Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/240

 relax a jot from pursuing to its utmost extent the plan he had formed for proving the faithfulness of this gentle and already too mild-conditioned woman.

When his daughter had reached the age of twelve years, he privately commissioned the same messenger to draw up papers, counterfeiting a Bull from the Pope at Rome, sanctioning a dissolution of the bonds of marriage between himself and Griselda, upon the plea that it had been the cause of rancour and dissension between the people and him, their ruler. The rude commonalty, who are seldom slow to be deceived, gave ear to the proclamation, and (no wonder) thought it was all true. But when the tidings were brought to Griselda, she was smitten to the heart with the new and unlooked for cruelty of the blow; yet, like a lamb, she abided in dumb anguish the bitterness of this unpitying storm, nor ever once let a word of upbraiding fall from her lips.

To draw as shortly as possible to the conclusion of my tale, the Marquis secretly sent a letter to his brother-in-law, the Count di Panico, requesting him to bring home again, openly,