I
Once upon a time there lived at Quesnoy, in Flanders, a great lord
whose name was Burchard, but whom the country people called Burchard
the Wolf. Now Burchard had such a wicked, cruel heart, that it was
whispered how he used to harness his peasants to the plough, and force
them by blows from his whip to till his land with naked feet.
His wife, on the other hand, was always tender and pitiful to the poor
and miserable.
Every time that she heard of another misdeed of her husband’s she
secretly went to repair the evil, which caused her name to be blessed
throughout the whole country-side. This Countess was adored as much as
the Count was hated.