Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/125

 And he entered his bath, and stayed there for a little while. After leaving, he gave orders that the third young woman be brought to him.

She arrived into his presence and he welcomed her cheerfully. They entered the garden of the palace and walked over the fresh grass while discussing various matters. There was a beautiful lake, which, thanks to the diversity of the fish that it contained, was very delightful to see. When they approached the lake, the young woman immediately covered her face with a veil, and when the Prince asked why she did this, she answered, "Because in this lake there are some male fish, and it would not be honorable that they would see me, since I am a woman."

From these words the Prince understood that she was no better than the other two, but he wanted to be sure of this and turned towards the statue, and noticed that it was laughing. For a while, there had been a small and beautiful little boat in that lake with open sails and with many carved figurines which resembled the great ships that sail the high seas. It was built and placed there to decorate the lake. It so happened that it was hit by the wind now in this, now in that part of the lake, until it sank. When the young woman saw this, she pretended to faint and fell down. When she recovered and the Prince asked her for the reason of her distress, she said, "Because seeing that little ship sinking with all those sailors on board greatly distressed me."