58 STORIES FROM DAUDET

‘What a good little lad. . . . How
prettily he speaks to my mule.’

And what do you think happened
next day? Tistet Védéne exchanged
his old yellow jacket for a fine lace alb
and a violet silk cassock and buckled
shoes, and he became one of the Pope’s
household, where none but the sons of
nobles and the cardinals’ nephews had
been received before him. . . . See
the reward of cunning. But Tistet did
not stop at this.

Once established in the Pope’s
service, the young rascal continued the
game that he had found so successful.

Insolent to all, he only showed
courtesy and attention to the mule;
and he was perpetually to be seen in
the courts of the palace with a handful
of oats or a small truss of clover, whose
purple heads he gently waved towards
the Holy Father’s balcony, as though
he would say, ‘Ah, guess who this is
for. . . . And so, and so, at last the
good Pope, who felt himself growing