In Genoa, a wealthy and respected gentleman named Rainaldo Scaglia lived with his only son, Salardo. Rainaldo had given the boy an excellent education and provided him with everything necessary to grow into a prosperous gentleman.
When Rainaldo became seriously ill in his old age, he summoned a notary and prepared his will, leaving his possessions to Salardo. Before dying, however, he asked his son to remember three instructions.
First, Salardo must never entrust an important secret to his wife, however deeply he loved her. Second, if his marriage produced no children, he must not adopt another man’s child as his heir. Third, he must never settle in a state where the ruler possessed unchecked power over life and death.
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Rainaldo explained no further. He simply urged his son to honour these instructions as a final expression of paternal care. Soon afterwards, he died.
Salardo mourned his father, but he did not give much thought to the warnings. Before a year had passed, he married Theodora, the beautiful daughter of the nobleman Odescalco Doria. He loved her so passionately that he disliked being separated from her, even briefly.
For several years, the couple remained childless. Desperate for an heir, Salardo decided to adopt a boy despite his father’s warning. With Theodora’s agreement, he took the son of a poor widow into his household, named him Postumius, and raised him with the same care he would have given a natural son.
Salardo believed he had done nothing wrong. To him, his father’s instructions belonged to an older generation whose fears no longer applied to the world he knew.
A New Home Under a Powerful Prince
Eventually, Salardo grew tired of Genoa and longed for a change of surroundings. Taking his wife, his adopted son, his wealth, and his jewels, he travelled through Piedmont and settled in Montferrat.
His generosity and good breeding quickly earned him friends. News of his hospitality reached the Marquis of Montferrat, who welcomed him into the ruling circle. The marquis was a keen hunter and falconer, and he soon became so attached to Salardo that he rarely went hunting or hawking without him.
Before long, Salardo had become one of the most influential men at court. People seeking favours from the marquis often approached him first, knowing how much the ruler valued his friendship.
One day, reflecting on his good fortune, Salardo began to question his father’s advice. Postumius seemed obedient, intelligent, and affectionate. The marquis treated him with extraordinary favour. How, he wondered, could his father have been right to warn him against adopting a child or living under an absolute ruler?
Only the warning about confiding in his wife remained untested.
Salardo decided that he would prove his father’s caution foolish. He was convinced that Theodora’s love was so strong that she would never betray him. To demonstrate her loyalty, he devised a dangerous experiment.
The Dead Falcon and the Secret
Salardo secretly took the marquis’s favourite falcon from the palace mews and entrusted it to his friend Francesco, asking him to keep the bird safe until further notice.
He then killed one of his own falcons and carried its body home beneath his cloak.
When he found Theodora, he pretended that he had killed the marquis’s prized bird. He explained that the prince’s endless appetite for hunting had exhausted him, and he hoped the loss would discourage the marquis from spending so much time in the field.
Theodora was horrified. She warned her husband that such an offence could cost him his position, his property, or even his life.
Salardo dismissed her fears. He reminded her that only the two of them knew the secret and begged her, in the name of their love, never to reveal it.
Theodora promised to remain silent.
That evening, Salardo ordered the dead falcon to be cooked for supper. Theodora refused to eat it, unable to accept what she believed her husband had done. Salardo pressed her to eat, but she continued to resist. Enraged by her refusal, he struck her across the face.
Theodora wept and vowed privately to remember the humiliation.
The following morning, she went straight to the marquis and revealed what Salardo had supposedly done.
The ruler was furious. Without hearing Salardo’s de-fence, he ordered him arrested and condemned to be hanged. He also decreed that the condemned man’s possessions should be divided into three portions: one for Theodora as the accuser, one for Postumius, and one for the executioner.
A Son’s Cruel Calculation
When Postumius learned of the sentence, he hurried to Theodora with a proposal. Why should the executioner’s share go to a stranger when he could perform the task himself and keep that portion of the family fortune?
Theodora agreed that this was a sensible arrangement. Postumius immediately approached the marquis, who granted his request.
Meanwhile, Salardo languished in prison, bound in chains and awaiting execution. His confidence had collapsed. At last, he understood the danger his father had tried to help him avoid.
He regretted adopting Postumius, trusting Theodora with a secret, and placing his life in the hands of a ruler who could turn from affection to murderous anger without a hearing. He remembered his father’s warnings with bitter sorrow and wished he had followed them.
His adopted son soon arrived with the officers who would escort him to the gallows. Postumius explained that he intended to act as executioner so the family could retain the condemned man’s wealth.
Salardo listened quietly. Rather than protest, he told the young man that he accepted his decision and asked him to proceed.
Postumius sought his father’s forgiveness, kissed him, and placed the noose around his neck.
At the place of execution, Salardo climbed the ladder towards the gallows. Before the sentence could be carried out, he turned to the gathered crowd and explained how he had arrived at this terrible moment. He urged the young to listen to their fathers and respect the wisdom that came with age.
His account moved the people, many of whom pitied him and hoped he might still be saved.
Francesco’s Intervention
While Salardo faced the gallows, Francesco hurried to the marquis and pleaded for his friend’s life. He reminded the ruler that Salardo had served him faithfully and deserved an opportunity to explain himself before being executed.
The marquis reacted angrily, threatening Francesco with the same punishment. But Francesco refused to withdraw. He declared that he was willing to die beside Salardo if he could not prove his friend’s innocence.
The marquis finally agreed to delay the execution for an hour. He ordered that Salardo be brought before him, still bound and wearing the noose, so that Francesco could present his case.
Standing before the furious ruler, Salardo spoke with composure. He acknowledged that his foolish experiment might have offended the marquis, but insisted that he had committed no crime deserving death.
The falcon, he explained, was alive. He had never intended to kill the prince’s favourite bird or insult its owner. He had merely used the supposed killing to test whether his wife could keep a secret.
Salardo asked Francesco to bring the bird from its hiding place. When the marquis saw his prized falcon alive and well, he realised that he had condemned his friend without hearing the truth.
Salardo then explained the three warnings his father had left him and how he had disregarded them one by one. His confession made the marquis understand the foolishness of his own conduct as well as Salardo’s.
Overcome with remorse, the ruler admitted that he had wronged a loyal friend. He apologised and personally removed the noose from Salardo’s neck, loosened his bonds, and embraced him. He promised to make amends for the suffering he had caused.
Salardo’s Final Decision
The marquis then ordered Postumius to be hanged for his part in the affair. Salardo, however, refused to allow his adopted son to be executed.
He struggled with two opposing feelings. He could not forget the love with which he had raised Postumius, yet he could not overlook the young man’s willingness to profit from his father’s death.
In the end, Salardo chose neither execution nor reconciliation. He banished Postumius from his presence and denied him the fortune he had hoped to inherit. Instead, he gave him the very rope with which he had intended to hang his father, instructing him to keep it as a reminder of his wickedness.
Postumius departed, and nothing more was heard of him.
Theodora, learning that Salardo had been freed, fled to a convent, where she died miserably. When Salardo heard of her death, he took leave of the marquis and returned to Genoa.
There, he gave away much of his wealth, keeping only what he needed for himself. He lived out the remainder of his life in happiness, having learned too late the value of the counsel he had once dismissed.
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Moral
Wisdom should not be dismissed simply because it comes from an older generation. Pride and overconfidence can lead people to ignore sound advice, while misplaced trust and the desire to test another person’s loyalty can create the very betrayal they fear. Salardo’s experience also shows that power and favour are unreliable when justice depends entirely on the temper of a ruler.
Knowledge Check
1. What three warnings did Rainaldo give Salardo?
He warned Salardo against entrusting important secrets to his wife, adopting another man’s child as his heir, and settling under a ruler with unchecked power over life and death.
2. Why did Salardo pretend to kill the marquis’s falcon?
He wanted to test whether Theodora could keep an important secret, believing that her loyalty would prove his father’s warning mistaken.
3. Why did Theodora reveal the secret?
After Salardo struck her for refusing to eat the bird, she decided to retaliate by informing the marquis.
4. How did Francesco save Salardo?
He persuaded the marquis to delay the execution and hear Salardo’s de-fence. The living falcon then proved that Salardo had not killed the prince’s favourite bird.
5. Why did Salardo spare Postumius?
Although Postumius had betrayed him, Salardo could not entirely abandon the affection he felt for the son he had raised. He chose banishment rather than execution.
6. What is the significance of the three warnings?
They represent the dangers of misplaced domestic trust, imprudent decisions about inheritance, and dependence on unchecked political authority.
Source
The retelling is based on “First Night, First Fable,” titled “Salardo, Son of Rainaldo Scaglia” in The Nights of Straparola, by Italian writer Giovanni Francesco Straparola. The English translation was made by W. G. Waters (William George Waters), and the first volume was published in London by Lawrence and Bullen in 1894.
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