You  kept  your  shop  and  counted  your  pelf;  you
fought  when  you  must,  and  since  every  hill  about
you  held  a  robber  and  his  horde,  you  had  to  fight
to  live  ;  your  women  stayed  at  home  and  looked
after    your    daughters    until    you    announced    a


VIII  TROY  AND  ROME  215

wedding.  Then  some  tall  girl  or  other,  whom
you  had  kept  in  that  still,  passionless  house,  a
grown  baby  of  twenty  years,  without  falter  or
blush  held  out  her  hand.  Just  such  another  as
her  old  block  of  a  father  took  it  in  his,  having
pocketed  the  money  and  written  out  his  quittance,
and  away  went  the  maid  to  wear  the  coif  and
bear  the  fardel  of  women.  Fine  old  Roman
days!  But  dowry  or  no,  that  same  Bellincion
Berti  made  a  great  marriage  for  his  girl.  Gual-
drada  she  was  called,  and  was  seen  and  desired
by  the  Emperor  Otto  at  her  prayers  in  Santa
Reparata.  The  Emperor  asked  her  for  a  kiss,
and  being  denied,  claimed  that  he  had  the  right
to  salute  his  subjects.  ''  No  man,"  says  Gual-
drada,  ''shall  have  that  right  of  me  but  my
husband."  The  Emperor  gave  her  great  praise,
and  bade  Count  Guido  the  Old  take  her  and  kiss
her.  This  Count  Guido  the  Old  was  lord  of  all
the  Upper  "Arno,  a  greatly  descended  man,  son
of  the  last  survivor  of  the  tyrants  of  Romagna.
Gualdrada  gave  him  four  sons  for  his  kisses,
whose  names  were  Guglielmo  and  Ruggieri,  and
Guido  and  Tegrimo,  and  from  whom  came  much
trouble,  fighting,  rapine,  and  the  like,  in  later
days.  But  of  another  sort  were  the  stock  in
four-square  Florence.  You  may  class  the  con-
tinence of  Maud    and    Gualdrada  with   the   con-


2i6         THE  ROAD  IN  TUSCANY       chap.
