months altogether. Nevertheless, in spite of distance and length of
absence, his love continued to increase.

At last it happened that he made a journey to see his wife, and found
the Countess far removed from the Court, for the King of Spain was gone
into Andalusia, (10) taking with him the young Count of Aranda, who was
already beginning to bear arms.

10 There had been a revolt at Granada in 1499, and in the
following year the Moors rose in the Alpujarras, whereupon
King Ferdinand marched against them in person.--L.

Thus the Countess had withdrawn to a country-house belonging to her
on the frontiers of Aragon and Navarre. She was well pleased on seeing
Amadour, who had now been away for nearly three years. He was made
welcome by all, and the Countess commanded that he should be treated
like her own son. Whilst he was with her she informed him of all the
affairs of her household, leaving most of them to his judgment. And so
much credit did he win in her house that wherever he visited all doors
were opened to him, and, indeed, people held his prudence in such high
esteem that he was trusted in all things as though he had been an angel
or a saint.

Florida, by reason of the love she bore his wife and himself, sought
him out wherever he went. She had no suspicion of his purpose, and was
unrestrained in her manners, for her heart was free from love, save that
she felt great contentment whenever she was near Amadour. To more than
this she gave not a thought.

Amadour, however, had a hard task to escape the observation of those
who knew by experience how to distinguish a lover's looks from another
man's; for when Florida, thinking no evil, came and spoke familiarly to
him, the fire that was hidden in his heart so consumed him that he could
not keep the colour from rising to his face or sparks of flame from
darting from his eyes. Thus, in order that none might be any the wiser,
he began to pay court to a very beautiful lady named Paulina, a woman
so famed for beauty in her day that few men who saw her escaped from her
toils.

This Paulina had heard how Amadour had made love at Barcelona and
Perpignan, insomuch that he had gained the affection of the highest and
most beautiful ladies in the land, especially that of a certain Countess
of Palamos, who was esteemed the first for beauty among all the ladies
of Spain; and she told him that she greatly pitied him, since, after so
much good fortune, he had m