The Heads Were Exhibited In
Baskets, With Strict Injunctions To The Authorities That They Were Not
To Be Touched, Seeing That They Served Not Only For Decorative But Also
Moral Purposes - As Examples.
Imagine, therefore, the General's feelings
on being told that one of these heads had been stolen; stolen, probably,
by some pious relative of the deceased rascal, who wished to give the
relic a decent Christian burial.
"That's rather awkward," he said, quietly musing. "But of course the
specimen must be replaced. Let me see. . . . Suppose we put the head of
the mayor of Bagnara into the vacant basket? Shall we? Yes, we'll have
the mayor. It will make him more careful in future." And within half an
hour the basket was filled once more.
There was a little hitch in starting from Bagnara. From the windings of
the carriage-road as portrayed by the map, I guessed that there must be
a number of short cuts into the uplands at the back of the town,
undiscoverable to myself, which would greatly shorten the journey.
Besides, there was my small bag to be carried. A porter familiar with
the tracks was plainly required, and soon enough I found a number of
lusty youths leaning against a wall and doing nothing in particular.
Yes, they would accompany me, they said, the whole lot of them, just for
the fun of the thing.
"And my bag?" I asked.
"A bag to be carried? Then we must get a woman."
They unearthed a nondescript female who undertook to bear the burden as
far as Sinopoli for a reasonable consideration.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 364 of 488
Words from 97704 to 97971
of 131203
