THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
course brought back with them to San Giuliano no less a person than the renowned physician Signor Albericus of Padua, whose consultations are still made much of and esteemed not only by doctors but by curious persons and lettered men, who find therein many strange diseases and witty cures, set down in grave and choice phrases, and enlivened by some flashes of mirth. This learned person having heard what the duke could tell him, was taken to Constance's chamber, and there left alone with her, because as he merrily said he was used to this kind of thing and might be trusted. And indeed he was a good distance on the wrong side of sixty, fat and rotund in person, and altogether not a man to make a jealous husband put his hand to his forehead, though the wife were never so beautiful. And so soon as the door was shut and the duke out of earshot, Constance eagerly began to pour her woes out before the good doctor, whose brain she bewildered with an infinity of feminine lamentations and prayers for aid. And when Albericus had heard the whole story and put the fragments all together, he perceived that he had got mixed up in rather a ticklish business, the which might possibly give him trouble and disturb his peace and quietness. And since he loved an easy life above everything, he determined to be wary in the matter and to keep a good look out for pitfalls; so when Constance began delicately to throw out hints about philtres and full-flavoured medicaments of the same kind, he cut her short by saying that his system of medicine did not allow of such remedies, which he af-
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