Castel Guglielmo is the destination and crucial threshold in the story of Rinaldo d'Asti: after a roadside robbery leaves him barefoot and in his shirt, he reaches the town too late to enter, and finds refuge instead at a house just beyond its walls. Its closed gates intensify his danger, while the nearby widow’s hospitality begins the reversal that allows him to recover his loss and return home safe and sound.

Setting and Approach

Rinaldo is robbed at a river crossing a little beyond Castel Guglielmo. The three assailants take his money, clothes, and horse, leaving him on foot; his servant, who has done nothing to help, has already ridden into town and taken lodging there. The surrounding countryside offers little shelter: a recent war has left everything in the area burned.

Cold and snow drive Rinaldo toward the town, but darkness overtakes him about a mile away. By the time he arrives, the gates are shut and the drawbridges raised, so he cannot get in. The town is close enough to promise safety yet inaccessible when he most needs it.

The Wall and the House Beyond It

With no shelter in sight, Rinaldo looks for somewhere to wait out the night and notices a house projecting somewhat beyond the town wall. Its door is shut, but he gathers nearby straw and lies beneath it, still exposed to the snow, trembling and lamenting his plight. The wall that excludes him from the town thus directs him to a different kind of entrance: not through a gate, but into the attention of someone inside the house.

The house belongs to a beautiful widow whom Marquis Azzo d'Este keeps there at his disposal. That evening, Azzo has arranged a bath and a sumptuous supper, but a message forces him to leave town in haste. The widow, disappointed and unsure how to spend the evening, goes to use the bath herself. Hearing Rinaldo’s weeping and chattering near the door, she sends her maid to look over the wall and find out who is there. The maid sees him barefoot and in his shirt; after he explains his situation and begs not to be left to perish in the cold, she is moved to pity.

Shelter and Reversal

The story’s contents identify the widow’s response as hospitable entertainment, and place the recovery of Rinaldo’s loss within his stay at Castel Guglielmo. He ultimately returns to his own house safe and sound. The account therefore makes the town more than a point on his route: its outskirts become the scene where the consequence of violence gives way to unexpected assistance and restoration.

Narrative Significance

Castel Guglielmo is drawn through the contrast between enclosure and welcome. Its gates are closed to a robbed traveler, but the house projecting beyond the wall creates an opening that the town itself does not provide. The chance circumstances inside—the absent Marquis, the prepared bath and supper, and the widow’s hearing of Rinaldo—turn a night of exposure into the start of his recovery. The setting gives physical shape to the story’s reversal: Rinaldo cannot enter by the ordinary route, yet help reaches him at the boundary.