Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/88

 So, following the King's order, the peasant returned home and told the Queen everything, and asked her to wear her best clothes when he would bring her the next day before the King, her husband.

When the King looked at her carefully, it seemed to him that she resembled his wife in all respects. "I pray thee, tell me by your faith," he said, "fair young lady, who and whose daughter you are."

To which she replied in this way, “I am, Sire, your unfortunate wife, the one you had thrown to the rabid dogs, who guard your palace at night, and you have always believed that I was devoured by them. They did not harm me in any way, but instead caressed me, because from the moment when I became your wife, I became familiar with them when I used to feed them. I escaped through an opening in the caves of the palace outside the city. And I happened to arrive at the home of this good peasant who was so kind to accept me as his daughter.

After I had lived there a short while, I heard the news of your illness. After I had made an effort to understand the conditions accurately, I came to believe that perhaps you were remorseful about the cruel sentence, to which you had condemned me, and that for this reason you had fallen into such a grave and dangerous illness. I thought that there was no other way to be found than to make you happy. While I could not meet you again as you had condemned me to a cruel death, I tried to liberate you from a certain danger to your life.