Chapter 34 Chapter Thirty-Four

Machiavelli lightly touched his mount with his spurs, and the horse began to canter.Two servants followed closely behind.He has a bad temper today.It cannot be denied that they had thoroughly fooled him, Father Timoteo, Aurelia, her mother, and Pierrot.He didn't know exactly who he should be most annoyed with.Worse still, he didn't know how he could ever get even with these people, who had a lot of fun with him as a joke, but he couldn't think of any way to make them pay for it.Of course Aurelia is a fool, as cunning as all women are, but she is a fool after all, otherwise she would not have given up a man of his age, experience, and entrusted by his own government with great negotiating powers, to go to the lower house. A boy with a pretty face.No wise man will deny that the sympathy of the world is on his side.No one would consider him repulsive.Marietta kept telling him that she liked the way his hair grew on his head, which she said was like a layer of black velvet.I really want to thank God for giving him Marietta, finally there is a woman you can trust, you can leave her for half a year without worrying that she will never look left and right.It was true that Marietta had been bothering him a little lately, complaining to him now and then through Piaggio why he hadn't come back, why he hadn't written home, why he left without leaving any money.In her situation, though, women were understandably irritable.He had been away from home for three and a half months, and her belly must have gotten very big, and he wondered when she would have a baby, which they had made up their minds to name after his late father, Bernardo, If it is a boy.And if she complained about his absence, it was because she loved him, the poor bitch.It would be nice to be home with her too, that's the thing about having a wife, she's always there for you when you want her.Of course she is not the kind of beauty like Aurelia, but she has character, which is much better than Caterina's daughter.He regretted not thinking of bringing her a gift sooner, because when he thought about it, he had no money on him.

He wished he hadn't spent so much money on Aurelia.There are scarves, gloves, rose oil, and the gold necklace for Caterina, oh, no, it's not gold, it's sterling silver and gilt necklace.If she had any decency, she could at least give him the necklace back.In that case, he could just give it to Marietta, which would make her very happy.But when will a woman give back a gift she received from you? She is a madam, and dishonest.She knew very well that the necklace was Machiavelli's payment for her to arrange a tryst with Aurelia for him.When she can't deliver on a promised item, she can at least get back the money she paid for the item.She was a jilted old whore, he had thought of that the first time he saw her, and was happy to be a bridge for other people to do things that she could no longer do herself.He would bet a ducat that the old woman had brought Pierrot and Aurelia to bed.They must have laughed a lot when they ate the capons and pastries he had asked Pierrot to send, and drank Machiavelli's wine while the owner of the wine was waiting at the door in the bleak night rain.If Bartholomew hadn't been so stupid, he would never have entrusted his wife's virginity to such a woman.

For a moment Machiavelli's thoughts turned to the fat and stupid man.It was his fault that these things happened. "If he had kept her in good custody," said Machiavelli to himself, "I would have seen that there was nothing worth doing, and I would not have tried." Bartholomew was responsible for that ending.But Machiavelli was a fool when he sent Aurelia the expensive scarf as an apology for not being on time for an appointment.Moreover, he sent someone to send it early in the morning. He could have sent someone else, but he sent Piero. Deliver the gift before Bartolomeo returns.These people must have died laughing secretly behind their backs!And, will Pierrot take this opportunity to go again... They are a good match together, but Machiavelli still has a heart for these two people, and he can't get over the hurdle in his heart.

And, most infuriatingly, not only did he squander so many expensive gifts on her, he also told her his best stories to amuse her, and sang his best songs to charm her. She, he flattered her, in short, he did everything a man can do to please a woman.But, in the end, a poor boy, just because he was only eighteen years old and good-looking, easily got what Machiavelli spent more than a month and money beyond his means to pursue.He wondered how Pierrot had managed to do it.Perhaps Caterina, out of fear of Bartolomeo's adoption of his nephew, had come up with the idea.He imagined what Katerina might say.

"I said, what are we going to do? We can't wait for him all night. It's a pity to see this opportunity wasted. If I were in your place, Aurelia, I wouldn't hesitate .. look at the young man with his red face and beautiful curly hair. He is like Adonis in the portrait hanging in the town hall. In my opinion, if I were to compare him and that with a sallow If you choose one of Master Niccolo with his long nose and small eyes, I say, there is no comparison, my dear. I dare say, what you want to do, this lad will compare with that skinny clerk Grown-ups do better." A bad woman.A wicked woman.Why she would have preferred a boy to father her grandson instead of a wise man of experience was beyond his comprehension.

But maybe Katerina didn't need her opinion at all.True, the boy looked innocent and a little shy, but appearances can be deceiving.He's pretty good at disguising, because he never gives any sign that he and Aurelia have an affair; and he's a cool, brazen liar.The only time he was embarrassed was when Machiavelli noticed his shirt, and yet how quickly he recovered his composure, and with what audacity he met his master's silent rebuke!He was a cheeky man, and he could kiss Aurelia on the mouth without hesitation, and when he saw that she had no reluctance, he put his hand through the opening between her breasts in her waistcoat, and then Anyone can imagine what happened.Machiavelli's imagination extends from Bartolomeo's bedroom to Bartolomeo's bed.

"What an ungrateful boy," murmured Machiavelli bitterly. He had let Piero travel with him this time out of sheer good nature.He did everything he could for the boy.He introduced him to people who were worth getting to know, and he did his best to mold him, to tell him how to behave, in short, to make him an educated man.He spared no effort and unreservedly taught him the methods and ways of dealing with people in this world, how to make friends, and how to influence others.But that's what he got in return, having the woman of his dreams snatched right under his nose. "But at least I taught him to fear God."

Machiavelli understood that when you have played a dirty trick on your benefactor, that you have cheated your benefactor, it is not something to show off to your friends, and for that reason it is less fun More than half of it.Thinking of this, he felt a little comfort. But his annoyance with Aurelia, Pierrot, Caterina, and Bartolomeo was nothing compared with his hatred for Father Timoteo.It was the duplicitous villain who sabotaged his carefully laid plans. "The chances of him going to Florence to preach for the Lenten crusade are greatly increased now," he whispered bitterly.

It had never been his intention to recommend the monk for that task.But thinking that, if he had ever had such a plan, now he would abandon it without hesitation, he couldn't help but feel a burst of satisfaction.This man is a rogue.No wonder Christianity is gradually losing the hearts of the people. When religious people no longer have honesty and sense of right and wrong, all living beings become wicked, dissolute and corrupt.Fooled, fooled, he was fooled by everyone, but the most vicious fool came from this rogue-like monk. They stopped for dinner at a roadside inn.The food was bad, but the wine wasn't too bad, so Machiavelli drank his fill.Under the influence of alcohol, when he stepped into the saddle again to continue his journey, the world in his eyes became a little brighter, and it was no longer a dark mass.Along the way they passed farmers with oxen and farmers with fully loaded donkeys.They also met many people traveling, some on foot, others on horseback.For a moment Machiavelli's thoughts returned to the Duke, and he pondered his part in the disappointment of his unsuccessful wooing of Aurelia.If it was a joke the duke played on him, the duke hid it from everyone else as he hid all his plans; Failed.Then his thoughts turned to Aurelia.It's no use crying over spilled milk.He hadn't seen this man four months ago.It is absurd to be so worried about a woman who has only met five or six times and only talked to her five or six sentences.Being lured by a woman, but letting this woman play tricks at the last critical moment, there are many such men, and he is definitely not the first.For this kind of thing, a wise person will look at it dialectically.Fortunately, the limited number of people who know the truth of the whole affair will keep it under wraps for their own benefit.Of course it is a shame to be so fooled, but if it is a shame that only the person concerned knows, then anyone can bear it.The point is to see the matter from an outsider's point of view, and Machiavelli did that on purpose.

Suddenly, he let out an exclamation, and the rein in his hand was tightened all of a sudden. The horse under his crotch felt that the master was about to stop, so he stopped all of a sudden, and Machiavelli rushed forward due to inertia. for a moment.His servants came after him. "What's the matter, my lord?" "No, it's nothing." He rode on.Machiavelli's exclamation and instinctive body movements were due to a thought that had just flashed through his mind.At first he thought he was going to throw up, and then he realized he had an idea: he suddenly realized that in this story, there was a drama.By writing scripts he can exact revenge on those who mocked and robbed him.He can ruthlessly leave them mocked and spurned.The unhappiness in his breast vanished, and as he started home again his imagination was alive and his face was bright with malicious pleasure.

He wanted to set the background of the play in Florence, and he felt that he would be more comfortable in creating with the familiar streets of his hometown as the background.The characters are ready-made, and he only needs to emphasize some of their character traits to meet the needs of the stage.For example, Bartolomeo should be more stupid and gullible than real people, and Aurelia needs to be more innocent and docile.He had already decided that Pierrot would be a pimp who would be in charge of devising the deceptions that the hero would use, and that he would be a good-looking punk.The general outline of the script had already taken shape in his mind.He himself will be the protagonist in the play, and he has quickly thought of the name he wants to give himself-Calimaco.In the script, he is a Florentine, handsome, young and rich, who has spent years in Paris so that Machiavelli can make some scathing remarks about the French whom he neither likes nor respects, and besides, The hero meets and falls in love with Aurelia after returning to Florence from Paris.What should be her name?Lucrezia.Machiavelli snickered at the thought of his decision to name the heroine after a famously virtuous Roman noblewoman, the historical Lucrezia who killed herself with a short sword after being raped by Tequinius up.Of course, the script will end in a happy way, and Callimaco will spend the last spring night with his beloved woman. The sun shone down from the blue sky, and there was still some snow on the fields, but the road under the horses' hoofs was quite frozen.Machiavelli was dressed thickly, and was happily excited by the ideas and creations in his mind.He felt a strange sense of exaltation.Right now he had only one theme in mind, and the existing material was too bland for dramatic effect, and he knew he had to come up with a comedic strategy to design a coherent plot that would bring them all together. The scenes in my mind are strung together.What he was looking for was a brilliant idea.Let the audience laugh, and, on the one hand, it naturally leads to the finale where he finally seduces his sweetheart, on the other hand, it allows him to show the simplicity of Aurelia, the stupidity of Bartholomew, Pierrot the villainous character of Katerina, and the hooliganism of Father Timoteo.The priest will be a key figure in the play.Imaginatively immersed in Machiavelli, Machiavelli rubbed his palms excitedly at the thought that he would finally be able to expose the priest for what he was, his greed, his audacity, his cunning and hypocrisy.He will have false names for everyone, but for Father Timoteo he will use his real name, so that everyone can see what a hypocrite and a cunning man this man is. But he still couldn't think of an idea to use to construct the whole script and make the characters in the play move.The idea had to be unexpected, even jaw-dropping, because he was going to write a comedy, and the plot had to be so amusing that people would gasp in surprise and then laugh again.He was well acquainted with the works of the ancient Roman playwrights Plautus and Terentius, and he searched the recollections of his mind for some originality in the plays which these two playwrights had written. His imagination, and it could be used to inspire him, he couldn't think of anything.His mind couldn't help but think of different scenes, funny dialogue and some ridiculous situations, which made it more difficult for him to focus on solving the problem at the heart of the story.Time passed quickly, and he was taken aback when they reached the destination where they planned to spend the night. "To hell with love," he muttered as he got off his horse. "What is love compared to art!"