against
Francis I.--Ed.
By reason, however, of our now great leisure, it can be accomplished in
ten days, whilst we wait for our bridge to be finished. If it so pleased
you, we might go every day from noon till four of the clock into yonder
pleasant meadow beside the river Gave. The trees there are so leafy that
the sun can neither penetrate the shade nor change the coolness to heat.
Sitting there at our ease, we might each one tell a story of something
we have ourselves seen, or heard related by one worthy of belief. At
the end of ten days we shall have completed the hundred,(14) and if
God wills it that our work be found worthy in the eyes of the lords and
ladies I have mentioned, we will on our return from this journey present
them with it, in lieu of images and paternosters,(15) and feeling
assured that they will hold this to be a more pleasing gift. If,
however, any one can devise some plan more agreeable than mine, I will
fall in with his opinion."
14 This passage plainly indicates that the Queen meant to
pen a Decameron.
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