tever her birth and upbringing are, pay her the respect due
to her as my lady, or you shall know to your cost how grievous it is to
me to have taken a wife when I did not want one."

A few days afterwards he was riding through a village, not far from his
palace, when he saw a comely shepherd girl carrying water from a well to
her father's house.

"What is your name?" said the young marquis.

"Griselda," said the shepherd girl.

"Well, Griselda," said the Marquis of Saluzzo, "I am looking for a wife.
If I marry you, will you study to please me and carry out all my
demands, whatever they are, without a murmur or a sullen look?"

"Yes, my lord," said Griselda.

Thereupon, the marquis sent his servants to fetch some rich and costly
robes, and, leading Griselda out by the hand, he clothed her in gorgeous
apparel, and set a coronet upon her head, and putting her on a palfrey,
he led her to his palace. And there he celebrated his nuptials with as
much pomp and grandeur as if he had been marrying the daughter of the
King of France.

Griselda proved to be a good wife. She was so sweet-natured, and so
gentle and kind in her manners, that her husband thought himself the
happiest man in the world; and her subjects honoured her and loved her
very dearly. In a very short time, her winning behaviour and her good
works were the common subject of talk throughout the country, and great
were the rejoicings when a daughter was born to her.

Unfortunately, her husband got a strange fancy into his head. He
imagined she was good and gentle merely because everything went well
with her; and, with great harshness, he resolved to try her patience by
suffering. So he told her that the people were greatly displeased with
her by reason of her mean parentage, and murmured because she had given
birth to a daughter.

"My lord," said Griselda, "I know I am meaner than the meanest of my
subjects, and that I am unworthy of the dignity to which you have
advanced me. Deal with me, I pray, as you think best for your honour and
happiness, and waste no thought upon me."

Soon afterwards one of his servants came to Griselda, and said: "Madam,
I must either lose my own life, or obey my lord's commands. He has
ordered me to take your daughter, and--"

He would not say anything more, and Griselda thought that he had orders
to kill the child. Taking it out of the cradle, she kissed it, and
tenderly laid it in the servant's arms. The marquis sent the li