Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/93

 that one would never have thought him to be a cripple. The housewife also, more dead than alive, rushed away, shrieking as loudly as she could.

Hearing all this, Malvicino could not imagine what had happened. Their screams and scuffling perplexed him, and he feared that he might suddenly be caught there by some one, when, lo and behold! Mangiavillano appeared, bursting with laughter at the priest's flight. Recognising his comrade, Malvicino went to meet him and said, "What in the devil's name was all this that I heard?" Mangiavillano told him everything that had ensued, and then, with geese, nuts, and sheep, they both went back home.

The young Milanese gentleman when he heard of their adventures laughed loudly, and to the fat sheep, garlic sauce, and all, due justice was done, while the miserly Don Pietro remained thus most deftly cheated. But being kindhearted and full of courtesy, the gentleman soon after managed to indemnify him privately for the loss of his sheep, making good to Giacomaccio also the theft of his geese and his nuts. Thus they both deemed themselves paid back in full, though ignorant from whom such payment came. Rh