On this account Messer Ansaldo thanked them, and said that he had as yet enough left to give him sustenance.
But it came to pass that Giannetto, pondering these matters day and night, could not shake off his sorrow. Wherefore Messer Ansaldo demanded to know what ailed him.
And Giannetto answered, “I shall never know content till I have regained you what I have lost.”
Messer Ansaldo answered, “My son, I would not that you should leave me again, for it will be better for us to live modestly on what is left to us than for you to put aught else tohazard.”
Giannetto said, “I am determined to do all I can, forasmuch as I should hold myself to be in most shameful case were I to bide here in this fashion.”
Then Messer Ansaldo, seeing that his mind was set thereon, made provision to sell all that he had left in the world, and to equip for him another vessel. And, after he had sold everything, so that he had naught left, he loaded a fine vessel with merchandise. And because he wanted yet ten thousand ducats to complete his venture, he went to a certain Jew of Mestri, with whom he made an agreement that, if he should not repay the debt by Saint John's day in the June following, the Jew should have the right to take a pound of his flesh, and to cut the same from what place so ever he listed. Messer Ansaldo having duly agreed, and the Jew having drawn up a binding document with witnesses, using all the precautionsandformalitieswhichtheoccasion