=Bertholdo of Valsabbia has three sons, all of them hunchbacks and
much alike in seeming. One of them, called Zambo, goes out into
the world to seek his fortune, and arrives at Rome, where he is
killed and thrown into the Tiber, together with his two
brothers.[34]=
It is indeed hard, sweet ladies and gracious Signora! hard, indeed, I
say it is, to kick against the pricks, for the kick of an ass is a cruel
thing; but still more cruel is the kick of a horse, and for this reason,
since fortune has willed it that I should undertake to tell a tale, I
had best obey; for patience beatifies us, but obstinacy damns us, and,
should we prove obstinate, we go straight to the devil. So if it should
chance that I tell you something which may prove in no wise to your
taste, do not give the blame to me, but to the Signora over yonder who
has thus willed it.
It often happens that a man goes a-seeking that which he had better
leave alone, and in consequence not seldom lights upon certain things
which he never looked to find, and in the end will be left with his hand
full of flies.[35] Thus, indeed, it happened some time ago to Zambo, the
son of Bertholdo of Valsabbia, who sought to dupe two of his brothers,
but by his brothers was himself duped. True it is that in the end they
all three died miserably, as you will hear if you will lend me your
ears, and with your minds and your understandings listen to the story
which I am now about to relate.
I must tell you, therefore, that Bertholdo of Valsabbia, in the province
of Bergamo, had three sons, all three hunchbacks, and all resembling
each other so closely that it was impossible to tell the one from the
other; they might, indeed, have been likened to three shrivelled
pumpkins.[36] One of these sons was called Zambo, another Bertaz, and
the third Santì; and Zambo, who was the eldest, had not yet attained his
sixteenth year. It came one day to Zambo’s ears that Bertholdo his
father, by reason of the great dearth there was in the parts round about
and in all the rest of the land besides, wished to sell for the sake of
his family the small property which was his patrimony (in sooth, there
were few or none to be found in that country who had any belongings of
their own); wherefore Zambo, addressing himself to Bertaz and Santì, his
younger brothers, spoke to them as an elder brother in the following
words: ‘It would surely be a wiser plan, my dear brothers, that our
father should retain the little bit of property which we happen to have,
so that after his death we may have something whereby to gain a
sustenance, and that you should go out into the world and try to earn
something upon which we may keep up our house. I, in the meantime, will
remain at home with the old man, taking good care of him, and thus we
shall have no need to waste our substance, and by such management may be
able to tide over the season of scarcity.’
Bertaz and Santì, the younger brothers, who were no less crafty and
cunning than Zambo, at once made answer to their brother: ‘Zambo, dear
brother that you are, you spring a surprise upon us somewhat suddenly,
and question us in such wise that we scarcely know how to answer you.
Give us thinking time for this one night; then we will consider the
matter, and to-morrow will let you have our reply.’
The two brothers, Bertaz and Santì, had been brought forth at one birth,
and between these two there was a greater sympathy than between either
of them and Zambo. And if Zambo were to be reckoned a rascal of
twenty-two carats, Bertaz and Santì were rascals of twenty-six; for it
not seldom happens that, where nature fails, ingenuity and malice supply
the want.
When the following morning had come, Bertaz, by agreement with Santì his
brother, went to find Zambo, and opened discourse with him in these
words: ‘Zambo, my dear brother, we have well thought over and considered
the case in which we stand, and, seeing that you are (as you will not
deny) the elder brother, we think it would be more seemly for you to go
first into the world, and that we who are younger should stop here to
look after our father. And we would counsel you that if, in the
meantime, you should come across any good fortune for yourself and for
us, you should write to us here, and we would come at once to join you.’
Zambo, who had hoped to get the better of Bertaz and Santì, was greatly
disconcerted when he heard this answer, and, muttering to himself, he
said: ‘These two are more cunning and malicious loons than I had
imagined.’ For he had hoped to be rid of his two brothers, and himself
be left master of all their property, trusting that they might both of
them die of hunger by reason of the dearth prevailing in the land;
moreover, their father was not long for this world, and had already one
foot in the grave. But the issue of this affair proved to be vastly
different from anything Zambo had expected. When, therefore, Zambo heard
the answer given to him by Bertaz and Santì, he made a small bundle of
the few rags he possessed, and, having filled a pouch with some bread
and cheese and a small flask of wine, he put on his feet a pair of shoes
of red pigskin, and departed thence and went towards Brescia. But not
finding anything to suit him there, he went on to Verona, where he came
across a master cap-maker, who asked him whether he knew how to make
caps, to which question he answered no; and, seeing that there was
nothing for him to do there, he left Verona, and, having passed through
Vicenza, he came to Padua, where certain doctors saw him and asked him
whether he knew how to take care of mules, and he answered them no, but
that he could till the land and tend vines; but, as he could not come to
any understanding with them, he went on his way to Venice.
Zambo had wandered about the city for a long time without lighting on
any employ to his taste, and, seeing that he had about him neither a
coin, nor anything to eat, he felt that he was indeed in evil case. But
after he had walked a long distance, he was brought by God’s pleasure to
the port, but because he was penniless no one would assist him.
Wherefore the poor fellow knew not which way he should turn, but having
remarked that the ragged wastrels who turned the machines for drawing
boats ashore gained a few pence by this labour, he took up this calling
himself. But Fortune, who always persecutes the poor, the slothful, and
the wretched, willed that one day when he was working one of these
machines the leather strap should break. This in untwining caught a
spar, which hit him in the chest and felled him to the ground, where for
a time he lay as one lifeless. Indeed, had it not been for the timely
aid given to him by some kind-hearted fellows, who haled him into their
boat by his legs and arms and rowed him back to Venice, he assuredly
would have died.
When Zambo had recovered from the ill effects of this mischance he went
in search of someone who might give him employment, and as he passed by
a grocer’s shop he was remarked by the master thereof, who was pounding
in a mortar almonds wherewith to make marzapan. Whereupon the grocer
asked him whether he was minded to come and serve in the shop, and Zambo
replied that he was; so, having entered, he was at once set to work by
the grocer at dressing certain comfits, and instructed how to separate
the black from the white, working the while beside another apprentice.
This fellow and Zambo (greedy gluttons, forsooth), in the course of
their task of comfit dressing, set to work in such a manner that they
stripped off and used the outer rind of the sweet almonds and ate the
kernels themselves. The grocer, when he saw what was going on, took a
stick in his hand and gave each of them a sound beating, saying: ‘If you
are set on plunder, you thievish knaves, I would that you pilfered your
own stores and not mine,’ and having thus spoken he belaboured them
still more and bade them go to the devil.
Zambo, smarting from the blows dealt him by the grocer, took his
departure and went to St. Mark’s Place, and as he passed by the spot
where herbs and vegetables are set out for sale, he met by good luck a
herbalist from Chiozza, Vivia Vianel by name, who straightway demanded
of him whether he would be willing to enter his service, where he would
get good food and good treatment as well. Zambo, who at this time wore
the armorial bearings of Siena[37] on his back, and was longing for a
good meal, replied that he was; so, when Vianel had sold his few last
bunches of herbs, they took a boat and returned to Chiozza, where Zambo
was at once set to work in the garden and bidden to tend the vines.
Now Zambo, after he had gone up and down in Chiozza for a certain time,
became acquainted with divers of his master’s friends, and when the
season for the first ripe figs had come, Vivia took the three finest he
could pluck from his garden, and, having put them on a platter, sent
them as a present to a friend of his in Chiozza whose name was Peder. He
called Zambo and gave him the three figs, and said to him: ‘Zambo, take
these three figs and carry them to my friend Ser Peder, and ask him to
accept them for love of me.’ Zambo in obedience to Vivia’s command
replied: ‘With pleasure, my master,’ and taking the figs he merrily went
his way. But it chanced by ill luck that as Zambo was going along the
street a greedy humour took possession of him, and having looked at the
figs over and over again he thus addressed gluttony: ‘What shall I do?
shall I eat or shall I refrain?’ To this gluttony replied: ‘A starving
man observes no law; wherefore eat.’ And for the reason that Zambo was
greedy by nature and very hungry to boot, he listened to these counsels
of gluttony, and having taken in his hands one of the figs, he began to
rend the skin from the neck thereof. Then he took a bite here and a bite
there, saying the while, ‘It is good; it is not good;’ and so he went on
till he had consumed it all in tasting, and nought but the skin
remained.
When Zambo had eaten the fig he began to wonder whether, perchance, he
might not have transgressed somewhat, but for the reason that gluttony
still urged him on, he did not stand long in balancing chances, but took
the second fig in his hand and treated it as he had treated the first.
After the greedy fellow had made an end of the second fig he was again
assailed by fears, and hardly knew whether, on account of his fault, he
should go on or turn back; but after a short term of indecision he took
courage and determined to go on. As soon as he had come to Ser Peder’s
door he knocked thereat, and as he was well known there the door was
quickly opened. Having entered he went to find Ser Peder, who was
walking up and down, and when he saw him the good man thus addressed
him: ‘What has Zambo come to tell me? What good news does he bring?’
‘Good morrow, good morrow,’ answered Zambo; ‘my master gave me three
figs to bring to you, but of these three I have eaten two.’ ‘But how
could you do such a thing as this?’ said Ser Peder. ‘I did it in this
fashion,’ said Zambo, and with these words he took the last fig and ate
it deliberately, and so it fell out that all three of the figs found
their way into Zambo’s belly. When Ser Peder saw this saucy jest he said
to Zambo: ‘My son, tell your master that I thank him, but that in future
he need not trouble himself to send me presents of this sort.’ Zambo
answered, ‘No, no, Messer Peder, say not so, for I shall never weary of
such errands,’ and with these words he left Messer Peder and went home.
When the report of Zambo’s smart trick came to Vivia’s ears, and when he
learned furthermore how finely lazy he was and a glutton as well,
guzzling when he was hungry till he was ready to burst, and how he would
never work save when he was driven thereto, the good man chased the
hunchback out of his house. So Zambo, poor devil, when he found himself
driven out of his employ, knew not whither to turn; thus after a little
he determined to go to Rome in the hope that he might there find better
fortune than he had hitherto come across, and this plan of his he duly
carried out.
Zambo, when he had arrived in Rome, went about seeking here and there a
master, and at last met a certain merchant who was called Messer Ambros
dal Mul, who kept a great shop full of cloth goods. With him Zambo took
service, and was set to mind the shop, and seeing that he had suffered
much in the past, he made up his mind to learn the trade and to live a
decent life for the future. Though he was deformed and ugly, he was
nevertheless very shrewd, and in a short time he made himself so useful
in the shop that his master seemed to take no more trouble himself about
buying or selling, but trusted everything to him and made use of him for
service of all kinds. Now it chanced that one day Messer Ambros had
occasion to go to the fair of Recanati with a stock of cloth, but
perceiving that Zambo had made himself so competent in the business and
had proved himself worthy of trust, he determined to send Zambo to the
fair, and bide at home himself and mind the shop.
After Zambo’s departure it happened by ill fortune that Messer Ambros
was seized with so grave and insidious an illness that after the lapse
of a few days he died. When his wife, who was called Madonna Felicetta,
found that she was a widow, she wellnigh died herself, of grief[38] for
the loss of her husband, and of anxiety on account of the breaking up of
her business. As soon as Zambo heard of the sad news of his master’s
death, he returned straightway and bore himself as a godly youth should,
and diligently went about the affairs of the shop. Madonna Felicetta, as
time went on, remarked that Zambo behaved himself well and uprightly,
and was diligent over the business. She considered, likewise, that a
year had now rolled away since the death of Messer Ambros her husband,
and, as she feared to lose Zambo some day, together with divers of the
customers of her shop, she took counsel with some of her gossips whether
she should marry or not, and in case she should resolve to marry,
whether it would be well for her to take for a husband Zambo the factor
of her business, who had been for a long time in the service of her
first husband, and had gathered much experience in the conduct of her
affairs. These worthy gossips deeming her proposition a wise one,
counselled her to marry Zambo; and between the word and the deed but
little time[39] intervened, for the nuptials were celebrated at once,
and Madonna Felicetta became the wife of Ser Zambo and Ser Zambo the
husband of Madonna Felicetta.
When Ser Zambo perceived himself raised to this high estate, how he had
a wife of his own and a fine shop well stocked with all manner of cloth
goods, he wrote to his father, telling him he was now in Rome, and of
the great stroke of luck which had befallen him. The father, who since
the day of Zambo’s departure had heard no tidings of his son, nor had
ever received a written word from him, now gave up the ghost from sheer
joy, but Bertaz and Santì were mightily pleased and consoled with the
news.
One day it chanced that Madonna Felicetta found herself in need of a new
pair of stockings, because the ones she wore were rent and torn,
wherefore she said to Ser Zambo her husband that he must have made for
her another pair. To this Zambo replied that he had other business to
do, and that if her stockings were torn, she had better go and mend them
and patch them and put new heels thereto. Madonna Felicetta, who had
been greatly pampered by her late husband, replied that it had never
been her wont to go shod in hose which had been mended and heeled, and
that she must have a new pair. Then answered Ser Zambo that in his
country customs were different, and that she must do without. Thus the
bout of wrangling began, and, flying from one angry word to another, it
came to pass in the end that Ser Zambo lifted his hand and cuffed her
over the head so heavily that she fell to the ground.[40] Madonna
Felicetta, planning the while how she might give back these blows of Ser
Zambo, was little disposed to come to terms with him or to pacify him in
any way, so she began to hurl foul words at him. Ser Zambo, feeling that
his honour was impugned thereby, belaboured her so soundly with his
fists that the poor woman was constrained to hold her peace.
When the summer had passed, and the cold weather had set in, Madonna
Felicetta asked Ser Zambo to let her have a silken lining wherewith to
repair her pelisse, which was in very bad condition, and in order that
he might be assured that she spoke the truth she brought it to him to
see; but Ser Zambo did not trouble to cast his eye over it, but simply
said that she must mend it and wear it as it was, for that in his
country people were not used to so much pomp. Madonna Felicetta, when
she heard these words, was mightily wroth, and affirmed that she must
have granted to her what she asked at any cost. Ser Zambo, however,
answered that she must hold her peace and be careful not to arouse his
anger, otherwise it would be the worse for her. But Madonna Felicetta
went on insisting that she must have it, and they one and the other
worked themselves up into such a fury that they were well nigh blinded
with rage. Whereupon Ser Zambo, according to his wont, began to thump
her with his stick, and gave her as shrewd a jacketting of blows as she
could bear, and she lay half dead.[41] When Madonna Felicetta saw how
hugely Zambo’s humour towards herself had changed, she began to
blaspheme and to curse the day and the hour when she had first spoken to
him, nor did she forget those who had advised her to take him for a
husband. ‘Is this the way you treat me,’ she cried, ‘you poltroon, you
ungrateful rascal, hangman, Goth, and villainous scoundrel? Is this the
reward you return to me for the many benefits you have received? for,
from the base hireling you formerly were, have I not made you the master
not only of my wealth but of my person as well? And yet you deal with me
in this wise. Hold your peace, traitor, for I will make you pay smartly
for this.’ Ser Zambo, hearing how his wife waxed more and more wroth,
and poured out her abuse of him more copiously than ever, made farther
shrewd play upon her back with his cudgel to give her a finishing touch,
whereupon Madonna Felicetta was reduced to such a state of fear, that
when she heard the sound of Zambo’s voice or footstep, she trembled like
a leaf in the wind, and became all wet with terror.
When the winter had passed and the summer was coming on, it chanced that
Ser Zambo had need to go to Bologna on account of business, and to
collect certain sums of money due to him. As this journey would occupy
some days, he said to Madonna Felicetta: ‘Wife, I would have you know
that I have two brothers, who are both hunchbacks as I am myself, and so
closely do we all resemble one another that if anyone should see us all
three together he would never know which was which. Now I bid you watch
well lest they come here and attempt to lodge with us. See that you do
not let them come over the threshold on any account, for they are
wicked, deceitful, and crafty knaves, and would assuredly play you some
evil trick. Then they would go to the devil and leave you with your
hands full of flies.[42] If I should learn that you have harboured them
in this house I will make you the most wretched woman in the world.’ And
having said these words he departed.
A few days after Zambo’s departure the brothers Bertaz and Santì
arrived, and went about asking for Ser Zambo’s shop, which was pointed
out to them. When the two rascals saw the fine shop, furnished richly
with all manner of cloth goods, they were astounded, and marvelled amain
how it was that he could have gathered together all this wealth in so
short a time. And, lost in wonderment, they went to the shop and said
they desired to have speech with Ser Zambo, but were told that he was
gone into the country; if, however, they had need of aught they could
ask for it. Whereupon Bertaz said they much wished to speak with him,
but as he was not at home they would speak with his wife, so they bade
the servant call Madonna Felicetta, and when she came into the shop she
knew at once that the men before her were her brothers-in-law. Bertaz,
when he saw her, straightway inquired of her, ‘Madonna, are you the wife
of Zambo?’ And she made answer that she was. Then said Bertaz: ‘Madonna,
shake hands, for we are the brothers of your husband, and therefore your
brothers-in-law.’ Madonna Felicetta, who well remembered the words of
Ser Zambo as well as the belabouring he had given her, refused to touch
their hands, but they went on plying her with so many affectionate words
and gestures that in the end she shook hands with them. As soon as she
had thus greeted them, Bertaz cried out: ‘Oh, my dear sister-in-law!
give us somewhat to eat, for we are half famished.’ But this she refused
to do. The rogues, however, knew so well how to use the trick of
flattery, and begged so persistently, that Madonna Felicetta was moved
to pity, and took them into the house and gave them food and drink in
plenty, and even allowed them to sleep in a certain corner. Scarcely had
three days passed since Bertaz and Santì had come to Madonna Felicetta’s
house when Ser Zambo returned. His wife, as soon as she heard of this,
was almost beside herself with terror, and she hardly knew what to do so
as to keep the brothers out of Ser Zambo’s sight, and as she could hit
upon no better plan she made them go into the kitchen, where was a
trough in which they were accustomed to scald pigs, and in this she bade
them conceal themselves.
When Ser Zambo entered the house and marked how dishevelled and worried
his wife seemed to be, he was mightily upset in his mind and said: ‘Why
do you look so frightened? What ails you? I suppose there is no gallant
hidden anywhere in the house?’ But she replied in a faint voice that
there was nought the matter with her. Ser Zambo, who was regarding her
sharply the while, said: ‘Certes, there is something the matter with
you. Are those brothers of mine by any chance in the house?’ But she
answered boldly that they were not; whereupon he began to give her a
taste of the stick, according to his custom. Bertaz and Santì, who were
under the pig-trough, could hear all the hurlyburly, and, so terrified
were they, that they wet their breeches like children in a fright, and
did not venture to move. Ser Zambo, when he at last put down his stick,
began to search the house in every corner to see whether he could find
anyone hidden, but finding nought he calmed himself somewhat and went
about the ordering of certain of his affairs, and so long was he
occupied thereanent (thus keeping his luckless brothers in their
hiding-place) that Bertaz and Santì, either through fear, or through the
great heat, or on account of the foul stench of the pig-trough,
straightway gave up the ghost.
When the hour had come at which Ser Zambo was wont to repair to the
piazza, there to transact business with the other merchants, he went out
of the house, and as soon as he had taken his departure Madonna
Felicetta went to the pig-trough to devise some scheme for getting rid
of her brothers-in-law, so that Ser Zambo might have no suspicion that
she had given them shelter. But when she uncovered the trough she found
them lying there both stark dead, and looking exactly like two pigs. The
poor woman, when she saw what had happened, fell into a terrible taking
of grief and despair, and, in order that her husband might be kept
altogether in ignorance of what had occurred, she spent all her force in
trying to throw them out of the house, so that the mishap might be
hidden from Ser Zambo, and from all the rest of the city as well.
I have heard people say that in Rome there is a certain custom according
to which, should the dead body of any stranger or pilgrim be found in
the public streets or in any man’s house, it is straightway taken up by
certain scavengers[43] appointed for this purpose and carried by them
outside the walls of the city and then cast into the Tiber, so that of
such unfortunates nothing more is ever heard or seen. Now Madonna
Felicetta, having gone to look out of the window to see whether by
chance any friends of hers might be passing by who would lend aid in
getting rid of the two dead bodies, by good luck espied one of these
corpse-bearers, and called to him to come in, telling him that she had a
corpse in the house, and that she wanted him to take it away at once and
cast it into the Tiber, according to the custom of the place. Already
Madonna Felicetta had pulled out one of the corpses from under the cover
of the trough, and had left it lying on the floor near thereto; so, when
the corpse-bearer had come upstairs, she helped him to load the dead
body on his shoulders, and bade him come back to the house after he had
thrown it into the river, when she would pay him for his services.
Whereupon the corpse-bearer went outside the city wall and threw the
body into the Tiber, and, having done his work, he returned to Madonna
Felicetta and asked her to give him a florin, which was the customary
guerdon. But while the corpse-bearer was engaged in carrying off the
first body, Madonna Felicetta, who was a crafty dame, drew out from the
trough the other body and disposed it at the foot of the trough in
exactly the same place where the first had lain, and when the
corpse-bearer came back to Madonna Felicetta for his payment, she said
to him: ‘Did you indeed carry the corpse I gave you to the Tiber?’ And
to this the fellow replied, ‘I did, madonna.’ ‘Did you throw it into the
river?’ said the dame; and he answered: ‘Did I throw it in? indeed I
did, and in my best manner.’ At this speech Madonna Felicetta said: ‘How
could you have thrown it in, as you say you have? Just look and see
whether it be not still here.’ And when the corpse-bearer saw the second
dead body, he really thought it must be the one he had carried away, and
was covered with dismay and confusion; and, cursing and swearing the
while, he hoisted it upon his shoulders, and, having carried it off, he
cast it into the Tiber, and stood for a while to watch it as it floated
down the stream.[44] And whilst he was once more returning to Madonna
Felicetta’s house to receive his payment, it chanced that he met Ser
Zambo, who was on his way home, and when the corpse-bearer espied the
man who bore so strong a likeness to the two other hunchbacks whom he
had carried to the Tiber, he flew into such a violent fit of rage that
he seemed, as it were, to spit forth fire and flames on all sides and
gave a free rein to his passion. For in truth he deemed the fellow
before him to be no other than the one whom he had already twice cast
into the river, and that he must be some evil spirit who was returning
to his own place; so he stole softly behind Ser Zambo and dealt him a
grievous blow on the head with an iron winch which he carried in his
hand, saying: ‘Ah! you cowardly, villainous loon, do you think that I
want to spend the rest of my days in haling you to the river?’ and as he
thus railed he mishandled him so violently that poor Zambo, on account
of the cudgelling he got, was soon a dead man and went to talk to
Pilate.[45]
When the corpse-bearer had got upon his shoulders the third corpse,
which was still warm, he bore it away and threw it into the Tiber after
the two others, and thus Zambo and Bertaz and Santì miserably ended
their lives. Madonna Felicetta, when she heard the news of this, was
greatly delighted thereat, and felt no small content that she was freed
from all her hardships and might again enjoy her former liberty.
Molino’s fable here came to an end. It had pleased the ladies so
mightily that they could not forbear from laughing thereat and talking
it over. And although the Signora more than once bade them be silent,
she found it no easy matter to put an end to their merry laughter. At
last, in order to bring the company once more into a sedater mood, she
commanded Molino to set them to guess an enigma in the same dialect, and
he, ever ready to obey her, gave his riddle in the following words:
Out of their prison grave so dark
Arise the bones of dead men stark,
And ’twixt the hours of tierce and sext,
By signs will tell to mortals vext
What chance’s smiles or frowns of fate
May bless or ban till time grows late.
Savage and deep the misers curse,
Marking the signs of chance averse;
But he, untouched by lust of gold,
Unmoved will fortune’s freaks behold.
Next one with beard of flesh upsprings,
And beak of bone, and warning sings
To bid the watchers bury deep
Their bodies in a downy sleep,
And lie, poor fools by care unstirred,
On welcome boon of foolish bird.
Though Molino’s fable forsooth pleased the company much, this ingenious
but somewhat gruesome enigma diverted them yet more; but forasmuch as no
one had gathered any inkling of its meaning, the ladies with one voice
begged him earnestly that he should give the solution thereof in the
same dialect he had used in his narration. Molino, when he perceived
that this was the general wish of the company, in order that he might
not appear to be niggard of his gifts, solved the enigma in the
following terms: “My enigma, dear ladies, signifies the game of hazard,
and the bones of the dead which leave their graves are the dice which
fall out of the dice-box, and when they mark tray, deuce, and ace, these
are the points which show good luck, and will not such points as these
put spirit into the play and money into the purse of the man who often
wins the throw thereby? Does the loser ever like to go away a loser, and
does not all this come by the change and variations of fortune? The
avaricious player who always seeks to win will now and again curse and
swear so fiercely that I cannot think why the earth does not open and
swallow him up. And, at such times as the game goes on all through the
night, the cock, who has a beard of flesh and a beak of bone, will get
up and crow ‘Cock-a-doodle-do,’ thus letting the gamesters know that it
is past midnight and they ought to repair to their beds of goose down.
When they lie in these is it not like sinking into a deep grave? Are you
all content with this my explanation?”
The explanation of this subtle enigma was received by the whole company
with great laughter; so hearty was it in sooth that they could scarce
forbear from rolling about on their seats. And after the Signora had
commanded everyone to keep silent, she turned towards Molino and said:
“Signor Antonio, as the fair orb of Dian outshines all other stars, so
the fable just told to us by you, together with your enigma, bears off
the palm from all others which we have hitherto heard.” Molino answered:
“The praise you give me, Signora, cannot surely be due on account of my
skill; it comes rather from the great courtesy which always abides in
you. But if it should happen that the Trevisan were willing to tell you
a story in the dialect of his country, I am sure you would listen to
this with still greater pleasure.” The Signora, who desired greatly to
hear a story told in this fashion, said: “Signor Benedetto, do you hear
what our Molino says? Certainly you would do him a great wrong were you
to make false these words of his. Put, therefore, your hand in your
pouch and draw therefrom some peasant story to enliven us all.” The
Trevisan, to whom it appeared unseemly that he should occupy the place
of Arianna, whose turn came next, at first excused himself, but seeing
that he could not weather[46] this point, began his fable in the
following words.
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]