Page 9 - Doralice

loved his wife no less than she loved him,
swore by his head that he would observe her
wish.
After the good princess had breathed her last
and had been honourably buried, Tebaldo
indulged in the thought of wed ding again, but
he bore well in mind the promise he had made
to his wife, and was firmly resolved to keep

her saying. However, the report that Tebaldo,
Prince of Salerno, was seeking another mate
soon got noised abroad, and came to the ears
of many maidens who, in worth and in estate,
were no whit his inferiors; but Tebaldo, whose
first care was to fulfil the wishes of his wife
who was dead, made it a condition that any

damsel who might be offered to him in
marriage should first try on her finger his
wife's ring, to see whether it fitted, and not
having found one who fulfilled this condition -
the ring being always found too big for this
and too small for that- he was forced to
dismiss them all without further parley.
Now it happened one day that the daughter of
Tebaldo, whose name was Doralice, sat at

table with her father; and she, having espied
her mother's ring lying on the board, slipped
__
9