s, or
that she took any of the medicines he prescribed; but she thought to
blind her men-servants by his visits, as she afterwards informed me when
she was out of danger. On the eighth day she left her bed, apparently as
big as she had been before her delivery, continued her pilgrimage, and
returned in three weeks, looking almost quite well, for she had
gradually reduced the bulk of her artificial dropsy. The little girl had
been christened Costanza, in accordance with the order given me by her
mother, and was already placed with a nurse in a village about two
leagues hence, where she passed for my niece. The lady was pleased to
express her satisfaction with all I had done, and gave me when she was
going away a gold chain, which is now in my possession, from which she
took off six links, telling me that they would be brought by the person
who should come to claim the child. She also took a piece of white
parchment, wrote upon it, and then cut zigzag through what she had
written. Look, sir, here are my hands locked together with the fingers
interwoven. Now suppose your honour were to write across my fingers, it
is easy to imagine that one could read the writing whilst the fingers
were joined, but that the meaning would be lost as soon as the hands
were separated, and would appear again as soon as they were united as
before. Just so with the parchment; one half serves as a key to the
other; when they are put together the letters make sense, but separately
they have no meaning. One-half of the parchment and the whole chain,
short of the six links, were left with me, and I keep them still, always
expecting the arrival of the person who is to produce the counterparts;
for the lady told me that in two years she would send for her daughter,
charging me that I should have her brought up not as became her mother's
quality, but as a simple villager; and if by any chance she was not able
to send for the child so soon, I was on no account to acquaint her with
the secret of her birth, even should she have arrived at years of
discretion. The lady moreover begged me to excuse her if she did not
tell me who she was; having for the present important reasons to conceal
her name. Finally, after giving us four hundred gold crowns more, and
embracing my wife with tears, she departed, leaving us filled with
admiration for her discretion, worth, beauty, and modesty.

"Costanza remained at nurse in the village for two years. At the end of
that