ed amain at the unhappy Calandrino and would have
laughed yet more, but that it irked them to see him fleeced of the
capons, to boot, by those who had already robbed him of the pig. But,
as soon as the end of the story was come, the queen charged Pampinea
tell hers, and she promptly began thus: "It chanceth oft, dearest
ladies, that craft is put to scorn by craft and it is therefore a sign
of little wit to delight in making mock of others. We have, for
several stories, laughed amain at tricks that have been played upon
folk and whereof no vengeance is recorded to have been taken; but I
purpose now to cause you have some compassion of a just retribution
wreaked upon a townswoman of ours, on whose head her own cheat
recoiled and was retorted well nigh unto death; and the hearing of
this will not be without profit unto you, for that henceforward you
will the better keep yourselves from making mock of others, and in
this you will show great good sense.

Not many years ago there was in Florence, a young lady, by name Elena,
fair of favour and haughty of humour, of very gentle lineage and
endowed with sufficient abundance of the goods of fortune, who, being
widowed of her husband, chose never to marry again, for that she was
enamoured of a handsome and agreeable youth of her own choice, and
with the aid of a maid of hers, in whom she put great trust, being
quit of every other care, she often with marvellous delight gave
herself a good time with him. In these days it chanced that a young
gentleman of our city, by name Rinieri, having long studied in Paris,
not for the sake of after selling his knowledge by retail, as many do,
but to know the nature of things and their causes, the which
excellently becometh a gentleman, returned thence to Florence and
there lived citizen-fashion, much honoured as well for his nobility as
for his learning. But, as it chanceth often that those, who have the
most experience of things profound, are the soonest snared of love,
even so it befell this Rinieri; for, having one day repaired, by way
of diversion, to an entertainment, there presented herself before his
eyes the aforesaid Elena, clad all in black, as our widows go, and
full, to his judgment, of such beauty and pleasantness as himseemed he
had never beheld in any other woman; and in his heart he deemed that
he might call himself blest whom God should vouchsafe to hold her
naked in his arms. Then, furtively considering her once and again and