THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
him; and Laura degli Cavalcante bade her go still abroad, and when she was at home, to keep her chamber "for so" said she, "my lord will feel the lack of you." But a girl named Agnes, who lay apart upon the ground, and had a face full of maliciousness and wit plainly told her mistress that there was only one cure for the duke's sickness; "and this," she said, "is for you to choose some young gallant from among the gentlemen of your court, and openly to show your kindness for him by pleasant words and by acceptance of his service; the which I warrant me will open my lord's eyes, and show him along what manner of road he is posting. This is a medicine I have known operate most marvellously, and unless I am much mistaken it will teach your husband that there is more wit in women than in Cicero, or any man at all, dead or alive." At this hardy speech Constance looked down and was thought to blush but ever so little, and the ladies agreed that though Agnes was young there was some tincture of sense in what she said, and that if my lady furnished her husband with a pair of horns he would have no right to be angry, since he had of his own acts and deeds (or rather the want of them) forfeited all his claims and privileges. But an old dame with white hair, who had seen a good deal of life, and knew that such remedies as these now and then turn out worse than the sickness itself and bring on bad complaints, advised Constance not to be hasty in the matter, but to send for some learned physician, and consult with him, and open up all her grief "since" (quoth the old
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