strong ruler, and made himself respected by the equal justice he maintained towards men of allclasses.
Thus he lived his life in joy and gladness, and gave no thought to Messer Ansaldo, who, luckless wight as he was, remained a living pledge for the ten thousand ducats which he had borrowed from the Jew.
One day Messer Giannetto, standing with his wife at the window of the palace, saw, passing through the piazza, a band of men bearing lighted torches in their hands, as if they were going to make some offering. Giannetto inquired of her what this might mean. Whereupon she replied that it was a company of craftsmen going to pay their vows at the church of San Giovanni on the festival of the saint.
Messer Giannetto then remembered Messer Ansaldo. And, having gone away from the window, he sighed deeply and became grave of countenance, and walked up and down the hall thinking over what he had just seen. The lady asked what ailed him, and he replied that nothing was amiss.
But she began to question him, saying, “Certes, you are troubled with something you are loath to tell me.” And she spake so much on the matter that at last Messer Giannetto told her how Messer Ansaldo was held in pledge for ten thousand ducats, and that the time for repayment expired this very day.
“Wherefore,” he said, “I am smitten with great sorrow that my father should have to die for me. For unless his debt shall be repaid today, he is bound to have cut from his body a pound of flesh.”