Join us for part two of the thrilling story of Nastagio degli Onesti.

Catch up by reading part one of Nastagio's adventures.

The knight on horseback rears backwards in a sudden halt as you fling yourself between he and the naked damsel whose once flawless skin now hangs in tatters from her convulsing frame. You grasp a nearby branch and as you raise it and your voice against the knight, begging him to cease his chase he looks down at you with surprising solemnity. With a somber tone he asks you to stand aside and begins to tell his woeful tale. He was once a respectable man until, like you, he met a woman and fell deeply in love. No matter how he pleaded with her she continued to cruelly ignore him until the day he could no longer bear her rejection and he killed himself with the very sword now clutched in his hand. Soon afterwards the woman died and as punishment for his mortal sin of suicide and her joy in his sufferings they were bound together in this terrible pursuit. Every Friday night in the clearing in which you stand the knight finally catches his prey and runs her through with his blade before feeding her innards to his hounds.

“Oh, well you should have said that to begin with!” you say and happily move aside to let the knight do his business.

Here in the second panel of Botticelli’s four panel series we learn that the fatal sin the chased woman committed was the always grievous error of telling a guy you don’t like that you don’t like him. Admittedly, she was pretty mean to him which isn’t cool, but I hardly think that that calls for her being chased by dogs and killed on a weekly basis. Just think about this next time that guy whose cat calls you’ve been politely ignoring on your way to work starts calling you a whore. Cheer up! At least your denial of his interest hasn’t resulted in him dragging you into a violent purgatory! Or you can make yourself depressed thinking about how the concept of women as common property who inherently owe men their attentions hasn’t changed much since 1353. It’s up to you.

It seems like the worst parts of this tale are over but you forget, there are two more panels! Panel three will tell you how Nostagio manages to use this bloody scene to manipulate his crush into marrying him. As we all know, love borne of manipulation no man (or his hounds) can tear asunder!