ABSTRACT
ERO. Well harken a while then: this morning I tooke my horse and rode into the fieldes to solace my self, and as I passed the foorde beyonde S. Anthonies gate, I met at the foote of the hill a gentleman riding with two or three men: and as me thought by his habite and his lookes, he should be none of the wisest. He saluted me, and I him: I asked him from whence he came, and whither he would? he answered that he had come from Venice, then from Padua, nowe was going to Ferrara, and so to his countrey, whiche is Scienna: As soone as I knewe him to be a Scenese, sodenly lifting up mine eyes, (as it were with an admiration) I sayd unto him, are you a Scenese, and come to Farrara? why not, sayde he: quoth I, (halfe and more with a trembling voyce) know you the daunger that should ensue if you be knowne in Ferrara to be a Scenese? he more than halfe amased, desired me earnestly to tell him what I ment.
