Pietro Boccamazza and Agnolella’s Flight and Reunion turns a secret elopement into a test of endurance, then makes survival the ground on which a disputed marriage can be accepted. The lovers set out from Rome for Anagni, but a wrong turn brings them among armed men, and a violent separation leaves each to find a way through the forest alone. Their reunion at a mountain castle changes the course of the story: a noblewoman who knows them both recognizes their mutual devotion, consents to their marriage, and undertakes to reconcile Pietro with his family. The danger does not simply delay the lovers; it supplies the occasion for their choice to receive public and familial recognition.

The lovers and the blocked marriage

Pietro is a young man of a distinguished Roman family. Agnolella, daughter of Gigliuozzo Saullo, is a plebeian, though the Romans hold her father dear. Pietro and Agnolella fall in love with one another, and their attachment becomes mutual. When Pietro asks to marry her, however, his relatives rebuke him. They also warn Gigliuozzo not to take Pietro’s proposal seriously, threatening that they will otherwise refuse to count him as either friend or kinsman.

The opposition closes off the route Pietro believes could fulfill their wishes: a marriage accepted by the families. He would take Agnolella as his wife despite his relatives’ hostility if her father consented, but the lovers cannot secure that consent. After an intermediary confirms that Agnolella is willing, Pietro and the young woman agree to flee Rome together. Their departure is therefore not a sudden separation from one another, but a deliberate escape from the social resistance that stands between them and marriage.

The flight and the ambush

Pietro rises early, takes a horse with Agnolella, and sets out toward Anagni, where he has friends he trusts. They have no time to celebrate a wedding: afraid of pursuit, they ride on, talking of their love and sometimes kissing. About eight miles from Rome, Pietro, unfamiliar with the road, turns left where they should have gone right. After another two miles they are near a small castle, and a dozen footmen suddenly emerge.

Agnolella sees the danger first. She cries a warning, turns her mount toward a nearby wood, spurs it onward, and clings to the saddle. Pietro, looking more at her than at the road, does not notice the newcomers in time. The men seize him, strip him of his horse and clothes, and propose hanging him from an oak because they regard him as a friend of their enemies and want to spite the Orsini family. Before they can carry out the threat, an ambush of about twenty-five armed men attacks them. The first group lets Pietro go and turns to face its attackers; the interruption saves him from immediate death, but does nothing to reunite the couple.

Two solitary routes through the wood

Pietro gathers his belongings and rides into the forest along the way he saw Agnolella take. He cannot find her, a path, or any hoofprints. He ranges through the wood, calling and weeping, unsure whether to go forward or turn back and fearing that wild animals may kill them both. Exhausted by shouting, grief, fear, and fasting, he ties his horse to a great oak and climbs into it for the night rather than risk being devoured on the ground.

Agnolella, meanwhile, wanders through the same forest without knowing where she entered it. By evening her horse finds a small path leading to a house inhabited by an elderly man and his wife. They explain that Anagni is more than twelve miles away and that no other lodging can be reached before dark. They offer her shelter but warn that armed companies, both friends and foes, pass through the area and might harm her without the couple being able to protect her.

The danger becomes immediate when armed men arrive. Agnolella hides in hay in the house’s courtyard. When one man throws his lance into the hay, its point passes close to her left breast and tears her dress; she suppresses her cry and stays hidden. The men eventually leave, taking her horse with them. Once they are gone, her hosts bring her on foot to a castle five miles away, offering the first safe route onward.

Reunion, marriage, and return

The castle belongs to Lionello di Campodifiore of the Orsini family. His wife recognizes Agnolella, hears how the couple became separated, and knows Pietro as her husband’s friend. Because she has heard where Pietro was taken, she fears he is dead and offers to keep Agnolella safe until she can arrange her return to Rome.

Pietro’s night in the oak ends with a second loss: wolves surround and kill his horse, leaving only its bones. At daybreak he spots a fire about a mile away, climbs down, and reaches shepherds who feed him and warm him. They tell him that Lionello’s castle, where the lady is staying, lies about three miles away. Two shepherds accompany him there. Pietro arrives intending to ask for a search of the forest, but instead finds Agnolella with the lady. Their joy is immediate, though Pietro restrains his longing to embrace her out of respect for their hostess.

The lady rebukes Pietro for acting against his relatives’ wishes, but recognizes that both lovers are resolved and that Agnolella agrees with him. She also weighs the dangers they have escaped: Pietro the gallows, Agnolella the lance, and both the beasts of the forest. She authorizes their marriage and promises to make peace between them and their families. They marry at once, with the lady arranging the celebration at Lionello’s expense, as fully as circumstances in the mountains permit. A few days later, they return to Rome under good escort. The lady reconciles Pietro with his angry relatives, and Pietro and Agnolella live together in peace and pleasure into old age.

Narrative role and significance

Elisa introduces the tale as an ill night followed by many happy days, a framing that prepares the audience to read the forest ordeal in light of the reunion rather than as tragedy. The episode repeatedly places the lovers in danger when they lose one another: the wrong turn leads to the ambush, Agnolella’s flight separates her from Pietro, and each spends the night without knowing whether the other is alive. Yet the narrative brings them to the same household by separate routes, turning a chance refuge into the setting for recognition and marriage.

The outcome also distinguishes private consent from family approval. Pietro and Agnolella choose one another and flee before securing permission; only after their marriage does the castle’s lady undertake to reconcile the families. Their union is made first in the mountains, under the authority and protection of a person who knows both lovers, and then carried back to Rome with an escort and a negotiated peace. The story’s happy ending thus resolves the original conflict without making the family opposition disappear: reconciliation follows the lovers’ decision, their survival, and the intervention of a respected mediator.