The first thing the lady did, when she had heard Federigo’s
story, and seen the relics of the bird, was to chide
him that he had killed so fine a falcon to furnish
a woman with a breakfast; after which the magnanimity
of her host, which poverty had been and was powerless
to impair, elicited no small share of inward commendation.
Then, frustrate of her hope of possessing the falcon,
and doubting of her son’s recovery, she took
her leave with the heaviest of hearts, and hied her
back to the boy: who, whether for fretting, that
he might not have the falcon, or by the unaided energy
of his disorder, departed this life not many days after,
to the exceeding great grief of his mother. For
a while she would do nought but weep and bitterly
bewail herself; but being still young, and left very
wealthy, she was often urged by her brothers to marry
again, and though she would rather have not done so,
yet being importuned, and remembering Federigo’s
high desert, and the magnificent generosity with which
he had finally killed his falcon to do her honour,
she said to her brothers:—“Gladly,
with your consent, would I remain a widow, but if you
will not be satisfied except I take a husband, rest
assured that none other will I ever take save Federigo
degli Alberighi.” Whereupon her brothers
derided her, saying:—“Foolish woman,
what is’t thou sayst? How shouldst thou
want Federigo, who has not a thing in the world?”
To whom she answered:—“My brothers,
well wot I that ’tis as you say; but I had rather
have a man without wealth than wealth without a man.”
The brothers, perceiving that her mind was made up,
and knowing Federigo for a good man and true, poor
though he was, gave her to him with all her wealth.
And so Federigo, being mated with such a wife, and
one that he had so much loved, and being very wealthy
to boot, lived happily, keeping more exact accounts,
to the end of his days.
— Pietro di Vinciolo goes from home to
sup: his wife brings a boy into the house to
bear her company: Pietro returns, and she hides
her gallant under a hen-coop: Pietro explains
that in the house of Ercolano, with whom he was to
have supped, there was discovered a young man bestowed
there by Ercolano’s wife: the lady thereupon
censures Ercolano’s wife: but unluckily
an ass treads on the fingers of the boy that is hidden
under the hen-coop, so that he cries for pain:
Pietro runs to the place, sees him, and apprehends
the trick played on him by his wife, which nevertheless
he finally condones, for that he is not himself free
from blame.
—
