“That’s good,” said her companion, “because you go to see her.”
“Yes,” said the queen, “and sometimes at night.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Gauttier, “I make a vow to St. Rosalie, patroness of Sicily, to build her a gold altar for this fortune.”
“O Jesus!” cried the queen. “I am doubly blessed in having a lover so handsome and yet so religious.”
“Ah, my dear, I have two sweethearts today, because I have a queen to love in heaven above, and another one here below, and luckily these loves cannot clash one with the other.”
This sweet speech so affected the queen, that for nothing she would have fled with this cunning Frenchman.
“The Virgin Mary is very powerful in heaven,” said the queen. “Love grant that I may be like her!”
“Bah! they are talking of the Virgin Mary,” said the king, who by chance had come to watch them, disturbed by a gleam of jealousy, cast into his heart by a Sicilian courtier, who was furious at the sudden favour which the Frenchman had obtained.
The queen and the chevalier laid their plans, and everything was secretly arranged to furnish the helmet of the king with two invisible ornaments. The knight rejoined the Court, made himself agreeable to everyone, and returned to the Palace of Pezare, whom he told that their fortunes were made, because on the morrow, at night, he would sleep with the queen. This swift success astonished the Venetian, who, like a good friend, went in search of fine perfumes, linen of Brabant, and precious garments, to which queens are accustomed, with all of which he loaded his friend Gauttier, in order that the case might be worthy the jewel.
“Ah, my friend,” said he “are you sure not to falter, but to go vigorously to work, to serve the queen bravely, and give her such joys in her castle of Gallardin that she may hold on for ever to this master staff, like a drowning sailor to a plank?”