Chapter 16 - Page 2

to
prize the mastiffs of the mountain," answered Conrad, "and how likely it
was to stir my blood to see another cur devouring that which was intended
for old Uberto. Thou hast never toiled up the sides of St. Bernard, friend
Maso, loaded with the sins of a whole parish, to say nothing of thine own,
and therefore canst not know the value of these brutes, who so often
stand between us pilgrims and a grave of snow."

Il Maledetto smiled grimly, and muttered a sentence between his teeth;
for, in perfect consonance with the frank lawlessness of his own life,
there was a reckless honesty in his nature, which caused him to despise
hypocrisy as unworthy of the bold attributes of manhood.

"Have it as thou wilt, pious Conrad," he said sneeringly, "so there be
peace between us. I am, as thou knowest, an Italian, and though we of the
south seek revenge occasionally of those who wrong us, it is not often
that we do violence after giving a willing palm--I trust ye of Germany are
no less honest?"

"May the Virgin be deaf to every ave I have sworn to repeat, and the good
fathers of Loretto refuse absolution, if I think more of it! 'Twas but the
gripe of a throat, and I am not so tender in that part of the body as to
fear it is to be the forerunner of a closer squeeze. Didst ever hear of a
churchman that suffered in this way?"

"Men often escape with less than their deserts;" Maso drily answered.
"Well, fortune, or the saints, or Calvin, or whatever power most suits
your tastes, good friends, has at length put a roof over our heads,--an
honor that rarely arrives to most of us, if I may judge by appearances and
some little knowledge of the different trades we follow. Thou wilt have a
fair occasion to suffer Policinello to rest from his uneasy antics, Pippo,
while his master breathes the air through a window for the first time in
many a day, as I will answer."

The Neapolitan had no difficulty in laughing at this sally; for his was a
nature that took all things pleasantly, though it took nothing under the
corrective of principle or a respect for the rights of others.

"Were this Napoli, with her gentle sky and hot volcano," he said, smiling
at the allusion, "no one would have less relish for a roof than myself."

"Thou wast born beneath the arch of some Duca's gateway," returned Maso,
with a sort of reckless sarcasm, that as often cut his friends as his
enemies; "thou wilt probably die in the hospital of the poor, and wilt
surely be shot from the death-cart into one of the daily holes of thy
Campo Santo, among a goodly company of Christians, in which legs and arms
will be thrown at random like jack-straws,