“struck her between the breasts”

“Affrighted by the knight’s words, insomuch that there was scarce a hair on his head but stood on end, Nastagio shrank back, still gazing on the hapless damsel, and waited all a tremble to see what the knight would do. Nor had he long to wait; for the knight, as soon as he had done speaking, sprang, rapier in hand, like a mad dog upon the damsel, who, kneeling, while the two mastiffs gripped her tightly, cried him mercy; but the knight, thrusting with all his force, struck her between the breasts, and ran her clean through the body.”

In the story of Nastagio degli Onesti, the main character in this novella, a rapier is used as a means to an end, quite literally. A rapier is a slender, two-edged sword that was used in the medieval times in thrusting attacks. In the novella, a knight uses it to stab his own heart. After that, he has to pierce the naked body of the woman he loves. Forever, also in the afterlife. However, the rapier is not used by Nastagio, the main character, himself.