But let us return to our clerk, who was as merry as a grig at the news
of the death of his wife, and to whom the benefice of his native town
had been given, at the request of his master, by the Holy Father, as
a reward for his services. And let us record how he became a priest at
Rome, and chanted his first holy Mass, and took leave of his master for
a time, in order to return and take possession of his living.

When he entered the town, by ill luck the first person that he chanced
to meet was his wife, at which he was much astonished I can assure you,
and still more vexed.

"What is the meaning of this, my dear?" he asked. "They told me you were
dead!"

"Nothing of the kind," she said. "You say so, I suppose, because you
wish it, as you have well proved, for you have left me for five years,
with a number of young children to take care of."

"My dear," he said, "I am very glad to see you in good health, and I
praise God for it with all my heart. Cursed be he who brought me false
news."

"Amen!" she replied.

"But I must tell you, my dear, that I cannot stay now; I am obliged to
go in haste to the Bishop of Noyon, on a matter which concerns him; but
I will return to you as quickly as I can."

He left his wife, and took his way to Noyon; but God knows that all
along the road he thought of his strange position.

"Alas!" he said, "I am undone and dishonoured. A priest! a clerk! and
married! I suppose I am the first miserable wretch to whom that ever
occurred!"

He went to the Bishop of Noyon, who was much surprised at hearing his
case, and did not know what to advise him, so sent him back to Rome.

When he arrived there, he related his adventure at length to his master,
who was bitterly annoyed, and on the morrow repeated it to our Holy
Father, in the presence of the Sacred College and all the Cardinals.

So it was ordered that he should remain priest, and married, and cure
also; and that he should live with his wife as a married man, honourably
and without reproach, and that his children should be legitimate and not
bastards, although their father was a priest. Moreover, that if it was
found he lived apart from his wife, he should lose the living.

Thus, as you have heard, was this gallant punished for believing the
false news of his friend, and was obliged to go and live in his own
parish, and, which was worse, with his wife, with whose company he would
have gladly dispensed if the Church had not ordered it