THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
three months after this fine monument of love was concluded, Duke Guido caught the pestilence and died miserably, for Luigi had looked upon him, and woe is ever in store for them upon whom hath fallen the eye of a lettered man. But the noble gentleman of Mantua went up to the poet's chamber, and in a mournful meditative way, began to burst open his chests and to ransack his wallets, for indeed he was sorry for the poor scholar, against whom he had no grudge. "Alas! alas!" murmured he to himself, "all the evil that we men suffer in this vale of misery must be put down to the wickedness and devilish entanglements of the women. And now this Constance hath made three honest gentlemen to suffer for her sins, and hath killed two outright. Truly it were well for us poor silly men, if there were no women in the world." Sadly and pensively musing in this wise the noble gentleman ran through all Luigi's papers; for he loved good letters and understood well how to distinguish choice writing from mean. And when he came to "Il Pastor Intronato," and saw what a rarest work of art was in his hands, he well-nigh wept, saying: "Alack! alack! a very admirable poet, a gentle witty clerk; dear soul, and he's come to this pitiful end, and through a woman's wanton, wicked ways." And thus it was by this gentleman's hands that this delicious piece of Luigi's was set forth, and remains, as I have said, a fragrant and everlasting memorial of him, together with the great stone wall around the miz-maze of San Giuliano. The which stands there to this day, and none has ever
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