Page 197 - THE DECAMERON: A Visionary Journey in 100 Stories and 100 Etchings by Petru Russu

you have no cause to love, but for the respect you have for yourself as a gentleman, hoping to induce me to magnanimously desist from further
gentleman, let what you have done suffice to avenge the wrong I did you. chastisement of your baseness. But your cajoleries will not cloud my mind
Bring me my clothes so I can get down from here and spare my honor, as your false promises once did. I know myself better now, thanks to your
which you cannot restore if you take it. If I deprived you of one night with one night's instruction, than for all the time I spent in Paris. But even if I
me, I can give you many others in recompense. You need only choose the were disposed to be magnanimous, you are not one to whom it is meet
times. Let this suffice, and like a worthy gentleman, be satisfied with your to show magnanimity. A wild beast like you, having merited vengeance,
revenge and let me know it. Do not use your might against a woman. It is can claim no relief from suffering except death. In the case of a human
no glory for an eagle to vanquish a dove. For God's and your own honor's being, it would suffice to temper vengeance with mercy, as you said. But
sake, have mercy on me." I, though no eagle, knowing you to be no dove but a venomous serpent,
mankind's most ancient enemy, am determined to harry you to the bitter
The scholar, though his haughty spirit still brooded on her mistreatment end. This is not properly called vengeance but rather just retribution.
of him, felt some compunction mingling with his exultation at seeing her Vengeance should exceed the offense, and my chastisement of you will
weep and supplicate. He had desired vengeance above all things, and fall short of it. If I were minded to be avenged on you, considering how
to have wreaked it was sweet. Though his humanity prompted him to you treated my heart and soul, it would not suffice to take your life or
have compassion on the hapless woman, it did not subdue his fierce the lives of a hundred others like you. I would only be slaying a vile, base,
resentment. He replied, "Madam Elena, had my prayers, though I had no and wicked woman. What are you more than any other pitiful baggage
art to mingle them with tears and honeyed words as you do, inclined you that I should spare your little store of beauty, which a few years will ruin,
that night when I stood perishing with cold in the snow-filled courtyard to covering your face with wrinkles? It was not for lack of will that you failed
grant me the least shelter, it would be a light matter for me to hearken to to do to death a worthy gentleman, as you called me, of whom the world
yours now. But if you are now so much more careful of your honor than may have more profit in a single day than of a hundred thousand like
you used to be and it irks you to stay there naked, address your prayers you while the world lasts. By this rude discipline, I will teach you what
to the one in whose arms it did not irk you to pass that night naked, it is to flout men of spirit, especially scholars, so that if you escape with
though you knew I was beating time on the snow in your courtyard with your life, you will have good cause to shun such folly in the future. But if
chattering teeth. He should come to your aid, fetch your clothes, and you are so eager to descend, why not throw yourself down? God willing,
adjust the ladder for your descent. He should be the one to inspire this you would break your neck, be free of your torment, and make me the
tenderness you now show for your honor, which you have jeopardized happiest man alive. I have no more to say to you. My art and craft caused
for his sake many times. Why do you not call him to your aid? To whom you to climb; it is yours to find the way down. You had cunning enough
does it pertain more than to him? You are his. Of whom will he have a when you wanted to flout me."
care, whom will he succor, if not you? You asked him that night, when
you were wantoning with him, whether my folly or the love you bore While the scholar spoke, the hapless lady wept incessantly. By the time
him seemed greater. Call him now, foolish woman, and see if the love he finished, the sun was high in the sky, aggravating her misery. When he
you bear him and your wit and his can deliver you from my folly. It is no was silent, she answered, "Ah, ruthless man, if that accursed night has so
longer in your power to show me courtesy of what I no longer desire, rankled with you, and you deem my fault so grave that neither my youth
nor to refuse it if I did desire it. Reserve your nights for your lover if and beauty, nor my bitter tears, nor my humble supplications may move
you leave here alive. They are all yours and his. One of them was more you to pity, let this at least move you and abate your remorseless severity:
than I cared for; it is enough for me to have been flouted once. By your it was my act alone, in that I trusted you and revealed all my secrets, that
cunning speech, you strive to conciliate my goodwill, calling me a worthy opened the way for you to achieve your end and made me aware of my

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