With this worthy and his wife, dame Bellepille, Guillem has made himself exceedingly popular. He has paid his bills without haggling, has dined at their table, and taken absinthe (_de bon aluisne_) with the husband. At last he has persuaded the couple to decamp for a season and leave him in sole possession of their house—for a consideration, it need hardly be added. This house he has had connected by a subterraneous passage with one of the bathing cells, and to the latter Flamenca is summoned by the mysterious phrase alluded to. The lady understands the hint, and at once takes the necessary measures for carrying out the scheme. She feigns sleeplessness and pain—nothing but a bath can cure her. Archimbaut, anxious for her safety, gives his consent, and himself conducts her to the arms of her expectant lover, who receives her with knightly courtesy and leads her, together with the two faithful damsels, through his subterraneous passage to a room splendidly adorned to receive such a visitor. The jealous husband in the meantime keeps watch before the door of the bath-room, with the key in his pocket, while the careful damsels have not forgotten to bolt the door inside. Such is the just and inevitable punishment of jealousy according to the doctrine of the Troubadours. But, strangely enough, this punishment, unknown to himself though it be, ultimately works Archimbaut’s cure. He notices the change in his wife’s manner; she shows no affection for him, and even neglects the ordinary forms of politeness. At last he gets tired of his suspicions, and accepts a compromise proposed by his ill-treated wife to the effect that the lady is to be restored to liberty on her own solemn promise of faithfulness to her husband. And here I fear that poor Flamenca will forfeit the claim to the reader’s lenient sympathy to which the cruelty of her husband has hitherto entitled her. With a virtuosity of mental reservation worthy of any Jesuit she swears by all the saints and in the presence of her inwardly chuckling damsels that ‘henceforth I will guard myself quite as well as you (Archimbaut) have hitherto guarded me.’ On this happy turn in her affairs the lady takes leave of her lover for a season. He must resume his rank and add to his fame by new deeds of valour. But she agrees to see him again at a tournament which Archimbaut proposes to hold in celebration of his happy recovery. In answer to his lady’s command, Guillem goes to the war and makes the country ring with his prowess. Archimbaut becomes acquainted with him and eagerly invites him to attend at his feast, where he himself introduces the valorous and renowned young knight to his wife. The lovers keep their countenance and greet each other in distant politeness, but in secret they meet again and renew their bliss. At the tournament Guillem carries all before him, but second to him alone shines Archimbaut, who has become again the valorous