being so wicked and the opposite of what I have always proved towards
you, I give you my oath and word that I will indeed be such a one as you
deem me, and that I will never rest until I have had from your wife
that which you believe I seek from her. So I bid you beware of me
henceforward, for, since suspicion has destroyed your friendship for me,
resentment will destroy mine for you."

Although his comrade tried to persuade him of the contrary, he would no
longer believe him, but removed his portion of the furniture and goods
that had been in common between them. And so their hearts were as widely
sundered as they had before been closely united, and the unmarried
gentleman never rested until, as he had promised, he had made his
comrade a cuckold. (3)

3 The idea developed in this tale, that of bringing to pass
by one's own actions the thing one fears and seeks to avoid
or prevent, has much analogy with that embodied in the
"novel of the Curious Impertinent" which Cervantes
introduces into _Don Quixote_ (Part I. chaps, xxviii.,
xxix). In this tale it will be remembered Anselmo and
Lothario are represented as being two such close friends as
the gentlemen who figured in Queen Margaret's tale. Anselmo
marries, however, and seized with an insane desire to test
the virtue of his wife, Camilla, by exposing her to
temptation, urges Lothario to pay court to her. Lothario at
first resists these solicitations, pointing out the folly of
such an enterprise, but his friend entreats him so
pressingly that he finally consents, and in the sequel the
passion which he at first simulates for Camilla becomes a
real one and leads to his seducing her and carrying her
away, with the result that both the wretched Anselmo and his
wife soon die of grief, whilst Lothario betakes himself to
the wars and perishes in battle.--M. & Ed.

"Thus, ladies, may it fare with those who wrongfully suspect their
wives of evil. Many men make of them what they suspect them to be, for
a virtuous woman is more readily overcome by despair than by all the
pleasures on earth. And if any one says that suspicion is love, I give
him nay, for although it results from love as do ashes from fire, it
kills it nevertheless in the same way."

"I do not think," said Hircan, "that anything can be more grievous to
either man or woman than to be suspected of that which is contrar