he shall marry you," said Deodonato.
"By the crown of my fathers, she shall marry you! But what said he,
damsel?"

"May it please your Highness, he said that I had the prettiest face in
all the Duchy, and that he would have no wife but me; and thereupon he
kissed me; and I would have none of him, and I struck him and escaped."

"Send for the Judges," said Duke Deodonato. "And meanwhile keep this
damsel and let no man propose marriage to her until Our pleasure be
known."

Now, when the Judges were come, and the maiden was brought in and set
over against them on the right hand, and the learned Doctor took his
stand on the left, Deodonato prayed the Judges that they would perpend
carefully and anxiously of the question--using all lore, research,
wisdom, discretion, and justice--whether Dr. Fusbius had proposed
marriage unto the maiden or no.

"Thus shall Our mind be informed, and we shall deal profitably with
this matter," concluded Duke Deodonato.

Upon which arose great debate. For there was one part of the learned
men which leaned upon the letter and found no invitation to marriage in
the words of Dr. Fusbius; while another part would have it that in all
things the spirit and mind of the utterer must be regarded, and that it
sorted not with the years, virtues, learning, and position of the said
most learned Doctor to suppose that he had spoken such words and sealed
the same with a kiss, save under the firm impression, thought, and
conviction that he was offering his hand in marriage; which said
impression, thought, and conviction were fully and reasonably declared
and evident in his actions, manner, bearing, air, and conduct.

"This is very perplexing," said Duke Deodonato, and he knit his brows;
for as he gazed upon the beauty of the damsel, it seemed to him a thing
unnatural, undesirable, unpalatable, unpleasant, and unendurable, that
she should wed Dr. Fusbius.

Yet if such were the law--Duke Deodonato sighed, and he glanced at the
damsel: and it chanced that the damsel glanced at Duke Deodonato, and,
seeing that he was a proper man and comely, and that his eye spoke his
admiration of her, she blushed; and her cheek that had gone white when
those of the judges who favored the learned Doctor were speaking, went
red as a rose again, and she strove to order her hair, and to conceal
the rent that was in her robe. And Duke Deodonato sighed again.

"My lord," he said to the President, "we have heard these wise