“I pray you tell my lord that I have a good and virtuous heart, and that
if it were meet to obey his commands his comeliness and grace would
ere now have vanquished me; but, since these have no power against my
honour, all the money in the world can have none. Take it, therefore,
back to him again, for I would rather enjoy virtuous poverty than all
the wealth it were possible to desire.”
On beholding so much stubbornness, the gentleman thought that violence
must needs be used to win her, and threatened her with his master’s
authority and power. But she laughed, and said--
“Make those fear him who have no knowledge of him. For my part, I know
him to be so discreet and virtuous that such discourse cannot come from
him, and I feel sure that he will disown it when you repeat it to him.
But even though he were what you say, there is neither torment nor death
that would make me change my mind; for, as I have told you, since love
has not turned my heart, no imaginable evil or good can divert me one
step from the path that I have chosen.”
The gentleman, who had promised his master to win her, brought him back
this reply in wondrous anger, and counselled him to persevere in every
possible way, telling him that it was not to his honour to be unable to
win a woman of her sort.
The young Prince was unwilling to employ any means but such as honour
enjoins, and was also afraid that if the affair made any noise, and so
came to his mother’s ears, she would be greatly angered with him. He
therefore durst make no attempt, until at last the gentleman proposed to
him so simple a plan that he could already fancy her to be in his power.
In order to carry it into execution he spoke to the butler; and he,
being anxious to serve his master in any way that might be, begged his
wife and sister-in-law one day to go and visit their vintages at a house
he had near the forest. And this they promised to do.
When the day was come, he informed the Prince, who resolved to go
thither alone with the gentleman, and caused his mule to be secretly
held in readiness, that they might set out at the proper time. But God
willed it that his mother should that day be garnishing a most beautiful
cabinet, (2) and needed all her children with her to help her, and thus
the young Prince lingered there until the hour was past.
There was, however, no hindrance to the departure of the butler, who had
brought his sister-in-law to his house, riding behind him, (3) and
had made his wife feign sickness, so that when they were already on
horseback she had come and said that she could not go with them. But
now, seeing that the hour at which the Prince should have come was gone
by, he said to his sister-in-law--
“I think we may now return to the town.”
2 The French word here is _cabinet_, which some English
translators have rendered as “little room.” We think,
however, with the Bibliophile Jacob, that the allusion is to
an article of furniture, such as we ourselves still call a
cabinet in England, though in France the word has virtually
lost that sense.--Ed.
3 The MSS. do not say whether she rode on a pillion, or
simply bestrode the horse. This last fashion was still
common at this period and long afterwards, even among women
of high degree. See, for instance, several of the enamels in
the Louvre, notably one which depicts Henry II. of France
with Diana of Poitiers riding behind him. The practice is
also referred to in a sixteenth century ballad. “La
Superfluity des habitz des Dames” (_Anciennes Poésies
Françaises_. Bib. Elzev. 1858, p. 308).--M.
“What is there to hinder us from doing so?” asked Frances.
“Why,” said the butler, “I was waiting here for my lord, who had
promised me that he would come.”