One day the fancy took him to go post-haste to see the lady whom he loved better than himself, and whom he prized beyond every other woman in the world. On reaching her house, he inquired where she was, and was told that she had just come from vespers, and was gone into the warren to finish her devotions there. He dismounted from his horse and went straight to the warren where she was to be found, and here he met with some of her women, who told him that she had gone to walk alone in a large avenue. He was more than ever beginning to hope that some good fortune awaited him, and continued searching for her as carefully and as quietly as he could, desiring above all things to find her alone. He came in this way to a summer-house formed of bended boughs, the fairest and pleasantest place imaginable, (2) and impatient to see the object of his love, he went in; and there beheld the lady lying on the grass in the arms of a groom in her service, who was as ill-favoured, foul and disreputable as the Lord of Riant was handsome, virtuous and gentle. 2 For a description of a summer-house of the kind referred to, see Cap’s edition of Palissy’s _Dessein du Jardin Délectable_, p. 69. Palissy there describes some summer- houses formed of young elmtrees, with seats, columns, friezes, and a roofing so cunningly contrived of bent boughs that the rain could not penetrate into the interior. It is to some such construction that Queen Margaret refers.--M. I will not try to depict to you his resentment, but it was so great that in a moment it had power to extinguish the flame which neither length of time nor lack of opportunity had been able to impair. “Madam,” he said to her, being now as full of indignation as once he had been of love, “much good may this do you! (3) The revelation of your wickedness has to-day cured me, and freed me from the continual anguish that was caused by the virtue I believed to be in you.” (4) 3 The French words here are “prou face,” which in Margaret’s time were very generally used in lieu of “Amen” or “So be it.”--M. 4 In _Joconde_ La Fontaine gives the end of the adventure as follows:-- “Sans rencontrer personne et sans etre entendu Il monte dans sa chambre et voit près de la dame Un lourdaud de valet sur son sein étendu. Tous deux dormaient. Dans cet abord Joconde Voulut les envoyer dormir en l’autre monde, Mais cependant il n’en fit rien Et mon avis est qu’il fit bien.” Both in La Fontaine’s _Conte_ and in Ariosto’s _Rolando_ the lady is the Queen, and the favoured lover the King’s dwarf. --Ed. And with this farewell he went back again more quickly than he had come. The unhappy woman made him no other reply than to put her hand to her face; for being unable to hide her shame, she covered her eyes that she might not see him who in spite of her deceit now perceived it only too clearly.