mixed, a tinder-box which set fire
to the brimstone match of his soul, a loadstone which attracted him,
and lastly, a rolling-stone which could never rest.

At length his brother Jennariello, seeing him so pale and half-dead,
said to him, "My brother, what has happened to you, that you carry
grief lodged in your eyes, and despair sitting under the pale banner of
your face? What has befallen you? Speak--open your heart to your
brother: the smell of charcoal shut up in a chamber poisons
people--powder pent up in a mountain blows it into the air; open your
lips, therefore, and tell me what is the matter with you; at all events
be assured that I would lay down a thousand lives if I could to help
you."

Then Milluccio, mingling words and sighs, thanked him for his love,
saying that he had no doubt of his affection, but that there was no
remedy for his ill, since it sprang from a stone, where he had sown
desires without hope of fruit--a stone from which he did not expect a
mushroom of content--a stone of Sisyphus, which he bore to the mountain
of designs, and when it reached the top rolled over and over to the
bottom. At length, however, after a thousand entreaties, Milluccio told
his brother all about his love; whereupon Jennariello comforted him as
much as he could, and bade him be of good cheer, and not give way to an
unhappy passion; for that he was resolved, in order to satisfy him, to
go all the world over until he found a woman the counterpart of the
stone.

Then instantly fitting out a large ship, filled with merchandise, and
dressing himself like a merchant, he sailed for Venice, the wonder of
Italy, the receptacle of virtuous men, the great book of the marvels of
art and nature; and having procured there a safe-conduct to pass to the
Levant, he set sail for Cairo. When he arrived there and entered the
city, he saw a man who was carrying a most beautiful falcon, and
Jennariello at once purchased it to take to his brother, who was a
sportsman. Soon afterwards he met another man with a splendid horse,
which he also bought; whereupon he went to an inn to refresh himself
after the fatigues he had suffered at sea.

The following morning, when the army of the Star, at the command of the
general of the Light, strikes the tents in the camp of the sky and
abandons the post, Jennariello set out to wander through the city,
having his eyes about him like a lynx, looking at this woman and that,
to see whether by chance he c