hast offered vnto me maruellous giftes and presents in
hys name: al which I haue refused, vpon consideration, that I
mynd not to fauour or loue him for his goods: but if thou canst
iustify by warrantize or other probable argument, that hee
loueth me so mutch as thou sayest, I will condescend without
fayle to loue him againe and to doe the thing that it shal
please him to commaund me: therfore if he wil assure me to do
that thing which I shal require hym to do, tel him that I am at
his commaundement." "What is that madame," (said the old woman)
"that you desire?" "The thing which I demaund" (answered the
Gentlewoman) "is, that he should cause to be made here without
the Citie, during the moneth of Januarie next commyng, a garden
full of greene herbes, floures and trees, bespred wyth leaues,
euen as it were in the moneth of May: and if so be that he do it
not, then let him neuer send thee or any other vnto me agayn:
for if afterwards he be importunate vpon me, like as I haue
hitherto kept it close from my husbande and parents, euen so
complayning vnto them, I wyll assaye to bee dispatched from hys
long and tedious sute." When the knight vnderstoode that
request, and the offer that hys Mystresse made him (although it
seemed a thinge very difficulte and all most impossible to bee
done) knowinge very well that she did the same for none other
purpose, but onely to put him out of hope that euer hee should
enioy hir, hee determined notwithstandinge, to proue what hee
was able to do. And for that purpose sent to seeke in many
places of the Worlde if there were any man that could assist him
and geue him Counsel therin. In the ende there was one found
that offred to doe it (if he were well waged thereunto) by the
art of Necromancie, with whom maister Ansaldo bargained for a
great summe of Money. Then he expected the moneth of Ianuarie
with great deuotion, whych beeing come, euen when the coldest
wether was, and that al places were ful of snow and yce, this
Necromancer vsed his art in sutch sort, as in the night after
the holy dais of Christmasse, in a faire medow adioyning to the
city, ther appered in the morning (as they can testify that saw
the same) one of the fairest gardens that euer any man saw, full
of herbes, trees, and fruites of all sortes: which when maister
Ansaldo had seen, God knoweth if he were glad or not: and
incontinently caused to be gathered the fairest fruites and
floures that were there, and secretlye sente