Adventure Magazine Cover — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

152 Francesco. Benedetto, who brought thee here, had waited behind us on the road to meet and welcome the messenger—we thought most like he would come to join us, preferably as cook. Aye. And Bene- detto was returning empty-handed, when thou so innocently—” “TI was going to the border. know that thy band was here.” “Then the duke is less well served than I,” replied Uccello, smiling. ‘‘It is already two days since (finding this country well shaved, and growing very hot to boot) I hired forth my troop to the Republic of Venice, now projecting some small oper- ations against the Sienese.”’ I stared at him, my jaw dropped so low that my teeth no longer chattered; and he bit his nails and stared back at me. ‘Those were two woundy strokes thou gave the count and the lieutenant that night,” he said suddenly. I sighed. ‘“‘How now? ‘They brought thee a bride, and a bag of gold and a place in the guard, did they not?” “Aye; and the duty of bullying women, and poisoning men, and wearing the medal of Jesus Christ in my hat for so doing.” ‘Ah, then—”’ says Uccello; and considered me more still. Always he bit his nails— they were down to the quick, and still he chewed them while he thought. “Thou might,”’ he said at last, “do worse than join me. We go far from here this very morning; thou’lt be in the pay of Venice; and so far as emissaries of the duke are concerned, it is not our custom to let any of ours come to harm. The pay is good, and there is an outfit for thee—two of my men were killed last week, may their souls turn to lead and hang about Alessan- dro’s spirit when he dies. Moreover, I am resolved, if this Sienese business gives me enough gold and spares me enough of a regi- ment to swear by, to join forces with old Scarlatti—he is with the Sienese this tide— and be a condottiere henceforth. He hath artillery and infantry, they tell me, but he is weak in horse. Say yea, and I make thee— no, not a sergeant, thou’rt too young with these old war-dogs; but a corporal; and we will see—” He went on with golden promises; but it was not these that convinced me. Outside, the cook had found dry wood some time since, and the half-frozen men had warmed I did not F, R. BUCKLEY themselves by the fire. They were begin- ning to laugh over the clank of their armor as they donned it; to bandy rough, open- hearted jokes to and fro. The sun, more- over, had risen and pierced the clouds, and the camp looked a cheerful place. Moreover, and most potently, the soup which was beginning to bubble in the great iron cauldron, of a sudden sent a wreath of fragrance into the tent; and my mouth watered. “T engage,” says I. “Bueno!” Uccello sprang out of bed and reached for his clothes. ‘‘Benedetto! Here is thy new corporal. In the second section. Make haste to give him Ugo Falcone’s equipment, and bid the cook hasten with that soup.” paign without a scratch, rising to ser- geant after I had invented the trick (which none else hath had the courage to use since, it seems) of having the front rank in a cavalry-charge carry iron balls filled with gunpowder and with match stuck therein, and fling them into the enemy to burst just before the shock. We did this first against old Scarlatti’s infantry, which had formed a most accursed square with pikemen kneeling, their points forward to stick the horses in the chest, and arquebu- siers behind them to shoot the men. Ah me! They neither stuck nor shot; the lit- tle bombs blew the pikemen over the arque- busiers, and the arquebusiers into ribbons, and we rode over the remnants and stamped them into the ground. It was for this that Scarlatti refused, when the affair was over, to hear anything of alliance; nay, he flung his gauntlet into Uccello’s face, calling him a cowardly dog, and naught but the wound in my captain’s right arm saved the spilling of blood. Nevertheless, we had no need of him; we had many recruits from the Sienese army S: I fought through the Sienese cam- COMmMiCcoooe SS (C@