[Illustration: 169.jpg Page Image] _TALE LXIX_. _On finding her husband bolting meal in the garb of her serving-woman, whom he was awaiting in the hope that he would obtain from her what he desired, a certain lady showed such good sense that she was content to laugh and make merry at his folly_. At the castle of Odoz (1) in Bigorre, there dwelt one Charles, equerry to the King and an Italian by birth, who had married a very virtuous and honourable woman. After bearing him many children, she was now grown old, whilst he also was not young. And he lived with her in all peacefulness and affection, for although he would at times speak with his serving-women, his excellent wife took no notice of this, but quietly dismissed them whenever she found that they were becoming too familiar in her house. 1 The scene of this tale is laid at the castle where Margaret died. Ste. Marthe in his _Oraison funèbre_, pronounced at Alençon fifteen days after the Queen’s death, formally states that she expired at Odos near Tarbes. He is not likely to have been mistaken, so that Brantome’s assertion that the Queen died at Audos in Beam may be accepted as incorrect (_ante_, vol. i. p. lxxxviii.). It is further probable that the above tale was actually written at Odos (_ante_, vol. i. p. lxxxvi.), but the authenticity of the incidents is very doubtful, as there is an extremely similar story in the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ (No, xvii. _Le Conseiller au bluteau_), in which the hero of the adventure is a “great clerk and knight who presided over the Court of Accounts in Paris.” For subsequent imitations see Malespini’s _Ducento Novelle_ (No. xcvii.) and _Les Joyeuses Adventures et Nouvelles Recreations_ (No. xix.)--L. and Ed. One day she hired a discreet and worthy girl, telling her of her husband’s temper and her own, and how she was wont to turn away such girls whom she found to be wantons. This maid, wishing to continue in her mistress’s service and esteem, resolved to remain a virtuous woman; and although her master often spoke to her, she on her part gave no heed to his words save that she repeated them to her mistress, and they thus both derived much diversion from his folly.