Piedmontese, in Tuscan. He swore Corsican, Ligurian, Calabrian, Spanish,
Hebrew, Arabian and Portuguese. He shook his fists in my face,
dangerously near my astonished eyes; he leaped at me, gnashing his teeth
like a fiend; he bellowed injuries, shocking allegations impossible to
be proved, horrible guesses at my ancestry, he barked like a dog, bayed
at me on all fours; finally whirling his staff over his head, he rushed
at me as if to dash my brains out--then, cooling as suddenly as he had
boiled over, stopped short, looked quizzically at me, blew out his
cheeks and let his breath escape in a volley. "Poh!" says he, "Poh! what
an old Palamone we have here," threw down his staff and came towards me
all smiles, his arms extended.

"Admirable youth!" he cried heartily, "give me your hands. I love you
dearly; we shall be fast friends, I can see. Kiss me, boy, kiss me."

I should have resented this comedy of thunderstorms more hotly than I
did if I had not believed the friar to be mad. But I was very much
offended by the titles of dishonour most improperly bestowed upon me,
and was determined to have done with their inventor. "Sir," I said, "you
have done me a service, I allow, and I am much obliged to you; but I am
constrained to point out that I have carried your baggage on my shoulder
for some five or six miles. You gave me your confidences unasked and
undesired. It matters, no thing to me whether your name be Palamone or
Graffiacane, nor how far you choose to disgrace your habit or molest the
charitable. Now you have acted like a maniac, and if I did my duty I
should give proper information in the proper quarter. Instead of that, I
restore you your bundle, and wish you a good evening."

Fra Palamone had been watching me, studying my face intently as I spoke,
his arms folded over his labouring chest. He had, before the close of a