heat of her great love made her glisten like a summer sun.  Much did they lament the fact that she had had the sad fantasy to become a respectable woman.  To these Madame de l’Ile Adam answered jestingly, that after twenty-four years passed in the service of the public, she had a right to retire.  Others said to her, that however distant the sun was, people could warm themselves in it, while she would show herself no more.  To these she replied that she would still have smiles to bestow upon those lords who would come and see how she played the role of a virtuous woman.  To this the English envoy answered, he believed her capable of pushing virtue to its extreme point.  She gave a present to each of her friends, and large sums to the poor and suffering of Rome; besides this, she left to the convent where her daughter was to have been, and to the church she had built, the wealth she had inherited from Theodora, which came from the cardinal of Ragusa.

When the two spouses set out they were accompanied a long way by knights in mourning, and even by the common people, who wished them every happiness, because Madame Imperia had been hard on the rich only, and had always been kind and gentle with the poor.  This lovely queen of love was hailed with acclamations throughout the journey in all the towns of Italy where the report of her conversion had spread, and where everyone was curious to see pass, a case so rare as two such spouses.  Several princes received this handsome couple at their courts, saying it was but right to show honour to this woman who had the courage to renounce her empire over the world of fashion, to become a virtuous woman.  But there was an evil-minded fellow, one my lord Duke of Ferrara, who said to l’Ile Adam that his great fortune had not cost him much.  At this first offence Madame Imperia showed what a good heart she had, for she gave up all the money she had received from her lovers, to ornament the dome of St. Maria del Fiore, in the town of Florence, which turned the laugh against the Sire d’Este, who boasted that he had built a church in spite of the empty condition of his purse.  You may be sure he was reprimanded for this joke by his brother the cardinal.

The fair Imperia only kept her own wealth and that which the Emperor had bestowed upon her out of pure friendship since his departure, the amount of which was however, considerable.  The cadet of l’Ile Adam had a duel with the duke, in which he wounded him.  Thus neither Madame de l’Ile Adam, nor her husband could be in any way reproached.  This piece of chivalry caused her to be gloriously received in all places she passed through, especially in Piedmont, where the fetes were splendid.  Verses which the poet then composed, such as sonnets, epithalamias, and odes, have been given in certain collections; but all poetry was weak in comparison with her, who was, according to an expression of Monsieur Boccaccio, poetry herself.