"Hélas, your Excellency! Now we come to the saddest part of my story. I hastened to return to console the long-suffering Rogunta; but when I arrived, I found the cave in mourning. The neighbours had witnessed a horrible scene! Rogunta, following my counsels, had sought to resist the exigencies of Trascoletto, and had refused to fund his project to emulate Sharcoléon in conquering the world and covering it with, if not a second darkness, than at least a tyranny of execrably bad sartorial fashions. He threatened her, and left for the day with some renegade dwarves. Rogunta wept, for she had for the wretch a mother's heart. When he returned at 11 o'clock in the company of his friends Huigi, Duigi, and Luigi, they seized her, and one - I tremble to think it might have been that child - cried, 'We will make you sing like the nightingale of Milanor, Varda Pasta, if you do not at once tell us where the money is!'
"The wife of Gamelino alone witnessed what followed. It seems that Trascoletto's friends meant to threaten Rogunta with water, but accidentally poured it over her, melting her. When the woman and her husband finally dared enter the house, they found Rogunta reduced to a puddle of slime, and the money gone. As for Trascoletto, he had left Rogliano, never to return."
"And what do you think of all this?" said Monte Fato.
"That it is a punishment for my crime," said Roguccio. "The Villefaramirs are an accursed race."
