you fall into far greater
affliction.' 'Sir,' answered the lady, 'I have many sins and know not
which one, more than another, God the Lord would have me amend;
wherefore, an you know it, tell me and I will do what I may to amend
it.' 'Madam,' rejoined the pilgrim, 'I know well enough what it is,
nor do I question you thereof the better to know it, but to the intent
that, telling it yourself, you may have the more remorse thereof. But
let us come to the fact; tell me, do you remember, ever to have had a
lover?'

The lady, hearing this, heaved a deep sigh and marvelled sore,
supposing none had ever known it, albeit, in the days when he was
slain who had been buried for Tedaldo, there had been some whispering
thereof, for certain words not very discreetly used by Tedaldo's
confidant, who knew it; then answered, 'I see that God discovereth
unto you all men's secrets, wherefore I am resolved not to hide mine
own from you. True it is that in my youth I loved over all the
ill-fortuned youth whose death is laid to my husband's charge, which
death I have bewept as sore as it was grievous to me, for that, albeit
I showed myself harsh and cruel to him before his departure, yet
neither his long absence nor his unhappy death hath availed to tear
him from my heart.' Quoth the pilgrim, 'The hapless youth who is dead
you never loved, but Tedaldo Elisei ay.[176] But tell me, what was the
occasion of your falling out with him? Did he ever give you any
offence?' 'Certes, no,' replied she; 'he never offended against me;
the cause of the breach was the prate of an accursed friar, to whom I
once confessed me and who, when I told him of the love I bore Tedaldo
and the privacy I had with him, made such a racket about my ears that
I tremble yet to think of it, telling me that, an I desisted not
therefrom, I should go in the devil's mouth to the deepest deep of
hell and there be cast into everlasting fire; whereupon there entered
into me such a fear that I altogether determined to forswear all
further converse with him, and that I might have no occasion
therefor, I would no longer receive his letters or messages; albeit I
believe, had he persevered awhile, instead of getting him gone (as I
presume) in despair, that, seeing him, as I did, waste away like snow
in the sun, my harsh resolve would have yielded, for that I had no
greater desire in the world.'

[Footnote 176: _i.e._ It was not the dead man, but Tedaldo Elisei whom
you loved. (_Lo sv