The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. 2 (of 5)Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre
General
The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. 2 (of 5)
Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre
Love stories, French -- Translations into English; Tales -- France -- Translations into English
In the household of Madame de la Trémoille there was a lady named
Roncex, who one day, when her mistress had gone to visit the monastery
of the Grey Friars, found herself in great need to go to a certain place
whither her maid could not go in her stead. She took with her a girl
named La Mothe to keep her company, but being modest and unwilling to
be seen, left her in the room, and went alone into a darksome privy,
a place used in common by all the friars, who had given such a good
account therein of all their victuals, that seat and floor, and in sooth
the whole place, were thickly covered with the must of Bacchus and Ceres
that had passed through the friars’ bellies.
The unhappy lady, who was so hard pressed that she had scarcely time to
lift her dress, chanced to sit down in the foulest, dirtiest spot in the
whole place, where she found herself stuck fast as though with glue, her
poor hips, garments, and feet being so contaminated that she durst not
take a step or turn on any side, for fear lest she should meet with
something worse. Thereupon she began to call out as loudly as she
could--
“La Mothe, my child, I am ruined and undone!”
The poor girl, who had formerly heard tell of the wickedness of the Grey
Friars, and imagined that some of them were hidden there and were trying
to take her mistress by force, thereupon ran off as hard as she could,
saying to every one she met--
“Come and help Madame de Roncex; the Grey Friars are trying to ravish
her in yonder privy.”
They thereupon hastened thither with all speed, and found the unhappy
lady crying out for assistance, longing for some woman to come and
cleanse her, and with her back parts all uncovered, for she feared to
touch them with her garments lest these also should be defiled.
The gentlemen, coming in at her cries, beheld this fine sight, but could
see nought of the Grey Friars, unless it were their ordure clinging to
her hips; nor did this pass without laughter on their part and great
shame on hers, for instead of having women to cleanse her, she was
waited on by men, who saw her naked, and in the sorriest plight in which
a woman could be found. For this reason, on perceiving them, she
soiled what was still clean, by dropping her garments in order to cover
herself, forgetting the filth that she was in for the shame she felt at
sight of the men. And when she had come out of that foul place it was
necessary to strip her naked and change all her garments before she
could leave the monastery. She was minded to be angry with La Mothe for
the aid that she had brought her, but finding that the poor girl had
thought her in a yet more evil plight, she put aside her wrath and
laughed like the rest. (3)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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