he event to his friend.

The messenger goth, and hath nought forgete,
And findeth the knight at his mete;
And fair he gret, in the hall,
The lord, the levedi, the meyne all;
And sith then, on knees down him set,
And the lord full fair he gret.
"He bade that thou should to him _te_,[34]
And, for love, his _gossibbe_[35] be."
"Is his levedi deliver'd _with sounde?_"[36]
"Ya, sir, y-thonked be God, _yestronde._"[37]
"And whether a maiden child, other a knave?"
"Tway sones, sir, God hem save!"
The knight thereof was glad and blithe,
And thonked Godes sonde swithe,
And granted his errand in all thing,
And gaf him a palfray for his tiding.
Then was the lady of the house
A proud dame, and malicious,
_Hoker-full, iche mis-segging_,[38]
Squeamous, and eke scorning;
To iche woman she had envie;
She spake these words of felonie:
"Ich have wonder, thou messenger,
Who was thy lordes conseillor,
To teach him about to send,
And tell shame _in iche an end!_"[39]
"That his wife hath tway children y-bore!
Well may iche man wite therfore
That tway men her han hodde in bower:
That is hir bothe dishonour!"

The messenger was sorely abashed by these unexpected and unjust
reflections; the husband reprimanded his wife very severely for the
intemperance of her tongue; and all the women of the country, amongst
whom the story rapidly circulated, united in prayer, that her calumny
might receive some signal punishment. Accordingly, the lady shortly
after brought into the world two daughters. She was now reduced to the
alternative of avowing herself guilty of a calumny against her innocent
neighbour, or of imputing to herself, in common with the other, a crime
of which she had not been guilty; unless she could contrive to remove
one of the twins. The project of destroying her own child, was, at
first, rejected with horror; but after revolving the subject in her
mind, and canvassing with great logical acuteness the objections to this
atrocious measure, she determined to adopt it, because she could
ultimately cleanse herself from the sin, by doing private penance, and
obtaining absolution.

Having thus removed her scruples, she called the midwife, and directed
her to destroy one of the infants, and to declare that one only had been
born. But she refused; and the unnatural mother was reduced to seek for
a more submi