TRAINING HAWKS, UNDER THE NOTICE OF
THE SOLDAN, WHO KNOWETH HIM AGAIN AND DISCOVERING HIMSELF TO
HIM, ENTREATETH HIM WITH THE UTMOST HONOUR. THEN, TORELLO
FALLING SICK FOR LANGUISHMENT, HE IS BY MAGICAL ART
TRANSPORTED IN ONE NIGHT [FROM ALEXANDRIA] TO PAVIA, WHERE,
BEING RECOGNIZED BY HIS WIFE AT THE BRIDE-FEAST HELD FOR HER
MARRYING AGAIN, HE RETURNETH WITH HER TO HIS OWN HOUSE

Filomena having made an end of her discourse and the magnificent
gratitude of Titus having been of all alike commended, the king,
reserving the last place unto Dioneo, proceeded to speak thus:
"Assuredly, lovesome ladies, Filomena speaketh sooth in that which she
saith of friendship and with reason complaineth, in concluding her
discourse, of its being so little in favour with mankind. If we were
here for the purpose of correcting the defaults of the age or even of
reprehending them, I might ensue her words with a discourse at large
upon the subject; but, for that we aim at otherwhat, it hath occurred
to my mind to set forth to you, in a story belike somewhat overlong,
but withal altogether pleasing, one of the magnificences of Saladin,
to the end that, if, by reason of our defaults, the friendship of any
one may not be throughly acquired, we may, at the least, be led, by
the things which you shall hear in my story, to take delight in doing
service, in the hope that, whenassoever it may be, reward will ensue
to us thereof.

I must tell you, then, that, according to that which divers folk
affirm, a general crusade was, in the days of the Emperor Frederick
the First, undertaken by the Christians for the recovery of the Holy
Land, whereof Saladin, a very noble and valiant prince, who was then
Soldan of Babylon, having notice awhile beforehand, he bethought
himself to seek in his own person to see the preparations of the
Christian princes for the undertaking in question, so he might the
better avail to provide himself. Accordingly, having ordered all his
affairs in Egypt, he made a show of going a pilgrimage and set out in
the disguise of a merchant, attended by two only of his chiefest and
sagest officers and three serving-men. After he had visited many
Christian countries, it chanced that, as they rode through Lombardy,
thinking to pass beyond the mountains,[471] they encountered, about
vespers, on the road from Milan to Pavia, a gentleman of the latter
place, by name Messer Torello d'Istria, who was on his way