rded for his love, through the false and
treacherous jealousy of the goldsmith's assistant, as you have heard.

*****

[Illustration: 86.jpg Foolish Fear.]

STORY THE EIGHTY-SIXTH -- FOOLISH FEAR.

By Monseigneur Philippe Vignier.

_Of a young man of Rouen, married to a fair, young girl of the age of
fifteen or thereabouts; and how the mother of the girl wished to have
the marriage annulled by the Judge of Rouen, and of the sentence which
the said Judge pronounced when he had heard the parties--as you will
hear more plainly in the course of the said story._

In the good town of Rouen, not long ago, a young man was married to a
fair and tender virgin, aged fifteen, or thereabouts. On the day of the
great feast--that is to say, the wedding--the mother of the young girl,
as is customary in such cases, instructed the bride in all the mysteries
of wedlock, and taught her how to behave to her husband on the first
night.

The young girl, who was looking forward to the time when she could put
these doctrines into practice, took great pains and trouble to remember
the lesson given her by her good mother, and it seemed to her that when
the time came for her to put these counsels into execution, that she
would perform her duties so well that her husband would praise her, and
be well pleased with her.

The wedding was performed with all honour and due solemnity, and the
desired night came; and soon after the feast was ended, and the young
people had withdrawn after having taken leave of the newly married
couple,--the mother, cousins, neighbours, and other lady friends led
the bride to the chamber where she was to spend the night with her
husband, where they joyfully divested her of her raiment, and put her to
bed, as was right and proper. Then they wished her good-night, and one
said;

"My dear, may God give you joy and pleasure in your husband, and may you
so live with him as to be for the salvation of both your souls."

Another said: "My dear, God give you such peace and happiness with your
husband, that the heavens may be filled with your works."

After they all had expressed similar wishes, they left. The bride's
mother, who remained the last, questioned her daughter to see whether
she remembered the lesson she had been taught. And the girl, who, as the
proverb goes, did not carry her tongue in her pocket, replied that
she well remembered all that had been told her, and--thank God--had
forgotten nothin