The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. II | Page 3

held in high honour, while she who chances to lose it, is thought lightly
of as a person who has given her faith to some other than her husband.

The wife, however, was very glad to have it taken, thinking it would be
a sure proof of how she had deceived her husband. When the friend
returned, the husband asked him how he had fared. He replied that he
was of the same opinion as himself, and that he would have remained
longer had he not feared to be surprised by daybreak. Then they both
went to the friend's house to take as long a rest as they could. In the
morning, while they were dressing, the husband perceived the ring that
his friend had on his finger, and saw that it was exactly like the one he
had given to his wife at their marriage. He thereupon asked his friend
from whom he had received the ring, and when he heard he had
snatched it from the servant's finger, he was confounded and began to
strike his head against the wall, saying--"Ah! good Lord! have I made
myself a cuckold without my wife knowing anything about it?"
"Perhaps," said his friend in order to comfort him, "your wife gives her
ring into the maid's keeping at night-time."
The husband made no reply, but took himself home, where he found his
wife fairer, more gaily dressed, and merrier than usual, like one who
rejoiced at having saved her maid's conscience, and tested her husband
to the full, at no greater cost than a night's sleep. Seeing her so cheerful,
the husband said to himself--
"If she knew of my adventure she would not show me such a pleasant
countenance."
Then, whilst speaking to her of various matters, he took her by the hand,
and on noticing that she no longer wore the ring, which she had never
been accustomed to remove from her finger, he was quite overcome.
"What have you done with your ring?" he asked her in a trembling
voice.
She, well pleased that he gave her an opportunity to say what she
desired, replied--
"O wickedest of men! From whom do you imagine you took it? You
thought it was from my maid-servant, for love of whom you expended

more than twice as much of your substance as you ever did for me. The
first time you came to bed I thought you as much in love as it was
possible to be; but after you had gone out and were come back again,
you seemed to be a very devil. Wretch! think how blind you must have
been to bestow such praises on my person and lustiness, which you
have long enjoyed without holding them in any great esteem. 'Twas,
therefore, not the maid-servant's beauty that made the pleasure so
delightful to you, but the grievous sin of lust which so consumes your
heart and so clouds your reason that in the frenzy of your love for the
servant you would, I believe, have taken a she-goat in a nightcap for a
comely girl! Now, husband, it is time to amend your life, and, knowing
me to be your wife, and an honest woman, to be as content with me as
you were when you took me for a pitiful strumpet. What I did was to
turn you from your evil ways, so that in your old age we might live
together in true love and repose of conscience. If you purpose to
continue your past life, I had rather be severed from you than daily see
before my eyes the ruin of your soul, body, and estate. But if you will
acknowledge the evil of your ways, and resolve to live in fear of God
and obedience to His commandments, I will forget all your past sins, as
I trust God will forget my ingratitude in not loving Him as I ought to
do."
If ever man was reduced to despair it was this unhappy husband. Not
only had he abandoned this sensible, fair, and chaste wife for a woman
who did not love him, but, worse than this, he had without her
knowledge made her a strumpet by causing another man to participate
in the leasure which should have been for himself alone; and thus he
had made himself horns of everlasting derision. However, seeing his
wife in such wrath by reason of the love he had borne his maid-servant,
he took care not to tell her of the evil trick that he had played her; and
entreating her forgiveness, with promises of full amendment of his
former evil life, he gave her back the ring which he had recovered from
his friend. He entreated the latter not to reveal his shame; but, as what
is