“What would you know, boor? Fool! For I… I was pretty then… Young… First Emperor Charles caught me in the cloisters of an evening, bent me over the banister, lifted up my shift. He tickled my neck with his beard and I laughed so loud he almost popped out… He was furious, so I took him in hand and put him back where he belonged. Oh, then he said, I’m fond of you, little Moravian, I can give you in marriage to a knight… But I wasn’t thinking of marriage then, when there were so many comely lads around…

“The second,” the old woman said dreamily, “was Ludwik, the King of Hungary. How eager was that young man…? Then I caught the fancy of the King of Poland, Casimir the Great… His nickname was apt, let me tell you—”

“You’re lying, old woman.”

“Ruprecht, Count Palatine of the Rhine… Getting on a bit and a German to boot. Don’t expect any sweet nothings or compliments, he just barked: Mach die Beine breit! While Arnošt of Pardubice, the Archbishop of Prague, hey, he had a silver tongue and was well-versed… Oh, he knew various tricks and ingenious mischief… Przecław of Pogorzela, Bishop of Wrocław, a Pole, he was also handy, knew his way around a woman, but his footwraps stank to high heaven… Albrecht, Duke of Austria—”

The old woman choked and had a coughing fit. It was some time before she went on.

“But the one who satisfied me most wasn’t a king or a bishop, but a poet, a Tuscan,” she said, drooling a little. “He was a dream of a man. Not just hot-blooded but could talk the most beautifully of them all. Ha, you know a good bird by its song. Oh, how he could talk… In rhyme, even. They called him… Erm… His Christian name was like that saint from Assisi… But his surname… Let me think… What the Devil… Raucous? Petraucous?”

“Perhaps it was…” Reynevan stammered. “Perhaps it was Petrarca? Francesco Petrarca?”

“Perhaps.” The old woman nodded. “Perhaps, son. The memory fades after all those years.”

Chapter Nine

In which a brilliant idea occurs to Reynevan. As a result, he finds out how much it’s worth to various people. The fact that towards the end of the chapter its value grows at lightning speed ought in principle to please him. But it doesn’t.