Chapter 3 third chapter

I was about seven or eight years old when my uncle was carried back to Teralba.It was evening, and it was dark; it was an October day; the sky was overcast.During the day we were harvesting grapes, and from among the trellises we saw approaching a sail on the gray sea with the imperial flag flying.At that time, whenever people saw a ship coming, they said: "This is the return of Master Medardo." This is not because we are looking forward to his return, but because we have something to look forward to.We guessed right that time: in the evening when we were in the fields, a young man named Fiorfiero was standing on top of the vats, stepping on grapes, and he called out, "Hey, look over there!" It was nearly dark, and we saw at the end of the valley a row of torches moving along the mule-track, and then across the bridge, when we saw men approaching with stretchers.There was no doubt that the Viscount had returned from the war.

Word spread across the valley.The castle yard was crowded with people: the family, the servants, the grape harvesters, the shepherds, the warriors.Only the old Viscount Ayorfo, Medardo's father, was missing.He is my grandfather. He hasn't shown up for a long time, and he doesn't even come to the yard.Tired of the mundane affairs of the world, he announced that he would give up the privilege of the title on the eve of his only son going to serve in the army.Now he is keen on raising birds and has set up a huge birdcage in the castle.He devoted himself to feeding the birds and ignored everything else.He also moved his own bed into a big cage, lived in it, and did not come out day and night.His meal was brought in through the bars of the cage, along with the food for the birds, and Ayolfo shared everything with the birds.He stroked the feathers of pheasants and wild pigeons all day long, waiting for his son to return from the battlefield.

I've never seen so many people in our yard.In the past, when we were fighting with our neighbors, we were here to count troops and celebrate the victory. I just heard people say about the lively scene.For the first time I noticed that the walls and towers were crumbling, and the yard was full of mud, where we grazed the sheep and the pigs.While waiting, everyone talked about how Viscount Medardo would return.It had long been reported that he had been badly injured by the Tusiqi, but no one knew for sure whether his limbs were disabled, his internal organs were damaged, or his appearance was simply disfigured by scars.Seeing the stretcher now, everyone guessed the situation was even worse.

It came, the stretcher was put on the ground, and people saw a gill shining on the black figure.The tall nurse Sebastiana stepped forward, but the black shadow stretched out—a hand and made a rough gesture of refusal.Then I saw the body writhing tenaciously on the stretcher for a while, and Guidardo of Terralba stood in front of us with a cane. A black cloak with a hood hangs from the top of his head to the ground, and the right half is thrown behind him, revealing half of his face and half of his narrow body holding a cane. The left side seems to be completely hidden, wrapped in the large In the skirts and wrinkles of clothes.

He looked at us immediately, and we stood around him, but no one spoke; maybe his staring eyes didn't look at us, and he just wanted to rely on his own strength to get rid of us.A gust of wind from the sea snapped a branch from the top of a fig tree with a whimper.My uncle's cloak flutters, the wind blows it up, and it opens like a sail, which means that the wind passes through his body, and even, the body does not exist at all, the cloak may be empty, just Dressed like a ghost.Then we got a better look and saw that it seemed to be hanging from a flagpole that consisted of a shoulder, an arm, half of the upper body and a leg, all of which he had supported on crutches : The rest is gone.

The group of goats stared blankly at the Viscount. They were all tied up, and each sheep turned its head from a different position, strangely forming some right angles with its head and back.The pigs, more responsive and quicker, screamed and bumped their bellies to escape.At this time, we can no longer hide the panic in our hearts. "My child!" cried the nurse Sebastiana, spreading her arms, "unfortunate child!" My uncle, weary of the reaction he had caused us, moved forward on the ground. Move the bottom end of the crutch, walk with two feet, and walk towards the gate of the castle.The porters carrying stretchers were sitting cross-legged on the steps of the gate.They were shirtless, wore gold earrings, and had their hair combed into a cockscomb or ponytail.They stood up, and one of them with braided hair looked like their leader, and he said, "We're waiting for your payment, sir."

"How much?" Medardo asked, seemingly smiling. The man with the braids said, "You know how much it costs to carry a man on a stretcher..." My uncle unhooked a wallet from his belt and threw it at the porters' feet with a clang. cried: "That's a lot less than what we agreed upon, sir!" As for Medardo, at this moment the wind lifted the flaps of his cloak and said, "Half." He passed among the porters, hopping on his single foot, step by step Climb up the steps, walk into the gate that was open to the inside of the castle, pick up the crutches to bucket the two heavy door panels, and close them with a bang.Because there was still a gap left, he pushed again, and he disappeared from our sight.We can still hear the alternate landing of feet and crutches as it moves down the corridor to his personal quarters in the castle.Then there was the sound of the door closing and locking.

His father waited for him behind the bars of the cage.Medardo didn't even go to say hello to him; he shut himself up in his room, and no matter how long his nurse Sebastigina knocked on the door or how many words of comfort she said to him, he never showed up, nor was he alone. Reply. Old Sebastiana was a tall woman in black and a veil, with a rosy, unlined face and a barely noticeable line around her eyes.She fed all the young men of the Teralba family, slept with all the old men of the family, and closed the eyes of all the dead.Now she walked up and down the loggia between the two shut-doors, not knowing how to help them.

The next day, we picked grapes as usual.Since Medardo hadn't shown up, the usual chatter and laughter in the vineyard was gone, and everyone was talking about his fate. Not because we were worried about him, but because such a speculative topic was very helpful to talk about.Only the nanny Sebastian stayed behind in the Castle Bar, carefully watching the movements of the house. But the old Ayulfo seemed to have expected that his son would be so gloomy and withdrawn when he came back, and he had trained his favorite little animal, a shrike, a long time ago.Let it fly to Medardo's residence on the other side of the castle every day, and fly into the room that was still empty at that time through the window.This morning.The old man opened the iron gate, released the shrike, watched it fly to his son's window, and then turned to feed the magpie and titmouse and imitate the birds' cry.

A moment later, he heard something hit the cage frame.He looked up and saw his Shrike frozen to the cornice.The old man picked up the bird with his hands, and saw that one of its wings was broken, as if someone was going to tear it off, and one of its claws was broken, as if someone had broken it with two fingers, and one of its eyes was also gouged out. up.The old man pressed the bird to his chest and whined. He was bedridden that day, and the servants saw him very ill through the wire mesh of the bird cage.But no one could go in and take care of him, because someone else was inside and hid the key again.Birds were flying around his bed.Since he lay down.They flew back and forth together.Unwilling to stop, keep flapping its wings.

The next morning, the nurse looked into the cage.The old Viscount Ayulfo was found dead.All the birds perched on his bed as if they had alighted on a tree trunk floating on the sea.