So:—“Where art thou?” quoth
the knight. “Fear not to shew thyself.”
Then forth of his hiding-place, all of a tremble,
for in truth he had been thoroughly terrified, crept
Leonetto, who had heard all that had passed.
To whom:—“What hast thou to do with
Messer Lambertuccio?” quoth the knight.
“Nothing in the world,” replied the young
man: “wherefore, I doubt he must either
be out of his mind, or have mistaken me for another;
for no sooner had he sight of me in the street hard
by the palace, than he laid his hand on his sword,
and exclaimed:—’Traitor, thou art
a dead man.’ Whereupon I sought not to
know why, but fled with all speed, and got me here,
and so, thanks to God and this gentlewoman, I escaped
his hands.” “Now away with thy fears,”
quoth the knight; “I will see thee home safe
and sound; and then ’twill be for thee to determine
how thou shalt deal with him.” And so,
when they had supped, he set him on horseback, and
escorted him to Florence, and left him not until he
was safe in his own house. And the very same
evening, following the lady’s instructions,
Leonetto spoke privily with Messer Lambertuccio, and
so composed the affair with him, that, though it occasioned
not a little talk, the knight never wist how he had
been tricked by his wife.
NOVEL VII.
— Lodovico discovers to Madonna Beatrice
the love that he bears her: she sends Egano,
her husband, into a garden disguised as herself, and
lies with Lodovico; who thereafter, being risen, hies
him to the garden and cudgels Egano. —
This device of Madonna Isabella, thus recounted by
Pampinea, was held nothing short of marvellous by
all the company. But, being bidden by the king
to tell the next story, thus spake Filomena:—Loving
ladies, if I mistake not, the device, of which you
shall presently hear from me, will prove to be no
less excellent than the last.
You are to know, then, that there dwelt aforetime
at Paris a Florentine gentleman, who, being by reason
of poverty turned merchant, had prospered so well
in his affairs that he was become very wealthy; and
having by his lady an only son, Lodovico by name,
whose nobility disrelished trade, he would not put
him in any shop; but that he might be with other gentlemen,
he caused him to enter the service of the King of France,
whereby he acquired very fine manners and other accomplishments.
Being in this service, Lodovico was one day with some
other young gallants that talked of the fair ladies
of France, and England, and other parts of the world,
when they were joined by certain knights that were
returned from the Holy Sepulchre; and hearing their
discourse, one of the knights fell a saying, that
of a surety in the whole world, so far as he had explored
it, there was not any lady, of all that he had ever
seen, that might compare for beauty with Madonna Beatrice,
the wife of Egano de’ Galluzzi, of Bologna:
wherein all his companions, who in common with him
