True love can never change, And only he, Will prosp'rous be, Who firm and true remains, Nor ever seeks to range. Ricla, as the voice ceased, said, "This songster must needs be an idle soft creature, who at such a time as this fills the air with his voice," but Periander and Auristella judged otherwise. _They_ thought the singer was more of a lover than an idle fellow. Those who love quickly recognize the passion in another, and seek fellowship with them who know how to pity and sympathize with their own weaknesses. So with the leave of the rest of the party in the boat, although it was hardly necessary to ask it, they requested the singer to step into their boat, as much to enjoy hearing his voice better as to learn his history, for it was evident that a person who could sing at such a time must either feel a great deal, or not at all. The boats joined, and the singer stepped from his into that where Periander and his party were, who all received him very courteously. As he entered, the new comer said, half in Portuguese and half in Castilian, "I owe to Heaven and to you, and to my voice, this agreeable change for the better into your boat; albeit I believe I shall not long encumber it with the load of my body, for the heavy sorrows I have in my heart are such that I feel my life holds by a single thread." "Heaven may help thee yet," said Periander, "for I am a living proof that there are no sorrows or miseries that can kill any one." Here Auristella joined in the conversation and said, "_That_ is not hope which merely puts away and resists misfortune, but as the light shines brightest in darkness so is hope most firm in time of trouble, and despair is the feeling of only coward souls. There is no cowardice or meanness greater than to give oneself up to despair." "I believe this truly," answered the singer, "notwithstanding, and in spite of, the sad experience I have known in the course of my life."