refuse it."

"Then, since you give it to me, I will tell you a story to the truth of
which I can myself testify. I have always heard that when virtue abides
in a weak and feeble vessel, and is assailed by its strong and puissant
opposite, it especially deserves praise, and shows itself to be what
it really is. If strength withstand strength, it is no very wonderful
thing; but if weakness win the victory, it is lauded by every one.
Knowing, as I do, the persons of whom I desire to speak, I think that
I should do a wrong to virtue, (which I have often seen hidden under so
mean a covering that none gave it any heed), if I did not tell of her
who performed the praiseworthy actions that I now feel constrained to
relate."

[Illustration: 122.jpg Tailpiece]

[Illustration: 123a.jpg The Girl refusing the Gift of the Young Prince]

[The Girl refusing the Gift of the Young Prince]

[Illustration: 123.jpg Page Image]

_TALE XLII_.

_A young Prince set his affections upon a young girl, and
although she was of low and poor parentage, he could not, in
spite of all his efforts, obtain from her what he had hoped
to have. Accordingly, recognising her virtue and honour, the
Prince desisted from his attempt, esteemed her highly all
his life, and, marrying her to a follower of his own,
bestowed great benefits upon her_.

In one of the best towns in Touraine there dwelt a lord of illustrious
family, who had there been brought up from early youth. Of the
perfections, graces, beauty and great virtues of this young Prince (1) I
will say nothing, except that in his time his equal could not be found.
Being fifteen years of age, he had more pleasure in hunting and hawking
than in looking at beautiful ladies.

1 This is undoubtedly Francis I., then Count of Angouleme.
M. de Lincy thinks that the scene of the story must be
Amboise, where Louise of Savoy went to live with her
children in 1499, and remained for several years; Louis XII.
having placed the chateau there at her disposal. Francis,
however, left Amboise to join the Court at Blois in August
1508, when less than fourteen years old (see Memoir of Queen
Margaret, vol. i. p. xxiii.), and in the tale, above, he is
said to have been fifteen at the time of the incidents
narrated. These, then, would have occurred in the autumn of
1509. It will be seen that in the tale the young Prince's