caused his garden to vanish after the third day, was
minded to depart, he bade him adieu. And the carnal
love he had borne the lady being spent, he burned
for her thereafter with a flame of honourable affection.
Now what shall be our verdict in this case, lovesome
ladies? A lady, as it were dead, and a love grown
lukewarm for utter hopelessness! Shall we set
a liberality shewn in such a case above this liberality
of Messer Ansaldo, loving yet as ardently, and hoping,
perchance, yet more ardently than ever, and holding
in his hands the prize that he had so long pursued?
Folly indeed should I deem it to compare that liberality
with this.
— King Charles the Old, being conqueror,
falls in love with a young maiden, and afterward growing
ashamed of his folly bestows her and her sister honourably
in marriage. —
Who might fully recount with what diversity of argument
the ladies debated which of the three, Giliberto,
or Messer Ansaldo, or the necromancer, behaved with
the most liberality in the affair of Madonna Dianora?
Too long were it to tell. However, when the king
had allowed them to dispute a while, he, with a glance
at Fiammetta, bade her rescue them from their wrangling
by telling her story. Fiammetta made no demur,
but thus began:—Illustrious my ladies, I
have ever been of opinion that in companies like ours
one should speak so explicitly that the import of
what is said should never by excessive circumscription
afford matter for disputation; which is much more
in place among students in the schools, than among
us, whose powers are scarce adequate to the management
of the distaff and the spindle. Wherefore I,
that had in mind a matter of, perchance, some nicety,
now that I see you all at variance touching the matters
last mooted, am minded to lay it aside, and tell you
somewhat else, which concerns a man by no means of
slight account, but a valiant king, being a chivalrous
action that he did, albeit in no wise thereto actuated
by his honour.
There is none of you but may not seldom have heard
tell of King Charles the Old, or the First, by whose
magnificent emprise, and the ensuing victory gained
over King Manfred, the Ghibellines were driven forth
of Florence, and the Guelfs returned thither.
For which cause a knight, Messer Neri degli Uberti
by name, departing Florence with his household and
not a little money, resolved to fix his abode under
no other sway than that of King Charles. And
being fain of a lonely place in which to end his days
in peace, he betook him to Castello da Mare di Stabia;
and there, perchance a cross-bow-shot from the other
houses of the place, amid the olives and hazels and
chestnuts that abound in those parts, he bought an
estate, on which he built a goodly house and commodious,
with a pleasant garden beside it, in the midst of
which, having no lack of running water, he set, after
our Florentine fashion, a pond fair and clear, and
