his experiment.  Nor had he long to wait before Ruberto came, and Arriguccio felt him jerk the thread according to his wont:  and as Arriguccio had not known how to attach the thread securely, and Ruberto jerked it with some force, it gave way, whereby he understood that he was to wait, and did so.  Arriguccio straightway arose, caught up his arms, and hasted to the door to see who might be there, intent to do him a mischief.  Now Arriguccio, for all he was a merchant, was a man of spirit, and of thews and sinews; and being come to the door, he opened it by no means gingerly, as the lady was wont; whereby Ruberto, who was in waiting, surmised the truth, to wit, that ’twas Arriguccio by whom the door was opened.  Wherefore he forthwith took to flight, followed by Arriguccio.  But at length, when he had run a long way, as Arriguccio gave not up the pursuit, he being also armed, drew his sword, and faced about; and so they fell to, Arriguccio attacking, and Ruberto defending himself.

Now when Arriguccio undid the bedroom door, the lady awoke, and finding the pack-thread cut loose from her toe, saw at a glance that her trick was discovered; and hearing Arriguccio running after Ruberto, she forthwith got up, foreboding what the result was like to be, and called her maid, who was entirely in her confidence:  whom she so plied with her obsecrations that at last she got her into bed in her room, beseeching her not to say who she was, but to bear patiently all the blows that Arriguccio might give her; and she would so reward her that she should have no reason to complain.  Then, extinguishing the light that was in the room, forth she hied her, and having found a convenient hiding-place in the house, awaited the turn of events.  Now Arriguccio and Ruberto being hotly engaged in the street, the neighbours, roused by the din of the combat, got up and launched their curses upon them.  Wherefore Arriguccio, fearing lest he should be recognized, drew off before he had so much as discovered who the young gallant was, or done him any scathe, and in a fell and wrathful mood betook him home.  Stumbling into the bedroom, he cried out angrily:—­“Where art thou, lewd woman?  Thou hast put out the light, that I may not be able to find thee; but thou hast miscalculated.”  And going to the bedside, he laid hold of the maid, taking her to be his wife, and fell a pummelling and kicking her with all the strength he had in his hands and feet, insomuch that he pounded her face well-nigh to pulp, rating her the while like the vilest woman that ever was; and last of all he cut off her hair.  The maid wept bitterly, as indeed she well might; and though from time to time she ejaculated an “Alas!  Mercy, for God’s sake!” or “Spare me, spare me;” yet her voice was so broken by her sobs, and Arriguccio’s hearing so dulled by his wrath, that he was not able to discern that ’twas not his wife’s voice but that of another woman.  So, having soundly thrashed her, and cut off her hair, as we said:—­“Wicked woman,” quoth he, “I touch thee no more; but I go to find thy brothers, and shall do them to wit of thy good works; and then they may come here, and deal with thee as they may deem their honour demands, and take thee hence, for be sure thou shalt no more abide in this house.”  With this he was gone, locking the door of the room behind him, and quitted the house alone.