blowing trumpets as Clove, the Prince of Misfits marches to the ship. Someone hands him a pair of soiled underpants on a stick to hold proudly, like a standard, high in the air.

The old scribe Sibelius is led along on the tip of a halberd. Carries his memory bound in leather. Every time he turns to plead for mercy:

- Milord, forget about the debt! – the sharp steel tickles his soft belly. People laugh and jeer, who did he think he was anyway, lending gold to a nobleman.

The sick and the old from the town lazaretto get carried aboard the ship by a class of mongoloid boys. Their relatives turn away for a while to discuss prospects of having a good season for wine this year. Mora, the witch, uses the moment to push her way to the ship. Across her left eye she carries a blood-caked rag, a gentle memento from the last time she got stoned by the charitable women of the town. She lets the sick suck on her gnarled fingers bringing them temporary relief.

Premonition, the hunchback poet, draws out roars of laughter as he climbs the plank in his Sunday best, hair parted neatly, combed to the side of his oversized deformed forehead. 

His milky blue eyes blink in the early sun, he scans the horizon with a light fever of anticipation. Oh, Euterpe! Oh, Erato! On a morning like this poems are born.

Christina, the deranged mistress of the Duke of Manzana is carried forward by men who grope at her bare breasts. Pity, they think, such a seductive body ruined by madness. Her eyes shine like opals as she blesses the crowd with two fingers and a pax-vobiscum. She believes she is a bishop trapped in a prison of a corrupt female body. Of course, the real bishop resents this, which is why he had arranged a place on the ship for Christina.

Maddick the Vile is pulled up on a leash of thick rope, his arms secured behind his back to prevent him from showing himself to the ladies. Even so he sticks out his purple pulsating tongue at them in an attempt to lick their cheeks.

Women scream, Maddick and the guard leading him snort in delight.

With Even and Odd arrives a cart pulled by two tired oxen, loaded with good food the good people of the town had prepared for the voyage of fools.

There are maggot-ridden hams from the butcher, sacks of brick-hard stale bred and