Don Félix is sent to court by his father

Don Félix is sent to court by his father when their secret courtship with Felismena has deepened enough to threaten marriage. The separation, recalled by Felismena in her own account, turns a private exchange of letters and favors into a long absence: Don Félix leaves without warning her, and she eventually disguises herself as a man and travels to court in pursuit of him.

Background and Courtship

The decision comes after an extended courtship conducted through letters and other gestures. Felismena says that she first began to love Don Félix after reading a letter in which he professed his affection. Her cautious reply questioned whether his words were sincere and warned him not to use deceptive speech against her honor, but she also acknowledged the value she placed on his declaration. That answer emboldened him to speak more openly and ask to meet her.

For nearly a year, the two exchanged requests and replies while their attachment grew. Tournaments were renewed, music sounded at night, and letters and poetic mottos passed between them. Felismena eventually found herself so deeply in love that she disclosed her feelings, a step Don Félix had eagerly desired. The affair thus develops through both courtly performances and private communication; its duration and increasing intensity make the father’s intervention a decisive interruption rather than an early obstacle.

The Father's Decision

Don Félix’s father learns of the relationship at the moment when the lovers’ feelings are most ardent. Felismena says that the person who informed him presented the matter in a way that heightened his concern that Don Félix might marry her. The father responds by sending his son to the court of Princess Augusta Cesarina.

The reason he gives is that a young gentleman of such distinguished lineage should not spend his youth in his father’s house, where, he says, idleness can teach only vice. That explanation presents the move as an education appropriate to Don Félix’s age and rank. In Felismena’s telling, however, the timing also connects it to the father’s fear of a marriage. The account establishes the father’s action and stated rationale, but does not say that he directly explains his private intentions to either lover.

Departure and Separation

Don Félix leaves so overwhelmed by sadness that he fails to tell Felismena he is going. She learns of the departure afterward and describes herself as devastated. The lack of warning compounds the separation: she is left not with a final exchange or an agreed plan, but with news that arrives only after he has gone.

Felismena imagines that court life will expose him to women of greater beauty and higher standing, while distance—an enemy of love in her account—may cause him to forget her. In despair, she resolves to go after him. With the help of a close friend who keeps her secrets, she obtains the clothes she requests and a horse. She describes the undertaking as risking not only her safety but her reputation. After a journey of twenty days, she reaches the court and lodges in a house away from conversation, unwilling to ask her host about Don Félix or go looking for him in case her arrival is discovered.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The departure converts the father’s intervention into the cause of Felismena’s own journey. Her fear that absence will extinguish Don Félix’s attachment drives her to cross the boundary of customary female conduct by adopting male dress and travelling alone. The event therefore initiates the search that shapes her subsequent story, while revealing the unequal pressures surrounding their love: the father can redirect his son through household and social authority, whereas Felismena must rely on secrecy, disguise, and personal resolve.

The episode is presented within Felismena’s retrospective account, not as an independently staged scene of the father’s decision. Its emotional evidence is consequently centered on her experience: she recounts the courtship’s growth, the abrupt news of Don Félix’s departure, and the fears that make her follow him. In this narrative frame, the move to court is both a separation and a turning point, setting the lovers on different paths and giving Felismena’s pursuit its immediate cause.