That was to be the sum of his clemency.

We were precisely where we had been.

Once before had he granted me my life on condition that I should amuse him; he did no more than repeat that mercy now.

I stared at him in wonder, open-mouthed, whereit he laughed.
"You are agreeably surprised, my Boccadoro ?" said he, his fingers straying to his beard as was his custom.

"My clemency is no more than you deserve in return for the service you have rendered to the House of Sforza." And he patted my head as though I had been one of his dogs that had borne itself bravely in the chase.
I answered nothing.