Then he drank greedily, Hugh holding the pitcher to his lips, for his
wasted arms could not bear its weight.
"Now," said Hugh, when his thirst was satisfied, "tell me, where is your
master, Cattrina?"
"God or the fiend can say alone. When he found that I was smitten with
the plague he left me to perish, as did the others."
"And as we shall do unless you tell me whither my enemy has gone," and
Hugh made as though to leave the place.
The priest clutched at him with his filthy, claw-like hand.
"For Christ's sake do not desert me," he moaned. "Let one Christian soul
be near me at the last ere the curse of that wizard with the yellow cap
is fulfilled on me. For the sake of Jesus, stay! I'll tell all I know."
"Speak then, and be swift. You have no time to spare, I think."
"When the darkness fell there in the Place of Arms," began Nicholas,
"while you knights were waiting for the third blast of the trumpet,
Cattrina fled under cover it."
"As I thought, the accursed coward!" exclaimed Hugh bitterly.
"Nay, to be just, it was not all cowardice. The wizard in the yellow
cap, he who showed himself to the people afterward and called down
this Black Death on Venice, appeared to him in the darkness and said
something to him that turned his heart to water. I think it was that if
he stayed, within five short minutes he'd be dead, who otherwise, if he
fled, had yet a breathing space of life.
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