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"Knave, call me not master," said Rodriguez.
Morano, who knew when speech was good, was silent now, and blew on the smouldering end of the log he
carried and gathered a handful of twigs and shook the rain off them; and soon had a small fire again, warming the
bacon. He had nothing to say which bacon could not say better. And when Rodriguez had finished up the bacon
he carefully reconsidered the case of Morano, and there were points in it which he had not thought of before. He
reflected that for the execution of knaves a suitable person was provided. He should perhaps give Morano up to la
Garda. His next thought was where to find la Garda. And easily enough another thought followed that one, which
was that although on foot and still some way behind four of la Garda were trying to find him. Rodriguez' mind,
which was looking at life from the point of view of a judge, changed somewhat at this thought. He reflected next
that, for the prevention of crime, to make Morano see the true nature of his enormity so that he should never
commit it again might after all be as good as killing him. So what we call his better nature, his calmer judgment,
decided him now to talk to Morano and not to kill him: but Morano, looking back upon this merciful change, always
attributed it to fried bacon.
"Morano," said Rodriguez' better nature, "to offend the laws of Chivalry is to have against you the swords of all
true men."
"Master," Morano said, "that were dreadful odds."
"And rightly," said Rodriguez.
"Master," said Morano, "I will keep those laws henceforth. I may cook bacon for you when you are hungry, I
may brush the dust from your cloak, I may see to your comforts. This Chivalry forbids none of that. But when I
see anyone trying to kill you, master; why, kill you he must, and welcome."
"Not always," said Rodriguez somewhat curtly, for it struck him that Morano spoke somehow too lightly of
sacred things.
"Not always?" asked Morano.
"No," said Rodriguez.
"Master, I implore you tell me," said Morano, "when they may kill you and when they may not, so that I may
never offend again."
Rodriguez cast a swift glance at him but found his face so full of puzzled anxiety that he condescended to do
what Morano had asked, and began to explain to him the rudiments of the laws of Chivalry.
"In the wars," he said, "you may defend me whoever assails me, or if robbers or any common persons attack
me, but if I arrange a meeting with a gentleman, and any knave basely interferes, then is he damned hereafter as
well as accursed now; for, the laws of Chivalry being founded on true religion, the penalty for their breach is by no
means confined to this world."
"Master," replied Morano thoughtfully, "if I be not damned already I will avoid those fires of Hell; and none shall
kill you that you have not chosen to kill you, and those that you choose shall kill you whenever you have a mind."
Rodriguez opened his lips to correct Morano but reflected that, though in his crude and base-born way, he had
correctly interpreted the law so far as his mind was able.
So he briefly said "Yes," and rose and returned to the road, giving Morano no order to follow him; and this was
the last concession he made to the needs of Chivalry on account of the sin of Morano. Morano gathered up the
frying-pan and followed Rodriguez, and when they came to the road he walked behind him in silence.
For three or four miles they walked thus, Morano knowing that he followed on sufferance and calling no
attention to himself with his garrulous tongue. But at the end of an hour the rain lifted; and with the coming out
of the sun Morano talked again.
"Master," he said, "the next man that you choose to kill you, let him be one too base-born to know the tricks
of the rapier, too ignorant to do aught but wish you well, some poor fat fool over forty who shall be too heavy to
elude your rapier's point and too elderly for it to matter when you kill him at your Chivalry, the best of life being
gone already at forty-five."
"There is timber here," said Rodriguez. "We will have some more bacon while you dry my cloak over a fire."
Thus he acknowledged Morano again for his servant but never acknowledged that in Morano's words he had
understood any poor sketch of Morano's self, or that the words went to his heart. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]