Chapter 9 Chapter nine

I used to go to Pietrochiodo's shop in the morning to see the machines that the wise master was working on.Ever since the good men had come to him in the middle of the night, accusing him of using his invention for evil purposes, the carpenter had been in torment and remorse.Good people encouraged him to make machines that benefit people instead of machines that torture. "Then what kind of machine should I build, Monsieur Medardo?" asked Pietrochiodo. "Now I'll tell you. For example, you can..." The good guy started to describe what kind of machine he would order if he replaced his other half as Viscount, drawing some complicated drawings while explaining.

Maestro Pietrochiodo began to think that the machine was a pipe organ, a gigantic pipe organ with a keyboard that produced extremely beautiful music, and he set out to find suitable wood for the pipes.After he asked the good man to talk again, he became confused, because it seemed to him that what the good man was going to blow out of the pipe was not air but flour.In short, it should be both an organ and a flour mill, to grind grain for the poor, and, if possible, an oven, to bake cakes.The good man was improving his idea every day, sketch after sketch, but Maestro Pietrochiodo could not keep up with him.Because this machine, which is an organ, a mill, and a furnace, should also draw water from the well to relieve the donkey's burden, and it must have wheels so that it can be pushed to various places to meet the needs of various villages and towns. During the day, it can rise into the air and catch flying insects with a net fitted around its body.

The carpenter suspects that building a good machine is beyond human ability, so he can only make gallows and instruments of torture practical and accurate.The actual situation is that as soon as the villain talked about the idea of ​​a new machine, he immediately figured out how to make it and started to do it.He felt that every key part was perfect and irreplaceable, and the finished machine became a masterpiece of his design and production technology. The master said sadly: "Maybe there is only malice in my heart. Is it because it makes me only create cruel machines?" He still worked hard to create instruments of torture.

One day I saw him working beside a strange gallows, a white gallows fitted into a black wooden wall, and a noose, also white, which slid through two holes in the plank and ended up being tangled around a spinning capstan. superior. "What kind of machine is this, master?" I asked him. "Gallows for hanging halflings," he said. "Who was that made for?" "Made for the only man who judged others as well as himself. He sentenced himself to death with half of his head, and put the other half of his head in the noose knot, and strangled his last breath. I thought if I could put Just swap the two halves of the head."

I understand, the villain heard that his kind side is getting more and more popular, and decided to suppress him as soon as possible. The wicked have called the police, and ordered: "A tramp with a suspicious appearance has been harassing our territory for a long time. He is sowing discord and sowing discord. You must arrest this troublemaker within tomorrow and give him the death penalty." "It must be done, sir," said the policemen, and left.The villain was one-eyed, and didn't notice that they were winking at each other as they spoke back. You must know that a palace coup was brewing in those days, and the patrolmen were also involved.It is said that the current half of the Viscount will be arrested and sentenced to death, and the castle and title will be handed over to the other half.And the other half didn't know about it.When he woke up at night, he found that the hut where he slept was surrounded by policemen.

"Please don't be alarmed," said the patrol leader. "The Viscount sent us to kill you, but we hate his cruel dictatorship and decided to kill him and let you take his place." "I've never heard of it? Have you already done it? I mean, Viscount, have you killed him?" "No, but we will kill him in the morning." "Oh, thank Heaven! No, you will not be stained with blood again, too much has been shed. What good can a tyrant born of crime do?" "It's all right. We'll have him imprisoned in the tower, and we'll be fine."

"Do not lay hands on him, nor on anyone, I beseech you! The Viscount's tyranny pains me too, but there is no other remedy than to set him an example, and to teach him what is honor and incorruptibility." "Then we shall have to kill you, sir." "No! I said you couldn't kill anyone!" "Then what shall we do? If we do not get rid of the Viscount, we must obey him." "Take this glass bottle here. Here are the last few ounces of the ointment with which the Bohemian monks healed my wounds. Although until now when the weather changes, the huge scar Pain, it is still a precious medicine. Take it to the Viscount, and tell him only that it was given to him by a man who knows what it is like to have a blocked blood vessel."

The patrolmen go to the Viscount with salve, and the Viscount has them hanged.To save them, other people involved in the coup decided to revolt.They were too clumsy, and they exposed the traces of rebellion in advance, and the uprising was suppressed in a pool of blood.Good men put flowers on the graves and comforted widows and orphans. It is the old lady Sebastiana who has never been indifferent to good people and hospitality.A good man, on his way to the things he loves, often stops at the nurse's hut, goes in to see him, and is always respectful and considerate to her.And the nanny has to give him a lesson every time.Maybe it's because she doesn't care about each other's motherly love, maybe it's because the old man starts to get confused.The wet nurse didn't think much of Medardo's split in half.Scold one half for bad things done by the other half, and make suggestions to that half that only this half can accept.and so on.

"Why did you cut off the head of the chicken that Nurse Biggin fed? Poor old man, she's got only one cock! You're a big man. To do such a thing to someone like her..." "Why are you telling me that, nurse, you know I didn't do it..." "Okay! Then let's hear, who did it?" "It's me. But..." "Ha! Look!" "But it's not me here..." "Oh, I'm old, and you think I'm confused? As soon as I heard people tell a joke, I immediately thought it was you. I said to myself: But I swear, it must be Medardo's little paw..."

"But you are always mistaken...!" "I was wrong... You young people said that we old people made a mistake... And what about you yourself? You gave your crutches to old Isidoro?" "Yes, that thing is true. I did it..." "Are you bragging? He used it to beat his wife, poor woman..." "He told me he couldn't walk because of joint pain..." "He pretended... You gave him the cane right away...and now he breaks the cane off the wife's back and you walk on a stick...you have no brains, that's what you are! always! you When did you get Bernardo's cows drunk with strong liquor? . . . "

"I didn't do that..." "Yes, it's not you, and everyone says it's always him, Viscount!" The good man used to visit Bratofungo, not only out of a son-like attachment to his nurse, but also because he took advantage of the occasion to help poor lepers.Since he was immune to contagious diseases (which he always believed to be due to the miraculous cures of the hermits), he went about the village, asking the needs of everyone in detail, and never resting until he did what he could to get them done.He was often the one riding on the back of a mule, shuttling back and forth between Bratofon Court and Dr. Trelawney's hut, asking the doctor for advice and medicine.It was not that the doctor now had the courage to approach the lepers, but that he seemed to have begun to care about them because of the good Medardo as an intermediary. My uncle's considerations, however, went too far.He intended not only to heal the bodies of lepers, but also to heal their souls.He was always promoting morality among them, meddling in their affairs, indignant or lecturing.The lepers could not stand his way.The happy and dissolute life of Bratofonge was over.This one-legged individual.He was emaciated, dressed in black, with a solemn and rigid expression, and he was good at teaching others. With him, no one could enjoy himself freely in the square without being blamed, and no one dared to vent his evil words.Even the music made him angry.Denouncing it as frivolous, lascivious, and incapable of stimulating the finer sentiments, makes them fret and never again touch their instruments, which collect dust on their peculiar instruments.The female leper had no chance of indulging in pleasure, unable to dispel her distress, suddenly felt alone in the face of the disease, and spent long nights in weeping and despair. "Of the two halves, the good man is worse than the bad man." It was beginning to be said in Bratoca Court. But it was not only among the lepers that the prestige of the good man declined. "It's a good thing the shells only cut him in half," they all said, "and if it's three, we don't know what we'll see." The Huguenots now took turns standing guard, also on guard against him.He has no respect for them now. He goes to secretly check how many bags of grain are in their granary from time to time, accuses the grain price of being too high, and spreads it around to destroy their business. Such was the life of Talalba, our feelings darkened and dulled by our sense of being at a loss between evil and morality, equally inhuman.