nother. And do not concern yourself as to what may betide me then. My
lot will be blessed through all renunciation, and enviable in all
sorrow, since I shall have endowed the noblest man on whom my eyes have
ever rested with the free gift of my honour; and before the winter of
years has covered this blond head with snows, I shall have enjoyed a
late spring, beauteous beyond all I could have dreamed. These eyes and
lips are thine, Attilio, and this untouched form is thine, and thine is
this heart which, when thou shalt part from me, will never more desire
any of the sweetnesses of this world, but like the heart of a widow,
will still feed upon its past joys till it beat no longer.'

"Thus saying she led him to the seat in the window, and knelt before
him, and he took her head in his two hands, and was never satiated with
gazing at her, and kissing her brow, cheeks, and mouth; and long after
the moon had set they were still together and immeasurably blest But
when the first cock-crow was heard over the plains, Gianna herself
constrained him to leave her arms, lest he should be missed in his
parent's house. They agreed, however, that he should return the next
night and all the following ones, and fixed on the signal at which she
should open the door; and so he took his leave; as one intoxicated
reels from a banquet: and in the arrogance of his bliss he scorned to
descend the winding stairs, although the streets were empty, but swung
himself out of the window, and profiting by the foot-hold afforded by
the fig-tree, scrambled down to the walls below, often delaying to call
out all manner of loving names and to throw the flowers growing on the
edge of the moat up to the beloved one in the window, till she, fearing
observation, withdrew from it. Then he tore himself away, and crept so
carefully along the walls, that he reached the gate unnoticed by any.
The sleepy watchman did not recognize him, and no one had missed him at
home, so that he entered exultingly into his own room, and throwing
himself on his couch, snatched a brief interval of needed sleep.

"With equal skill and secrecy, the lovers contrived their meetings for
the nights following, so that no one in the whole town had the least
idea of the relations between them; except the nurse Catalina, who was
as silent about it as the fig-tree under the window. For the happiness
and honour of her mistress were the first thought of her heart; and the
sharpest tortures of th