Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXVIII. The Bird Sanctuary
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
with her enchanting smile that had won her the
heart of the whole of Italy, she had honoured me
with an invitation to remain for luncheon, the
first word I had read on the menu had been
“Pâté d’alouettes farcies.” I had appealed to
the Pope and had been told by a fat cardinal that
the Holy Father had been carried down in his
portantina that very morning at daybreak to the
Vatican gardens to watch the netting of the
birds, the caccia had been good, over two hundred
birds had been caught. I had scraped off the
rust from the little two-pounder the English had
abandoned in the garden in 1808 and started
firing off a shot every five minutes from midnight
till sunrise in the hope of frightening away the
birds from the fatal mountain. The ex-butcher
had sued me for interfering with the lawful
exercise of his trade, I had been fined two hundred
lire damages. I had trained all the dogs to bark
the whole night at the cost of what little sleep
remained for me. A few days later my big
Maremma dog died suddenly, I found traces of
arsenic in his stomach. I caught sight of the
murderer the next night lurking behind the
garden wall and knocked him down. He sued
me again, I was fined five hundred lire for assault.
I had sold my beautiful Greek vase and my
beloved Madonna by Desiderio di Settignano in
order to raise the enormous sum he had asked for
the mountain, several hundred times its value.
When I came with the money he renewed his old
tactics and grinned at me that the price had been
doubled. He knew his man. My exasperation
had reached a point when I might have parted
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
