When he was shut up in his room, not desiring to let her go without some settlement of the matter, he wrote her a few words in Spanish, which seem to me so excellent in their matter that I would not by translating them mar their grace.  These were brought to her by a little novice, who found her still in the chapel and in such despair that, had it been lawful, she too would have remained there and turned friar.  But when she saw the words, which were these—­

     “Volvete don venesti, anima mia,
     Que en las tristas vidas es la mia,” (1)

she knew that all hope was gone, and she resolved to follow the advice of him and her friends, and so returned home, there to lead a life as melancholy as that of her lover in his monastery was austere.

     1 “Return whence thou earnest, my soul,
     for among the sad lives is mine."’

“You see, ladies, what vengeance the gentleman took upon his harsh sweetheart, who, thinking to try him, reduced him to such despair that, when she would have regained him, she could not do so.”

“I am sorry,” said Nomerfide, “that he did not lay aside his gown and marry her.  It would, I think, have been a perfect marriage.”

“In good sooth,” said Simontault, “I think he was very wise.  Anyone who well considers what marriage is will deem it no less grievous than a monkish life.  Moreover, being so greatly weakened by fasts and abstinence, he feared to take upon him a burden of that kind which lasts all through life.”

“Methinks,” said Hircan, “she wronged so feeble a man by tempting him to marriage, for ’tis too much for the strongest man alive; but had she spoken to him of love, free from any obligation but that of the will, there is no friar’s cord that would not have been untied.  However, since she sought to draw him out of purgatory by offering him hell, I think that he was quite right to refuse her, and to let her feel the pain that her own refusal had cost him.”

“By my word,” said Ennasuite, “there are many who, thinking to do better than their fellows, do either worse or else the very opposite of what they desire.”

“Truly,” said Geburon, “you remind me—­though, indeed, the matter is not greatly to the point—­of a woman who did the opposite of what she desired, and so caused a great uproar in the church of St. John of Lyons.”

“I pray you,” said Parlamente, “take my place and tell us about it.”

“My story,” said Geburon, “will not be so long or so piteous as the one we have heard from Parlamente.”

[Illustration:  141.jpg Tailpiece]

[Illustration:  143a.  The Old Woman startled by the Waking of the Soldier]

[The Old Woman startled by the Waking of the Soldier]

[Illustration:  143.jpg Page Image]

TALE LXV.

     Though the priests of St. John of Lyons would fain have
     concealed it, the falsity of a miracle was brought to light
     through an old woman’s folly becoming known. (1)