nd my neighbour there,
who also promised, have not so quickly forgotten."

The women began to change colour and to suspect some trickery, when one
of the husbands began to fear the truth. Without giving the women time
to reply, he made a sign to his companions, and said, laughing;

"By my oath, madam, the good wine here, and the excellent cheer
last night made us forget our promise; but be not displeased at the
adventure; if it please God we each last night, with your help, made
a fine baby, which is a work of great merit, and will be sufficient to
wipe out the fault of breaking our vow!"

"May God will it so!" said the women. "But you so strongly declared that
you had not been near us that we began to doubt a little."

"We did it on purpose," said he, "in order to hear what you would say."

"And so you committed a double sin; first to break your oath, then to
knowingly lie about it; and also you have much troubled us."

"Do not worry yourselves about that," said he; "it is no great matter;
but go to Mass, and we will follow you."

The women set out towards the church, and their husbands remained
behind, without following them too closely; then they all said together,
without picking their words;

"We are deceived! Those devils of Cordeliers have cuckolded us; they
have taken our places, and shown us the folly of not sleeping with our
wives. They should never have slept out of our rooms, and if it was
dangerous to be in bed with them, is there not plenty of good straw to
be had?"

"Marry!" said one of them, "we are well punished this time; but at any
rate it is better that the trick should only be known to us than to
us and our wives, for there would be much danger if it came to their
knowledge. You hear by their confession that these ribald monks have
done marvels--both more and better than we could do. And, if our wives
knew that, they would not be satisfied with this experience only. My
advice is that we swallow the business without chewing it."

"So help me God!" cried the third, "my friend speaks well. As for me, I
revoke my vow, for it is not my intention to run any more risks."

"As you will," said the other two; "and we will follow your example."

So all the rest of the journey the wives slept with their husbands,
though the latter took care not to explain the cause. And when the
women saw that, they demanded the cause of this sudden change. And they
answered deceitfully, that as they had begun to b