THE NINTH MAN
and Malatesta leaped toward her. There was the sound of the men now unleashed, then her dear voice from the midst of them:
"Wait, my lords. It seems that here there is some mistake. And have you thought, Egidio, that my lord Bartolommeo has taught me to trust men so that I would go with you? It is true," says she, "that I have been nursing to myself the thought of escape, and you yourself, Egidio, had given me it. And I thought of that escape in my own death, and for a while, as one dying may wish to drink of a cool cup of water, I have taken pleasure in the friend of my childhood. For I loved your strength and I loved the subtlety of your wit, and they were the fairest things I had ever known. But in these latter days I have seen for the first time a strength that is beyond your strength and a power that makes naught of your subtlety. To this higher strength and power have I given my life. And now I say adieu to you, Egidio, and to you, Bartolommeo, I say adieu."
So alone she walked up the terraces one by one, and Mazzaleone's men vanished from the wall, and under each cypress-tree
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