for his companions that
evening; but that, since it was agreeable to her, she might do her
pleasure of him. Accordingly, she made a show of sending to the inn to
say that he was not to be expected to supper, and after much other
discourse, they sat down to supper and were sumptuously served with
various meats, whilst she adroitly contrived to prolong the repast
till it was dark night. Then, when they rose from table and Andreuccio
would have taken his leave, she declared that she would on no wise
suffer this, for that Naples was no place to go about in by night
especially for a stranger, and that, whenas she sent to the inn to say
that he was not to be expected to supper, she had at the same time
given notice that he would lie abroad. Andreuccio, believing this and
taking pleasure in being with her, beguiled as he was by false
credence, abode where he was, and after supper they held much and long
discourse, not without reason,[100] till a part of the night was past,
when she withdrew with her women into another room, leaving Andreuccio
in her own chamber, with a little lad to wait upon him, if he should
lack aught.

[Footnote 100: The reason was that she wished to keep him in play till
late into the night, when all the folk should be asleep and she might
the lightlier deal with him.]

The heat being great, Andreuccio, as soon as he found himself alone,
stripped to his doublet and putting off his hosen, laid them at the
bedhead; after which, natural use soliciting him to rid himself of the
overmuch burden of his stomach, he asked the boy where this might be
done, who showed him a door in one corner of the room and said, 'Go in
there.' Accordingly he opened the door and passing through in all
assurance, chanced to set foot on a plank, which, being broken loose
from the joist at the opposite end, [flew up] and down they went,
plank and man together. God so favoured him that he did himself no
hurt in the fall, albeit he fell from some height; but he was all
bemired with the ordure whereof the place was full; and in order that
you may the better apprehend both that which hath been said and that
which ensueth, I will show you how the place lay. There were in a
narrow alley, such as we often see between two houses, a pair of
rafters laid from one house to another, and thereon sundry boards
nailed and the place of session set up; of which boards that which
gave way with Andreuccio was one.

Finding himself, then, at the bot