he was greatly downcast, for he
had hoped that the good Friar would give him the permission he sought;
however, he said no more. Meanwhile the worthy father, who had drunk
more than was needful, looked at the lady, (3) thinking to himself that,
if he were her husband, he would ask no Friar's advice before lying
with her; and just as a fire kindles little by little until at last it
envelops the whole house, so this monk began to burn with such exceeding
lust that he suddenly resolved to satisfy a desire which for three years
he had carried hidden in his heart.

3 The French word here is _damoiselle_, by which
appellation the lady is called throughout the story. Her
husband, being a petty nobleman, was a _damoiseau_, whence
the name given to his wife. The word _damoiselle_ is
frequently employed in the _Heptameron_, and though
sometimes it merely signifies an attendant on a lady, the
reference is more frequently to a woman of gentle birth,
whether she be spinster, wife or widow. Only women of high
nobility and of the blood royal were at that time called
_Madame_.--Ed.

After the tables had been withdrawn, he took the gentleman by the
hand, and, leading him to his wife's bedside, (4) said to him in her
presence--

"It moves my pity, sir, to see the great love which exists between you
and this lady, and which, added to your extreme youth, torments you so
sore. I have therefore determined to tell you a secret of our sacred
theology which is that, although the rule be made thus strict by reason
of the abuses committed by indiscreet husbands, it does not suffer
that such as are of good conscience like you should be balked of all
intercourse. If then, sir, before others I have stated in all its
severity the command of the law, I will now reveal to you, who are a
prudent man, its mildness also. Know then, my son, that there are women
and women, just as there are men and men. In the first place, my
lady here must tell us whether, three weeks having gone by since her
delivery, the flow of blood has quite ceased?"

4 The supper would appear to have been served in the
bedroom, and the tables were taken away as soon as the
repast was over. It seems to us very ridiculous when on the
modern stage we see a couple of lackeys bring in a table
laden with viands and carry it away again as soon as the
_dramatis personae_ have dined or supped. Yet this wa