or a patch of shade, or a house, ’twas a torment to her, for the longing she had for it.  What more is to be said of this hapless woman?  Only this:  that what with the heat of the sun above and the floor beneath her, and the scarification of her flesh in every part by the flies and gadflies, that flesh, which in the night had dispelled the gloom by its whiteness, was now become red as madder, and so besprent with clots of blood, that whoso had seen her would have deemed her the most hideous object in the world.

Thus resourceless and hopeless, she passed the long hours, expecting death rather than aught else, until half none was come and gone; when, his siesta ended, the scholar bethought him of his lady, and being minded to see how she fared, hied him back to the tower, and sent his servant away to break his fast.  As soon as the lady espied him, she came, spent and crushed by her sore affliction, to the aperture, and thus addressed him:—­“Rinieri, the cup of thy vengeance is full to overflowing:  for if I gave thee a night of freezing in my courtyard, thou hast given me upon this tower a day of scorching, nay, of burning, and therewithal of perishing of hunger and thirst:  wherefore by God I entreat thee to come up hither, and as my heart fails me to take my life, take it thou, for ’tis death I desire of all things, such and so grievous is my suffering.  But if this grace thou wilt not grant, at least bring me a cup of water wherewith to lave my mouth, for which my tears do not suffice, so parched and torrid is it within.”  Well wist the scholar by her voice how spent she was; he also saw a part of her body burned through and through by the sun; whereby, and by reason of the lowliness of her entreaties, he felt some little pity for her; but all the same he made answer:—­“Nay, wicked woman, ’tis not by my hands thou shalt die; thou canst die by thine own whenever thou art so minded; and to temper thy heat thou shalt have just as much water from me as I had fire from thee to mitigate my cold.  I only regret that for the cure of my chill the physicians were fain to use foul-smelling muck, whereas thy burns can be treated with fragrant rose-water; and that, whereas I was like to lose my muscles and the use of my limbs, thou, for all thy excoriation by the heat, wilt yet be fair again, like a snake that has sloughed off the old skin.”  “Alas! woe’s me!” replied the lady, “for charms acquired at such a cost, God grant them to those that hate me.  But thou, most fell of all wild beasts, how hast thou borne thus to torture me?  What more had I to expect of thee or any other, had I done all thy kith and kin to death with direst torments?  Verily, I know not what more cruel suffering thou couldst have inflicted on a traitor that had put a whole city to the slaughter than this which thou hast allotted to me, to be thus roasted, and devoured of the flies, and therewithal to refuse me even a cup of water, though the very murderers condemned to death by the law,