![]() ![]() I gazed down into the kindly eyes set in the brutal face with a quick rush of affection. I will be able to go back to my home on the marches and end my days in comfort with my wife and children." If it had been my right hand, now! But I shall do well enough once the surgeon has done his work, and if the duke grants me a pension, I shall be well satisfied. In answer, he pushed back the folds of the cloak that swathed his left arm, and I caught my breath as I saw what they had hidden. I wrenched my thoughts back from my own overmastering dread to ask, "Did you have many losses?" and he made a wry face. "I do not die so easily, lady, though those Spaniards did their best to finish me off! They put up a good fight, too," he added judiciously. A great bruise distorted one cheek and his face and clothes were caked with grime as he grinned at me, I could see the grit that had settled between his teeth. Santi was standing slightly bowed, supporting his huge bulk against the base of the column, muffled up in a heavy cloak despite the evening's heat. It was the first time I had seen the aftermath of a battle, and what I remember to this day is the heavy silence, the sour sense of waste that hung over the streets like a pall, and the tireless clouds of flies.Ī voice from the dimness of the cathedral steps made me start and stare about me, and as the mare halted, a figure emerged from the shadows at the base of one of the massive columns and peered up at me, narrowing his eyes against the early evening sky. I could see soldiers sheltering under eaves or in doorways, here and there a cluster of wounded, and, in the open space before the cathedral, a pile of heaped corpses from which I averted my gaze. My eyes searched the shadows ceaselessly as the horses turned down the wide expanse of the Via Croce. I could feel the impact of their eyes as I passed, but their stares were bleak and incurious-they did not care who or what I was so long as I did them no further harm. The market was unrecognizable a broad empty space now, littered with refuse, in which a few people were engaged in some sort of barter. I took a deep breath and urged my horse on. Tiles had been smashed, doors wrenched off their hinges, and everywhere there was the decaying aftermath of looting. What had been a huddle of prosperous solid, stone buildings now stood stark like broken teeth, roofs fallen in and doorways and windows gaping blindly the very stones were cracked and darkened by fire. The houses clustered close by the gates had been gutted. ![]()
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