y to a different mind; but
he found the contrary to be the case, for as he leaped into the bed on
one side, she got out at the other. Then, putting on her dressing-gown,
she came up to the head of the bed and spoke as follows--

"Did you think, my lord, that opportunity could influence a chaste
heart? Nay, just as gold is tried in the furnace, so a chaste heart
becomes stronger and more virtuous in the midst of temptation, and
grows colder the more it is assailed by its opposite. You may be sure,
therefore, that had I been otherwise minded than I professed myself to
be, I should not have wanted means, to which I have paid no heed solely
because I desire not to use them. So I beg of you, if you would have me
preserve my affection for you, put away not merely the desire but even
the thought that you can by any means whatever make me other than I am."

While she was speaking, her women came in, and she commanded a collation
of all kinds of sweetmeats to be brought; but the young lord could
neither eat nor drink, in such despair was he at having failed in his
enterprise, and in such fear lest this manifestation of his passion
should cost him the familiar intercourse that he had been wont to have
with her.

Having dealt with the fire, the husband came back again, and begged the
Lord of Avannes to remain at his house for the night. This he did,
but in such wise that his eyes were more exercised in weeping than in
sleeping. Early in the morning he went to bid them farewell, while they
were still in bed; and in kissing the lady he perceived that she felt
more pity for the offence than anger against the offender, and thus was
another brand added to the fire of his love. After dinner, he set out
for Taffares with the King; but before leaving he went again to take
yet another farewell of his good father and the lady who, after her
husband's first command, made no difficulty in kissing him as her son.

But you may be sure that the more virtue prevented her eyes and features
from testifying to the hidden flame, the fiercer and more intolerable
did that flame become. And so, being unable to endure the war between
love and honour, which was waging in her heart, but which she had
nevertheless resolved should never be made apparent, and no longer
having the comfort of seeing and speaking to him for whose sake alone
she cared to live, she fell at last into a continuous fever, caused by a
melancholic humour which so wrought upon her th