ick lover
was obliged to be a witness of the greatest misfortune which could
happen to him, and his poor heart would have driven him to despair,
if reason had not come to his help, and caused him to abandon his love
affairs, out of which he had never derived any benefit.

*****

[Illustration: 37.jpg THE USE OF DIRTY WATER.]

STORY THE THIRTY-SEVENTH -- THE USE OF DIRTY WATER.

By Monseigneur De La Roche.

_Of a jealous man who recorded all the tricks which he could hear or
learn by which wives had deceived their husbands in old times; but at
last he was deceived by means of dirty water which the lover of the said
lady threw out of window upon her as she was going to Mass, as you shall
hear hereafter._

Whilst others are thinking and ransacking their memories for adventures
and deeds fit to be narrated and added to the present history, I will
relate to you, briefly, how the most jealous man in this kingdom, in his
time, was deceived. I do not suppose that he was the only one who ever
suffered this misfortune, but at any rate I will not omit to describe
the clever trick that was played upon him.

This jealous old hunks was a great historian, and had often read and
re-read all sorts of stories; but the principal end and aim of all his
study was to learn and know all the ways and manners in which wives had
deceived their husbands. For--thank God--old histories like Matheolus
(*), Juvenal, the Fifteen Joys of Marriage (**), and more others than I
can count, abound in descriptions of deceits, tricks, and deceptions of
that sort.

(*) _Le Lime_, de Matheolus, a poem of the early part of the
15th Century, written by Jean le Febvre, Bishop of
Therouenne. It is a violent satire against women.

(**) A curious old work the authorship of which is still
doubtful. It is often ascribed to Antoine de la Sale, who is
believed to have partly written and edited the _Cent
Nouvelles Nouvelles_. The allusion is interesting as showing
that the Quinze Joyes de mariage was written before the
present work.

Our jealous husband had always one or other of these books in his hand,
and was as fond of them as a fool is of his bauble,--reading or studying
them; and indeed he had made from these books a compendium for his own
use, in which all the tricks and deceits practised by wives on their
husbands were noted and described.

This he had done in order to be forewarned and on his