Pistoja had been wont to take, was caught up and continued by Belviso.
We fired each other, capped each other, and ended the great scene. The
last six lines of it, to be spoken by the Choragus, were croaked by Il
Nanno in his bull-frog's voice. We stopped amid a storm of bravas, and
La Panormita, with a great gesture, crowned us with flowers. I was made
free of the company by acclamation.

Belviso set off early in the morning with his monstrous old wife of the
occasion. He embraced me warmly before he left me. "Keep a good heart,
Don Francis," he said, "and trust in your friends. All that is possible
shall be done, you may be sure. I shan't dare to look you in the face if
I come back without your Virginia."




CHAPTER XXXV

TEMPTED IN SIENA, BELVISO SAVES ME


The company, of which I was now enrolled a member, moved on towards
Siena, that city for which--as Aurelia's cradle--I had a feeling of
profound reverence; towards which now, in spite of all that had
occurred, I could not approach without a quickening of the pulse, an
aching heart, and a longing mind. We travelled with a large caravan of
donkeys and mules to carry the baggage and women--La Panormita, her
gross old mother, and two hags, who called themselves the mothers, and
were really the owners, of the boys. The rest of us, the men and the
boys themselves, trudged afoot. We begged, jigged, or bullied for food