wine, I suppose, was herself overcome and stretched out her hand to
receive the bounty of their host. Refreshed by food and drink, she
then began to attack the obstinacy of her mistress. 'What good will it
do you to die of hunger?' she asked, 'or to bury yourself alive'? Or to
surrender an uncondemned spirit before the fates demand it? 'Think you
the ashes or sepultured dead can feel aught of thy woe! Would you recall
the dead from the reluctant fates? Why not shake off this womanish
weakness and enjoy the blessings of light while you can? The very corpse
lying there ought to convince you that your duty is to live!' When
pressed to eat or to live, no one listens unwillingly, and the lady,
thirsty after an abstinence of several days, finally permitted her
obstinacy to be overcome; nor did she take her fill of nourishment
with less avidity than had the maid who had surrendered first."




CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH.

"But to make a long story short, you know the temptations that beset a
full stomach: the soldier laid siege to her virtue with the selfsame
blandishments by which he had persuaded her that she ought to live. Nor,
to her modest eye, did the young man seem uncouth or wanting in address.
The maid pled in his behalf and kept repeating:

Why will you fight with a passion that to you is pleasure,
Remembering not in whose lands you are taking your leisure?

"But why should I keep you longer in suspense? The lady observed the
same abstinence when it came to this part of her body, and the victorious