guilty in the matter and were therefore unwilling to
discourse thereof. To say nothing of the fine honour you would do me
in that, I having been obedient unto all, you now, having made me your
king, seek to lay down the law to me, and not to discourse of the
subject which I propose. Put off, then, this misdoubtance, apter to
mean minds than to yours, and good luck to you, let each of you
bethink herself of some goodly story to tell." When the ladies heard
this, they said it should be as he pleased; whereupon he gave them all
leave to do their several pleasures until supper-time.

The sun was yet high, for that the discoursement[337] had been brief;
wherefor Dioneo having addressed himself to play at tables with the
other young men, Elisa called the other ladies apart and said to them,
"Since we have been here, I have still wished to carry you to a place
very near at hand, whither methinketh none of you hath ever been and
which is called the Ladies' Valley, but have never yet found an
occasion of bringing you thither unto to-day; wherefore, as the sun is
yet high, I doubt not but, an it please you come thither, you will be
exceeding well pleased to have been there." They answered that they
were ready and calling one of their maids, set out upon their way,
without letting the young men know aught thereof; nor had they gone
much more than a mile, when they came to the Ladies' Valley. They
entered therein by a very strait way, on one side whereof ran a very
clear streamlet, and saw it as fair and as delectable, especially at
that season whenas the heat was great, as most might be conceived.
According to that which one of them after told me, the plain that was
in the valley was as round as if it had been traced with the compass,
albeit it seemed the work of nature and not of art, and was in circuit
a little more than half a mile, encompassed about with six little
hills not over-high, on the summit of each of which stood a palace
builded in guise of a goodly castle. The sides of these hills went
sloping gradually downward to the plain on such wise as we see in
amphitheatres, the degrees descend in ordered succession from the
highest to the lowest, still contracting their circuit; and of these
slopes those which looked toward the south were all full of vines and
olives and almonds and cherries and figs and many another kind of
fruit-bearing trees, without a span thereof being wasted; whilst those
which faced the North Star[338