e me,
was never to gallop my horse in a valley. I did not bear that in mind,
and suffered for it, for one day, when riding in a valley after a hare
pursued by my dogs, my horse fell and broke its neck, and it is a wonder
I was not badly hurt. To remind me of my escape from death, the skin of
the horse I then lost is hung there. The third counsel and advice that
my father--whose soul is with God--gave me, was never to marry a woman
of a strange nation. In this also I failed, and I will tell you what
happened to me. The first night after I was married to your daughter,
and you refused to let me sleep with her, I was lodged in a chamber
close to hers, and as the partition between her and me was but thin, I
pierced a hole with my sword, and I saw the chaplain of your household
come and lie with her; but he left his breeches under the bed when he
rose in the morning--which breeches I obtained possession of, and
have hung them there as evidence of the everlasting truth of the third
counsel that my late father gave me, and which I had not duly remembered
and borne in mind; but in order that I may not again fall into the same
errors, have placed here these three objects to render me prudent. And
because--thank God--I am not so much committed to your daughter that she
cannot now leave me, I would ask of you to take her back, and return to
your own country, for as long as I live I will never come near her. But,
because I have made you come a long way to show you that I am not the
sort of man to take a priest's leavings, I am prepared to pay your
expenses."

The others did not know what to say, but seeing that their misdeeds were
discovered, and seeing also that being far from their own country, force
would not be on their side, were content to take the money for their
expenses, and return whence they came; for if they had staked more they
would have lost more.

Such, as you have heard, were the three counsels which the good father
gave his son, and which should not be forgotten; let everyone remember
them, so far as they concern himself.

*****

STORY THE FIFTY-THIRD -- THE MUDDLED MARRIAGES.

By The Archivist Of Brussels.

_Of two men and two women who were waiting to be married at the first
Mass in the early morning; and because the priest could not see well, he
took the one for the other, and gave to each man the wrong wife, as you
will hear._

One morning there were assembled in the cathedral of Sainte Gudule