fifteen years. But at last rumour, which can keep nothing hid, advised
him that his wife was not dead, but was still dwelling with the wicked
chanter. The poor man concealed the matter as well as he was able,
pretending to know nothing about it, and hoping that it was a lie. But
his wife, who was a discreet woman, was told of it, and such was her
anguish at the tidings that she was like to die of grief. Had it been
possible without offence to her conscience, she would gladly have
concealed her misfortune, but it was not possible. The Church
immediately took the affair in hand, and first of all separated them
from each other until the truth of the matter should be known.

Then was this poor man obliged to leave the good and go after the bad,
and in this wise he came to Blois shortly after Francis the First had
become king. Here he found Queen Claude and my Lady the Regent, (3) to
whom he made his complaint, asking for her whom he would gladly not have
found, but whom, to the great compassion of the whole company, he was
now obliged to see.

3 This shows that the incidents of the tale occurred in the
summer or autumn of 1515, when Francis I. was absent in
Italy conducting the campaign which resulted in the victory
of Marignano and the surrender of Milan.--Ed.

When his wife was brought before him, she strove for a long while to
maintain that he was not her husband, which he would willingly have
believed had he been able. More disappointed than abashed, she told him
that she would rather die than go back with him, and at this he was well
pleased; but the ladies in whose presence she spoke in this unseemly
fashion condemned her to return, and so rated the chanter with many a
threat, that he was obliged to tell his ugly sweetheart to go back with