Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/266

 he did so the duke stood opposite to him by the wall which was beginning to rise above the earth, and the poet looked into the eyes of his lord and went back of his own will into the windings of his prison. But the duke remembered the old saw "God keep you from the eye of a lettered man," and knew that the masons might set about his own tomb also. Nevertheless he made no sign, and night and day the work went on; and the guard was changed, and none in the castle dared to ask a question, or so much as to see the wall before their eyes, for by this time everybody was aware that Duke Guido was a chip of the old block, whose answers would be a gibbet and a rope. But the gentleman who had played the spy, and given the duke his information, had grown gloomy and sour again, for he was obliged to confess to himself that this vengeance of his master's was more curiously and choicely invented than anything he had conceited of; and this thought mortified him and made him wish he had not interfered in the matter, since he could not bear to be in any wise surpassed. To be short, before a week had passed the labyrinth was shut in by a great wall forty feet in height, without doorway or entrance, only in the place over against the pillar there was cut the line from it Nemo vadere quivit qui fuit intus in fair and deep letters on a smooth ashlar. Then the masons received six times the price of their labour and were sent back again to their several towns, and the guard was kept no longer, since there was not likely to be anyone inside who was able to climb that lofty wall. And about