Now it so befell that the very next day she saw Bertrand pass
in front of the inn on horseback at the head of his company; and
though she knew him very well, nevertheless she asked the good
woman of the inn who he was.
[036]
The hostess replied: "'Tis a
foreign gentleman--Count Bertrand they call him--a very pleasant
gentleman, and courteous, and much beloved in this city; and he is
in the last degree enamoured of one of our neighbours here, who is a
gentlewoman, but in poor circumstances. A very virtuous damsel
she is too, and, being as yet unmarried by reason of her poverty, she
lives with her mother, who is an excellent and most discreet lady,
but for whom, perchance, she would before now have yielded and
gratified the Count's desire."
[037]
No word of this was lost on the lady;
she pondered and meditated every detail with the closest attention,
and having laid it all to heart, took her resolution: she ascertained
the names and abode of the lady and her daughter that the Count
loved, and hied her one day privily, wearing her pilgrim's weeds, to
their house, where she found the lady and her daughter in very
evident poverty, and after greeting them, told the lady that, if it
were agreeable to her, she would speak with her.
[038]
The gentlewoman
rose and signified her willingness to listen to what she had to say;
so they went into a room by themselves and sate down, and then
the Countess began thus: "Madam, methinks you are, as I am,
under Fortune's frown; but perchance you have it in your power,
if you are so minded, to afford solace to both of us."
[039]
The lady
answered that, so she might honourably find it, solace indeed was
what she craved most of all things in the world.
[040]
Whereupon the
Countess continued: "I must first be assured of your faith, wherein
if I confide and am deceived, the interests of both of us will suffer."
[041]
"Have no fear," said the gentlewoman, "speak your whole mind
without reserve, for you will find that there is no deceit in me."
[042]
So the Countess told who she was, and the whole course of her love
affair, from its commencement to that hour, on such wise that the
gentlewoman, believing her story the more readily that she had
already heard it in part from others, was touched with compassion
for her. The narrative of her woes complete, the Countess added:
"Now that you have heard my misfortunes, you know the two
conditions that I must fulfil, if I would come by my husband; nor
know I any other person than you, that may enable me to fulfil
them; but so you may, if this which I hear is true, to wit, that
my husband is in the last degree enamoured of your daughter."
[043]
"Madam," replied the gentlewoman, "I know not if the Count
loves my daughter, but true it is that he makes great shew of loving
her; but how may this enable me to do aught for you in the matter
that you have at heart?"
[044]
"The how, madam," returned the
Countess, "I will shortly explain to you; but you shall first hear
what I intend shall ensue, if you serve me. Your daughter, I see, is
fair and of marriageable age, and, by what I have learned and may
well understand, 'tis because you have not the wherewith to marry
her that you keep her at home. Now, in recompense of the service
that you shall do me, I mean to provide her forthwith from my own
moneys with such a dowry as you yourself shall deem adequate for
her marriage."
[045]
The lady was too needy not to be gratified by the
proposal; but, nevertheless, with the true spirit of the gentlewoman,
she answered: "Nay but, madam, tell me that which I may do
for you, and if it shall be such as I may honourably do, gladly will I
do it, and then you shall do as you may be minded."[046]Said then the
Countess: "I require of you, that through some one in whom you
trust you send word to the Count, my husband, that your daughter
is ready to yield herself entirely to his will, so she may be sure that
he loves her even as he professes; whereof she will never be convinced,
until he send her the ring which he wears on his finger, and
which, she understands, he prizes so much: which, being sent, you
shall give to me,
[047]
and shall then send him word that your daughter
is ready to do his pleasure, and, having brought him hither secretly,
you shall contrive that I lie by his side instead of your daughter.
Perchance, by God's grace I shall conceive, and so, having his ring
on my finger, and a son gotten of him on my arm, shall have him
for my own again, and live with him even as a wife should live with
her husband, and owe it all to you."
