Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/267

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER As the Great Captain said to one of his cavaliers, who, after the battle of Cerignola," when the danger was over, came forward in the richest armour possible to describe, accoutered as if for battle. And then the Great Captain turned to Don Ugo di Car- dona'" and said: 'Have no more fear of storm, for Saint Elmo has appeared;' and with this polite speech he stung the man to the quick, because you know that Saint Elmo"' always appears to mariners after the tempest and gives token of fair weather; and thus the Great Captain meant that this cavalier's appear- ance was a token that the danger was quite passed. "Another time my lord Ottaviano Ubaldini,'" being at Flor- ence in the company of some citizens of great influence, and the talk being about soldiers, one of them asked him if he knew Antonello da Forli,"* who had at that time fled from Florentine territory. My lord Ottaviano replied: 'I do not know him, but have always heard him spoken of as a prompt soldier.' Where- upon another Florentine said: 'You see how prompt he is, when he takes his departure without asking leave.' 75-— "Those witticisms also are very clever in which we take from our interlocutor's lips something that he does not mean. And of this kind, methinks, was my lord Duke's reply to the castellan who lost San Leo'" when this duchy was taken by Pope Alexander and given to Duke Valentino;"' and it was this: my lord Duke being in Venice at the time I have men- tioned, many of his subjects came continually to give him secret news how things were faring in his state; and among the rest came this castellan, who, after having excused himself as best he could, ascribing the blame to mischance, said: 'Have no anxiety, my Lord, because I still have heart to take measures for the re- covery of San Leo.' Then my lord Duke replied: 'Trouble yourself no more about the matter, for the mere loss of it was a measure that rendered its recovery possible.' "There are certain other sayings when a man known to be clever says something that seems to proceed from foolishness. For instance, messer Camillo Paleotto"' said of someone the other day: ' He was such a fool that he died as soon as he began to grow rich.' " Of like kind with this is a spicy and keen dissimulation, 147