--
Andreuola loves Gabriotto: she tells him a dream that she has had; he tells
her a dream of his own, and dies suddenly in her arms. While she and her
maid are carrying his corpse to his house, they are taken by the Signory.
She tells how the matter stands, is threatened with violence by the Podesta,
but will not brook it. Her father hears how she is bested; and, her
innocence being established, causes her to be set at large; but she, being
minded to tarry no longer in the world, becomes a nun.
--
Glad indeed were the ladies to have heard Filomena's story, for that, often
though they had heard the song sung, they had never yet, for all their
enquiries, been able to learn the occasion upon which it was made. When
'twas ended, Pamfilo received the king's command to follow suit, and thus
spoke:--By the dream told in the foregoing story I am prompted to relate one
in which two dreams are told, dreams of that which was to come, as
Lisabetta's was of that which had been, and which were both fulfilled almost
as soon as they were told by those that had dreamed them. Wherefore, loving
ladies, you must know that 'tis the common experience of mankind to have
divers visions during sleep; and albeit the sleeper, while he sleeps, deems
all alike most true, but, being awake, judges some of them to be true,
others to be probable, and others again to be quite devoid of truth, yet not
a few are found to have come to pass. For which cause many are as sure of
every dream as of aught that they see in their waking hours, and so, as
their dreams engender in them fear or hope, are sorrowful or joyous. And on
the other hand there are those that credit no dream, until they see
themselves fallen into the very peril whereof they were forewarned. Of whom
I approve neither sort, for in sooth neither are all dreams true, nor all
alike false. That they are not all true, there is none of us but may many a
time have proved; and that they are not all alike false has already been
shewn in Filomena's story, and shall also, as I said before, be shewn in
mine. Wherefore I deem that in a virtuous course of life and conduct there
is no need to fear aught by reason of any dream that is contrary thereto, or
on that account to give up any just design; and as for crooked and sinister
enterprises, however dreams may seem to favour them, and flatter the hopes
of the dreamer with auspicious omens, none should trust them: rather should
all give full credence to such as run counter thereto. But come we to the
story.
In the city of Brescia there lived of yore a gentleman named Messer Negro da
Ponte Carraro, who with other children had a very fair daughter, Andreuola
by name, who, being unmarried, chanced to fall in love with a neighbour, one
Gabriotto, a man of low degree, but goodly of person and debonair, and
endowed with all admirable qualities; and aided and abetted by the
housemaid, the girl not only brought it to pass that Gabriotto knew that he
was beloved of her, but that many a time to their mutual delight he came to
see her in a fair garden belonging to her father. And that nought but death
might avail to sever them from this their gladsome love, they became privily
man and wife; and, while thus they continued their clandestine intercourse,
it happened that one night, while the girl slept, she saw herself in a dream
in her garden with Gabriotto, who to the exceeding great delight of both
held her in his arms; and while thus they lay, she saw issue from his body
somewhat dark and frightful, the shape whereof she might not discern; which,
as she thought, laid hold of Gabriotto, and in her despite with prodigious
force reft him from her embrace, and bore him with it underground, so that
both were lost to her sight for evermore: whereby stricken with sore and
inexpressible grief, she awoke; and albeit she was overjoyed to find that
'twas not as she had dreamed, yet a haunting dread of what she had seen in
her vision entered her soul. Wherefore, Gabriotto being minded to visit her
on the ensuing night, she did her best endeavour to dissuade him from
coming; but seeing that he was bent upon it, lest he should suspect
somewhat, she received him in her garden, where, having culled roses many,
white and red--for 'twas summer--she sat herself down with him at the base
of a most fair and lucent fountain. There long and joyously they dallied,
and then Gabriotto asked her wherefore she had that day forbade his coming.
Whereupon the lady told him her dream of the night before, and the doubt and
fear which it had engendered in her mind. Whereat Gabriotto laughed, and
said that 'twas the height of folly to put any faith in dreams, for that
they were occasioned by too much or too little food, and were daily seen to
be, one and all, things of nought, adding:--"Were I minded to give heed to
dreams, I should not be here now, for I, too, had a dream last night, which
was on this wise:--Methought I was in a fair and pleasant wood, and there, a
hunting, caught a she-goat as beautiful and loveable as any that ever was
seen, and, as it seemed to me, whiter than snow, which in a little while
grew so tame and friendly that she never stirred from my side. All the same
so jealous was I lest she should leave me, that, meseemed, I had set a
collar of gold around her neck, and held her by a golden chain. And
presently meseemed that, while the she-goat lay at rest with her head in my
lap, there came forth, I knew not whence, a greyhound bitch, black as coal,
famished, and most fearsome to look upon; which made straight for me, and
for, meseemed, I offered no resistance, set her muzzle to my breast on the
left side and gnawed through to the heart, which, meseemed, she tore out to
carry away with her. Whereupon ensued so sore a pain that it brake my sleep,
and as I awoke I laid my hand to my side to feel if aught were amiss there;
but finding nothing I laughed at myself that I had searched. But what
signifies it all? Visions of the like sort, ay, and far more appalling, have
I had in plenty, and nought whatever, great or small, has come of any of
them. So let it pass, and think we how we may speed the time merrily."
What she heard immensely enhanced the already great dread which her own
dream had inspired in the girl; but, not to vex Gabriotto, she dissembled
her terror as best she might. But, though she made great cheer, embracing
and kissing him, and receiving his embraces and kisses, yet she felt a
doubt, she knew not why, and many a time, more than her wont, she would gaze
upon his face, and ever and anon her glance would stray through the garden
to see if any black creature were coming from any quarter. While thus they
passed the time, of a sudden Gabriotto heaved a great sigh, and embracing
her, said:--"Alas! my soul, thy succour! for I die." And so saying, he fell
down upon the grassy mead. Whereupon the girl drew him to her, and laid him
on her lap, and all but wept, and said:--"O sweet my lord, what is't that
ails thee?" But Gabriotto was silent, and gasping sore for breath, and
bathed in sweat, in no long time departed this life.
How grievous was the distress of the girl, who loved him more than herself,
you, my ladies, may well imagine. With many a tear she mourned him, and many
times she vainly called him by his name; but when, having felt his body all
over, and found it cold in every part, she could no longer doubt that he was
dead, knowing not what to say or do, she went, tearful and woebegone, to
call the maid, to whom she had confided her love, and shewed her the woeful
calamity that had befallen her. Piteously a while they wept together over
the dead face of Gabriotto, and then the girl said to the maid:--"Now that
God has reft him from me, I have no mind to linger in this life; but before
I slay myself, I would we might find apt means to preserve my honour, and
the secret of our love, and to bury the body from which the sweet soul has
fled." "My daughter," said the maid, "speak not of slaying thyself, for so
wouldst thou lose in the other world, also, him that thou hast lost here;
seeing that thou wouldst go to hell, whither, sure I am, his soul is not
gone, for a good youth he was; far better were it to put on a cheerful
courage, and bethink thee to succour his soul with thy prayers or pious
works, if perchance he have need thereof by reason of any sin that he may
have committed. We can bury him readily enough in this garden, nor will any
one ever know; for none knows that he ever came hither; and if thou wilt not
have it so, we can bear him forth of the garden, and leave him there; and on
the morrow he will be found, and carried home, and buried by his kinsfolk."
The girl, heavy-laden though she was with anguish, and still weeping, yet
gave ear to the counsels of her maid, and rejecting the former alternative,
made answer to the latter on this wise:--"Now God forbid that a youth so
dear, whom I have so loved and made my husband, should with my consent be
buried like a dog, or left out there in the street. He has had my tears, and
so far as I may avail, he shall have the tears of his kinsfolk, and already
wot I what we must do." And forthwith she sent the maid for a piece of
silken cloth, which she had in one of her boxes; and when the maid returned
with it, they spread it on the ground, and laid Gabriotto's body thereon,
resting the head upon a pillow. She then closed the eyes and mouth, shedding
the while many a tear, wove for him a wreath of roses, and strewed upon him
all the roses that he and she had gathered; which done, she said to the
maid:--"'Tis but a short way hence to the door of his house; so thither we
will bear him, thou and I, thus as we have dight him, and will lay him at
the door. Day will soon dawn, and they will take him up; and, though 'twill
be no consolation to them, I, in whose arms he died, shall be glad of it."
So saying, she burst once more into a torrent of tears, and fell with her
face upon the face of the dead, and so long time she wept. Then, yielding at
last to the urgency of her maid, for day was drawing nigh, she arose, drew
from her finger the ring with which she had been wedded to Gabriotto, and
set it on his finger, saying with tears:--"Dear my lord, if thy soul be
witness of my tears, or if, when the spirit is fled, aught of intelligence
or sense still lurk in the body, graciously receive the last gift of her
whom in life thou didst so dearly love." Which said, she swooned, and fell
upon the corpse; but, coming after a while to herself, she arose; and then
she and her maid took the cloth whereon the body lay, and so bearing it,
quitted the garden, and bent their steps towards the dead man's house. As
thus they went, it chanced that certain of the Podesta's guard, that for
some reason or another were abroad at that hour, met them, and arrested them
with the corpse. Andreuola, to whom death was more welcome than life, no
sooner knew them for the officers of the Signory than she frankly said:--"I
know you, who you are, and that flight would avail me nothing: I am ready to
come with you before the Signory, and to tell all there is to tell; but let
none of you presume to touch me, so long as I obey you, or to take away
aught that is on this body, if he would not that I accuse him." And so, none
venturing to lay hand upon either her person or the corpse, she entered the
palace.
So soon as the Podesta was apprised of the affair, he arose, had her brought
into his room, and there made himself conversant with the circumstances: and
certain physicians being charged to inquire whether the good man had met his
death by poison or otherwise, all with one accord averred that 'twas not by
poison, but that he was choked by the bursting of an imposthume near the
heart. Which when the Podesta heard, perceiving that the girl's guilt could
but be slight, he sought to make a pretence of giving what it was not lawful
for him to sell her, and told her that he would set her at liberty, so she
were consenting to pleasure him; but finding that he did but waste his words
he cast aside all decency, and would have used force. Whereupon Andreuola,
kindling with scorn, waxed exceeding brave, and defended herself with a
virile energy, and with high and contumelious words drove him from her.
When 'twas broad day, the affair reached the ears of Messer Negro, who, half
dead with grief, hied him with not a few of his friends to the palace;
where, having heard all that the Podesta had to say, he required him
peremptorily to give him back his daughter. The Podesta, being minded rather
to be his own accuser, than that he should be accused by the girl of the
violence that he had meditated towards her, began by praising her and her
constancy, and in proof thereof went on to tell what he had done; he ended
by saying, that, marking her admirable firmness, he had fallen mightily in
love with her, and so, notwithstanding she had been wedded to a man of low
degree, he would, if 'twere agreeable to her and to her father, Messer
Negro, gladly make her his wife. While they thus spoke, Andreuola made her
appearance, and, weeping, threw herself at her father's feet, saying:--"My
father, I wot I need not tell you the story of my presumption, and the
calamity that has befallen me, for sure I am that you have heard it and know
it; wherefore, with all possible humility I crave your pardon of my fault,
to wit, that without your knowledge I took for my husband him that pleased
me best. And this I crave, not that my life may be spared, but that I may
die as your daughter and not as your enemy;" and so, weeping, she fell at
his feet. Messer Negro, now an old man, and naturally kindly and
affectionate, heard her not without tears, and weeping raised her tenderly
to her feet, saying:--"Daughter mine, I had much liefer had it that thou
hadst had a husband that I deemed a match for thee; and in that thou hadst
taken one that pleased thee I too had been pleased; but thy concealing thy
choice from me is grievous to me by reason of thy distrust of me, and yet
more so, seeing that thou hast lost him before I have known him. But as 'tis
even so, to his remains be paid the honour which, while he lived for thy
contentment, I had gladly done him as my son-in-law." Then, turning to his
sons and kinsmen, he bade them order Gabriotto's obsequies with all pomp and
honourable circumstance.
Meanwhile the young man's kinsmen and kinswomen, having heard the news, had
flocked thither, bringing with them almost all the rest of the folk, men and
women alike, that were in the city. And so his body, resting on Andreuola's
cloth, and covered with her roses, was laid out in the middle of the
courtyard, and there was mourned not by her and his kinsfolk alone, but
publicly by well-nigh all the women of the city, and not a few men; and
shouldered by some of the noblest of the citizens, as it had been the
remains of no plebeian but of a noble, was borne from the public courtyard
to the tomb with exceeding great pomp.
Some days afterwards, as the Podesta continued to urge his suit, Messer
Negro would have discussed the matter with his daughter; but, as she would
hear none of it, and he was minded in this matter to defer to her wishes,
she and her maid entered a religious house of great repute for sanctity,
where in just esteem they lived long time thereafter.