For this, madam, you
should humble yourself before God, and confess that it was not through
your own merit, for many women who have led straighter lives than you
have been humiliated by men less worthy of love than he. And you should
henceforth be more than ever on your guard against proposals of love;
for many have the second time yielded to dangers which on the first
occasion they were able to avoid. Be mindful, madam, that love is blind,
and that it makes people blind in such wise that the way appears safest
just when it is most slippery. Further, madam, it seems to me that you
should give no sign of what has befallen you, whether to him or to any
one else, and that if he seeks to say anything on the matter, you should
feign not to understand him. In this way you will avoid two dangers,
the one of vain-glory in the victory you have won, and the other of
recalling things so pleasant to the flesh that at mention of them the
chastest can only with difficulty avoid feeling some sparks of the
flame, though they strive their utmost to escape them.
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