ur. Moreover, after eating, he caused clothe
him sumptuously, as befitted his quality, and giving him money and a
palfrey, left it to his own choice to go or stay; whereupon Primasso,
well pleased with his entertainment, rendered him the best thanks in
his power and returned on horseback to Paris, whence he had set out
afoot.

Messer Cane, who was a gentleman of understanding, right well
apprehended Bergamino's meaning, without further exposition, and said
to him, smiling, 'Bergamino, thou hast very aptly set forth to me thy
wrongs and merit and my niggardliness, as well as that which thou
wouldst have of me; and in good sooth, never, save now on thine
account, have I been assailed of parsimony; but I will drive it away
with that same stick which thou thyself hast shown me.' Then, letting
pay Bergamino's host and clothing himself most sumptuously in a suit
of his own apparel, he gave him money and a palfrey and committed to
his choice for the nonce to go or stay."

THE EIGHTH STORY

[Day the First]

GUGLIELMO BORSIERE WITH SOME QUAINT WORDS REBUKETH THE
NIGGARDLINESS OF MESSER ERMINO DE' GRIMALDI

Next Filostrato sat Lauretta, who, after she had heard Bergamino's
address commended, perceiving that it behoved her tell somewhat,
began, without awaiting any commandment, blithely to speak thus: "The
foregoing story, dear companions,[64] bringeth me in mind to tell how
an honest minstrel on like wise and not without fruit rebuked the
covetise of a very rich merchant, the which, albeit in effect it
resembleth the last story, should not therefore be less agreeable to
you, considering that good came thereof in the end.

[Footnote 64: Fem.]

There was, then, in Genoa, a good while agone, a gentleman called
Messer Ermino de' Grimaldi, who (according to general belief) far
overpassed in wealth of lands and monies the riches of whatsoever
other richest citizen was then known in Italy; and like as he excelled
all other Italians in wealth, even so in avarice and sordidness he
outwent beyond compare every other miser and curmudgeon in the world;
for not only did he keep a strait purse in the matter of hospitality,
but, contrary to the general usance of the Genoese, who are wont to
dress sumptuously, he suffered the greatest privations in things
necessary to his own person, no less than in meat and in drink, rather
than be at any expense; by reason whereof the surname de' Grimaldi had
fallen away from him an