of Cyprus, and that not a few fine dresses were hanging upon the pegs.  Which circumstances did, one and all, beget in him the belief that this must be a great and wealthy lady; and, though he had heard a hint or two to the contrary touching her life, he would by no means credit them; nor, supposing that she had perchance taken another with guile, would he believe that the same thing might befall him.  So to his exceeding great solace, he lay with her that night, and ever grew more afire for her.  On the morrow, as she was investing him with a fair and dainty girdle of silver, with a goodly purse attached:—­“Sweet my Salabaetto,” quoth she, “prithee forget me not; even as my person, so is all that I have at thy pleasure, and all that I can at thy command.”

Salabaetto then embraced and kissed her, and so bade her adieu, and betook him to the place where the merchants were wont to congregate.  And so it befell that he, continuing to consort with her from time to time, and being never a denier the poorer thereby, disposed of his merchandise for ready money and at no small profit; whereof not by him but by another the lady was forthwith advised.  And Salabaetto being come to see her one evening, she greeted him gaily and gamesomely, and fell a kissing and hugging him, and made as if she were so afire for love of him that she was like to die thereof in his arms; and offered to give him two most goodly silver cups that she had, which Salabaetto would not accept, having already had from her (taking one time with another) fully thirty florins of gold, while he had not been able to induce her to touch so much as a groat of his money.  But when by this shew of passion and generosity she had thoroughly kindled his flame, in came, as she had arranged, one of her slaves, and spoke to her; whereupon out of the room she went, and after a while came back in tears, and threw herself prone on the bed, and set up the most dolorous lamentation that ever woman made.  Whereat Salabaetto wondering, took her in his arms, and mingled his tears with hers, and said:—­“Alas! heart of my body! what ails thee thus of a sudden?  Wherefore art thou so distressed?  Ah! tell me the reason, my soul.”  The lady allowed him to run on in this strain for a good while, and then:—­“Alas! sweet my lord,” quoth she, “I know not either what to do or what to say.  I have but now received a letter from Messina, in which my brother bids me sell, if need be, all that I have here, and send him without fail within eight days a thousand florins of gold:  otherwise he will forfeit his head.  I know not how to come by them so soon:  had I but fifteen days, I would make a shift to raise them in a quarter where I might raise a much larger sum, or I would sell one of our estates; but, as this may not be, would I had been dead or e’er this bad news had reached me!” Which said, affecting to be utterly broken-hearted, she ceased not to weep.