“Still less do they beat a drum about what they have done and granted.”
“I see,” said Geburon, “that Nomerfide wishes to speak. I therefore give
her my vote that she may relieve her heart in telling us some excellent
story.”
“What has just been said,” replied Nomerfide, “touches me so little
that it affords me neither pleasure nor pain. However, since I have your
vote, I pray you listen to me whilst I show that, although one woman
used cunning for a good purpose, others have been crafty for evil’s
sake. Since we have sworn to tell the truth I will not hide it, for just
as the boatwoman’s virtue brings no honour to other women unless
they follow her example, so the vice of another cannot disgrace her.
Wherefore, listen.”
[Illustration: 102.jpg Tailpiece]
[Illustration: 103a.jpg The Wife’s Ruse to secure the Escape of her
Lover]
[The Wife’s Ruse to secure the Escape of her Lover]
[Illustration: 103.jpg Page Image]
_TALE VI_.
_An old one-eyed valet in the service of the Duke of Alençon
being advised that his wife was in love with a young man,
desired to know the truth, and feigned to go away into the
country for a few days. He returned, however, so suddenly
that his wife, on whom he was keeping watch, perceived how
matters stood, and whilst thinking to deceive her, he was
himself deceived_.
There was in the service of Charles, last Duke of Alençon, an old valet
who had lost an eye, and who was married to a wife much younger than
himself. Now, since his master and mistress liked him as well as any man
of his condition that was in their service, he was not able to visit his
wife as often as he could have wished. Owing to this she so far forgot
her honour and conscience as to fall in love with a young man, and the
affair being at last noised abroad, the husband heard of it. He could
not believe it, however, on account of the many notable tokens of love
that were shown him by his wife.
Nevertheless, he one day determined to put the matter to the test, and
to take revenge, if he were able, on the woman who had put him to such
shame. For this purpose he pretended to go away to a place a short
distance off for the space of two or three days.
As soon as he was gone, his wife sent for her lover, but he had not been
with her for half-an-hour when the husband arrived and knocked loudly at
the door. The wife well knew who it was and told her lover, who was so
greatly confounded that he would fain have been in his mother’s womb,
and cursed both his mistress and the love that had brought him into such
peril. However, she bade him fear nothing, for she would devise a means
to get him away without harm or shame to him, and she told him to dress
himself as quickly as he could. All this time the husband was knocking
at the door and calling to his wife at the top of his voice; but she
feigned not to recognise him, and cried out to the people of the house--
“Why do you not get up and silence those who are making such a clamour
at the door? Is this an hour to come to the houses of honest folk? If my
husband were here he would soon make them desist.”
On hearing his wife’s voice the husband called to her as loudly as he
could--
“Wife, open the door. Are you going to keep me waiting here till
morning?”
Then, when she saw that her lover was ready to set forth, she opened the
door.
“Oh, husband!” she began, “how glad I am that you are come. I have just
had a wonderful dream, and was so pleased that I never before knew such
delight, for it seemed to me that you had recovered the sight of your
eye.” (1)
1 This is taken from No. xvi. of the _Cent Nouvelles
Nouvelles_, in which the wife exclaims: “Verily, at the very
moment when you knocked, my lord, I was greatly occupied
with a dream about you.”--“And what was it, sweetheart?”
asks the husband.--“By my faith, my lord,” replies the wife,
“it really seemed to me that you were come back, that you
were speaking to me, and that you saw as clearly with one
eye as with the other.”--Ed.
Then, embracing and kissing him, she took him by the head and covering
his good eye with one hand, she asked him--
“Do you not see better than you did before?”
At that moment, whilst he saw not a whit, she made her lover sally
forth. The husband immediately suspected the trick, and said to her--
“‘Fore God, wife, I will keep watch on you no more, for in thinking to
deceive you, I have myself met with the cunningest deception that ever
was devised. May God mend you, for it is beyond the power of man to put
a stop to the maliciousness of a woman, unless by killing her outright.
However, since the fair treatment I have accorded you has availed
nothing for your amendment, perchance the scorn I shall henceforward
hold you in will serve as a punishment.”
So saying he went away, leaving his wife in great distress. Nevertheless
by the intercession of his friends and her own excuses and tears, he was
persuaded to return to her again.(2)
2 Although Queen Margaret ascribes the foregoing adventure
to one of the officers of her husband’s household, and
declares that the narrative is quite true, the same subject
had been dealt with by most of the old story-tellers prior
to her time, and Deslongchamps points out the same incidents
even in the early Hindoo fables (see the _Pantcha Tantra_,
book I., fable vi.). A similar tale is to be found in the
_Gesta Romanorum_ (cap. cxxii.), in the _fabliaux_ collected
by Legrand d’Aussy (vol. iv., “De la mauvaise femme”), in P.
Alphonse’s _Disciplina Clericalis_ (fab. vii.), in the
_Decameron_ (day vii., story vi.), and in the _Cent
Nouvelles Nouvelles_ (story xvi.). Imitations are also to be
found in Bandello (part i., story xxiii.), Malespini (story
xliv.), Sansovino (_Cento Novelle_), Sabadino (_Novelle_),
Etienne (_Apologiepour Hérodote_, ch. xv. ), De la Monnoye
(vol. ii.), D’Ouville (_Contes_, vol. ii.), &c.--L. & B. J.
“By this tale, ladies, you may see how quick and crafty a woman is in
escaping from danger. And if her wit be quick to discover the means of
concealing a bad deed, it would, in my belief, be yet more subtle in
avoiding evil or in doing good; for I have always heard it said that wit
to do well is ever the stronger.”
“You may talk of your cunning as much as you please,” said Hircan, “but
my opinion is that had the same fortune befallen you, you could not have
concealed the truth.”
“I had as lief you deemed me the most foolish woman on earth,” she
replied.
“I do not say that,” answered Hircan, “but I think you more likely to be
confounded by slander than to devise some cunning means to silence it.”
“You think,” said Nomerfide, “that every one is like you, who would use
one slander for the patching of another; but there is danger lest the
patch impair what it patches and the foundation be so overladen that
all be destroyed. However, if you think that the subtlety, of which all
believe you to be fully possessed, is greater than that found in women,
I yield place to you to tell the seventh story; and, if you bring
yourself forward as the hero, I doubt not that we shall hear wickedness
enough.”
“I am not here,” replied Hircan, “to make myself out worse than I am;
there are some who do that rather more than is to my liking.”