The Decameron, Volume II

about midnight; I will leave the dooropen; thou knowest the side of the bed on which I sleep; thou wilt comethere; should I be asleep, thou hast but to touch me, and I shall awake,and give thee solace of thy long-pent desire. In earnest whereof I willeven give thee a kiss." So saying, she threw her arms about his neck, andlovingly kissed him, as Anichino her.

  Their colloquy thus ended, Anichino betook him elsewhere about somematters which he had to attend to, looking forward to midnight withboundless exultation. Egano came in from his hawking; and after supper,being weary, went straight to bed, whither the lady soon followed him,leaving, as she had promised, the door of the chamber open. Thitheraccordingly, at the appointed hour, came Anichino, and having softlyentered the chamber, and closed the door behind him, stole up to wherethe lady lay, and laying his hand upon her breast, found that she wasawake. Now, as soon as she wist that Anichino was come, she took his handin both her own; and keeping fast hold of him, she turned about in thebed, until she awoke Egano; whereupon:--"Husband," quoth she, "I wouldnot say aught of this to thee, yestereve, because I judged thou wastweary; but tell me, upon thy hope of salvation, Egano, whom deemest thouthy best and most loyal retainer, and the most attached to thee, of allthat thou hast in the house?" "What a question is this, wife?" returnedEgano. "Dost not know him? Retainer I have none, nor ever had, sotrusted, or loved, as Anichino. But wherefore put such a question?"

  Now, when Anichino wist that Egano was awake, and heard them talk ofhimself, he more than once tried to withdraw his hand, being mightilyafraid lest the lady meant to play him false; but she held it so tightlythat he might not get free, while thus she made answer to Egano:--"I willtell thee what he is. I thought that he was all thou sayst, and that nonewas so loyal to thee as he, but he has undeceived me, for that yesterday,when thou wast out a hawking, he, being here, chose his time, and had theshamelessness to crave of me compliance with his wanton desires: and I,that I might not need other evidence than that of thine own senses toprove his guilt to thee, I made answer, that I was well content, and thatto-night, after midnight, I would get me into the garden, and await himthere at the foot of the pine. Now go thither I shall certainly not; but,if thou wouldst prove the loyalty of thy retainer, thou canst readily doso, if thou but slip on one of my loose robes, and cover thy face with aveil, and go down and attend his coming, for come, I doubt not, he will."Whereto Egano:--"Meet indeed it is," quoth he, "that I should go see;"and straightway up he got, and, as best he might in the dark, he put onone of the lady's loose robes and veiled his face, and then hied him tothe garden, and sate down at the foot of the pine to await Anichino. Thelady no sooner wist that he was out of the room, than she rose, andlocked the door. Anichino, who had never been so terrified in all hislife, and had struggled with all his might to disengage his hand from thelady's clasp, and had inwardly cursed her and his love, and himself fortrusting her, a hundred thousand times, was overjoyed beyond measure atthis last turn that she had given the affair. And so, the lady having gother to bed again, and he, at her bidding, having stripped and laid himdown beside her, they had solace and joyance of one another for a goodwhile. Then, the lady, deeming it unmeet for Anichino to tarry longerwith her, caused him to get up and resume his clothes, saying tohim:--"Sweet my mouth, thou wilt take a stout cudgel, and get thee to thegarden, and making as if I were there, and thy suit to me had been but totry me, thou wilt give Egano a sound rating with thy tongue and a soundbelabouring with thy cudgel, the sequel whereof will be wondrouslygladsome and delightful." Whereupon Anichino hied him off to the garden,armed with a staff of wild willow; and as he drew nigh the pine, Eganosaw him, and rose and came forward to meet him as if he would receive himwith the heartiest of cheer. But:--"Ah! wicked woman!" quoth Anichino;"so thou art come! Thou didst verily believe, then, that I was, that Iam, minded thus to wrong my lord? Foul fall thee a thousand times!" Andtherewith he raised his cudgel, and began to lay about him. Egano,however, had heard and seen enough, and without a word took to flight,while Anichino pursued him, crying out:--"Away with thee! God send thee abad year, lewd woman that thou art; nor doubt that Egano shall hear ofthis to-morrow." Egano, having received sundry round knocks, got him backto his chamber with what speed he might; and being asked by the lady,whether Anichino had come into the garden:--"Would to God he had not!"quoth he, "for that, taking me for thee, he has beaten me black and bluewith his cudgel, and rated me like the vilest woman that ever was:passing strange, indeed, it had seemed to me that he should have saidthose words to thee with intent to dishonour me; and now 'tis plain that'twas but that, seeing thee so blithe and frolicsome, he was minded toprove thee." Whereto:--"God be praised," returned the lady, "that heproved me by words, as thee by acts: and I doubt not he may say that Ibear his words with more patience than thou his acts. But since he is soloyal to thee, we must make much of him and do him honour." "Ay, indeed,"quoth Egano, "thou sayst sooth."

  Thus was Egano fortified in the belief that never had any gentleman wifeso true, or retainer so loyal, as he; and many a hearty laugh had he withAnichino and his lady over this affair, which to them was the occasionthat, with far less let than might else have been, they were able to havesolace and joyance of one another, so long as it pleased Anichino totarry at Bologna.

  NOVEL VIII.

  --A husband grows jealous of his wife, and discovers that she has warningof her lover's approach by a piece of pack-thread, which she ties to hergreat toe a nights. While he is pursuing her lover, she puts anotherwoman in bed in her place. The husband, finding her there, beats her, andcuts off her hair. He then goes and calls his wife's brothers, who,holding his accusation to be false, give him a rating.--

  Rare indeed was deemed by common consent the subtlety shewn by MadonnaBeatrice in the beguilement of her husband, and all affirmed that theterror of Anichino must have been prodigious, when, the lady stillkeeping fast hold of him, he had heard her say that he had made suit oflove to her. However, Filomena being silent, the king turned to Neifile,saying:--"'Tis now for you to tell." Whereupon Neifile, while a slightsmile died away upon her lips, thus began:--Fair ladies, to entertain youwith a goodly story, such as those which my predecessors have delightedyou withal, is indeed a heavy burden, but, God helping me, I trust fairlywell to acquit myself thereof.

  You are to know, then, that there dwelt aforetime in our city a mostwealthy merchant, Arriguccio Berlinghieri by name, who foolishly, as wewot by daily experience is the way of merchants, thinking to compassgentility by matrimony, took to wife a young gentlewoman, by no meanssuited to him, whose name was Monna Sismonda. Now Monna Sismonda, seeingthat her husband was much abroad, and gave her little of his company,became enamoured of a young gallant, Ruberto by name, who had longcourted her: and she being grown pretty familiar with him, and using,perchance, too little discretion, for she affected him extremely, it sobefell that Arriguccio, whether it was that he detected somewhat, orhowsoever, waxed of all men the most jealous, and gave up going abroad,and changed his way of life altogether, and made it his sole care towatch over his wife, insomuch that he never allowed himself a wink ofsleep until he had seen her to bed: which occasioned the lady the mostgrievous dumps, because 'twas on no wise possible for her to be with herRuberto. So, casting about in many ways how she might contrive to meethim, and being thereto not a little plied by Ruberto himself, shebethought her at last of the following expedient: to wit, her roomfronting the street, and Arriguccio, as she had often observed, beingvery hard put to it to get him to sleep, but thereafter sleeping verysoundly, she resolved to arrange with Ruberto that he should come to thefront door about midnight, whereupon she would get her down, and open thedoor, and stay some time with him while her husband was in his deepsleep. And that she might have tidings of his arrival, yet so as thatnone else might wot aught thereof, she adopted the device of lowering apack-thread from the bedroom window on such wise that, while with one endit should all but touch the ground, it should traverse the floor of theroom, until it reached the bed, and then be brought under the clothes
, sothat, when she was abed, she might attach it to her great toe. Having sodone, she sent word to Ruberto, that when he came, he must be sure tojerk the pack-thread, and, if her husband were asleep, she would looseit, and go open to him; but, if he were awake, she would hold it taut anddraw it to herself, to let him know that he must not expect her. Rubertofell in with the idea, came there many times, and now forgathered withher and again did not. But at last, they still using this cunningpractice, it so befell that one night, while the lady slept, Arriguccio,letting his foot stray more than he was wont about the bed, came upon thepack-thread, and laying his hand upon it, found that it was attached tohis lady's great toe, and said to himself:--This must be some trick: andafterwards discovering that