The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
him forth of the house. Quoth the lady, 'And where can we put him, so
it may not be suspected, whenas he shall be seen to-morrow morning,
that he hath been brought out hence?' 'Madam,' answered the maid, 'I
saw, this evening at nightfall, over against the shop of our neighbour
yonder the carpenter, a chest not overbig, the which, an the owner
have not taken it in again, will come very apt for our affair; for
that we can lay him therein, after giving him two or three slashes
with a knife, and leave him be. I know no reason why whoso findeth him
should suppose him to have been put there from this house rather than
otherwhence; nay, it will liefer be believed, seeing he was a young
man of lewd life, that he hath been slain by some enemy of his, whilst
going about to do some mischief or other, and after clapped in the
chest.'
The maid's counsel pleased the lady, save that she would not hear of
giving him any wound, saying that for naught in the world would her
heart suffer her to do that. Accordingly she sent her to see if the
chest were yet whereas she had noted it and she presently returned and
said, 'Ay.' Then, being young and lusty, with the aid of her mistress,
she took Ruggieri on her shoulders and carrying him out,--whilst the
lady forewent her, to look if any came,--clapped him into the chest
and shutting down the lid, left him there. Now it chanced that, a day
or two before, two young men, who lent at usance, had taken up their
abode in a house a little farther and lacking household gear, but
having a mind to gain much and spend little, had that day espied the
chest in question and had plotted together, if it should abide there
the night, to carry it off to their own house. Accordingly, midnight
come, they sallied forth and finding the chest still there, without
looking farther, they hastily carried it off, for all it seemed to
them somewhat heavy, to their own house, where they set it down beside
a chamber in which their wives slept and there leaving it, without
concerning themselves for the nonce to settle it overnicely, betook
them to bed.
Presently, the morning drawing near, Ruggieri, who had slept a great
while, having by this time digested the sleeping draught and exhausted
its effects, awoke and albeit his sleep was broken and his senses in
some measure restored, there abode yet a dizziness in his brain, which
held him stupefied, not that night only, but some days after. Opening
his eyes and seeing nothing, he put out his hands hither and thither
and finding himself in the chest, bethought himself and said, 'What is
this? Where am I? Am I asleep or awake? Algates I mind me that I came
this evening into my mistress's chamber and now meseemeth I am in a
chest. What meaneth this? Can the physician have returned or other
accident befallen, by reason whereof the lady hath hidden me here, I
being asleep? Methinketh it must have been thus; assuredly it was so.'
Accordingly, he addressed himself to abide quiet and hearken if he
could hear aught and after he had abidden thus a great while, being
somewhat ill at ease in the chest, which was small, and the side
whereon he lay irking him, he would have turned over to the other and
wrought so dexterously that, thrusting his loins against one of the
sides of the chest, which had not been set on a level place, he caused
it first to incline to one side and after topple over. In falling, it
made a great noise, whereat the women who slept therenigh awoke and
being affrighted, were silent for fear. Ruggieri was sore alarmed at
the fall of the chest, but, finding that it had opened in the fall,
chose rather, if aught else should betide, to be out of it than to
abide therewithin. Accordingly, he came forth and what with knowing
not where he was and what with one thing and another, he fell to
groping about the house, so haply he should find a stair or a door,
whereby he might get him gone.
The women, hearing this, began to say, 'Who is there?' But Ruggieri,
knowing not the voice, answered not; whereupon they proceeded to call
the two young men, who, for that they had overwatched themselves,
slept fast and heard nothing of all this. Thereupon the women, waxing
more fearful, arose and betaking themselves to the windows, fell
a-crying, 'Thieves! Thieves!' At this sundry of the neighbours ran up
and made their way, some by the roof and some by one part and some by
another, into the house; and the young men also, awaking for the
noise, arose and seized Ruggieri, who finding himself there, was in a
manner beside himself for wonderment and saw no way of escape. Then
they gave him into the hands of the officers of the governor of the
city, who had now run thither at the noise and carried him before
their chief. The latter, for that he was held of all a very sorry
fellow, straightway put him to the question and he confessed to having
entered the usurers' house to steal; whereupon the governor thought to
let string him up by the neck without delay.
The news was all over Salerno by the morning that Ruggieri had been
taken in the act of robbing the money-lenders' house, which the lady
and her maid hearing, they were filled with such strange and exceeding
wonderment that they were like to persuade themselves that they had
not done, but had only dreamed of doing, that which they had done
overnight; whilst the lady, to boot, was so concerned at the news of
the danger wherein Ruggieri was that she was like to go mad. Soon
after half tierce[258] the physician, having returned from Malfi and
wishing to medicine his patient, called for his prepared water and
finding the flagon empty, made a great outcry, saying that nothing
could abide as it was in his house. The lady, who was troubled with
another great chagrin, answered angrily, saying 'What wouldst thou
say, doctor, of grave matter, whenas thou makest such an outcry anent
a flagonlet of water overset? Is there no more water to be found in
the world?' 'Wife,' rejoined the physician, 'thou thinkest this was
common water; it was not so; nay, it was a water prepared to cause
sleep'; and told her for what occasion he had made it. When she heard
this, she understood forthright that Ruggieri had drunken the opiate
and had therefore appeared to them dead and said to her husband,
'Doctor, we knew it not; wherefore do you make yourself some more';
and the physician, accordingly, seeing he might not do otherwise, let
make thereof anew.
[Footnote 258: _i.e._ about half-past seven a.m.]
A little after, the maid, who had gone by her mistress's commandment
to learn what should be reported of Ruggieri, returned and said to
her, 'Madam, every one missaith of Ruggieri; nor, for aught I could
hear, is there friend or kinsman who hath risen up or thinketh to rise
up to assist him, and it is held certain that the prefect of police
will have him hanged to-morrow. Moreover, I have a strange thing to
tell you, to wit, meseemeth I have discovered how he came into the
money-lenders' house, and hear how. You know the carpenter overagainst
whose shop was the chest wherein we laid him; he was but now at the
hottest words in the world with one to whom it seemeth the chest
belonged; for the latter demanded of him the price of his chest, and
the carpenter replied that he had not sold it, but that it had that
night been stolen from him. Whereto, "Not so," quoth the other, "nay,
thou soldest it to the two young men, the money-lenders yonder, as
they told me yesternight, when I saw it in their house what time
Ruggieri was taken." "They lie," answered the carpenter. "I never sold
it to them; but they stole it from me yesternight. Let us go to them."
So they went off with one accord to the money-lenders' house, and I
came back hither. On this wise, as you may see, I conclude that
Ruggieri was transported whereas he was found; but how he came to life
again I cannot divine.'
The lady now understood very well how the case stood and telling the
maid what she had heard from the physician, besought her help to save
Ruggieri, for that she might, an she would, at once save him and
preserve her honour. Quoth she, 'Madam, teach me how, and I will
gladly do anything.' Whereupon the lady, whose wits were sharpened by
the urgency of the case, having promptly bethought herself of that
which was to do, particularly acquainted the maid therewith, who first
betook herself to the physician and weeping, began to say to him,
'Sir, it behoveth me ask you pardon of a great fault, which I have
committed against you.' 'In what?' asked the doctor, and she, never
giving over weeping, answered, 'Sir, you know what manner young man is
Ruggieri da Jeroli. He took a liking to me awhile agone and partly for
fear and partly for love, needs must I become his mistress.
Yesternight, knowing that you were abroad, he cajoled me on such wise
that I brought him into your house to lie with me in my chamber, and
he being athirst and I having no whither more quickly to resort for
water or wine, unwilling as I was that your lady, who was in the
saloon, should see me, I remembered me to have seen a flagon of water
in your chamber. Accordingly, I ran for it and giving him the water to
drink, replaced the flagon whence I had taken it, whereof I find you
have made a great outcry in the house. And certes I confess I did ill;
but who is there doth not ill bytimes? Indeed, I am exceeding grieved
to have done it, not so much for the thing itself as for that which
hath ensued of it and by reason whereof Ruggieri is like to lose his
life. Wherefore I pray you, as most I may, pardon me and give me leave
to go succour Ruggieri inasmuch as I can.' The physician, hearing
this, for all he was angry, answered jestingly, 'Thou hast given
thyself thine own penance therefor, seeing that, whereas thou
thoughtest yesternight to have a lusty young fellow who would shake
thy skincoats well for thee, thou hadst a sluggard; wherefore go and
endeavour for the deliverance of thy lover; but henceforth look thou
bring him not into the house again, or I will pay thee for this time
and that together.'
The maid, thinking she had fared well for the first venue, betook
herself, as quickliest she might, to the prison, where Ruggieri lay
and coaxed the gaoler to let her speak with the prisoner, whom after
she had instructed what answers he should make to the prefect of
police, an he would fain escape, she contrived to gain admission to
the magistrate himself. The latter, for that she was young and buxom,
would fain, ere he would hearken to her, cast his grapnel aboard the
good wench, whereof she, to be the better heard, was no whit chary;
then, having quitted herself of the grinding due,[259] 'Sir,' said
she, 'you have here Ruggieri da Jeroli taken for a thief; but the
truth is not so.' Then, beginning from the beginning, she told him the
whole story; how she, being his mistress, had brought him into the
physician's house and had given him the drugged water to drink,
unknowing what it was, and how she had put him for dead into the
chest; after which she told him the talk she had heard between the
master carpenter and the owner of the chest, showing him thereby how
Ruggieri had come into the money-lenders' house.
[Footnote 259: Or "having risen from the grinding" (_levatasi dal
macinio_).]
The magistrate, seeing it an easy thing to come at the truth of the
matter, first questioned the physician if it were true of the water
and found that it was as she had said; whereupon he let summon the
carpenter and him to whom the chest belonged and the two money-lenders
and after much parley, found that the latter had stolen the chest
overnight and put it in their house. Ultimately he sent for Ruggieri
and questioned him where he had lain that night, whereto he replied