Chapter I: Front Matter

Gaudenzia

Pride of the Palio

By MARGUERITE HENRY

Illustrated by Lynd Ward

RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
Chicago New York San Francisco

Copyright 1960 by Rand McNally & Company

Copyright 1960 under International Copyright Union
by Rand McNally & Company

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-8264

Edition of 1960

A

LITHOGRAPHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

* * * * *

_To the half-bred Arabian, Gaudenzia,
and to her boy trainer, Giorgio,
who lived this book
with honor and valor_

* * * * *

CONTENTS

I The First Signpost

II The Umbrella Man

III Bianca, the Blind One

IV A Newborn

V The Flying Centaur

VI Giorgio Meets a Snail

VII Bring Out the Satchel!

VIII Over the Mountain

IX The Cart Horse of Casalino

X A Buyer of Ox Skins

XI The Ghost in the Warehouse

XII Rejected

XIII The Goddess Fortuna

XIV At the Curve of San Martino

XV The Odd Pieces Again

XVI The Rabbit's Foot and the Horn

XVII Gaudenzia, Joy of Living

XVIII Back Home to the Maremma

XIX No Morning Glory

XX A Simple Plan

XXI Half-bred

XXII Speak! Speak!

XXIII The Hours Before

XXIV Have You Fear? Have You Fear?

XXV Behold, the Palio!

XXVI Victor of the Piazza

XXVII A Time to Seek

XXVIII All Roads Lead to Rome

XXIX The Three Acts

XXX Duel Between Horse and Man

XXXI At the Victory Dinner

And Now ...

Foreword

For months I wrote the story of the Palio in my mind. I pictured a fearless boy rider in this wildest of all horse races, a boy who dared defy the ancient rules and _willed_ his horse to win--in spite of the strict orders of his captain.

When I finally went to Siena and faced the real battle of the Palio, I had to scuttle my preconceived plot. No rider, no matter how brave, would ever defy the ancient rules of the race. They are as firm and immutable as the walls of the city.

But the story I found was of heroic proportions, much bigger than the one I had dreamed. A peasant boy, named Giorgio Terni, and a half-bred Arabian mare seemed pawns of fate, doomed to a life of tragedy. Their battle to outwit destiny is a drama of human and animal courage.

The secret plotting of the Palio is so strange that I had to journey from America to Siena three times in order to understand the inner workings. There is a need in the people to relive the past, a need so intense that they change themselves into knights and noblemen of the Middle Ages for a brief moment each year.

While I was there, I myself became embroiled in the passion of the Palio. I attended the solemn ritualistic banquet on the eve of the race, and afterward I went with Giorgio Terni and his bodyguards to listen to music in the heart of the Piazza, and I went with him into the stable of the mare, Gaudenzia. I wanted to study this courageous youth who was fully aware that tomorrow his blood and that of his mount might crimson the race course.

I visited with Giorgio's parents, too, and with his brother and sister in the huddled village of Monticello, far away in the Maremma country. Because I spoke no Italian we had to communicate in pantomime, but it was more exciting than any game of charades. It concerned life, and death.

Twice I watched spellbound the pageant-parade on Palio day, and twice I shouted and prayed during the breakneck race that Gaudenzia would sweep wildly through the pack to victory.

Dozens of people--cobblers and captains, peasants and princes--gave of their time and energy to help make this book an authentic recreation of the oldest horse race in the long history of the sport of kings.

At last I understood that the Palio is a fire banked but never quenched. Every summer it blazes anew into a festival of such drama and color that the characters who take part might have stepped out of the Middle Ages.

MARGUERITE HENRY

Gaudenzia

Pride of the Palio