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

  _TALE XXXVII_.

  _The Lady of Loue so influenced her husband by her great patience and longsuffering, that she drew him from his evil ways, and they lived afterwards in greater love than before_.

  There was a lady of the house of Loue (1) who was so prudent andvirtuous, that she was loved and esteemed by all her neighbours. Herhusband trusted her, as well he might, with all his affairs, and shemanaged them with such wisdom that his house came, by her means, to beone of the wealthiest and best appointed in either the land of Anjou orTouraine.

  1 Loue is in Anjou, in the department of the Sarthe, being the chief locality of a canton of the arrondissement of Le Mans. The Lady of Loue referred to may be either Philippa de Beaumont-Bressuire, wife of Peter de Laval, knight, Lord of Loue, Benars, &c.; or her daughter-in-law, Frances de Maille, who in or about 1500 espoused Giles de Laval, Lord of Loue. Philippa is known to have died in 1525, after bearing her husband five children. She had been wedded fifty years. However, the subject of this story is the same as that of the Lady of Langallier, or Languillier (also in Anjou), which will be found in chapter xvii. of _Le Livre du Chevalier de la Tour-Landry_, an English translation of which, made in the reign of Henry VI., was edited in 1868 by Mr. Thomas Wright for the Early English Text Society.--See also Le Roux de Lincy's _Femmes celebres de l'ancienne France,_ vol i. p. 356. Particulars concerning the Laval- Loue family will be found in Duchesne's Histoire de la Maison de Montmorency.--L. and M.

  In this fashion she lived a great while with her husband, to whomshe bore several handsome children; but then, as happiness is alwaysfollowed by its opposite, hers began to be lessened. Her husband,finding virtuous ease to be unendurable, laid it aside to seek for toil,and made it his wont to rise from beside his wife as soon as she wasasleep, and not to return until it was nearly morning. The lady of Louetook this conduct ill, and falling into a deep unrest, of which she wasfain to give no sign, neglected her household matters, her person andher family, like one that deemed herself to have lost the fruit of hertoils, to wit, her husband's exceeding love, for the preserving of whichthere was no pain that she would not willingly have endured. But havinglost it, as she could see, she became careless of everything else in thehouse, and the lack of her care soon brought mischief to pass.

  Her husband, on the one part, spent with much extravagance, while, onthe other, she had ceased to control the management, so that ere longaffairs fell into such great disorder, that the timber began to befelled, and the lands to be mortgaged.

  One of her kinsfolk that had knowledge of her distemper, rebuked her forher error, saying that if love for her husband did not lead her to carefor the advantage of his house, she should at least have regard to herpoor children. Hereat her pity for them caused her to recover herself,and she tried all means to win back her husband's love.

  In this wise she kept good watch one night, and, when he rose frombeside her, she also rose in her nightgown, let make her bed, and saidher prayers until her husband returned. And when he came in, she went tohim and kissed him, and brought him a basin full of water that he mightwash his hands. He was surprised at this unwonted behaviour, and toldher that there was no need for her to rise, since he was only comingfrom the latrines; whereat she replied that, although it was no greatmatter, it was nevertheless a seemly thing to wash one's hands on comingfrom so dirty and foul a place, intending by these words to make himperceive and abhor the wickedness of his life. But for all that he didnot mend his ways, and for a full year the lady continued to act in thisway to no purpose.

  Accordingly, seeing that this behaviour served her naught, one day,while she was waiting for her husband, who tarried longer than ordinary,she had a mind to go in search of him, and, passing from room to room,found him at last in a closet at the back of the house, lying asleep bythe side of the ugliest, vilest, and filthiest serving-woman they had.

  Thereupon, thinking she would teach him to leave so excellent a wife forso filthy and vile a woman, she took some straw and set it on fire inthe middle of the room; but on seeing that it would as soon kill herhusband as awaken him, she plucked him by the arm, crying out--

  "Fire! fire!"

  If the husband was ashamed and sorry at being found by so virtuous awife in company with such a slut, he certainly had good reason for it.Then said his wife to him--

  "For a year, sir, have I tried by gentle and patient means to draw youfrom this wickedness, and to show you that whilst washing the outsideyou should also cleanse that which is within. Finding that all I coulddo was of no avail, I have sought assistance from that clement whichbrings all things to an end, and I promise you, sir, that, if thisdo not mend you, I know not whether I shall a second time be able todeliver you from the danger as I have now done. I pray you remember thatthe deepest despair is that caused by love, and that if I had not hadthe fear of God before my eyes I could not have endured so much."

  The husband, glad to get off so easily, promised that he would neveragain cause her any pain on his account. This the lady was very willingto believe, and with her husband's consent turned away the servant whohad so offended her. And from that time forth they lived most lovinglytogether, so that even the errors of the past, by the good that hadresulted from them, served but to increase their happiness.

  "Should God give you such husbands, ladies, I pray you despair not untilyou have fully tried all means to win them back. There are twenty-fourhours in the day in which a man may change his mind, and a wife whohas gained her husband over by patience and longsuffering should deemherself more fortunate than if fate and her kinsfolk had given her onemore perfect."

  "It is an example," said Oisille, "that all married women ought tofollow."

  "Follow it who will," said Parlamente; "for my own part, I shouldfind it impossible to be patient so long. Although in every conditionpatience is a seemly virtue, yet I think that in wedded life it finallyproduces ill-will. For, when suffering is caused you by your partner,you are compelled to keep yourself as much apart from him as possible;and from such estrangement there springs up contempt for the faithlessone; and this contempt gradually lessens love, for a thing is loved inproportion as it is esteemed."

  "But there is a danger," said Ennasuite, "that the impatient wife maymeet with a passionate husband who, instead of patience, will bring herpain."

  "And what more," said Parlamente, "could a husband do than was done bythe husband in the story?"

  "What more?" said Ennasuite. "Why, beat his wife soundly, and make herlie in the smaller bed, and his sweetheart in the larger." (2)

  2 At this period, and for some time afterwards, there were usually two beds in the master's room, a large one for himself and his wife, and a small one in which slept a trusty servant, male or female. These little beds are shown in some of the designs engraved by Abraham Bosse in the seventeenth century.--L.

  "It is my belief," said Parlamente, "that a true woman would be lessgrieved by being beaten in anger than by being contemned for one of lessworth than herself. After enduring the severance of love, nothing thather husband could do would be able to cause her any further pain. And inthis wise the story says that the trouble she took to regain him was forthe sake of her children--which I can well believe."

  "And do you think that it showed great patience on her part," saidNomerfide, "to kindle a fire beneath the bed on which her husband wassleeping."

  "Yes," said Longarine; "for when she saw the smoke she waked him, andherein, perhaps, was she most to blame; for the ashes of such a husbandas hers would to my thinking have been good for the making of lye."

  "You are cruel, Longarine," said Oisille, "but those are not the termson which you lived with your own husband."

  "No," said Longarine, "for, God be thanked, he never gave me cause. Ihave reason to regret him all my life long, not to complain of him."

  "But if he had behaved in such a manner towards you," said
Nomerfide,"what would you have done?"

  "I loved him so dearly," said Longarine, "that I believe I should havekilled him, and myself as well. To die after taking such a vengeancewould have been sweeter to me than to live faithfully with thefaithless."

  "So far as I can see," said Hircan, "you do not love your husbandsexcept for your own sakes. If they are what you want them to be, youare very fond of them; but if they fall into the slightest error towardsyou, they lose on a Saturday the toil of an entire week. Thus you areminded to rule, and I for my part will consent to it provided, however,that all other husbands agree."

  "It is reasonable," said Parlamente, "that man should rule us as ourhead, but not that he should forsake us or treat us ill."

  "God has provided so wisely," said Oisille, "both for man and for woman,that I hold marriage, if it be not abused, to be the goodliest andsecurest condition imaginable, and I am sure that, whatever they mayseem to do, all here present think the same. And if the man claims tobe wiser than the woman, he will be the more severely blamed should thefault come from him. But enough of such talk. Let us now see to whomDagoucin will give his vote."

  "I give it," he said, "to Longarine."

  "You do me a great pleasure," she replied, "for I have read a story thatis worthy to follow yours. Since we are set upon praising the virtuouspatience of ladies, I will show you one more worthy of praise than sheof whom we have just been speaking. And she is the more deserving ofesteem in that she was a city dame, and therefore one of those whosebreeding is less virtuous than that of others."

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  083a.jpg The Lady of Tours questioning her Husband's Mistress]

  [The Lady of Tours questioning her Husband's Mistress]

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