"You say well, lady," observed Periander, "for when did there ever exist a lover, who, possessing the beloved one, does not tremble lest he should lose it? There is no happiness so secure that it may not be overturned;—no nail so strong as to stop the wheel of fortune;—and if it were not that we are anxious not to delay our journey, perhaps I might prove to-day in the academy, that love can exist without jealousy, but not without fear."
Thus ended the conversation. They stayed in Milan four days, during which they saw a great part of its grandeur, but not all, as that would have taken them four years.
From thence they went to Lucca, a small town, but beautiful and free, which, under the wings of the empire and of Spain, looks loftily down upon the cities of the surrounding princes, who long to possess her. Here Spaniards are better received and regarded than in any other place; and here our travellers met with one of the strangest adventures that had yet befallen them.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER XX.
The inns at Lucca are large enough to lodge a whole regiment of soldiers; in one of these our pilgrims took up their abode, being directed thither by some of the guardians of the city gates, who delivered them to the host, so that on the morrow, or when they departed, he would have to give up an account of them. As they entered, the lady Ruperta saw a person coming out who looked like a doctor, and saying so to the hostess, she replied, that he was one. "I do not know, lady," said she, "whether the young lady is mad, or possessed by the evil one, or rather whether she is not both mad and possessed; and yet I have hopes of her recovery, if her uncle is not in too great a hurry to take her away."
"Ah! good Heavens!" cried Ruperta, "and have we then got into a house of mad and possessed people; if it be so, we had much better not enter here."