[004]
'Tis no long time since at Rome, which, albeit now the tail,
was of yore the head, of the world, there dwelt a young man, Pietro
Boccamazza by name, a scion of one of the most illustrious of the
Roman houses, who became enamoured of a damsel exceeding fair, and
amorous withal--her name Agnolella--the daughter of one Gigliuozzo
Saullo, a plebeian, but in high repute among the Romans.
[005]
Nor, loving
thus, did Pietro lack the address to inspire in Agnolella a love as ardent
as his own.
[006]
Wherefore, overmastered by his passion, and minded no
longer to endure the sore suffering that it caused him, he asked her
in marriage. Whereof his kinsfolk were no sooner apprised, than
with one accord they came to him and strongly urged him to desist
from his purpose: they also gave Gigliuozzo Saullo to understand that
he were best to pay no sort of heed to Pietro's words, for that,
if he so did, they would never acknowledge him as friend or relative.
[007]
Thus to see himself debarred of the one way by which he deemed
he might attain to his desire, Pietro was ready to die for grief, and,
all his kinsfolk notwithstanding, he would have married Gigliuozzo's
daughter, had but the father consented.
[008]
Wherefore at length he
made up his mind that, if the girl were willing, nought should stand
in the way; and having through a common friend sounded the
damsel and found her apt, he brought her to consent to elope with
him from Rome.
[009]
The affair being arranged, Pietro and she took
horse betimes one morning, and sallied forth for Anagni, where
Pietro had certain friends, in whom he placed much trust; and as
they rode, time not serving for full joyance of their love, for they
feared pursuit, they held converse thereof, and from time to time
exchanged a kiss.
[010]
Now it so befell, that, the way being none too
well known to Pietro, when, perhaps eight miles from Rome, they
should have turned to the right, they took instead a leftward road.
Whereon when they had ridden but little more than two miles, they
found themselves close to a petty castle, whence, so soon as they
were observed, there issued some dozen men at arms;
[011]
and, as they
drew near, the damsel, espying them, gave a cry, and said: "We are
attacked, Pietro, let us flee;" and guiding her nag as best she knew
towards a great forest, she planted the spurs in his sides, and so, holding
on by the saddle-bow, was borne by the goaded creature into the
forest at a gallop.
[012]
Pietro, who had been too engrossed with her face
to give due heed to the way, and thus had not been ware, as soon as
she, of the approach of the men at arms, was still looking about to
see whence they were coming, when they came up with him, and
took him prisoner, and forced him to dismount. Then they asked
who he was, and, when he told them, they conferred among themselves,
saying: "This is one of the friends of our enemies: what
else can we do but relieve him of his nag and of his clothes, and hang
him on one of these oaks in scorn of the Orsini?"
[013]
To which
proposal all agreeing, they bade Pietro strip himself: but while,
already divining his fate, he was so doing, an ambuscade of full
five-and-twenty
men at arms fell suddenly upon them, crying:
[014]
"Death,
death!" Thus surprised, they let Pietro go, and stood on the
defensive; but, seeing that the enemy greatly outnumbered them, they
took to their heels, the others giving chase. Whereupon Pietro
hastily resumed his clothes, mounted his nag, and fled with all speed
in the direction which he had seen the damsel take.
[015]
But finding no
road or path through the forest, nor discerning any trace of a horse's
hooves, he was--for that he found not the damsel--albeit he deemed
himself safe out of the clutches of his captors and their assailants, the
most wretched man alive, and fell a weeping and wandering hither and
thither about the forest, uttering Agnolella's name.
[016]
None answered;
but turn back he dared not: so on he went, not knowing whither
he went; besides which, he was in mortal dread of the wild beasts
that infest the forest, as well on account of himself as of the damsel,
whom momently he seemed to see throttled by some bear or wolf.
[017]Thus did our unfortunate Pietro spend the whole day, wandering
about the forest, making it to resound with his cries of Agnolella's
name, and harking at times back, when he thought to go forward;
until at last, what with his cries and his tears and his fears and his
long fasting, he was so spent that he could go no further.
[018]
'Twas
then nightfall, and, as he knew not what else to do, he dismounted
at the foot of an immense oak, and having tethered his nag to the
trunk, climbed up into the branches, lest he should be devoured by
the wild beasts during the night.
[019]
Shortly afterwards the moon rose
with a very clear sky, and Pietro, who dared not sleep, lest he should
fall, and indeed, had he been secure from that risk, his misery and
his anxiety on account of the damsel would not have suffered him to
sleep, kept watch, sighing and weeping and cursing his evil luck.
