among the green branches, bore
witness thereof unto the ear with their merry songs, when the ladies
and the three young men, arising all, entered the gardens and pressing
the dewy grass with slow step, went wandering hither and thither,
weaving goodly garlands and disporting themselves, a great while. And
like as they had done the day foregone, even so did they at present;
to wit, having eaten in the cool and danced awhile, they betook them
to repose and arising thence after none, came all, by command of their
queen, into the fresh meadows, where they seated themselves round
about her. Then she, who was fair of favour and exceeding pleasant of
aspect, having sat awhile, crowned with her laurel wreath, and looked
all her company in the face, bade Neifile give beginning to the day's
stories by telling one of her fashion; whereupon the latter, without
making any excuse, blithely began to speak thus:

THE FIRST STORY

[Day the Second]

MARTELLINO FEIGNETH HIMSELF A CRIPPLE AND MAKETH BELIEVE TO
WAX WHOLE UPON THE BODY OF ST. ARRIGO. HIS IMPOSTURE BEING
DISCOVERED, HE IS BEATEN AND BEING AFTER TAKEN [FOR A
THIEF,] GOETH IN PERIL OF BEING HANGED BY THE NECK, BUT
ULTIMATELY ESCAPETH

"It chanceth oft, dearest ladies, that he who studieth to befool
others, and especially in things reverend, findeth himself with
nothing for his pains but flouts and whiles cometh not off scathless.
Wherefore, that I may obey the queen's commandment and give beginning
to the appointed theme with a story of mine, I purpose to relate to
you that which, first misfortunately and after happily, beyond his
every thought, betided a townsman of ours.

No great while agone there was at Treviso a German called Arrigo, who,
being a poor man, served whoso required him to carry burdens for hire;
and withal he was held of all a man of very holy and good life.
Wherefore, be it true or untrue, when he died, it befell, according to
that which the Trevisans avouch, that, in the hour of his death, the
bells of the great church of Treviso began to ring, without being
pulled of any. The people of the city, accounting this a miracle,
proclaimed this Arrigo a saint and running all to the house where he
lay, bore his body, for that of a saint, to the Cathedral, whither
they fell to bringing the halt, the impotent and the blind and others
afflicted with whatsoever defect or infirmity, as if they should all
be made whole by the touc