devoutness, that all wept to see so glorious an end.

When the evening was come, she begged her husband to send for the
extreme unction, saying that, as she was growing very weak, she was in
fear lest she might not live to receive it. Her husband in all haste
caused it to be brought by the priest, and she, by receiving it with
very great humility, prompted every one to praise her.

After she had got through her brave mysteries, she told her husband
that, having through God's grace received all that the Church commands,
she felt great peace of conscience, and would fain take some rest; and
she begged him to do the like, seeing that he had great need of it after
all his weeping and watching with her.

When her husband was gone, and all his servants with him, the poor old
women, who had so long watched her in health and now had no fear of
losing her except by death, went contentedly and comfortably to bed. As
soon as she heard them asleep and loudly snoring, she rose in nothing
but her shift, and went out of the room, listening to hear if any one
was yet astir in the house. Taking every precaution, she then (as she
well knew how) let herself out through a little garden-gate that was not
shut, and, barefooted and in her shift, journeyed all night long towards
Autun and the saint, who had preserved her from death.

It happened, however, that as the distance was great, she could not
accomplish the whole of it before daylight overtook her. Looking then
all along the road, she perceived two horsemen who were galloping at
full speed, and thinking that it might be her husband in search of her,
she hid herself entirely in a marsh, with her head among the reeds.
As her husband (for he it was) passed close beside her, he spoke to a
servant who was with him, in tones of deep despair, saying--

"Ah, the wicked woman! Who could have thought that so foul and
abominable a deed could be hidden under cloak of the holy sacraments of
the Church."

"If Judas," replied the servant, "feared not to betray his Master when
he was receiving the like, a woman's treachery is but small matter for
wonder."

At this point the husband passed on, and his wife remained among the
rushes, in greater gladness at having deceived and escaped him than she
had ever felt at home in a good bed but in subjection.

The poor husband sought her through all the town of Autun, but learning
for certain that she had not entered it, he retraced his steps,
complaini