man to man, had no liking for the business, and each
called out that his horse was foundered; and thus it was that none of
them came up with Count Antonio, but all, after a while, returned
together to the city, carrying the young Spaniard Corogna, their
captain. But as they drew near to the gates, Corogna opened his eyes and
murmured some soft-syllabled name that they could not hear, and, having
with failing fingers signed the cross, turned on his side and died. And
they brought his body to the great hall of the Duke's palace.
There in the great hall sat Duke Valentine: his face was pale and his
frown heavy, and he gazed on the dead body of the young man and spoke no
word. Yet he had loved Corogna, and out of love for him had made him
Captain of his Guard. And he passed his hand wearily across his brow,
murmuring, "I cannot think, I cannot think." And the Lady Lucia stood by
him, her hand resting on his shoulder and her eyes full of tears. But at
last the strange spell which lay on the senses of the Duke passed away:
his eyes again had the light of reason in them, and he listened while
they told him how Antonio had himself escaped, and had afterwards slain
Corogna on the top of the hill where Antonio's house had stood. And the
Duke was very sorry for Corogna's death: and he looked round on them
all, saying, "He made of me a log of wood, and not a man. For when I had
drunk and looked in his eyes, it seemed to me that my eyes were bound to
his, and that I looked to him for command, and to know what I should
do, and that he was my God, and without his will I could not move. Yes,
I was then to him even as he had seemed to be to me as we rode from
Baratesta. And even now I am not free from this strange affection; for
he seems still to be by me, and if his voice came now bidding me to do
anything, by St. Prisian, I should arise and do it! Send my physician to
me. And let this young man lie in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin in
the Cathedral, and to-morrow he shall be buried. But when I am well, and
this strange affection is passed from me, and hangs no more like a fog
over my brain, then I will exact the price of his death from Antonio,
together with the reckoning of all else in respect of which he stands in
my debt."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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