more action than on the first occasion.

You must know too that, a few days after this adventure, the little
child was in the office where the clerk was writing, when there came in
the lawyer, the master of the house, who walked across the room to
his clerk, to see what he wrote, or for some other matter, and as he
approached the line which the clerk had drawn for his wife, and which
still remained on the floor, his little son cried,

"Father, take care you do not cross the line, or the clerk will lay you
down and tumble you as he did mother a few days ago."

The lawyer heard the remark, and saw the line, but knew not what to
think; but if he remembered that fools, drunkards, and children always
tell the truth, at all events he made no sign, and it has never come to
my knowledge that he ever did so, either through want of confirmation of
his suspicions, or because he feared to make a scandal.

*****

STORY THE TWENTY-FOURTH -- HALF-BOOTED. [24]

By Monseigneur De Fiennes.

_Of a Count who would ravish by force a fair, young girl who was one of
his subjects, and how she escaped from him by means of his leggings,
and how he overlooked her conduct and helped her to a husband, as is
hereafter related._

I know that in many of the stories already related the names of the
persons concerned are not stated, but I desire to give, in my little
history, the name of Comte Valerien, who was in his time Count of St.
Pol, and was called "the handsome Count". Amongst his other lordships,
he was lord of a village in the district of Lille, called Vrelenchem,
about a league distant from Lille.

This gentle Count, though of a good and kind nature, was very amorous.
He learned by report from one of his retainers, who served him in these
matters, that at the said Vrelenchem there resided a very pretty girl
of good condition. He was not idle in these matters, and soon after he
heard the news, he was in that village, and with his own eyes confirmed
the report that his faithful servants had given him concerning the said
maiden.

"The next thing to be done," said the noble Count, "is that I must speak
to her alone, no matter what it may cost me."

One of his followers, who was a doctor by profession, said, "My lord,
for your honour and that of the maiden also, it seems to me better that
I should make known to her your will, and you can frame your conduct
according to the reply that I receive."

He did as he said, and we