You have rightly guessed," she answered, "the bravest of the brave and
the only man whom I have ever loved."

I marvelled to hear her thus speak, until the lid being opened, we
discovered, not my medal of Alessandro de' Medici, for that Margaret had
long ago given to his mother as an inconsiderate trifle; but the
likeness of the pretty page, Ottavio, which I had painted at their first
acquaintance; and which, in despite all contrariety of womanly
coquetry, had remained as ineffaceably imprinted upon her heart.

CHAPTER IV

FLOWER O' THE PEACH

Now for a tale illustrative
That shall delight my passion for romance,
Embodying hints authentic of some theme

* * *

Or incident that to my knowledge came
When sojourning abroad, the background true;
Like to some faded tapestry retouched
With the seductive broidery-work of fancy.

ANON--altered.

I

Let the trovere ease her conscience at the outset--the tale about to be
recorded is _over_ true.

Even as there was more truth than called for in the testimony of that
ingenious witness who, being adjured by the judge to speak the truth,
replied: "Of a surety, your honor, that will I, the truth, the whole
truth, and--a little more."

But the little more which I shall give you is peradventure the truest
part of my tale; for, though you will find it not in the chronicles of
such historiographers as give their quills solely to statecraft and
wars, yet it lies like a pressed flower between the musty leaves of the
_novellini_ of Franco Sacchetti and of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, who
relate with great particularity the artifice by which the head of the
house of the Aldobrandini won his bride.

Let who will carp that in combining matter from various sources I have
followed the example of those unscrupulous antiquaries who, discovering
an antique statue, straightway replace its missing parts by others lying
near at hand, or, more criminal still, complete it according to the
whims of their own fancy.

To that accusation needs must that I plead at the outset _mea culpa_,
advancing only that the original torso as well as the legs and arms
which I have made free to assemble are still preserved, properly
ticketed, in the museum of history, while for him who cavils with the
authenticity of this "restoration" the buried palaces of the ancient
world patiently await exhumation to yield to each body its own
particular members, and to each excavator h