But now 'tis stolen. Ah! too well 'tis known! That no more may I hide: But had to me a while before been shewn What then should me betide, At night before my door I had laid me down To watch my plant beside. Yet God Almighty sure me succour might. Ay, God Almighty sure me succour might, So were it but His will, 'Gainst him that me hath done so foul despite, That in dire torment still I languish, since the thief reft from my sight My plant that did me thrill, And to my inmost Soul such comfort lent! And to my inmost soul such comfort lent! So fresh its fragrance blew, That when, what time the sun uprose, I went My watering to do, I'd hear the people all in wonderment Say, whence this perfume new? And I for love of it of grief shall die. And I for love of it of grief shall die, Of my fair plant for dole. Would one but shew me how I might it buy! Ah! how 'twould me console! Ounces(2) an hundred of fine gold have I: Him would I give the whole, Ay, and a kiss to boot, so he were fain. (1) This stanza is defective in the original. (2) The "oncia" was a Sicilian gold coin worth rather more than a zecchino. NOVEL VI. -- Andreuola loves Gabriotto: she tells him a dream that she has had; he tells her a dream of his own, and dies suddenly in her arms. While she and her maid are carrying his corpse to his house, they are taken by the Signory. She tells how the matter stands, is threatened with violence by the Podesta, but will not brook it. Her father hears how she is bested; and, her innocence being established, causes her to be set at large; but she, being minded to tarry no longer in the world, becomes a nun. --