Now the lady had a maid, that was none too young,and had a countenance the ugliest and most misshapen that ever was seen; for indeed she was flat-nosed,wry-mouthed, and thick-lipped, with huge, ill-set teeth, eyes that squinted and were ever bleared, and a complexion betwixt green and yellow, that shewed as if she had spent the summer not at Fiesole but at Sinigaglia: besides which she was hip-shot and somewhat halting on the right side. Her name was Ciuta, but, for that she was such a scurvy bitch to look upon, she was called by all folk Ciutazza.[1]And being thus misshapen of body, she was also not without her share of guile. So the lady called her and said:—"Ciutazza, so thou wilt do me a service tonight, I will give thee a fine new shift." At the mention of the shift Ciutazza made answer:—"So you give me a shift, Madam, I will throw myself into the very fire.""Good," said the lady; "then I would have thee lie tonight in my bed with a man, whom thou wilt caress;but look thou say never a word, that my brothers, who,as thou knowest, sleep in the next room, hear thee not;and afterwards I will give thee the shift." "Sleep with a man!" quoth Ciutazza: "why, if need be, I will sleep with six." So in the evening Master Rector came, as he had been bidden; and the two young men, as the lady had arranged, being in their room, and making themselves very audible, he stole noiselessly, and in the dark, into the lady's room, and got him on to the bed, which Ciutazza, well advised by the lady how to behave, mounted from the other side. Whereupon Master Rector, thinking to have the lady by his side,took Ciutazza in his arms, and fell a kissing her,saying never a word the while, and Ciutazza did the like; and so he enjoyed her, plucking the boon which he had so long desired.