die for very anxiety. Oh,
husband, tell me where you go and why you tarry so long!"

In great agitation the husband put his wife away from him, not daring
to meet the glance of her imploring, anxious eyes.

"For the mercy of God, do not ask this of me," he besought her. "No
good could come of your knowing, only great and terrible evil.
Knowledge would mean the death of your love for me, and my everlasting
desolation."

"You are jesting with me, husband," she replied; "but it is a cruel
jest. I am all seriousness, I do assure you. Peace of mind can never
be mine until my question is fully answered."

But the baron, still greatly perturbed, remained firm. He could not
tell her, and she must rest content with that. The lady, however,
continued to plead, sometimes with tenderness, more often with tears
and heart-piercing reproaches, until at length the baron, trusting to
her love, decided to tell her his secret.

"I have to leave you because periodically I become a bisclaveret," he
said. ('Bisclaveret' is the Breton name for were-wolf.) "I hide myself
in the depths of the forest, live on wild animals and roots, and go
unclad as any beast of the field."

When the lady had recovered from the horror of this disclosure and had
rallied her senses to her aid, she turned to him again, determined at
any cost to learn all the circumstances connected with this terrible
transformation.

"You know that I love you better than all the world, my husband," she
began; "that never in our life together have I done aught to forfeit
your love or your trust. So do, I beseech you, tell me all--tell me
where you hide your clothing before you become a were-wolf?"

"That I dare not do, dear wife," he replied, "for if I should lose my
raiment or even be seen quitting it I must remain a were-wolf so long
as I live. Never again could I become a man unless my garments were
restored to me."

"Then you no longer trust me, no longer love me?" she cried. "Alas,
alas that I have forfeited your confidence! Oh that I should live to
see such a day!"

Her weeping broke out afresh, this time more piteously than before.
The baron, deeply touched, and willing by any means to alleviate her
distress, at last divulged the vital secret which he had held from her
so long.

But from that hour his wife cast about for ways and means to rid
herself of her strange husband, of whom she now went in exceeding
fear. In course of time she remembered a knight of th