ou would have been less incensed if I had made choice of a nobleman,
and you bitterly reproach me for having condescended to a man of low
condition. In this you speak according to vulgar prejudice, and not
according to truth; nor do you perceive that the fault you blame is not
mine, but Fortune's, who often exalts the unworthy, and leaves the
worthiest in low estate. But, not to dwell on such considerations, look a
little into first principles, and you will see that we are all formed of
the same material and by the same hand. The first difference amongst
mankind, who are all born equal, was made by virtue; they who were
virtuous were deemed noble, and the rest were all accounted otherwise.
Though this law, therefore, may have been obscured by contrary custom, yet
is it discarded neither by nature nor good manners. If you regard only the
worth and virtue of your courtiers, and consider that of Guiscard, you
will find him the only noble person, and these others a set of poltroons.
With regard to his worth and valour, I appeal to yourself. Who ever
commended man more for anything that was praise-worthy than you have
commended him? And deservedly, in my judgment; but if I was deceived, it
was by following your opinion. If you say, then, that I have had an affair
with a person base and ignoble, I deny it; if with a poor one, it is to
your shame to have let such merit go unrewarded. Now concerning your last
doubt, namely how you are to deal with me: use your pleasure. If you are
disposed to commit an act of cruelty, I shall say nothing to prevent such
a resolution. But this I must apprise you of; that unless you do the same
to me, which you either have done, or mean to do to Guiscard, mine own
hands shall do it for you. If you mean to act with severity, cut us off
both together, if it appear to you that we have deserved it."

The Duchess' able defence of her choice of Guiscard and her democratic
views of society were hardly likely to influence the proud tyrant of
Salerno, although his house was sprung from a plebeian stock of Normandy.
Ignoring her plea and arguments, Tancred left his daughter alone with her
grief, and proceeded to the cells below to give the order for Guiscard's
immediate death by strangling. But Tancred's fury was by no means appeased
by the page's death, for tearing the unhappy youth's heart from the warm
and still quivering body, the brutal prince had the bleeding flesh placed
in a golden covered cup, which