The Daughter of an Empress

"And I," exclaimed Signor Gianettino, "I offered thirty-six ducats, and

immediately paid the cash, as I always have money by me."

"It is Signor Gianettino, the cook of the French ambassador, and I am

ruined!" groaned Don Bempo, staggering back.

"Yes, it is the cook of his excellency the cardinal!" cried the crowd.

"And the cardinal is an honorable man!"

"He is no Spanish niggard!"

"He does not haggle for a giant fish; he pays more than is demanded!"

"I hope," said Signor Gianettino to Don Bempo, who still convulsively

grasped the fish, "that you will now take your hands from my property

and leave me to go my way without further hindrance. It is not noble to

lay hands on the goods of another, Don Bempo, and this fish is mine!"

"But this is contrary to all international law!" exclaimed the enraged

Don Bempo. "You forget, signor, that you insult my master, that you

insult Spain, by withholding from me by main force what I have purchased

in the name of Spain."

"France will never stand second to Spain!" proudly responded

Gianettino, "and where Spain offers twenty ducats, France pays

six-and-thirty!--Forward, my youngsters! To the kitchen of the French

ambassador!"

And urgently pushing back Don Bempo, Gianettino solemnly marched through

the crowd with his retinue, the people readily making a path for him and

cheering him as he went.

It was a brilliant triumph in the person of the chief cook of their

ambassador, which the French celebrated to-day; it was a shameful defeat

which Spain suffered to-day in the person of her ambassador's chief

cook.

Proud and happy marched Signor Gianettino through the streets,

accompanied by his gigantic fish, and followed by the shouts of a Roman

mob.

Humiliated, with eyes cast down, with rage in his heart sneaked Don

Bempo toward the Spanish ambassador's hotel, and long heard behind him

the whistling, laughter, and catcalls of the Roman people.