Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/252

 you are still my wife—I have no other—have had no other, and shall have no other. This maiden whom you supposed to be my wife is your daughter, and this, her brother, shall inherit my kingdom. Truly and lawfully did you bear them to me; and all this time have I kept them privately with my sister, at Bologna. Take them again, and be assured you have not been unnaturally bereft of your offspring. And now, let those who have deemed otherwise of my conduct be informed, that with no malice or wilful cruelty have I acted as I did, but to make trial of your womanly virtue—not to murder your children—Heaven forbid! but to secrete them till I knew the temper of your heart.'

When she had heard this speech, the great flood of joy that burst upon her amazed senses, together with the suddenness of the change, so wrought upon her tender frame, that she swooned at his feet. And when she recovered, she called her children to her, and taking them in her arms, piteously weeping, she embraced them over and over again, tenderly kissing them with those motherly lips; and