Here all the counsellors stared at each other with round eyes.

"Only you must promise me one thing," continued the duke. "Whoever I
marry, be she duchess or beggar, old or young, ugly or handsome, not
one of you must find fault with her, but welcome her as my wife, and
your honored lady."

All the courtiers, recovering from their surprise, cried out, "We will;
we promise."

Thereupon, all the court who were standing about gave a loud cheer; and
the little page, who held the horse's bridle, tossed up his cap, and
turned two double somersaults on the pavement of the court-yard. Then
the duke leaped into his saddle, humming a song of how King Cophetua
wooed a beggar maid; tootle-te-tootle went the huntsmens' bugles;
clampety-clamp went the horses' hoofs on the stones, and out into the
green forest galloped the royal hunt.

Now, in the farther border of the wood was a little hut which the
hunting-train passed by daily. In this little cottage lived an old
basketmaker named Janiculo, with his only daughter Griselda, the child
of his old age. He had also a son Laureo, who was a poor scholar in
Padua, studying hard to get money enough to make himself a priest. But
Laureo was nearly always away, and Griselda took care of her father,
kept the house, and wove baskets with her slender, nimble fingers, to
sell in the town close by.

I cannot tell you in words of the loveliness of Griselda. She was as
pure as the dew which gemmed the forest, as sweet-voiced as the birds,