has sent his angel Raphael to me as he did to Tobit, to enable me to
find a perfect husband for your daughter. I have in my house the most
honourable gentleman in Italy, who has sometimes seen your daughter and
is deeply in love with her. And so to-day, whilst I was at prayer,
God sent him to me, and he told me of his desire for the marriage,
whereupon, knowing his lineage and kindred and notable descent, I
promised him to speak to you on the matter. There is, indeed, one defect
in him, of which I alone have knowledge, and it is this. Wishing to save
one of his friends whom another man was striving to slay, he drew his
sword in order to separate them; but it chanced that his friend slew the
other, and thus, although he himself had not dealt a blow, yet inasmuch
as he had been present at a murder and had drawn his sword, he became
a fugitive from his native town. By the advice of his kinsfolk he came
hither in the garb of a scholar, and he dwells here unknown until his
kinsfolk shall have ended the matter; and this he hopes will shortly
be done. For this reason, then, it would be needful that the marriage
should be performed in secret, and that you should suffer him to go in
the daytime to the public lectures and return home every evening to sup
and sleep."

"Sir," replied the worthy woman, "I look upon what you tell me as of
great advantage to myself, for I shall at least have by me what I most
desire in the world."

Thereupon the Grey Friar brought his comrade, bravely attired with a
crimson satin doublet, and the lady was well pleased with him. And as
soon as he was come the betrothal took place, and, immediately after
midnight, a mass was said and they were married. Then they went to
bed together until daybreak, when the bridegroom told his wife that to
escape discovery he must needs return to the college.