ual goods. The tithes
which we ask and which you owe us are not temporal goods; as the Holy
Sacrament, which you receive, is a divine and holy thing, so no one may
receive the tithe but us, who are monks of the order of the Observance."

The poor simple women, who believed the good friars were more like
angels than terrestrial beings, did not refuse to pay the tithe. There
was not one who did not pay in her turn, from the highest to the lowest,
even the wife of the Lord was not excused.

Thus were all the women of the town parcelled out amongst these rascally
monks, and there was not a monk who did not have fifteen or sixteen
women to pay tithes to him, and God knows what other presents they had
from the women, and all under cover of devotion.

This state of affairs lasted long without its ever coming to the
knowledge of those who were most concerned in the payment of the new
tithe; but at last it was discovered in the following manner.

A young man who was newly married, was invited to supper at the house of
one of his relations--he and his wife--and as they were returning home,
and passing the church of the above-mentioned good Cordeliers, suddenly
the bell rang out the _Ave Maria_, and the young man bowed to the ground
to say his prayers.

His wife said, "I would willingly enter this church."

"What would you do in there at this hour?" asked her husband. "You can
easily come again when it is daylight; to-morrow, or some other time."

"I beg of you," she said, "to let me go: I will soon return."

"By Our Lady!" said he, "you shall not go in now."

"By my oath!" she replied, "it is compulsory. I must go in, but I will
not stay. If you are in a hurry to get home, go on, and I will follow
you directly."

"Get on! get forward!" he said, "you have nothing to do here. If you
want to say a _Pater noster_, or an _Ave Maria_, there is plenty of room
at home, and it is quite as good to say it there as in this monastery,
which is now as dark as pitch."

"Marry!" said she, "you may say what you like, but by my oath, it is
necessary that I should enter here for a little while."

"Why?" said he. "Do you want to sleep with any of the brothers."

She imagined that her husband knew that she paid the tithe, and replied;

"No, I do not want to sleep with him; I only want to pay."

"Pay what?" said he.

"You know very well," she answered; "Why do you ask?"

"What do I know well?" he asked, "I never meddle with your deb