When morning was come, the Lady Oisille made ready for them a spiritual
breakfast of such excellent flavour that it sufficed to strengthen both
body and mind. The whole company was very attentive to it; it seemed to
them that they had never harkened to a sermon with such profit before.
Then, when the last bell rang for mass, they went to meditate upon the
pious discourse which they had heard.
After listening to mass, and walking for a little while, they went to
table feeling assured that the present day would prove as agreeable
as any of the past. Saffredent even said that he would gladly have the
bridge building for another month, so great was the pleasure that he
took in their entertainment; but the Abbot was pressing the work with
all speed, for it was no pleasure to him to live in the company of so
many honourable persons, among whom he could not bring his wonted female
pilgrims.
Having rested for a time after dinner, they returned to their accustomed
diversion. When all were seated in the meadow, they asked Parlamente to
whom she gave her vote.
“I think,” she replied, “that Saffredent might well begin this day, for
his face does not look as though he wished us to weep.”
“Then, ladies, you will needs be very hard-hearted,” said Saffredent,
“if you take no pity on the Grey Friar whose story I am going to relate
to you. You may perhaps think, from the tales that some among us have
already told of the monks, that misadventures have befallen hapless
damsels simply because ease of execution induced the attempt to be
fearlessly begun, but, so that you may know that it is the blindness of
wanton lust which deprives the friars of all fear and prudence, I will
tell you of what happened to one of them in Flanders.”
[Illustration: 115a.jpg The Beating of the Wicked Grey Friar]
[The Beating of the Wicked Grey Friar]
[Illustration: 115.jpg Page Image]
_TALE XLI_.
_A Grey Friar to whom a maiden had presented herself on
Christmas night that he might confess her, laid upon her so
strange a penance that she would not submit to it, but rose
from before him without having received absolution; but her
mistress, hearing of the matter, caused the Grey Friar to be
flogged in her kitchen, and then sent him back, bound and
gagged, to his Warden_.
In the year when my Lady Margaret of Austria came to Cambray on behalf
of her nephew the Emperor, to treat of peace between him and the Most
Christian King, who on his part was represented by his mother, my
Lady Louise of Savoy, (1) the said Lady Margaret had in her train the
Countess of Aiguemont, (2) who won, among this company, the renown of
being the most beautiful of all the Flemish ladies.
1 It was in June 1529 that Margaret of Austria came to
Cambrai to treat for peace, on behalf of Charles V. Louise
of Savoy, who represented Francis I., was accompanied on
this occasion by her daughter, Queen Margaret, who appears
to have taken part in the conferences. The result of these
was that the Emperor renounced his claims on Burgundy, but
upheld all the other stipulations of the treaty of Madrid.
Having been brought about entirely by feminine negotiators,
the peace of Cambrai acquired the name of “La Paix des
Dames,” or “the Ladies’ Peace.” Some curious particulars of
the ceremonies observed at Cambrai on this occasion will be
found in Leglay’s _Notice sur les fêles et cérémonies à
Cambray depuis le XIe siècle_, Cambrai, 1827.--L. and B. J.
2 This is Frances of Luxemburg, Baroness of Fiennes and
Princess of Gavre, wife of John IV., Count of Egmont,
chamberlain to the Emperor Charles V. They were the parents
of the famous Lamoral Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavre and
Baron of Fiennes, born in 1522 and put to death by the Duke
of Alba on June 5, 1568.--B.J.
When this great assembly separated, the Countess of Aiguemont returned
to her own house, and, Advent being come, sent to a monastery of Grey
Friars to ask for a clever preacher and virtuous man, as well to preach
as to confess herself and her whole household. The Warden, remembering
the great benefits that the Order received from the house of Aiguemont
and that of Fiennes, to which the Countess belonged, sought out the man
whom he thought most worthy to fill the said office.
Accordingly, as the Grey Friars more than any other order desire to
obtain the esteem and friendship of great houses, they sent the most
important preacher of their monastery, and throughout Advent he did his
duty very well, and the Countess was well pleased with him.
On Christmas night, when the Countess desired to receive her Creator,
she sent for her confessor, and after making confession in a carefully
closed chapel, she gave place to her lady of honour, who in her turn,
after being shriven, sent her daughter to pass through the hands of this
worthy confessor. When the maiden had told all that was in her mind, the
good father knew something of her secrets, and this gave him the desire
and the boldness to lay an unwonted penance upon her.
“My daughter,” said he, “your sins are so great that to atone for them I
command you the penance of wearing my cord upon your naked flesh.”