those who are vanquished
by pleasure ought no longer to be called women but rather men, whose
reputation is merely exalted by frenzy and lust. When a man takes
vengeance upon his enemy and slays him for giving him the lie, he is
deemed all the more honourable a gentleman for it; and so, too, when he
loves a dozen women besides his own wife. But the reputation of women
has a different foundation, that, namely, of gentleness, patience and
chastity."

"You speak of the discreet," said Hircan.

"Yes," returned Parlamente, "because I will know none others."

"If none were wanton," said Nomerfide, "those who would fain be believed
by all the world must often have lied."

"Pray, Nomerfide," said Geburon, "receive my vote, and forget that you
are a woman, in order that we may learn what some men that are accounted
truthful say of the follies of your sex."

"Since virtue compels me to it, and you have made it my turn, I will
tell you what I know. I have not heard any lady or gentleman present
speak otherwise than to the disadvantage of the Grey Friars, and out of
pity I have resolved to speak well of them in the story that I am now
about to relate."

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_TALE XLIV.(A)_.

_In reward for not having concealed the truth, the Lord of
Sedan doubled the alms of a Grey Friar, who thus received
two pigs instead of one_. (1)

To the castle of Sedan once came a Grey Friar to ask my Lady of Sedan,
who was of the house of Crouy, (2) for a pig, which she was wont to give
to his Order every year as alms.

1 This tale, though it figures in all the MSS., does not
appear in Gruget's edition of the _Heptameron_, but is there
replaced by the one that follows, XLIV. (B).--Ed.

2 This Lady of Sedan is Catherine de Croi, daughter of
Philip VI. de Croi, Count of Chimay. In 1491 she married
Robert II. do la Marck, Duke of Bouillon, Lord of Sedan,
Fleuranges, &c., who was long the companion in arms of
Bayard and La Tremoille. Robert II. lost the duchy of
Bouillon through the conquests of Charles V., and one of the
clauses of the treaty of Cambrai (the "Ladies' Peace") was
that Francis I. would in no wise assist him to regain it.
His eldest son by Catherine de Croi was the celebrated
Marshal de Fleuranges, "the young adventurer," who left such
curious memoirs behind him. Robert