[De duobus amantibus Euryalo et Lucretia]

"Do not be harder toward me with your words than you had been with the eyes by which you collected me. I do not ask for anything in deed, even that I may have the opportunity to speak to you. I request only this: that my letters may be able to say what I could say before you. If you give this, I live, and I live happily. If you deny it, you extinguish my heart, which loves you more than it loves me. I commend myself and my faith to you. Farewell, my soul and the subsidy of my life."

When the go-between received this, signed with a seal, she sought Lucretia with a hasty step and found her alone. When she delivered the letter, the whole court of Caesar's nobility and the powerful ones sent the lover who had sent you to her, asking with great prayers. The woman was marked for her role as a go-between, and this did not escape Lucretia, who bore it unhappily that such a wicked thing was sent to her. She said with anger, "Wicked woman, with what boldness do you send this into this house? What dementia persuaded you to approach my presence? You dare to enter the houses of the nobility, you dare to tempt powerful matrons and violate legitimate marriage torches! I can hardly restrain myself from flying into your hair. You give me letters? You speak to me? You look upon me? If I were to attend to what is fitting for me rather than what is convenient for you, I would ensure that from this day forward you would not carry love tablets. Go quickly, witch, and take your letters with you, before I tear them apart and give them to the fire."

Accepting the paper, she tore the divided parts, and after trampling them under her feet and spitting upon them, she threw them into the ashes. She said, "If a punishment is to be taken from you, go-between, you are more worthy of fire than that which I live by. But go quickly, lest my husband find you and demand from you the punishment for what I have returned of your matter. And take care, I warn you, not to return to my sight."

Another woman would have feared this, but she knew the customs of matrons and said within herself, "You do not want to die, though you show that you do not want this. Depart."

"Spare me, mistress," she said. "I thought I was doing well and that it would be pleasing to you. If it is otherwise, grant pardon to my imprudence. If you do not wish me to return, I will obey. You will see which lover you despise." And with these words, she left from sight.

When Eurialus was found, she said, "Breathe, happy lover! The woman loves more than she loves, but now there was no leisure for replying."

She found Lucretia sad, but when she mentioned his name and delivered his letters, she made a happy face and kissed the paper a thousand times. "Do not doubt; soon an answer will be given." And departing, the old woman took care not to be found again, lest she receive lashes from the servants. Lucretia, truly, after the old woman escaped, searched for the fragments of the letter, restored each piece to its place, and stitched together the torn words; now they made a legible document. And after she read it a thousand times, and kissed it a thousand times, and wrapped it in a silk shroud, she placed it among her precious jewels.