and
saying, 'Alack, why will you drive me to desperation and make me
blaspheme God and the Saints? I tell you the pig was stolen from me
yesternight.'

Then said Buffalmacco, 'If it be so indeed, we must cast about for a
means of having it again, an we may contrive it.' 'But what means,'
asked Calandrino, 'can we find?' Quoth Buffalmacco, 'We may be sure
that there hath come none from the Indies to rob thee of thy pig; the
thief must have been some one of thy neighbors. An thou canst make
shift to assemble them, I know how to work the ordeal by bread and
cheese and we will presently see for certain who hath had it.' 'Ay,'
put in Bruno, 'thou wouldst make a fine thing of bread and cheese with
such gentry as we have about here, for one of them I am certain hath
had the pig, and he would smoke the trap and would not come.' 'How,
then, shall we do?' asked Buffalmacco, and Bruno said, 'We must e'en
do it with ginger boluses and good vernage[383] and invite them to
drink. They will suspect nothing and come, and the ginger boluses can
be blessed even as the bread and cheese.' Quoth Buffalmacco, 'Indeed,
thou sayst sooth. What sayst thou, Calandrino? Shall's do 't?' 'Nay,'
replied the gull, 'I pray you thereof for the love of God; for, did I
but know who hath had it, I should hold myself half consoled.' 'Marry,
then,' said Bruno, 'I am ready to go to Florence, to oblige thee, for
the things aforesaid, so thou wilt give me the money.' Now Calandrino
had maybe forty shillings, which he gave him, and Bruno accordingly
repaired to Florence to a friend of his, a druggist, of whom he bought
a pound of fine ginger boluses and caused compound a couple of
dogballs with fresh confect of hepatic aloes; after which he let cover
these latter with sugar, like the others, and set thereon a privy mark
by which he might very well know them, so he should not mistake them
nor change them. Then, buying a flask of good vernage, he returned to
Calandrino in the country and said to him, 'Do thou to-morrow morning
invite those whom thou suspectest to drink with thee; it is a holiday
and all will willingly come. Meanwhile, Buffalmacco and I will
to-night make the conjuration over the pills and bring them to thee
to-morrow morning at home; and for the love of thee I will administer
them myself and do and say that which is to be said and done.'

[Footnote 383: _i.e._ white wine, see p. 372, note.]

Calandrino did as he said and assembled on the follo