The cerretano , who had not bargained for the flight of his monkey along with the horse, had caught up his petticoats with much celerity, and showed a pair of parti-coloured hose above his contadina ’s shoes, far in advance of the doctor. And away went the grotesque race up the Corso degli Adimari—the horse with the singular jockey, the contadina with the remarkable hose, and the doctor in lather and spectacles, with furred mantle outflying.
It was a scene such as Florentines loved, from the potent and reverend signor going to council in his lucco , down to the grinning youngster, who felt himself master of all situations when his bag was filled with smooth stones from the convenient dry bed of the torrent. The grey-headed Domenico Cennini laughed no less heartily than the younger men, and Nello was triumphantly secure of the general admiration.
“Aha!” he exclaimed, snapping his fingers when the first burst of laughter was subsiding. “I have cleared my piazza of that unsavoury flytrap, mi pare . Maestro Tacco will no more come here again to sit for patients than he will take to licking marble for his dinner.”
“You are going towards the Piazza della Signoria, Messer Domenico,” said Macchiavelli. “I will go with you, and we shall perhaps see who has deserved the palio among these racers. Come, Melema, will you go too?”
It had been precisely Tito’s intention to accompany Cennini, but before he had gone many steps, he was called back by Nello, who saw Maso approaching.
Maso’s message was from Romola. She wished Tito to go to the Via de’ Bardi as soon as possible. She would see him under the loggia, at the top of the house, as she wished to speak to him alone.