e and read, and cast up
accounts, as well as any merchant of them all. His enthusiasm only
excites the laughter and mockery of his companions, particularly of
Ambrogiolo, who, by the most artful mixture of contradiction and
argument, rouses the anger of Bernabo, and he at length exclaims, that
he would willingly stake his life, his head, on the virtue of his wife.
This leads to the wager which forms so important an incident in the
drama. Ambrogiolo bets one thousand florins of gold against five
thousand, that Zinevra, like the rest of her sex, is accessible to
temptation--that in less than three months he will undermine her virtue,
and bring her husband the most undeniable proofs of her falsehood. He
sets off for Genoa, in order to accomplish his purpose; but on his
arrival, all that he learns, and all that he beholds with his own eyes,
of the discreet and noble character of the lady, make him despair of
success by fair means; he therefore has recourse to the basest
treachery. By bribing an old woman in the service of Zinevra, he is
conveyed to her sleeping apartment, concealed in a trunk, from which he
issues in the dead of the night; he takes note of the furniture of the
chamber, makes himself master of her purse, her morning robe, or cymar,
and her girdle, and of a certain mark on her person. He repeats these
observations for two nights, and, furnished with these evidences of
Zinevra's guilt, he returns to Paris, and lays them before the wretched
husband. Bernabo rejects every proof of his wife's infidelity except
that which finally convinces Posthumus. When Ambrogiolo mentions the
"mole, cinque-spotted," he stands like one who has received a poniard in
his heart; without further dispute he pays down the forfeit, and filled
with rage and despair both at the loss of his money and the falsehood of
his wife, he returns towards Genoa; he retires to his country house, and
sends a messenger to the city with letters to Zinevra, desiring that she
would come and meet him, but with secret orders to the man to despatch
her by the way. The servant prepares to execute his master's command,
but overcome by her entreaties for mercy, and his own remorse, he spares
her life, on condition that she will fly from the country forever. He
then disguises her in his own cloak and cap, and brings back to her
husband the assurance that she is killed, and that her body has been
devoured by the wolves. In the disguise of a mariner, Zinevra then