No more was said of the matter that evening, but on
the morrow, at daybreak, Currado, who had by no means
slept off his wrath, got up still swelling therewith,
and ordered his horses, mounted Chichibio on a hackney,
and saying to him:—“We shall soon
see which of us lied yesternight, thou or I,”
set off with him for a place where there was much
water, beside which there were always cranes to be
seen about dawn. Chichibio, observing that Currado’s
ire was unabated, and knowing not how to bolster up
his lie, rode by Currado’s side in a state of
the utmost trepidation, and would gladly, had he been
able, have taken to flight; but, as he might not,
he glanced, now ahead, now aback, now aside, and saw
everywhere nought but cranes standing on two feet.
However, as they approached the river, the very first
thing they saw upon the bank was a round dozen of
cranes standing each and all on one foot, as is their
wont, when asleep. Which Chichibio presently pointed
out to Currado, saying:—“Now may
you see well enough, Sir, that ’tis true as I
said yesternight, that the crane has but one thigh
and one leg; mark but how they stand over there.”
Whereupon Currado:—“Wait,” quoth
he, “and I will shew thee that they have each
thighs and legs twain.” So, having drawn
a little nigher to them, he ejaculated, “Oho!”
Which caused the cranes to bring each the other foot
to the ground, and, after hopping a step or two, to
take to flight. Currado then turned to Chichibio,
saying:—“How now, rogue? art satisfied
that the bird has thighs and legs twain?” Whereto
Chichibio, all but beside himself with fear, made answer:—“Ay,
Sir; but you cried not, oho! to our crane of yestereve:
had you done so, it would have popped its other thigh
and foot forth, as these have done.” Which
answer Currado so much relished, that, all his wrath
changed to jollity and laughter:—“Chichibio,”
quoth he, “thou art right, indeed I ought to
have so done.”
Thus did Chichibio by his ready and jocund retort
arrest impending evil, and make his peace with his
master.
NOVEL V.
— Messer Forese da Rabatta and Master
Giotto, the painter, journeying together from Mugello,
deride one another’s scurvy appearance. —
Neifile being silent, and the ladies having made very
merry over Chichibio’s retort, Pamfilo at the
queen’s command thus spoke:—Dearest
ladies, if Fortune, as Pampinea has shewn us, does
sometimes bide treasures most rich of native worth
in the obscurity of base occupations, so in like manner
’tis not seldom found that Nature has enshrined
prodigies of wit in the most ignoble of human forms.
Whereof a notable example is afforded by two of our
citizens, of whom I purpose for a brief while to discourse.
The one, Messer Forese da Rabatta by name, was short
and deformed of person and withal flat-cheeked and
flat-nosed, insomuch that never a Baroncio(1) had
a visage so misshapen but his would have shewed as
