Jean de Cent Acres: Her name was Eliette. She looked after the flocks. Whenever I went to her pastures, she would say, "Blessed be your footsteps," and I would say to her, "I see your lovely meadow. May I rest my sword there?"
Simon di Clarendon: You dared say that?
Ranieri di Panico: And what did she say?
Jean de Cent Acres: "No man would rest his sword in my womb until he has killed a hundred men for every ford." And I fell in love with her to the deepest confines of her purity. Until she gave birth to a son during the cherry season.
Ranieri di Panico: A son? Whose was it?
Jean de Cent Acres: Not mine, that is certain.
Vanni delle Rondini: I have a second cousin by the name of Mingardina whom I will marry before my thirtieth year.
Ranieri di Panico: What is she like?
Vanni delle Rondini: Everyone says she's beautiful.
Ranieri di Panico: You have never seen her?
Vanni delle Rondini: Yes, I have. On her seventh birthday. She already knew how to spell all the saints of the calendar. Your turn.
Simon di Clarendon: In Clarendon, every summer, a girl comes from the Countess of Salisbury's retinue. Her name is Annie Morton. She has the longest, reddest hair I've ever seen before. People come from all around just to stare at her hair. So do I. When she mends her mistress's stockings, I always come to talk to her, but I always stare at her hair. I'm not sure if this is love.
Ranieri di Panico: In Panico, there are eight babies who look like me, and at least that many in Magona, and no fewer than four in Castel di Casio and the Laguna. I'm not so sure whether this is love either!
[the four knights and Giacomo laugh]
