Show love or i death 17 ak bla rafael sabatini balini Sa i service MO M O chapter I 1 in that shrewd chapter of his upon a princes choice of ministers of which I 1 shall presently have more to say messer niccolo discovers three degrees in the intelligence of mankind to the first belong those who understand things for themselves deives by virtue of their own natural endowments to the second those who I 1 have at least the wit to discern what others understand and to the third those who neither understand things j for themselves nor yet through the which others afford them the first are rare and excellent since they are the inventive and generative class the second are of merit since if not actually productive they are at least reproductive the third being neither the one nor the other but mere parasites who prey for their existence and often profitably upon the other two are entirely w worthless or there Is yet a fourth class which the learned and subtle florentine appears to have overlooked a class which combines in itself the attributes ot of those other three in this class I 1 would place the famous cor alnus us who was the very oddest compound of inventiveness and stupidity or duplicity and simplicity of deceit and credulity of guile and innocence of ingenuity and ingenuousness as you shall judge to begin with messer Cory corvinus inus tris me gistus had mastered as his very names implies all the secrets of nature of medicine and of magic so that the fame of him had gone out over the face of italy like a ripple over water he knew for instance that the oil of scorpions captured in sunshine during the period of sol in scorpio a most essential condition this was an infallible cure tor for the plague lie ile knew that to correct an enlargement of the spleen the certain way was to take the spleen of a goat apply it for four and twenty hours to the affected part and thereafter expose it to the sun in a measure as the goats spleen should desiccate and wittier in such measure should the patients spleen be reduced and restored to health lie ile knew that the ashes of a wolfs skin never failed as a remedy for baldness and that to arrest bleeding at tile the nose I 1 nothing could rival an infusion from the bark of an olive tree provided the bark were taken from a young tree in the case of a young patient and from an old tree in the case of an old patient ue he knew that serpents stewed in wine and afterward eaten would make sound and whole a leper by conferring upon him the serpents faculty of changing its skin deeply too was lie he versed in pol poisons and enchantments enchant ments and lie made no secret so frank and open was his nature of his power to conjure spirits and at need to restore the dead to life he had discovered an elixir vitae that preserved him baill young and vigorous at the prodigious age of two thousand years which he claimed to have attained and another elixir callad called aqua celeste a very complex and subtle distillation this that would reduce an old mans age by fifty years and restore to him his lost youth all this and much more was known to corvinus the thrice mage although certain folk of mind have sought to show that the sum of his knowledge concerned the extent to which he could abuse the tha credulity of his contemporaries and render them his dupes similarly it was alleged aldi although ough his adherents set it down to the spite and envy that the great must forever be provoking in the mean that his real name was just pietro corvo a name he got from his mother who kept a in corll and who could not herself with any degree of precision have named his father and these derl ders added that his having lived two thousand years was i an idle vaunt since there were still many alive who remember red to have seen him as an III kempt hempt dirty urchin wallowing tn in tbd abd kennels of his native town be all that as it may there Is no denying that he had achieved a great and well deserved renown and that he waxed rich in hla his mean dwelling in urbino that itala atene the cradle of italian art and learning and to wax was rich Is after all considered by many tobe the one outi outward vird sign of inward grace the one indubitable proof of worth to them at least it follows that messer corvinus was worthy this house of hla his stood in a narrow street behind the oratory of san glovanni giovanni a street of crazy buildings that leaned across to each other until had they been carried a little higher hl glicr they must have met in a gothic arch to exclude the slender of eliy which as if was remained visible it was a quarter of the town admirably infra bly suited to a man of the magicians studious habits the greater streets of urbino might tremble under the tramp of armed multitudes in those days when the lord cosare cesare borgia duke of Valenti and romagna was master of the city and the peaceful scholarly duke buldo baldo a fugitive outcast down that narrow ill III paved gap of sordid dwellings came no disturbers disturb ers of the peace so that corvinus us was left to pursue his studies unmolested to crush his powders and distill his marvelous marv clous elix elixirs irs rs thither to seek his help and its ills advice came folk from every quarter of italy thither in the first hour of a fair june night about a fortnight after cesare Bor borgias glas occupation of urbino came attended by two grooms the lady blanca bianca dap dtp floravanti this lady blanca was the daughter of that famous floravanti who was lord of san leo the only fortress in guiao baldos territory which emboldened by its almost impregnable position still held out in defiance of the irresistible sis tible Valenti with much had bad heaven blessed madonna blanca bianca wealth was hers and youth and a great name culture and a beauty that has been the subject of some songs and yet with all these gifts there was still something that she lacked something without which all else was vain something that brought her by night a little fearfully to the grim house of messer corvinus as a suppliant to attract the less allent attention lon she canie came on foot and masked and with no more attendance than just that of her two grooms As they entered the narrow street she bade one of these extinguish the torch he carried thereafter in tile dark they had bad come almost groping stumbling on the rough kidney stones to the magicians door go knock taddeo she bade one of her servants and on her words there happened the first of those miracles by which madonna bianca was to be convinced beyond all doubting of the supernatural quality of the powers that messer Cory corvinus inus wielded even as the servant took his first step toward the door this opened suddenly apparently of itself and in the passage appeared a stately white robed nubian bearing a lanthorn lan thom this lie he now raised so that its yellow shafts showered their light upon madonna and her followers there was of course no miracle in that the tha miracle lay in another apparition in the porch itself as it if materialized suddenly out of the gloom stood a tall cloaked figure black from head to foot the face itself concealed under a black this figure bowed and waved madonna onward into the house she drew back in fear for or having come to a place of wonders expecting wonders she accounted it but natural that wonders she should find and it never entered her mind to suppose that here was but another who sought corvinus one who had arrived ahead of her and in response to whose earlier knock it was that the door had opened just a courteous gentleman who stood now deferring to her sex and very obvious importance devoutly she crossed herself and observing that the act did not cause this black as she supposed him to dissolve and vanish she reflected that at least his origin could not be demoniac took courage and went in for all that her knees shook under her as she passed him the supposed followed close upon her heels beels the grooms came last together and something cowed though they were men slie she had chosen for the stoutness of their courage the gloom the uncanny gentleman in black the grinning nubian all teeth and eyeballs affected them unpleasantly the nubian closed the door and barred it the metal ringing shrilly as it ithell fell then he faced about to ask them formally what and whom they sought it was the lady who answered unmasking as she spoke 1 I am blanca del de floravanti and I 1 seek the very learned messer corvinus the nubian bowed silently bade her follow and moved down the long stone passage his lanthorn swinging as he went and flinging its yellow disk of light to and fro upon the I 1 grimy walls thus they came to a stout oaken door studded with great I 1 nails of polished steel and by this into a bare anteroom there were U to attract the less attention she sh came on foot and masked dried tr aea rn ab es on n ati tho e feodr i 0 wa wooden bench was set against the wall and upon a massive four legged table tabla stood an oil lamp whose ruddy quivering flame ending in a pennon of black smoke shed a little light and a deal of smell their guide waved a brown hand toward the bench your tour lackeys may await your excellency cel lency here said he she nodded and briefly gave her order to the grooms they obeyed her though with visible reluctance then the nubian opened a second door at the chambers farther end he drew aside a heavy curtain with a startling clash of metal rings and disclosed what seemed at first no more mora than a black gap the dread corvinus us bids alda you enter he announced for all the stoutness of her spirit the lady blanca now drew back but as her eyes remained fixed upon the gap she presently saw the gloom in part dispelled and dimly she began to perceive some of the furnishings of that inner room she took courage bethought her of the tha great boon she sought at the magicians hands and so crossed the dread threshold and passed into that mysterious chamber after her in close attendance ever silent came the gentleman of the mask believing him to be of the household of the mage and his attendance a necessary condition she made no demur to it whilst the nubian on the other hand supposing him from his mask and the richness of his cloak to be her companion made no attempt to check his ingress thus together these two passed into the dim twilight of the room T the hc curtains il together r a again g a M behind them and the door clanged madonna peered at about out h her er h her er breath shortened her heart bear t beating e all unduly A line of radiance along the ceiling cel ling mysterious of source very faintly revealed her surroundings to her three or four chairs capacious and fantastically carved a table of plain wood against the wall immediately before her crowded with strange vessels of glass and of metal that gleamed as they were smitten by rays ray of the faint light no window showed from ceiling to floor the chamber was hung with black draperies it was cold and silent as the tomb and of the magician there was no sign the eeriness of the place increased her awe trammeled her reason and loosed her imagination she sat down to await the advent of the dread corvinus and then the second miracle took place chancing to look round in quest of the black who had materialized to escort her she discovered to her infinite amazement that he had vanished As mysteriously as he had first taken shape in the porch before her eyes had he now dissolved again and melted away into the all encompassing gloom she caught her breath at this and then as it if something had still been needed to scatter what remained of her wits a great pillar of fire leapt suddenly into being in mide bamber momentarily to blind her and to wring from her a cry of fear As suddenly it vanished leaving a stench of sulphur in the air and then a voice deep booming and immensely calm rang in her ears fear not blanca del de F lor avanti I 1 am here what do you seek of mer me the poor overwrought lady looked before her in the direction of the voice and witnessed the third miracle gradually before her eyes where there halbern and been impenetrable gaj gloom pom where inarea icae eu it liau te eibi ed afa U that the chamber ended in a wall she saw a man an entire scene gradually assume shape and being as she watched nor did it occur to h her er that it might be her eye sights slow recovery from the blinding flash of light that conveyed to her this impression ot of gradual materialization soon it was complete in focus as it were we r 0 and quite distinct she behold beheld a small table or pulpit upon spoil which stood a gigantic open tome its leaves yellow with a great age its colossal silver clasps gleaming in the light from the three beaks of a tall stemmed bronze lamp of ancient greek design in which some aromatic oil was being burned at the lamps foot a human skull grinned horribly to the right of the table stood a tripod supporting a brazier in which a mass of charcoal was glowing rud dlly at the table itself in a high backed chair sat a man in a scarlet gown his head covered by a hat like fin an inverted saucepan his face was 1 lean e n u nu and d gau gaunt n t t the li e n nose 0 se and r in d e cheekbones h e c k b 0 n es v very er p prominent r 0 m i n en t hi his s f forehead or e h e a f I 1 was high and narrow his red heard beard bifurcated and its his eyes which were turned full upon his visitor reflecting the cunningly set light gleamed with an uncanny penetration continued next week |