The Anglo-Norman reduction of the diphthong _ai_ and sometimes _ei_ to _e_, especially before _r_ and _s_, still subsists in certain words, though the Continental French spelling is found by its side. Thus we have _fere_, _affere_, _forsfere_, _mesfere_, _plere_, _trere_, _attrere_, _retrere_, _tere_, _debonere_, _contrere_, rhyming with _terre_, _guerre_, _quer(r)e_, &c.; also _mestre_, _nestre_, _pestre_, rhyming with _estre_, _prestre_; and _pes_, _fes_ (fascem), _fetz_, _mes_, _jammes_, _reles(s)_, in rhyme with _ades_, _pres_, _apres_, _deces(s)_, _Moÿses_, _dess_, _mess_, _confess_. (This series of rhymes, which has _ę_, is of course kept distinct from that which includes the terminations _-és_ (_-ez_) in participles, &c., and such words as _ées_, _dées_, _lées_, _prées_, _asses_, _malfés_, &c., which all have _ẹ_.) We find also _ese_ (with the alternative forms _aese_, _ease_, as well as _aise_), _frel_, _ele_, _megre_, _plee_ (_plai_, _plait_), _trete_, _vinegre_, and in ante-tonic syllables _appeser_, _enchesoun_, _esance_, _feture_, _lesser_, _mesoun_, _mestrie_, _phesant_, _pleder_, _plesance_, _plesir_, _sesoun_, _tresoun_, _treter_. In the case of many of these words the form with _ai_ is also used by our author, but the two modes of spelling are kept apart in rhymes (except l. 18349 ff., where we have _tere_, _terre_, _aquerre_, _faire_, _mesfaire_), so that _affere_, _attrere_, rhyme with _terre_, but _affaire_, _attraire_, with _haire_, _esclaire_, _adversaire_, and, while _jammes_ is linked with _apres_, _ades_, _pes_, we find _jammais_ written when the rhyme is with _essais_, _lais_, _paix_. This may be only due to the desire for uniformity in spelling, but there is some reason to think that it indicates in these words an alternative pronunciation. It is to be observed that on the neutral ground of _e_ some words with original _ei_ meet those of which we have been speaking, in which _ai_ was reduced to _e_ in rather early Anglo-Norman times. Thus we have _crere_ rhyming with _terre_, _affere_, &c.; _crestre_, _acrestre_, _descrestre_, with _estre_, _nestre_; and _encres_, _descres_, _malves_, with _apres_, _pes_. These forms, which have descended to our author from his predecessors, are used by him side by side with the (later) French forms _croire_, _croistre_, _acroistre_, _descroistre_, _encrois_, _descrois_, and these alternative forms must undoubtedly be separated from the others in sound as well as in spelling. This being so, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the case was the same with the _ai_ words, and that in adopting the Continental French forms side by side with the others the writer was bringing in also the French diphthong sound, retaining however the traditional Anglo-Norman pronunciation in both these classes of words where it happened to be more convenient or to suit his taste better.