The Decameron, Volume II
Page 4
for ourselves by a resolved spirit and the might of our righthands: take we then the sword, and therewith make we, each, prize of hislady, thou for the second, I for the first time: for so thou value therecovery, I say not of thy liberty, for without thy lady I doubt thouwouldst hold it cheap, but of thy lady, the gods have placed it in thineown hands, if thou art but minded to join me in my enterprise."
These words restored to Cimon all that he had lost of heart and hope, norpondered he long, before he replied:--"Lysimachus, comrade stouter ormore staunch than I thou mightst not have in such an enterprise, if suchindeed it be as thou sayst: wherefore lay upon me such behest as thoushalt deem meet, and thou shalt marvel to witness the vigour of myperformance." Whereupon Lysimachus:--"On the third day from now," quothhe, "their husbands' houses will be newly entered by the brides, and onthe same day at even we too will enter them in arms, thou with thy men,and I with some of mine, in whom I place great trust, and forcing our wayamong the guests and slaughtering all that dare to oppose us, will bearthe ladies off to a ship which I have had privily got ready." Cimonapproved the plan, and kept quiet in prison until the appointed time;which being come, the nuptials were celebrated with great pomp andmagnificence, that filled the houses of the two brothers with festalcheer. Then Lysimachus having made ready all things meet, and fired Cimonand his men and his own friends for the enterprise by a long harangue,disposed them in due time, all bearing arms under their cloaks, in threecompanies; and having privily despatched one company to the port, that,when the time should come to embark, he might meet with no let, hemarched with the other two companies to the house of Pasimondas, postedthe one company at the gate, that, being entered, they might not be shutin or debarred their egress, and, with the other company and Cimon,ascended the stairs, and gained the saloon, where the brides and not afew other ladies were set at several tables to sup in meet order:whereupon in they rushed, and overthrew the tables and seized each hisown lady, and placed them in charge of their men, whom they bade bearthem off forthwith to the ship that lay ready to receive them. Whereuponthe brides and the other ladies and the servants with one accord fell asobbing and shrieking, insomuch that a confused din and lamentationfilled the whole place. Cimon, Lysimachus and their band, nonewithstanding, but all giving way before them, gained the stairs, whichthey were already descending when they encountered Pasimondas, who,carrying a great staff in his hand, was making in the direction of thenoise; but one doughty stroke of Cimon's sword sufficed to cleave hisskull in twain, and lay him dead at Cimon's feet, and another strokedisposed of hapless Hormisdas, as he came running to his brother's aid.Some others who ventured to approach them were wounded and beaten off bythe retinue. So forth of the house, that reeked with blood and resoundedwith tumult and lamentation and woe, sped Simon and Lysimachus with alltheir company, and without any let, in close order, with their fair bootyin their midst, made good their retreat to the ship; whereon with theladies they one and all embarked, for the shore was now full of armed mencome to rescue the ladies, and, the oarsmen giving way, put to sea elate.Arrived at Crete, they met with a hearty welcome on the part of theirmany friends and kinsfolk; and, having married their ladies, they madegreatly merry, and had gladsome joyance of their fair booty. Their doingsoccasioned, both in Cyprus and in Rhodes, no small stir and commotion,which lasted for a long while: but in the end, by the good offices oftheir friends and kinsfolk in both islands, 'twas so ordered as thatafter a certain term of exile Cimon returned with Iphigenia to Cyprus,and in like manner Lysimachus returned with Cassandra to Rhodes; and longand blithely thereafter lived they, each well contented with his own wifein his own land.
(1) One of the augmentative forms of bestia.
NOVEL II.
--Gostanza loves Martuccio Gomito, and hearing that he is dead, gives wayto despair, and hies her alone aboard a boat, which is wafted by the windto Susa. She finds him alive in Tunis, and makes herself known to him,who, having by his counsel gained high place in the king's favour,marries her, and returns with her wealthy to Lipari.--
Pamfilo's story being ended, the queen, after commending it not a little,called for one to follow from Emilia; who thus began:--
Meet and right it is that one should rejoice when events so fall out thatpassion meets with its due reward: and as love merits in the long runrather joy than suffering, far gladlier obey I the queen's than I did theking's behest, and address myself to our present theme. You are to knowthen, dainty ladies, that not far from Sicily there is an islet calledLipari, in which, no great while ago, there dwelt a damsel, Gostanza byname, fair as fair could be, and of one of the most honourable familiesin the island. And one Martuccio Gomito, who was also of the island, ayoung man most gallant and courteous, and worthy for his condition,became enamoured of Gostanza; who in like manner grew so afire for himthat she was ever ill at ease, except she saw him. Martuccio, craving herto wife, asked her of her father, who made answer that, Martuccio beingpoor, he was not minded to give her to him. Mortified to be thus rejectedby reason of poverty, Martuccio took an oath in presence of some of hisfriends and kinsfolk that Lipari should know him no more, until he waswealthy. So away he sailed, and took to scouring the seas as a rover onthe coast of Barbary, preying upon all whose force matched not his own.In which way of life he found Fortune favourable enough, had he but knownhow to rest and be thankful: but 'twas not enough that he and hiscomrades in no long time waxed very wealthy; their covetousness wasinordinate, and, while they sought to gratify it, they chanced in anencounter with certain Saracen ships to be taken after a long defence,and despoiled, and, most part of them, thrown into the sea by theircaptors, who, after sinking his ship, took Martuccio with them to Tunis,and clapped him in prison, and there kept him a long time in a very sadplight.
Meanwhile, not by one or two, but by divers and not a few persons,tidings reached Lipari that all that were with Martuccio aboard his barkhad perished in the sea. The damsel, whose grief on Martuccio's departurehad known no bounds, now hearing that he was dead with the rest, wept agreat while, and made up her mind to have done with life; but, lackingthe resolution to lay violent hands upon herself, she bethought her howshe might devote herself to death by some novel expedient. So one nightshe stole out of her father's house, and hied her to the port, and thereby chance she found, lying a little apart from the other craft, a fishingboat, which, as the owners had but just quitted her, was still equippedwith mast and sails and oars. Aboard which boat she forthwith got, andbeing, like most of the women of the island, not altogether withoutnautical skill, she rowed some distance out to sea, and then hoistedsail, and cast away oars and tiller, and let the boat drift, deeming thata boat without lading or steersman would certainly be either capsized bythe wind or dashed against some rock and broken in pieces, so that escapeshe could not, even if she would, but must perforce drown. And so, herhead wrapped in a mantle, she stretched herself weeping on the floor ofthe boat. But it fell out quite otherwise than she had conjectured: for,the wind being from the north, and very equable, with next to no sea, theboat kept an even keel, and next day about vespers bore her to land hardby a city called Susa, full a hundred miles beyond Tunis. To the damsel'twas all one whether she were at sea or ashore, for, since she had beenaboard, she had never once raised, nor, come what might, meant she everto raise, her head.
Now it so chanced, that, when the boat grounded, there was on the shore apoor woman that was in the employ of some fishermen, whose nets she wasjust taking out of the sunlight. Seeing the boat under full sail, shemarvelled how it should be suffered to drive ashore, and conjectured thatthe fishermen on board were asleep. So to the boat she hied her, andfinding therein only the damsel fast asleep, she called her many times,and at length awakened her; and perceiving by her dress that she was aChristian, she asked her in Latin how it was that she was come thitherall alone in the boat. Hearing the Latin speech, the damsel wonderedwhether the wind had not shifted, and carried her back to Lipari: so upshe started, gazed about her, and finding herself ashore and the aspec
tof the country strange, asked the good woman where she was. To which thegood woman made answer:--"My daughter, thou art hard by Susa in Barbary."Whereupon the damsel, sorrowful that God had not seen fit to accord herthe boon of death, apprehensive of dishonour, and at her wits' end, satherself down at the foot of her boat, and burst into tears. Which thegood woman saw not without pity, and persuaded her to come with her intoher hut, and there by coaxing drew from her how she was come thither; andknowing that she could not but be fasting, she set before her her owncoarse bread and some fish and water, and prevailed upon her to eat alittle. Gostanza thereupon asked her, who she was that thus spoke Latin;whereto she answered that her name was Carapresa, and that she was fromTrapani, where she had served some Christian fishermen. To the damsel,sad indeed though she was, this name Carapresa, wherefore she knew not,seemed to