it death, for that is the only remedy
indeed--excepting one I mentioned to you--which can cure me."

"But what is that?"

"I told you that I should not dare to say what it is,--and even if I
were obliged to reveal what it is, I should never have the will or power
to put it in execution."

"By St. Martin!" said the good woman, "it appears to me that you are
very wrong to talk like that. Pardieu! tell me what will cure you, and
I assure you that I will do my utmost to help you. Do not wilfully throw
away your life when help and succour can be brought. Tell me what it is,
and you will see that I will help you--I will, pardieu, though it should
cost me more than you imagine." The monk, finding his neighbour was
willing to oblige him, after a great number of refusals and excuses,
which, for the sake of brevity, I omit, said in a low voice.

"Since you desire that I should tell you, I will obey. The doctors all
agreed that there was but one remedy for my complaint, and that was to
put my finger into the secret place of a clean and honest woman, and
keep it there for a certain length of time, and afterwards apply a
certain ointment of which they gave me the receipt. You hear what the
remedy is, and as I am by disposition naturally modest, I would rather
endure and suffer all my ills than breathe a word to a living soul. You
alone know of my sad lot, and that in spite of me."

"Well!" said the good woman, "what I said I would do I will do. I will
willingly help to cure you, and am well pleased to be able to relieve
you of the terrible pain which torments you, and find you a place in
which you can put your sore finger."

"May God repay you, damsel," said the monk. "I should never have dared
to make the request, but since you are kind enough to help me, I shall
not be the cause of my own death. Let us go then, if it please you, to
some secret place where no one can see us."

"It pleases me well," she replied.

So she led him to a fair chamber, and closed the door, and laid upon the
bed, and the monk lifted up her clothes, and instead of the finger
of his hand, put something hard and stiff in the place. When he had
entered, she feeling that it was very big, said,

"How is it that your finger is so swollen? I never heard of anything
like it."

"Truly," he replied, "it is the disease which made it like that."

"It is wonderful," she said.

Whilst this talk was going on, master monk accomplished that for which
he had p