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 dame) "the doctors understand these affairs better than anyone, and are often able to give comfort, when there seems to be no hope." And with this their session broke up, and the marble fauns at either end of the bench were left alone, to look slyly at one another as if they knew that there was mischief a-brewing. Perhaps unkind people would say that when a company of ladies plot schemes together, the results are not likely to be very salutary to anyone concerned; but this is an opinion to which I do not consent, since it proceeds from a bad source, namely from the brains of ugly men whose lips are so large that no girl will kiss them; hence it is evident that whatever comes from those lips aforesaid should be looked upon with suspicion and in most cases rejected. However that may be, it chanced next morning that the duchess was seized with a violent pain in the head, just as she came out from hearing Mass, and was borne fainting to her chamber and put to bed by her women, who at first did not perceive the trickery, for, to be short, it was nothing else. But the duke verily believed his wife to be in grievous case and, since he loved her well enough in his quiet way, sat down and wrote letters and sealed them with a curious seal he had, it being the likeness of a man in armour, with two snakes for feet, and his face turned away, driving four horses in a chariot: and on one side of him was a star, and on the other a half moon; this seal being artfully cut out in green jasper. The letters, thus sealed, were given into the hands of messengers, who rode swiftly, and in due