in wise counsellor this act would
have cost Bisclaveret his life. This sagacious person, who knew of the
animal's customary docility, insisted that some evil must have been
done him.

"There must be some reason why this beast holds these twain in such
mortal hate," he said. "Let this woman and her husband be brought
hither so that they may be straitly questioned. She was once the wife
of one who was near to your heart, and many marvellous happenings have
ere this come out of Brittany."

[Illustration: THE WERE-WOLF]

The King hearkened to this sage counsel, for he loved the were-wolf,
and was loath to have him slain. Under pressure of examination
Bisclaveret's treacherous wife confessed all that she had done, adding
that in her heart she believed the King's favourite animal to be no
other than her former husband.

Instantly on learning this the King demanded the were-wolf's vesture
from the treacherous knight her lover, and when this was brought to
him he caused it to be spread before the wolf. But the animal behaved
as though he did not see the garments.

Then the wise counsellor again came to his aid.

"You must take the beast to your own secret chamber, sire," he told
the King; "for not without great shame and tribulation can he become a
man once more, and this he dare not suffer in the sight of all."

This advice the King promptly followed, and when after some little
time he, with two lords of his fellowship in attendance, re-entered
the secret chamber, he found the wolf gone, and the baron so well
beloved asleep in his bed.

With great joy and affection the King aroused his friend, and when the
baron's feelings permitted him he related his adventures. As soon as
his master had heard him out he not only restored to him all that had
been taken from him, but added gifts the number and richness of which
rendered him more wealthy and important than ever, while in just anger
he banished from his realm the wife who had betrayed her lord,
together with her lover.

_The Were-Wolf Superstition_

The were-wolf superstition is, or was, as prevalent in Brittany as in
other parts of France and Europe. The term 'were-wolf' literally means
'man-wolf,' and was applied to a man supposed to be temporarily or
permanently transformed into a wolf. In its origins the belief may
have been a phase of lycanthropy, a disease in which the sufferer
imagines himself to have been transformed into an animal, and in
ancient and med