d, towards Castel
Guglielmo, knowing not withal if his servant were fled thither or
otherwise and thinking that, so he might but avail to enter therein,
God would send him some relief. But darkness overtook him near a mile
from the town, wherefore he arrived there so late that, the gates
being shut and the draw-bridges raised, he could get no admission.
Thereupon, despairing and disconsolate, he looked about, weeping, for
a place where he might shelter, so at the least it should not snow
upon him, and chancing to espy a house that projected somewhat beyond
the walls of the town, he determined to go bide thereunder till day.
Accordingly, betaking himself thither, he found there a door, albeit
it was shut, and gathering at foot thereof somewhat of straw that was
therenigh, he laid himself down there, tristful and woebegone,
complaining sore to St. Julian and saying that this was not of the
faith he had in him.

However, the saint had not lost sight of him and was not long in
providing him with a good lodging. There was in the town a widow lady,
as fair of favour as any woman living, whom the Marquis Azzo loved as
his life and there kept at his disposition, and she abode in that same
house, beneath the projection whereof Rinaldo had taken shelter. Now,
as chance would have it, the Marquis had come to the town that day,
thinking to lie the night with her, and had privily let make ready in
her house a bath and a sumptuous supper. Everything being ready and
nought awaited by the lady but the coming of the Marquis, it chanced
that there came a serving-man to the gate, who brought him news, which
obliged him to take horse forthright; wherefore, sending to tell his
mistress not to expect him, he departed in haste. The lady, somewhat
disconsolate at this, knowing not what to do, determined to enter the
bath prepared for the Marquis and after sup and go to bed.

Accordingly she entered the bath, which was near the door, against
which the wretched merchant was crouched without the city-wall;
wherefore she, being therein, heard the weeping and trembling kept up
by Rinaldo, who seemed as he were grown a stork,[85] and calling her
maid, said to her, 'Go up and look over the wall who is at the
postern-foot and what he doth there.' The maid went thither and aided
by the clearness of the air, saw Rinaldo in his shirt and barefoot,
sitting there, as hath been said, and trembling sore; whereupon she
asked him who he was. He told her, as