there are some matters I would learn from her own lips in thy presence.”  He then asked her, whether, if he took her to wife, she would study to comply with his wishes, and be not wroth, no matter what he might say or do, and be obedient, with not a few other questions of a like sort:  to all which she answered, ay.  Whereupon Gualtieri took her by the hand, led her forth, and before the eyes of all his company, and as many other folk as were there, caused her to strip naked, and let bring the garments that he had had fashioned for her, and had her forthwith arrayed therein, and upon her unkempt head let set a crown; and then, while all wondered:—­“Gentlemen,” quoth he, “this is she whom I purpose to make my wife, so she be minded to have me for husband.”  Then, she standing abashed and astonied, he turned to her, saying:—­“Griselda, wilt thou have me for thy husband?” To whom:—­“Ay, my lord,” answered she.  “And I will have thee to wife,” said he, and married her before them all.  And having set her upon a palfrey, he brought her home with pomp.

The wedding was fair and stately, and had he married a daughter of the King of France, the feast could not have been more splendid.  It seemed as if, with the change of her garb, the bride had acquired a new dignity of mind and mien.  She was, as we have said, fair of form and feature; and therewithal she was now grown so engaging and gracious and debonair, that she shewed no longer as the shepherdess, and the daughter of Giannucolo, but as the daughter of some noble lord, insomuch that she caused as many as had known her before to marvel.  Moreover, she was so obedient and devoted to her husband, that he deemed himself the happiest and luckiest man in the world.  And likewise so gracious and kindly was she to her husband’s vassals, that there was none of them but loved her more dearly than himself, and was zealous to do her honour, and prayed for her welfare and prosperity and aggrandisement, and instead of, as erstwhile, saying that Gualtieri had done foolishly to take her to wife, now averred that he had not his like in the world for wisdom and discernment, for that, save to him, her noble qualities would ever have remained hidden under her sorry apparel and the garb of the peasant girl.  And in short she so comported herself as in no long time to bring it to pass that, not only in the marquisate, but far and wide besides, her virtues and her admirable conversation were matter of common talk, and, if aught had been said to the disadvantage of her husband, when he married her, the judgment was now altogether to the contrary effect.