God, who, peradventure, ordained that I should be enamoured
of her, to the end that my love might be, as it has
been, the occasion of her restoration to life, that
never with her father, or her mother, or with thee,
did she live more virtuously than with my mother in
my house.” Which said, he turned to the
lady, saying:—“Madam, I now release
you from all promises made to me, and so deliver you
to Niccoluccio.” Then, leaving the lady
and the child in Niccoluccio’s embrace, he returned
to his seat.
Thus to receive his wife and son was to Niccoluccio
a delight great in the measure of its remoteness from
his hope. Wherefore in the most honourable terms
at his command he thanked the knight, whom all the
rest, weeping for sympathy, greatly commended for
what he had done, as did also all that heard thereof.
The lady, welcomed home with wondrous cheer, was long
a portent to the Bolognese, who gazed on her as on
one raised from the dead. Messer Gentile lived
ever after as the friend of Niccoluccio, and his and
the lady’s kinsfolk.
Now what shall be your verdict, gracious ladies?
A king’s largess, though it was of his sceptre
and crown, an abbot’s reconciliation, at no cost
to himself, of a malefactor with the Pope, or an old
man’s submission of his throat to the knife
of his enemy—will you adjudge that such
acts as these are comparable to the deed of Messer
Gentile? Who, though young, and burning with
passion, and deeming himself justly entitled to that
which the heedlessness of another had discarded, and
he by good fortune had recovered, not only tempered
his ardour with honour, but having that which with
his whole soul he had long been bent on wresting from
another, did with liberality restore it. Assuredly
none of the feats aforesaid seem to me like unto this.
NOVEL V.
— Madonna Dianora craves of Messer Ansaldo
a garden that shall be as fair in January as in May.
Messer Ansaldo binds himself to a necromancer, and
thereby gives her the garden. Her husband gives
her leave to do Messer Ansaldo’s pleasure:
he, being apprised of her husband’s liberality,
releases her from her promise; and the necromancer
releases Messer Ansaldo from his bond, and will take
nought of his. —
Each of the gay company had with superlative commendation
extolled Messer Gentile to the skies, when the king
bade Emilia follow suit; and with a good courage,
as burning to speak, thus Emilia began:—Delicate
my ladies, none can justly say that ’twas not
magnificently done of Messer Gentile; but if it be
alleged that ’twas the last degree of magnificence,
’twill perchance not be difficult to shew that
more was possible, as is my purpose in the little
story that I shall tell you.
