The Woman and the Chanter (cont.)
The fact having been verified, the poor man was constrained to quit his good wife and go after his bad one. He came to Blois shortly after Francis I became king. He found there Queen Claude and the regent-mother, laid his complaint before them, and demanded of them her whom he would fain not have found, but he was forced to seek her, to the great pity of all beholders.
His wife, on being confronted with him, insisted for a long time that he was not her husband, which he would gladly have believed if he could. Angry but unabashed, she then told him she would rather die than go back to him. The good man was very well satisfied with this declaration, but the ladies, before whom she spoke so impudently, condemned her to return to her husband, and so sharply admonished and threatened the chanter that he was constrained to tell his ugly mistress he did not want to have anything more to do with her and that she must go back to her husband. Thus repulsed on all sides, the wretched creature went away with her husband and was better treated by him than she deserved.
I repeat, ladies, that if the poor husband had taken heed to his wife, he would not thus have lost her, for a thing well watched is not easily lost, and doubtless the proverb is true, which says that negligence makes the thief.
"It is strange," remarked Hircan, "strong love is where it seems least reasonable."
"I have heard," said Simontault, "that one might sooner break two marriages than the love of a priest and his servant."
"I believe it," said Ennasuite, "for those who bind others in marriage know how to fasten the knot so tightly that it is only to be undone by death; the doctors, too, maintain that spiritual language is more persuasive than other, and consequently spiritual love surpasses every other kind."
"I cannot pardon ladies," said Dagoucin, "who forsake a well-bred husband or lover for a priest, however good-looking."
"Leave our holy mother the Church alone, I pray you," said Hircan, "and be assured that it is a great pleasure for poor timid women to sin in secret with those who can absolve them, for some there are who are much more ashamed of confessing a sin than of committing it."
"You speak of such as know not God," said Oisille, "and imagine that secret things will not be revealed before the whole host of Heaven. But I do not believe that it is for sake of confession that such women seek confessors. The enemy has so blinded them that they think much more of settling down upon a place that seems to them the most secret and secure than of having absolution for the guilt of which they do not repent."
"Repent, indeed!" exclaimed Saffredent. "They think themselves much more saintly than other women, and I am sure that there are some who think it is a great honor to them to persevere in intrigues of this sort."
Next: Secrets Revealed
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