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Look, had I not seen Riccardo's sword? They were all noblemen

"Forget all that has gone before," said Riccardo "Our Master is our Lord, and we are his princes, we are his royal court You are rich now and nothing can hurt you "

"We are not mere apprentices in the ordinary sense," said Albinus "We are to be sent to the University of Padua You'll see We are tutored in ularly as in science and literature You will have tientlemen of means Why, Giuliano was a prosperous lawyer, and one of the other boys was a physician in Torcello, an island city nearby

"But all have independent means when they leave the Master," explained Albinus "It's only that the Master, like all Venetians, deplores idleness We are as well off as lazy lords froh it were a dish of food "

By the end of this first sunlighted adventure, this welcome into the bosom of my Master's school and his splendid city, I was combed, trimmed and dressed in the colors he would forever choose for ht blue velvet for a short belted jacket, and a tunic of an even fairer shade of azure eold thread A bit of burgundy there rew strong in winter, this paradise would be what these Italians called cold

By nightfall, I pranced on thefor a while to the lutes played by the younger boys, accoinal, the first keyboard instrument I had ever seen

When the last of twilight had died beautifully into the canal outside the narrow pointed arched s of the palazzo, I roalances of myself in the many darkof the corridor, the salon, the alcove, or whatever beautifully appointed room I should find

I sang neords in unison with Riccardo The great state of Venice was called the Serenissiondolas The winds that would come soon to h ruler of this ht with the teacher was Cicero, the athered up and played with his plucking fingers was the lute The great canopy of the Master's regal bed was a baldaquin trie

I was ecstatic

I had not er

Such trust Of course I was lamblike to these others, and pretty much a lamb to myself But ne

ver had anyone entrusted to ain, memory played its tricks I kne to throooden spear, how toAlas, it became a wisp of smoke, and there lay in the air around it that I'd been co iive it Weapons were forbidden for me

Well, no more No more, no more, no more Death had sed me whole and thrown me forth here In the palazzo of my Master, in a salon of brilliantly painted battle scenes, with lass, I drewsound and pointed it at the future Withthe emeralds and rubies of its handle, I sliced an apple in tith a gasp

The other boys laughed at me But it was all friendly, kind

Soon the Master would co us, little boys who had not co their tapers to torches and candelabra I stood in the door, looking to yet another and another and another Light burst forth soundlessly in each of these rooms