ishevelled and torn by the
bushes and the brambles. At her heels ran two huge and fierce
mastiffs, which followed hard upon her and ofttimes bit her cruelly,
whenas they overtook her; and after them he saw come riding upon a
black courser a knight arrayed in sad-coloured armour, with a very
wrathful aspect and a tuck in his hand, threatening her with death in
foul and fearsome words.

This sight filled Nastagio's mind at once with terror and amazement
and after stirred him to compassion of the ill-fortuned lady,
wherefrom arose a desire to deliver her, an but he might, from such
anguish and death. Finding himself without arms, he ran to take the
branch of a tree for a club, armed wherewith, he advanced to meet the
dogs and the knight. When the latter saw this, he cried out to him
from afar off, saying, 'Nastagio, meddle not; suffer the dogs and
myself to do that which this wicked woman hath merited.' As he spoke,
the dogs, laying fast hold of the damsel by the flanks, brought her to
a stand and the knight, coming up, lighted down from his horse;
whereupon Nastagio drew near unto him and said, 'I know not who thou
mayst be, that knowest me so well; but this much I say to see that it
is a great felony for an armed knight to seek to slay a naked woman
and to set the dogs on her, as she were a wild beast; certes, I will
defend her as most I may.'

'Nastagio,' answered the knight, 'I was of one same city with thyself
and thou wast yet a little child when I, who hight Messer Guido degli
Anastagi, was yet more passionately enamoured of this woman than thou
art presently of yonder one of the Traversari and my ill fortune for
her hard-heartedness and barbarity came to such a pass that one day I
slew myself in despair with this tuck thou seest in my hand and was
doomed to eternal punishment. Nor was it long ere she, who was beyond
measure rejoiced at my death, died also and for the sin of her cruelty
and of the delight had of her in my torments (whereof she repented her
not, as one who thought not to have sinned therein, but rather to have
merited reward,) was and is on like wise condemned to the pains of
hell. Wherein no sooner was she descended than it was decreed unto her
and to me, for penance thereof,[284] that she should flee before me
and that I, who once loved her so dear, should pursue her, not as a
beloved mistress, but as a mortal enemy, and that, as often as I
overtook her, I should slay her with this tuck, wherewit