How we cite our quotes: (Day.Story.Page)
Quote #4
But knowing her to be a woman of gentle birth, doing penance for another's sin through no fault of her own, the Lord above, who rewards all according to their deserts, arranged matters otherwise. One must in fact conclude that He alone, out of His loving kindness, made possible the train of events which followed, in order to prevent this nobly-born maiden from falling into the hands of a commoner.' (II.8.154, Elissa's tale of Walter, Count of Antwerp)
The difference between Fortune and God implied in this passage is that Fortune, as we've seen, is capricious—she doesn't take virtue or "deserts" into account. God's more predictable in what he'll reward or punish. Usually. In this case, he rewards the innocent Jeannette by finding her a noble gentleman to marry. What's interesting about this passage is that, following the statement that The Lord alone made all this possible, is a series of elaborate actions and events arranged by the noble gentleman's mother.
Quote #5
But on seeing that he was quite unrepentant, and that the girl was eager to marry him, she said to herself: 'Why should I go to all this trouble? They are in love, they understand one another, both are friends of my husband, and their intentions are honorable. Besides, it seems to me that they have God's blessing, for one of them has been saved from being hanged, the other from being killed by a lance, and both of them from being devoured by wild beasts. So let them do as they wish.' (V.3.392, Elissa's story of Pietro Boccamazza)
Up to this point in this tale, the young couple had been subject to constant stream of events that just scream "Fortune." They elope. He gets lost in the woods and separated from her, is attacked by soldiers but saved when those soldiers are suddenly set upon by other soldiers. She finds shelter for the night in the house of a kind couple but robbers break into the house and she escapes death by hiding in a haystack where a sword misses her by inches. She ends up at a house where the owner just happens to know her lover. Everything seems unpredictable and random. But it isn't, according to the lady speaking. It's all evidence of God's approval of the couple's love, so who is she to interfere? This kind of thinking drove Christopher Hitchens nuts: everything happens for a reason, the Devil made me do it, let go and let God, it's God's will, etc.
Quote #6
[...] Nature and Fortune, being very shrewd, follow the practice so common among mortals, who, uncertain of what the future will bring, make provision for emergencies by burying their most precious possessions in the least imposing (and therefore least suspect) part of their houses, whence they bring them forth in the hour of their greatest need, their treasure having been more securely preserved in a humble hiding place than if it had been kept in a sumptuous chamber. In the same way, the two fair arbiters of the world's affairs frequently hide their greatest treasure beneath the shadow of the humblest trades, so that when the need arises for it to be brought forth, its splendour will be all the more apparent. (VI.2.448, Pampinea's story of Cisti the Baker)
This is Pampinea's roundabout way of saying that the heart of an aristocrat can be found in a person of lowly social status. Pampinea brings up two agents of God—Nature and Fortune—personified as careful housewives who store up good things for lean times. In Cisti's case, Nature and Fortune have been kind, giving him a secret share of nobility that he can use to his benefit at the right time.