The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. 3 (of 5) — John Shaqi
The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. 3 (of 5)Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre
General
The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. 3 (of 5)
Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre
Love stories, French -- Translations into English; Tales -- France -- Translations into English
This steadfast reply was repeated to the King by those whom he had
appointed to speak with her, and when it was found that she could by no
means be brought to renounce her husband, she was sent to her father,
and this in so pitiful a plight that all who beheld her pass wept to see
her. And although she had done wrong, her punishment was so grievous and
her constancy so great, that her wrongdoing was made to appear a virtue.
When her father heard the pitiful tale, he would not see her, but sent
her away to a castle in a forest, which he had aforetime built for a
reason well worthy to be related. (14) There he kept her in prison for a
long time, causing her to be told that if she would give up her husband
he would treat her as his daughter and set her free.
14 The famous château of Josselin in Morbihan. See notes to
Tale XL., vol. lv.--Ed.
Nevertheless she continued firm, for she preferred the bonds of prison
together with those of marriage, to all the freedom in the world without
her husband. And, judging from her countenance, all her woes seemed but
pleasant pastimes to her, since she was enduring them for one she loved.
And now, what shall I say of men? The Bastard, who was so deeply
beholden to her, as you have seen, fled to Germany where he had many
friends, and there showed by his fickleness that he had sought Rolandine
less from true and perfect love than from avarice and ambition; for he
fell deeply in love with a German lady, and forgot to write to the woman
who for his sake was enduring so much tribulation. However cruel Fortune
might be towards them, they were always able to write to each other,
until he conceived this foolish and wicked love. And Rolandine’s heart
gaining an inkling of it, she could no longer rest.
And afterwards, when she found that his letters were colder and
different from what they had been before, she suspected that some new
love was separating her from her husband, and doing that which all the
torments and afflictions laid upon herself had been unable to effect.
Nevertheless, her perfect love would not pass judgment on mere
suspicion, so she found a means of secretly sending a trusty servant,
not to carry letters or messages to him, but to watch him and discover
the truth. When this servant had returned from his journey, he told her
that the Bastard was indeed deeply in love with a German lady, and that
according to common report he was seeking to marry her, for she was very
rich.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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