SONG. Madonna, when the springs of passion rise, And through thy fair sweet bosom surge and swell; And in those lucent sacred eyes, Which tell me I may live, and eke my death may tell; From those gracious looks and kind, A gracious hope my longings find. Now calm, and now spurred on by rage, With hope and fear a fight I wage; Eftsoons my hope the vantage gains, And I am rid of all my pains, And know no stroke of fate can lure, Or drive me from my course secure. Wherefore I bless the passing days; Great nature, and the stars I praise, That thy fair self my passion fired, Thy service sweet my song inspired. As soon as the three damsels had brought to an end their amorous canzonet, which seemed to break up the air around into sighs of passion, the Signora made a sign to Eritrea, who had been chosen for the first place this evening, that she should make a beginning of her story-telling. The damsel, seeing that she could in no wise excuse herself, put aside all bashfulness, and began to speak in turn that the order which had hitherto prevailed might not be disturbed. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] THE FIRST FABLE. =Guerrino, only son of Filippomaria, King of Sicily, sets free from his father’s prison a certain savage man. His mother, through fear of the king, drives her son into exile, and him the savage man, now humanized, delivers from many and measureless ills.= I have heard by report, and likewise gathered from my own experience, most gracious and pleasure-loving ladies, that a kindly service done to another (although at the time the one served may seem in no sense grateful for the boon conferred) will more often than not come back to the doer thereof with abundant usury of benefit. Which thing happened to the son of a king who, having liberated from one of his father’s prisons a wild man of the woods, was more than once rescued from a violent death by the captive he had freed. This you will easily understand from the fable which I intend to relate to you, and for the love I bear to all of you I will exhort you never to be backward in aiding others; because, even though you be not repaid by those in whose behalf you have wrought, God Himself, the rewarder of all, will assuredly never leave your good deed unrecompensed; nay, on the contrary, He will make you partakers with Him of His divine grace.