esty, and did obeisance to the
King; which done they hied them to the place of ingress to the pond, and
she that had the frying-pan having set it down, and afterward the other
things, took the pole that the other carried, and so they both went down
into the pond, being covered by its waters to their breasts. Whereupon
one of Messer Neri's servants, having forthwith lit a fire, and set the
tripod on the faggots and oil therein, addressed himself to wait, until
some fish should be thrown to him by the girls. Who, the one searching
with the pole in those parts where she knew the fish lay hid, while the
other made ready the nets, did in a brief space of time, to the exceeding
great delight of the King, who watched them attentively, catch fish not a
few, which they tossed to the servant, who set them, before the life was
well out of them, in the frying-pan. After which, the maidens, as
pre-arranged, addressed them to catch some of the finest fish, and cast
them on to the table before the King, and Count Guy, and their father.
The fish wriggled about the table to the prodigious delight of the King,
who in like manner took some of them, and courteously returned them to
the girls; with which sport they diverted them, until the servant had
cooked the fish that had been given him: which, by Messer Neri's command,
were set before the King rather as a side-dish than as aught very rare or
delicious.

When the girls saw that all the fish were cooked, and that there was no
occasion for them to catch any more, they came forth of the pond, their
fine white garments cleaving everywhere close to their flesh so as to
hide scarce any part of their delicate persons, took up again the things
that they had brought, and passing modestly before the King, returned to
the house. The King, and the Count, and the other gentlemen that waited,
had regarded the maidens with no little attention, and had, one and all,
inly bestowed on them no little praise, as being fair and shapely, and
therewithal sweet and debonair; but 'twas in the King's eyes that they
especially found favour. Indeed, as they came forth of the water, the
King had scanned each part of their bodies so intently that, had one then
pricked him, he would not have felt it, and his thoughts afterwards
dwelling upon them, though he knew not who they were, nor how they came
to be there, he felt stir within his heart a most ardent desire to
pleasure them, whereby he knew very well that, if he t