"Well then, after the carriage pulled up, and before the duke's servants, who were still rushing out to assist whatever personage had arrived, could do anything, the carriage door flew open and a girl somewhere in her teens stepped down. The duke himself arrived shortly thereafter.

"Let me digress a bit. One day I found a diary, written by the duke's major domo at the time, in the library of the Little Cathedral. And I'll tell you, it was a fascinating read. It impressed me so much that I memorized what I'm about to tell you word for word. It took me a week, but it was worth it. The author was Antonio Renaldi, the head of the Duke's household and, eventually, Baron Renaldi."

"The diary said: 'The young girl who stepped down from the carriage, most elegantly I might add, was an incredible beauty with flowing red hair, pale skin, and, dare I say it, adorable freckles. I recognized her immediately in spite of not having seen her since she was 10. It was Lady Carline Ashford, the daughter of Count Ashford of Milan. Five years earlier she had been a charming girl who already had unusual insight into politics and finance, as well as the human condition in general.

"To be entirely frank, she was the kind of girl that one and all professed to admire and whom nobody wanted to be close to. This was primarily because courtiers tend to dislike people who can instantly see through them and their goals, and secondarily because she had not yet learned anything about tact and was likely to blurt out what they were plotting at the most inconvenient times.

"It was all well and good that she knew that they were plotting something. Everyone in court was always involved in one plot or another. It was another thing entirely to have those plots dismantled in an instant, usually in public, by a child whom they didn't dare silence. Besides her causing the plotters significant embarrassment, it often cost them a great deal of money seeing as how everything they'd spent on bribes up to that point was now lost without anything having been gained from the expenditure.

"Murder of adults was frowned upon, but, as long as it was made to look accidental, everyone pretended that they didn't notice the true cause of death. Murder of a child though, that was another thing entirely. On the extremely rare occasions where it did happen, the perpetrators were rewarded with immediate and exquisitely painful execution, usually without bothering with a trial.

"I surmised immediately that she had been sent here to get her away from court so some serious plotting would finally have a chance to succeed for a change. Regardless of the actual reason, seeing her gave me no end of delight. I must admit here that the primary cause of said delight was simply because of her presence. I would be free to spoil her as I always had when she was a child, and there would be nobody to complain.

"It really wasn't proper for me to be the one spoiling her, what with me being another's servant, but I couldn't help it. Even at 10 she had a magnetic personality. I suppose that I shouldn't be admitting such affection even in these pages, but I can't see that it matters as I'm the only one who will ever read this."

Aldus paused to allow his audience to laugh and also to order more ale. A number of others took advantage of the lull and also had their drinks topped up. He had no financial interest in the inn, at least not yet, but goodwill with this particular innkeeper was extremely important to him, so he waited patiently till all had been served. Once all the mugs had been refilled, he continued with his recitation.

"My Lord the Duke had most definitely NOT been expecting her, as his expression was one of extreme shock. When he addressed her, he actually stuttered, 'Ca..ca..Carline! What are yo...you DOING here?' It was very, well, unseemly behavior for a duke. The nobility are NEVER supposed to look flustered in public. I did notice that the onlookers did not seem to be at all offended. Rather most of them were making visible and valiant efforts not to laugh.

"So much happened in the next few minutes, and the hours thereafter, that, had I not determined to stay awake to record the incredible happenings, I doubt that I would have believed my own memories by the next day. Thus here I am, completely exhausted, but I shall soldier on and write with quill and ink exactly what I beheld this past afternoon.

"The Lady Carline looked up at my lord the Duke and, though it is hard to credit, I swear on my honor that her eyes appeared as if they were on fire. She said, 'My Lord Duke, when we were children, you promised to marry me when I came into my majority. I am now 15 and legally of an age to be married. My father, Count Milan, and your father the King have consented. In addition, the Church has consented as long as, according to law, the ceremony joining two nobles our our ranks is approved by and performed by an archbishop or cardinal.'

"I confess that at first these two statements seemed to have nothing at all to do with each other, and my confusion was extreme. The reason behind their justaposition became evident momentarily. Lady Carline turned to the carriage and held out an elegant hand. 'Your Grace, may I request that you honor us with your presence?'

"The person who then emerged from the carriage was none other than Archbishop Jefferey Landry. He wore a simple priestly cassock, but he also wore an archbishop's pectoral. Upon his emergence, all present save the Duke and Lady Carline fell to their knees. To be frank, I think it was more out of shock than in homage, as not one person in 20 had ever seen anything other than an ordinary priest or monk before.

"Upon alighting from the carriage, he gazed at all who were gathered in the square and raised his arm in blessing. As he did so, he had a most kindly smile upon his face. After the blessing, he looked at my Lord the Duke, and I am not lying when I say that he had a twinkle in his eye that was both beneficent and mischievous. Then he said, 'Duke Alphonse, Lady Carline, if you would please stand side-by-side facing me.'

"Lady Carline hastened to stand at the right hand of my Lord the Duke and immediately took his hand in hers. Then Archbishop Landry smiled and began to speak again, 'Duke Alphonse, having proposed marriage to Lady Carline of your own free will, and Lady Carline having accepted your proposal of her own free will, and as I have received with my own hand the written permission of both your father the King, and her father the Count, it is therefore my joyful duty to join you in holy matrimony.'

"He looked around for a moment then asked, 'If you will present the rings for the blessing?'

"The Duke was clearly in shock and was not, how shall I say it, 'coherent,' nor, to be honest, was I much better. Rings? What rings? My confusion was interrupted when I felt something being thrust into my left hand. I looked down and saw someone dressed as a page boy. It was Lady Carline's little brother Carlos, who had been but six years old when I had last set eyes on him. I opened the small box I found in my hand and beheld a beautiful, lady's wedding ring, which I then proceeded to hand to the Duke.

"He accepted it, numbly, then stood there without moving. At that same time I saw a lovely young girl of about age 13, whom I also recognized. It was Lady Carline's sister Alena. She was handing Carline what must have been a man's wedding ring. (As I made inquires later in the evening, I discovered that each had exited through the far door of the carriage and had circled around behind the crowd so as not to draw attention to themselves.)

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Archbishop Landry then said, 'I cannot very well bless the rings if I can't see them, now can I? Lift them up if you please.'

"Both my lord and Lady Carline did so, he still moving as if in a daze, and she with her accustomed grace. After the blessing the Archbishop said, 'Now children, each of you place your ring on the other's finger.'

"Once they had done so, he intoned, 'By the grace of God, and by the powers vested in me by the Church and by the King, I now pronounce you husband and wife.'

"I presumed that the Duke was beginning to come out of his stupor as he began to mutter, 'Wa..wha...' presumably planning to ask what had happened. However any further speech was prevented by Lady Carline leaping upon him, wrapping her legs about his waist, and kissing him, most vigorously, directly on the lips.

"That was an extraordinarily shocking breach of proper decorum, but, considering all the cheering that broke out, it was abundantly clear that nobody minded, not even the Duke who, though he strenuously denied it later, wrapped his arms about her as well and kissed her back as energetically as she was kissing him.

"After the kiss, which was rather prolonged, and Lady, now Duchess, Carline had pulled back some, the Duke whispered, 'But Carline, you were four and I was 10 when I proposed to you. I thought that we were playing.'

"Her answer was, 'Was what we just did playing?'

"He responded weakly, 'Well, no, I guess not. To be truthful, I must admit that I shall probably be happier with you than with any of those maggots at Court who only wanted me because I was the son of the king.'

(I suppose that I could have mentioned sooner that my lord was at least as outspoken as his new bride but it seemed a little, oh, I don't know, disrespectful. Now that I think on it, I'm certain that it was one of the primary reasons why they'd always liked each other so much.)

"Duchess Carline snuggled into his chest and said, 'Good. Now, carry me properly into our home. We'll have whatever wedding banquet your cook can cobble together, then we can excuse ourselves and do what married couples do on their wedding night.'

She nodded her head and added, 'But I can't become pregnant right away. There's too much risk for one as young as I, so we're going to have to be careful for a few years. Fortunately I brought an appropriate medication with me, so we can still enjoy each other as much as we want in the meantime.'

"At that point the Duke blushed as red as a rooster's comb, which was more than surprising given his dark skin, but he didn't say a single word. Rather he shifted his grip to that called a 'Princess Carry' and took his new wife into The Residence."

Aldus held out his now empty mug in no particular direction and soon found it removed and replaced by a full one.

"The rest of the Baron's diary is not particular pertinent to the main story. It does say that the Archbishop took up residence in one of the local churches. Shortly thereafter another church was built to commemorate the miraculous answer to the prayers of the townspeople regarding Duke Alphonso needing to get married. At almost the same time, construction was begun on the, to them, huge building now called the 'Little Cathedral'. Its foundations were barely complete four years later when Carline, who was then almost 19 years old, delivered her first children, a set of fraternal twins. Their baptism was the first act of the Archbishop in the new cathedral, which was finished in record time, 57 years later.

"It should be noted that their daughter Abigail eventually became Duchess Abigail and her brother Pasquale became her Chief Advisor. Under their steady hands, the Duchy became ever more prosperous.

"I think we can skip most of the ensuing 700 years for the nonce. What matters is that building churches to celebrate anything significant became almost an obsession. So here we are today in The City of The Bells with 263 churches, two cathedrals, four synagogues, three Hindu temples, three Buddhist temples, six mosques, one Shinto shrine, and one Daoist temple."

Aldus pointed to his protege. "And that my friend Mario is the problem. For reasons that are now obscure, about 560 years ago at least two of the larger churches began to compete actively for new members. They each decided that having a bigger bell tower would bring in more congregants. Like so many bad ideas it spread like wildfire. Within only a decade almost every church had joined in on what would, in other circumstances, be called an 'arms race'. Eventually some 'genius' hired a mage to reinforce the bells in his church so that they wouldn't crack from being rung so often and, not incidentally, to make them louder. Of course most of the other churches followed suit. The sound of all those enhanced bells in the oversize towers became so loud that it was causing deafness and miscarriages throughout the town and the nearby countryside.

. (When that mage finally left town, he retired to a huge estate in the south that he had purchased with his fees.)

"Things got so bad from the noise that the duke at the time, Giovanni, decreed that only one church in each quarter of The City was to be allowed to sound the hours on any given day. The churches were to be selected by lot a year ahead of time. Rather surprisingly, given how popular his decree was with the citizens of The City, it remained in effect for only two years. The churches formed a united front and protested the restriction, at least insofar as it affected the Festa, the feast days of the saints. None wanted to yield precedence on such days.

"After several months of negotiations, a compromise was arrived at. The original decree allowing one church per quarter to sound its bells would continue to apply except on the Festa days. However, all feast days of the various saints were to be celebrated together on the second weekend of each month. On the Friday prior, beginning at 7 p.m., and lasting till five minutes after the hour, there were no restrictions on the ringing of bells.

"Over the centuries, as buildings were torn down, or fell down from being shaken apart, new ones were put in their place. It became standard practice to make the walls at least 3/4 of a meter thick and to make all doors and windows at least double. Besides muting the sound, there was a substantial, unexpected benefit as building collapses due to earthquakes declined precipitously along with the death rate from said collapses...which lead to...what?"

Ringvold stared at his companion and waited.

Mario had been so caught up in the story that it took him a few moments to realize that he was expected to come up with an answer. He thought briefly then blurted out, "Oh NO! Not a church dedicated to the miraculous reduction in deaths formerly caused by earthquakes?"

Aldus leaned back and crossed his arms. After all the free ale he'd imbibed over the past hour he was feeling most mellow. "Correct."

Noticing a few scowls among the onlookers he hastened to add, "But it's very hard to say that anything that resulted in a major reduction in deaths is NOT a miracle. As a matter of fact, that particular church is rather prosperous, the reason being that pilgrims from all over Europe come to pray for protection from death by falling objects (trees/earthquakes/avalanches and such). I suppose that their having a school of architecture attached to it that specializes in teaching how to build safe structures may also have an influence."

Now seeing smiles, or at least neutral expressions, he continued with his tale, "One of the most interesting things about The City is that two of the largest congregations are those which teach the benefits of quiet and contemplation. Neither one has a bell tower, and both have walls a full two meters thick."

Aldus saw several people who were beginning to fidget and correctly assessed that it was time to wrap things up. The only thing worse than being known as a teller of bad stories was being known as one who didn't know when to shut up. Besides that, he realized that if he had any more ale that night he'd likely be at something of a disadvatage in his trading on the morrow.

Thus he stood and declared, "No matter what your beliefs in general are, the celestial blessing that resulted in the founding of this wonderful city cannot be thought of as anything but a miracle of the highest degree. If you look at its history over the past seven centuries, its ongoing prosperity confirms that it is a very special place indeed. Each and every person who visits here is blessed, and those who are born here are doubly so."

He bowed, with great care, to the room in general and to the proprietor in specific. In the latter case his attention was a bit more intense than the situation might have called for. Seeing a warm smile on her face, he relaxed and smiled himself. Then he waved to one and all and carefully draped his arm around Mario's shoulders, apparently in friendship, but in reality to make sure that he didn't fall on his face as they went up the stairs to their rooms. Although it was only the middle of the evening, he intended to be up early enough that he could catch the merchants he planned to do business with the next day while they were still groggy from sleep and thus less able to negotiate sharply.