He saw me, too, and, what was worse, he recognised me on the instant, for he clapped spurs to his horse and came at me as if he would ride me down.

Within three paces of me he drew up his steed.

Whether the memory of the other two occasions on which I had thwarted him arose now in his mind and made him wonder had not some fatality brought me across his path again to send awry his pretty schemes concerning Madonna Paula, I cannot say for certain; yet some suspicion of it occurred to me and filled me with apprehension.
"Body of Bacchus!" he roared.

"Is it truly you, Boccadoro ?" "They call me Biancomonte now, Magnificent," I answered him.

But my tone was respectful, for it could profit me nothing to incense him.
"A fig for what they call you," he snapped contemptuously.