o-and-so (that
is to say the last-comer) does not keep you. I know well he does, for I
have noticed you, and moreover, have watched, and saw him yesterday come
to you at such an hour, dressed in such and such a manner. But I swear
to God he has had his last pleasure with you, for I bear him a grudge,
and were he ten times as great a man as he is, when I meet him I will
deprive him of his life, or he shall deprive me of mine; one of us two
must die for I cannot live and see another enjoy you. You are false and
disloyal to have deceived me, and it is not without cause that I curse
the hour I made your acquaintance, for I know for a certainty that you
will cause my death if my rival knows my determination, as I hope he
will. I know that I am now as good as dead, and even if he should spare
me, he does but sharpen the knife which is to shorten his own days, and
then the world would not be big enough to save me, and die I must."

The wench could not readily find a sufficient excuse to satisfy him in
his present state of mind. Nevertheless, she did her best to dissipate
his melancholy, and drive away his suspicions, and said to him;

"My friend, I have heard your long tirade, which, to tell the truth,
makes me reflect that I have not been so prudent as I ought, and have
too readily believed your deceitful speeches, and obeyed you in all
things, which is the reason you now think so little of me. Another
reason why you speak to me thus, is that you know that I am so much in
love with you that I cannot bear to live out of your presence. And for
this cause, and many others that I need not mention, you deem me your
subject and slave, with no right to speak or look at any but you. Since
that pleases you, I am satisfied, but you have no right to suspect me
with regard to any living person, nor have I any need to excuse myself.
Truth, which conquers all things, will right me in the end!"

"By God, my dear," said the young man, "the truth is what I have already
told you--as both and he will find to your cost if you do not take
care."

After these speeches, and others too long to recount here, he left, and
did not forget on the following morning to recount everything to his
friend the last-comer; and God knows what laughter and jests they had
between them.

The wench, who still had wool on her distaff (*), saw and knew very well
that each of her lovers suspected the other, nevertheless she continued
to receive them each in his tur