ENCOUNTERS Next morning I was wakened by a dash of cold water over me and sat up in bed dripping and angry.

Tanno was bending over me.
"I had to souse you," he explained.

"I've been shaking you and yelling at you and you stayed as fast asleep as before I touched you.

Get up and let's start for Rome." We enjoyed a brief rubdown and after Entedius joined us each relished a small cup of mulled wine and one of Ofatulena's delicious little hot, crisp rolls.
In the east courtyard we found our equipages and I descried my tenants outside the gate, all horsed and each muffled in a close rain-cloak, topped off by a big umbrella hat, its wide brim dripping all round its edge, for the weather was atrocious; foggy mist blanketing all the world under a gray sky from which descended a thin, chilly drizzle.
Hirnio was inspecting Tanno's litter and chatting with Tanno about it.
"Never saw one with poles like this," he said.

"All I have seen had one long pole on each side, a continuous bar of wood from end to end.