William Shakespeare: All's Well That Ends Well

ACT III. SCENE 5. Without the walls of Florence.

[Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA, MARIANA, and
other Citizens.]

WIDOW.
Nay, come; for if they do approach the city we shall lose
all the sight.

DIANA.
They say the French count has done most honourable service.

WIDOW.
It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander;
and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother.

[A tucket afar off.]

We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you
may know by their trumpets.

MARIANA.
Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the report
of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of
a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.

WIDOW.
I have told my neighbour how you have been solicited by a
gentleman his companion.

MARIANA.
I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles: a filthy officer he is
in those suggestions for the young earl.--Beware of them, Diana;
their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines
of lust, are not the things they go under; many a maid hath been
seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible
shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade
succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten
them. I hope I need not to advise you further; but I hope your
own grace will keep you where you are, though there were no
further danger known but the modesty which is so lost.

DIANA.
You shall not need to fear me.

WIDOW.
I hope so.--Look, here comes a pilgrim. I know she will lie
at my house: thither they send one another; I'll question her.--

[Enter HELENA in the dress of a pilgrim.]

God save you, pilgrim! Whither are bound?

HELENA.
To Saint Jaques-le-Grand.
Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you?

WIDOW.
At the Saint Francis here, beside the port.