Of the arrival of Diliana and the death of the convent priest—Item, how the unfortunate corpse is torn by a wolf.
Scarcely had the abbess returned to her apartment when Diliana sprang in, with flowing hair, and her beautiful, blooming face looking like a rose sprinkled with morning dew. So the worthy matron screamed first with wonder that all should be true, then taking the lovely young maiden in her arms, pressed her to her heart, and asked—
"Wherefore comest thou here, my beloved Diliana?"
Illa.—"I have run away from my father, good mother, and will serve my cousin Sidonia Bork as her waiting-maid, hoping that in return she will give him something out of her herbal to heal his poor frame, which is distracted day and night with pain, even as she healed you and Sheriff Sparling; and she will do this, I am sure, because I hear that her maid, Anne Wolde, is sick, and no one in all the country round will take service with her, they say."
Hæc.—"Poor child, thou knowest not what thou dost. She will slay thee, or ill-treat thee in her wickedness, or may be bring some worse evil than either on thee."
Illa.—"And I will do as the Lord commanded—if she strike me on one cheek, I will turn to her the other also, whereby she will be softened, and consent to help my poor father."
Hæc.—"She will help him in nothing, and then how wilt thou bear the disgrace of servitude?"
Illa.—"Disgrace? If the soul suffer not disgrace, the body, methinks, can suffer it never."
Hæc.—"But how canst thou do the duties of a serving-wench? Thou, brought up the lady of a castle!"
Illa.—"I have learned everything privately from Lisette; trust me, I can feed the pigs and sheep, milk the cow, and wash the dishes, &c."