Onde la penna in bocca si metteva,
E a scrivere cominciò senza dimoro,
Col sputo, lettere che parevan d’ oro!
‘After seven years and seven days, he opens his golden mouth in speech, and confesses his foul crimes to the king; cavaliers are despatched in search of the body of the princess; as they approach the cavern they hear celestial music, and in the end they bring the donzella out of the cistern alive and well, and very sorry to leave the blessed Virgin and the angels, with whom she had been passing her time most agreeably: she is restored to her parents with universal festa e allegrezza, and she announces to the hermit that he is pardoned and may return to his cell, which he does forthwith, and ends in leading the life of a saint, and being beatified. The “discreti auditori” are invited to take example—
Da questo Santo pien di leggiadria
Che Iddio sempre perdona a’ peccatori,
and are finally informed that they may purchase this edifying history on easy terms, to wit, a halfpenny—
Due quattrini dia senza far più parole.
The price, however, rose; for in the next century the line is altered thus:—
Pero ciascun che comperarne vuole,