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Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)Boccaccio is one of the supreme figures in Italian literature. Great as a reformer of the language, he was at the same time a born teller of tales. He tells us that...

When the wall was about half-way up, the sly workman took advantage of a moment when the Count`s back was turned, to strike a blow with his trowel in one of the glass panes...

The Count had lately had all the ceilings of his reception rooms on the ground floor repaired. Plaster of Paris is difficult to obtain in Ven- dome; the carriage raises its price. The Count...

At these words Madame de Merret turned a haggard gaze upon her husband.“Here, take your crucifix,” he added. “Swear to me before God that there is no one in there; I will believe you,...

His unmistakable step resounded under the vaulted corridor. At the moment that the Count turned the handle of his wife`s door, he fancied he could hear the door of the closet I spoke of...

One morning I said to Rosalie: “Tell me all you know about Madame de Merret.”“Oh!” she replied in terror, “do not ask that of me, Monsieur Horace.”Her pretty face fell—her clear, bright color faded—and...

After exchanging a few more words with me, my landlady left me a prey to vague and gloomy thoughts, to a romantic curiosity, and a religious terror not unlike the profound impression produced on...

After that, one of our stable-men told us that in the evening when he led the horses to the water, he thought he had seen the Spanish grandee swimming far down the river like...

“Sir,” she said, “when the Emperor sent the Spanish prisoners of war and others here, the Government quartered on me a young Span¬iard who had been sent to Vendome on parole. Parole notwithstanding he...

An arbor is still visible, or rather the ddbris of an arbor, where there is a table that time has not quite destroyed. The aspect of this garden of bygone days suggests the negative...