3 The abbey of Fontevrault, near Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, was founded in 1100 by Robert d’Arbrissel, and comprised two conventual establishments, one for men and the other for women.  Prior to his death, d’Arbrissel abdicated his authority in favour of Petronilla de Chemille, and from her time forward monks and nuns alike were always under the sway of an abbess—­this being the only instance of the kind in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.  Fourteen of the abbesses were princesses, and several of these were of the blood royal of France.  In the abbey church were buried our Henry II., Eleanor of Guienne, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, and Isabella of Angouleme; their tombs are still shown, though the abbey has become a prison, and its church a refectory.—­ Ed.

Together with this change of life there was wrought also a great change of heart, so that he now began to cast glances upon countenances which aforetime he had looked at only as a duty; and, contemplating charms which were rendered even more desirable by the veil, he began to hanker after them.  Then, to satisfy this longing, he sought out such cunning devices that at last from being a shepherd he became a wolf, so that in many a convent, where there chanced to be a simple maiden, he failed not to beguile her.  But after he had continued this evil life for a long time, the Divine Goodness took compassion upon the poor, wandering sheep, and would no longer suffer this villain’s triumph to endure, as you shall hear.

One day he went to visit the convent of Gif, (4) not far from Paris, and while he was confessing all the nuns, it happened that there was one among them called Marie Heroet, whose speech was so gentle and pleasing that it gave promise of a countenance and heart to match.

4 Gif, an abbey of the Benedictine order, was situated at five leagues from Paris, in the valley of Chevreuse, on the bank of the little river Yvette.  A few ruins of it still remain.  It appears to have been founded in the eleventh century.—­See Le Beuf s Histoire du Diocese de Paris, vol. viii. part viii. p. 106, and Gallia Christiana, vol. vii. col. 596.—­L. and D.

The mere sound of her voice moved him with a passion exceeding any that he had ever felt for other nuns, and, while speaking to her, he bent low to look at her, and perceiving her rosy, winsome mouth, could not refrain from lifting her veil to see whether her eyes were in keeping therewith.  He found that they were, and his heart was filled with so ardent a passion that, although he sought to conceal it, his countenance became changed, and he could no longer eat or drink.  When he returned to his priory, he could find no rest, but passed his days and nights in deep disquiet, seeking to devise a means whereby he might accomplish his desire, and make of this nun what he had already made of many others.  But this, he feared, would be difficult, seeing that he had found her to be prudent of speech and shrewd of understanding; moreover, he knew himself to be old and ugly, and therefore resolved not to employ words but to seek to win her by fear.