Page 200 - THE DECAMERON: A Visionary Journey in 100 Stories and 100 Etchings by Petru Russu

The Decameron his servant take her clothes and wrap them in his cloak. He went with help her dress. Learning from the maid that no one knew where she had
the servant to the hapless lady's house, where he found her maid sitting
been except those who had brought her clothes and the husbandman
present, the lady was somewhat consoled and begged her for God's sake
disconsolate and woebegone at the door. "Good woman," he said, "what
to say nothing of the matter to anyone. They conversed for a long time,
has befallen your mistress?" "Sir, I know not," replied the maid. "I expected
and then the husbandman took the lady on his shoulders, for she could
to find her abed this morning, for I thought she went to bed last night,
not walk, and bore her safely out of the tower. The unfortunate maid,
but I could not find her anywhere. I do not know what has become of
her, and I am greatly distressed. But have you, Sir, nothing to say of the
matter?" "Only this," returned the scholar, "that I wish I had had you with
breaking her thigh and roaring in pain like a lion. The husbandman set the
lady down on a grassy meadow and went to see what had happened to
her where I had her, so I could have requited you for your offense as I have following with less caution, slipped and fell from the ladder to the ground,
requited her for hers. But be assured you shall not escape my hands until the maid. Finding her thigh broken, he brought her and laid her beside
you have received such a wage for your labor that you will never flout a the lady. Seeing her woes completed by this last misfortune and that
man again but will remember me." Then, turning to his servant, he said, the one from whom she most expected succor was lamed, the lady was
"Give her these clothes and tell her she may go bring her mistress away distressed beyond measure and wept so piteously that the husbandman
if she will." The servant did his bidding, and the maid, recognizing the was powerless to comfort her and wept himself. As the sun was now low,
clothes and fearing they had slain the lady, barely suppressed a shriek. and they did not want to be surprised by night, the husbandman, with the
She took the clothes, burst into tears, and set off at a run for the tower disconsolate lady's approval, went home and called for help from two
as soon as the scholar was gone. of his brothers and his wife. They returned with him, bearing a plank on
which they laid the maid and carried her to the lady's house. There, with
One of the lady's husbandmen had the misfortune to lose two of his hogs cold water and words of cheer, they restored some heart to the lady. The
that day. While seeking them, he came to the tower not long after the husbandman then took her on his shoulders and bore her to her chamber.
scholar had left and, peering around, heard the woeful lamentation of the His wife fed her with sops of bread, undressed her, and put her to bed.
hapless lady. He climbed up into the tower and called out as loudly as he They also provided the means to carry her and the maid to Florence, and
could, "Who wails up there?" The lady recognized her husbandman's voice so it was done. In Florence, the lady, who was very fertile in artifices,
and called him by name, saying, "Please, go fetch my maid and bring her invented an entirely fictitious story of what had happened to her and her
up here to me." The husbandman, recognizing her voice, replied, "Alas, maid, persuading her brothers, sisters, and everyone else that it was all
Madam, who put you there? Your maid has been searching for you all due to the enchantments of evil spirits. The physicians lost no time, and
day. Who would have thought you were here?" He then took the props although the lady's suffering and mortification were extreme, for she left
of the ladder, set them in position, and began securing the rounds with more than one skin sticking to the sheets, they cured her of a high fever
withies. While he was engaged in this, the maid arrived, beating her face and certain attendant maladies, as well as the maid's fractured thigh.
and breast, and cried out, "Alas, sweet my lady, where are you?" The lady The end of all this was that the lady forgot her lover and, having learned
answered as loudly as she could, "O my sister, I am up here. Do not weep, discretion, was careful neither to love nor to flout. The scholar, learning
but fetch me my clothes immediately." Hearing her mistress's voice, the that the maid had broken her thigh, deemed his vengeance complete and
maid, assisted by the husbandman, ascended the ladder, which he had was satisfied to say no more of the affair. Such were the consequences
almost set in order. Reaching the roof, she saw her lady lying there naked, of her flouts to this foolish young woman, who thought she could trifle
spent, and fordone, looking more like a half-burned stump than a human with a scholar with the same impunity as with others, not understanding
being. She planted her nails in her face and wept over her as if she were that they -though not all, but most -know where the Devil keeps his tail.
a corpse. However, the lady begged her to be silent for God's sake and Therefore, my ladies, be careful how you flout men, especially scholars

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