“Madam,” said Hircan, “I do not condemn her at all; but if the gentleman was as virtuous as you say, it were an honour to have such a lover, and to wear his ring; but perhaps some one less worthy of being loved than he held her so fast by the finger that the ring could not be put on.”
“Truly,” said Ennasuite, “she might well have kept it, seeing that no one knew anything about it.”
“What!” said Geburon; “are all things lawful to those who love, provided no one knows anything about them?”
“By my word,” said Saffredent, “the only misdeed that I have ever seen punished is foolishness. There is never a murderer, robber, or adulterer condemned by the courts or blamed by his fellows, if only he be as cunning as he is wicked. Oft-time, however, a bad man’s wickedness so blinds him that he becomes a fool; and thus, as I have just said, it is the foolish only that are punished, not the vicious.”
“You may say what you please,” said Oisille, “only God can judge the lady’s heart; but for my part, I think that her action was a very honourable and virtuous one. (7) However, to put an end to the debate, I pray you, Parlamente, to give some one your vote.”
7 In our opinion this sentence disposes of Miss Mary
Robinson’s supposition (The Fortunate Lovers, London,
1887, p. 159) that Oisille (i.e., Louise of Savoy) is the
real heroine of this tale. Queen Margaret would hardly have
represented her commending her own action. If any one of the
narrators of the Heptameron be the heroine of the story,
the presumptions are in favour of Longarine (La Dame de
Lonray), Margaret’s bosom friend, whose silence during the
after-converse is significant.—Ed.
“I give it willingly,” she said, “to Simontault, for after two such mournful tales we must have one that will not make us weep.”
“I thank you,” said Simontault. “In giving me your vote you have all but told me that I am a jester. It is a name that is extremely distasteful to me, and in revenge I will show you that there are women who with certain persons, or for a certain time, make a great pretence of being chaste, but the end shows them in their real colours, as you will see by this true story.”
