Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/79

 The first arrow which the Queen had shot, had hit in the middle of the basin and the other two had hit on top of each other, on top of the first arrow. He very much admired this but it also left him greatly confused and sorrowful. But thus, after everything that had been agreed upon, he was still unable to believe that the Queen had made such great shots. Nevertheless, in some way he did not want to comply with her desire. And knowing that, failing to do what he had promised to the woman, he did something that would not agree with his honor; on the following day he pretended to be overwhelmed by a certain sickness. The Queen, who was wise and discreet, did not want to cause him any trouble and was not looking to him at the time to be engraved on coins, but was entirely devoted to his health.

Now it happened in those days, that news came from some neighboring cities of that kingdom, that a great number of winged unicorns, were present on their territories, and had done great damage. Astute as the King was, he wondered whether this were a good opportunity to liberate himself from his obligation to the Queen. And pretending that he had somewhat recovered from his illness, he told the Queen that as he had got better, he wanted to go with her to where the unicorns were to see if it were in any way possible to drive them from the territory. And so, not much after showing that he had completely recovered his health, he rose the following day from the pretense of infirmity, and proclaimed in his court that everybody should be ready in three days because he wanted to ride to the cities that had been damaged by the unicorns.