The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. V. (of V.) Read online

  Produced by David Widger

  THE TALES OF

  THE HEPTAMERON

  OF

  Margaret, Queen of Navarre

  _Newly Translated into English from the Authentic Text_

  OF M. LE ROUX DE LINCY WITH

  AN ESSAY UPON THE HEPTAMERON

  BY

  GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A.

  Also the Original Seventy-three Full Page Engravings

  Designed by S. FREUDENBERG

  And One Hundred and Fifty Head and Tail Pieces

  By DUNKER

  _IN FIVE VOLUMES_

  VOLUME THE FIFTH

  LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY OF ENGLISH BIBLIOPHILISTS

  MDCCCXCIV

  Frontispiece]

  [Margaret, Queen of Navarre, from a crayon drawing by Clouet, preservedat the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris]

  Titlepage]

  CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.

  SIXTH DAY.

  Prologue

  Tale LI. Cruelty of the Duke of Urbino, who, contrary to the promisehe had given to the Duchess, hanged a poor lady that had consented toconvey letters to his son's sweetheart, the sister of the Abbot of Farse.

  Tale LII. Merry trick played by the varlet of an apothecary at Alenconon the Lord de la Tireliere and the lawyer Anthony Bachere, who,thinking to breakfast at his expense, find that they have stolen fromhim something very different to a loaf of sugar.

  Tale LIII. Story of the Lady of Neufchatel, a widow at the Court ofFrancis I., who, through not admitting that she has plighted her trothto the Lord des Cheriots, plays him an evil trick through the means ofthe Prince of Belhoste.

  Tale LIV. Merry adventure of a serving-woman and a gentleman namedThogas, whereof his wife has no suspicion.

  Tale LV. The widow of a merchant of Saragossa, not wishing to lose thevalue of a horse, the price of which her husband had ordered to be givento the poor, devises the plan of selling the horse for one ducat only,adding, however, to the bargain a cat at ninety-nine.

  Tale LVI. Notable deception practised by an old Grey Friar of Padua,who, being charged by a widow to find a husband for her daughter, did,for the sake of getting the dowry, cause her to marry a young GreyFriar, his comrade, whose condition, however, was before long discovered.

  Tale LVII. Singular behaviour of an English lord, who is content merelyto keep and wear upon his doublet the glove of a lady whom he loves.

  Tale LVIII. A lady at the Court of Francis I., wishing to prove thatshe has no commerce with a certain gentleman who loves her, gives him apretended tryst and causes him to pass for a thief.

  Tale LIX. Story of the same lady, who, learning that her husband is inlove with her waiting-woman, contrives to surprise him and impose herown terms upon him.

  Tale LX. A man of Paris, thinking his wife to be well and duly deceased,marries again, but at the end of fifteen years is forced to take hisfirst wife back, although she has been living meantime with one of thechanters of Louis XII.

  SEVENTH DAY.

  Prologue

  Tale LXI. Great kindness of a husband, who consents to take back hiswife twice over, spite of her wanton love for a Canon of Autun.

  Tale LXII. How a lady, while telling a story as of another, let hertongue trip in such a way as to show that what she related had happenedto herself.

  Tale LXIII. How the honourable behaviour of a young lord, who feignssickness in order to be faithful to his wife, spoils a party in which hewas to have made one with the King, and in this way saves the honour ofthree maidens of Paris.

  Tale LXIV. Story of a gentleman of Valencia in Spain, whom a lady droveto such despair that he became a monk, and whom afterwards she strove invain to win back to herself.

  Tale LXV. Merry mistake of a worthy woman, who in the church of St. Johnof Lyons mistakes a sleeping soldier for one of the statues on a tomb,and sets a lighted candle on his forehead.

  Tale LXVI. How an old serving-woman, thinking to surprise a Prothonotarywith a lady, finds herself insulting Anthony de Bourbon and his wifeJane d'Albret.

  Tale LXVII. How the Sire de Robertval, granting a traitor his life atthe prayers of the man's wife, set them both down on a desert island,and how, after the husband's death, the wife was rescued and broughtback to La Rochelle.

  Tale LXVIII. The wife of an apothecary at Pau, hearing her husband givesome powder of cantharides to a woman who was godmother with himself,secretly administered to him such a dose of the same drug that he nearlydied.

  Tale LXIX. How the wife of one of the King's Equerries surprised herhusband muffled in the hood of their servant-maid, and bolting meal inher stead.

  Tale LXX. Of the love of a Duchess of Burgundy for a gentleman whorejects her advances, for which reason she accuses him to the Duke herhusband, and the latter does not believe his oaths till assured byhim that he loves the Lady du Vergier. Then the Duchess, having drawnknowledge of this amour from her husband, addresses to the Lady duVergier in public, an allusion that causes the death of both lovers; andthe Duke, in despair at his own lack of discretion, stabs the Duchesshimself.

  EIGHTH DAY.

  Prologue

  Tale LXXI. The wife of a saddler of Amboise is saved on her deathbedthrough a fit of anger at seeing her husband fondle a servant-maid.

  Tale LXXII. Kindness of the Duchess of Alencon to a poor nun whom shemeets at Lyons, on her way to Rome, there to confess to the Pope how amonk had wronged her, and to obtain his Holiness's pardon.

  Appendix (The Narrators of the Heptameron)

  Bibliography