Having so said, she quitted the house on one side,
while her husband did so on the other; and forthwith,
shunning observation as best she might, she hied her
to the wood, and hid her where ’twas most dense,
and there waited on the alert, and glancing, now this
way and now that, to see if any were coming.
And while thus she stood, nor ever a thought of a wolf
crossed her mind, lo, forth of a close covert hard
by came a wolf of monstrous size and appalling aspect,
and scarce had she time to say, God help me! before
he sprang upon her and griped her by the throat so
tightly that she might not utter a cry, but, passive
as any lambkin, was borne off by him, and had certainly
been strangled, had he not encountered some shepherds,
who with shouts compelled him to let her go.
The shepherds recognized the poor hapless woman, and
bore her home, where the physicians by dint of long
and careful treatment cured her; howbeit the whole
of her throat and part of her face remained so disfigured
that, fair as she had been before, she was ever thereafter
most foul and hideous to look upon. Wherefore,
being ashamed to shew her face, she did many a time
bitterly deplore her perversity, in that, when it would
have cost her nothing, she would nevertheless pay
no heed to the true dream of her husband.
NOVEL VIII.
— Biondello gulls Ciacco in the matter
of a breakfast: for which prank Ciacco is cunningly
avenged on Biondello, causing him to be shamefully
beaten. —
All the company by common consent pronounced it no
dream but a vision that Talano had had in his sleep,
so exactly, no circumstance lacking, had it fallen
out according as he had seen it. However, as soon
as all had done speaking, the queen bade Lauretta
follow suit; which Lauretta did on this wise:—As,
most discreet my ladies, those that have preceded
me to-day have almost all taken their cue from somewhat
that has been said before, so, prompted by the stern
vengeance taken by the scholar in Pampinea’s
narrative of yesterday, I am minded to tell you of
a vengeance that was indeed less savage, but for all
that grievous enough to him on whom it was wreaked.
Wherefore I say that there was once at Florence one
that all folk called Ciacco, a man second to none
that ever lived for inordinate gluttony, who, lacking
the means to support the expenditure which his gluttony
demanded, and being, for the rest, well-mannered and
well furnished with excellent and merry jests, did,
without turning exactly court jester, cultivate a
somewhat biting wit, and loved to frequent the houses
of the rich, and such as kept good tables; whither,
bidden or unbidden, he not seldom resorted for breakfast
or supper. There was also in those days at Florence
one that was called Biondello, a man very short of
stature, and not a little debonair, more trim than
any fly, with his blond locks surmounted by a coif,
and never a hair out of place; and he and Ciacco were
two of a trade.
