The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. II | Page 2

being any guilt on the part of his wife._
(1)
In the county of Alletz (2) there lived a man named Bornet, who being
married to an upright and virtuous wife, had great regard for her honour
and reputation, as I believe is the case with all the husbands here
present in respect to their own wives. But although he desired that she
should be true to him, he was not willing that the same law should

apply to both, for he fell in love with his maid-servant, from whom he
had nothing to gain save the pleasure afforded by a diversity of viands.
1 For a list of tales similar to this one, see post, Appendix A.
2 Alletz, now Alais, a town of Lower Languedoc (department of the
Gard), lies on the Gardon, at the foot of the Cevennes mountains. It was
formerly a county, the title having been held by Charles, Duke of
Angoulême, natural son of Charles IX.--M.
Now he had a neighbour of the same condition as his own, named
Sandras, a tabourer (3) and tailor by trade, and there was such
friendship between them that, excepting Bornet's wife, they had all
things in common. It thus happened that Bornet told his friend of the
enterprise he had in hand against the maid-servant; and Sandras not
only approved of it, but gave all the assistance he could to further its
accomplishment, hoping that he himself might share in the spoil.
3 Tabourers are still to be found in some towns of Lower Languedoc
and in most of those of Provence, where they perambulate the streets
playing their instruments. They are in great request at all the country
weddings and other festive gatherings, as their instruments supply the
necessary accompaniment to the ancient Provençal dance, the
farandole.--Ed.
The maid-servant, however, was loth to consent, and finding herself
hard pressed, she went to her mistress, told her of the matter, and
begged leave to go home to her kinsfolk, since she could no longer
endure to live in such torment. Her mistress, who had great love for her
husband and had often suspected him, was well pleased to have him
thus at a disadvantage, and to be able to show that she had doubted him
justly. Accordingly, she said to the servant--
"Remain, my girl, but lead my husband on by degrees, and at last make
an appointment to lie with him in my closet. Do not fail to tell me on
what night he is to come, and see that no one knows anything about it."
The maid-servant did all that her mistress had commanded her, and her

master in great content went to tell the good news to his friend. The
latter then begged that, since he had been concerned in the business, he
might have part in the result. This was promised him, and, when the
appointed hour was come, the master went to lie, as he thought, with
the maid-servant; but his wife, yielding up the authority of
commanding for the pleasure of obeying, had put herself in the
servant's place, and she received him, not in the manner of a wife, but
after the fashion of a frightened maid. This she did so well that her
husband suspected nothing.
I cannot tell you which of the two was the better pleased, he at the
thought that he was deceiving his wife, or she at really deceiving her
husband. When he had remained with her, not as long as he wished, but
according to his powers, which were those of a man who had long been
married, he went out of doors, found his friend, who was much younger
and lustier than himself, and told him gleefully that he had never met
with better fortune. "You know what you promised me," said his friend
to him.
"Go quickly then," replied the husband, "for she may get up, or my
wife have need of her."
The friend went off and found the supposed maid-servant, who,
thinking her husband had returned, denied him nothing that he asked of
her, or rather took, for he durst not speak. He remained with her much
longer than her husband had done, whereat she was greatly astonished,
for she had not been wont to pass such nights. Nevertheless, she
endured it all with patience, comforting herself with the thought of
what she would say to him on the morrow, and of the ridicule that she
would cast upon him.
Towards daybreak the man rose from beside her, and toying with her as
he was going away, snatched from her finger the ring with which her
husband had espoused her, and which the women of that part of the
country guard with great superstition. She who keeps it till her death is