many plans came into his head that he could not
decide on any; but of one thing he was sure, and that was that words
alone would never seduce her from the paths of virtue. "For she is too
virtuous, and too prudent. I shall be obliged, if I want to gain my
ends, to gain them by cunning and deception."

Now listen to the plan the rascal devised, and how he dishonestly
trapped the poor, little beast, and accomplished his immoral desires, as
he proposed.

He pretended one day to have a bad finger--that which is nearest to the
thumb, and is the first of the four on the right hand--and he wrapped it
in linen bandages, and anointed it with strong-smelling ointments.

He went about with it thus for a day or two, hanging about the church
porch, when he thought the aforesaid woman was coming, and God knows
what pain he pretended to suffer.

The silly wench looked on him with pity, and seeing by his face that he
appeared to be in great pain, she asked him what was the matter; and the
cunning fox pitched up a piteous tale.

The day passed, and on the morrow, about the hour of vespers, when the
good woman was at home alone, the patient came and sat by her, and acted
the sick man, that anyone who had seen him would have believed that he
was in great danger. Sometimes he would walk to the window, then back
again to the woman, and put on so many strange tricks that you would
have been astonished and deceived if you had seen him. And the poor
foolish girl, who pitied him so that the tears almost started from her
eyes, comforted him as best she could,

"Alas, Brother Aubrey, have you spoken to such and such physicians?"

"Yes, certainly, my dear," he replied. "There is not a doctor or surgeon
in Paris who has not studied my case."

"And what do they say? Will you have to suffer this pain for a long
time?"

"Alas! yes; until I die, unless God helps me; for there is but one
remedy for ray complaint, and I would rather die than reveal what
that is,--for it is very far from decent, and quite foreign to my holy
profession."

"What?" cried the poor girl. "Then there is a remedy! Then is it not
very wrong and sinful of you to allow yourself to suffer thus? Truly it
seems so to me, for you are in danger of losing sense and understanding,
so sharp and terrible is the pain."

"By God, very sharp and terrible it is," said Brother Aubrey, "but
there!--God sent it; praised be His name. I willingly suffer and
bear all, and patiently awa