Page:Victor Hugo's Works (Guernsey Edition) v14.djvu/40

22

True to the letter! I was the outsider;

The third, and luckiest, was Bertuccio!

The hump-backed hypocrite!

The owl that screeched

The loudest against women!

But is 't certain

That 't was Bertuccio?

I can swear to that!

And I!

How do you know him?

By his hump,

His gait—who could mistake that crab-like walk?

I could have knocked my head against the wall

To think I had been fool enough to trust

A woman's looks for once. Dell' Aquila,

I know, holds other faith about the sex.

I would stake life upon her purity;

Yet, 't is past doubt Bertuccio is the man,

The ugly jailer of this prisoned bird.