curate sayd he coulde nat assoyle hym. Yes, quod the Welchman, yf thou
knewest all, thou woldest assoyle me well ynoughe; and when the curate
had commandyd hym to shew hym all the case, he sayd thus: mary, there
were ii freres; and I myght haue slayn them bothe, yf I had lyst; but I
let the one scape: therfore mayster curate set the tone agaynst the
tother, and than the offence is not so great but ye may assoyle me well
ynoughe.

By this ye may se, that dyuers men haue so euyll and larg conscyence
that they thynke, yf they do one good dede or refrayn from doynge of one
euyll synne, that yt ys satysfaccyon for other _synnes_ and ofencys.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] This moral is also attached to Tales 21, 44, and 56, in all which
cases the lady's rejoinder is not less opposed to modern notions of
female delicacy.

+ _Of the Welcheman that coude nat gette but a lytell male._ xxix.

+ There was a company of gentylmen[60] in Northamptonshyre which wente
to hunte for dere in the porlews[61] in the gollet besyde Stony
Stratford, amonge which gentylmen there was one which had a Welchman to
his seruante, a good archer; whiche, whan they cam to a place where they
thought they _should find dere_, apoynted thys Welchman to stand _still,
and forbade him in_ any wyse to shote at no rascal[62] _dere but to make
sure of the greate male and_ spare not. Well, quod this Welchman, _I
will do so_. _Anon cam by many greate dere and_ Rascall; but euer he
lette them go, and toke no hede to them; and within an houre after he
saw com rydynge on the hye-waye a man of the contrey, whych had a boget
hangynge at hys sadyll bowe.[63] And whan this Welcheman had espyed hym,
he bad hym stande, and began to drawe his bow and bad hym delyuer that
lytell male that hunge at his sadyll bowe. Thys man, for fere of hys
lyfe, was glad to delyuer hym hys boget, and so dyd, and than rode hys
waye, and was glad he was so _escapyd_. And when this man of the
contrey was gone, thys Welcheman was _very glad_ and wente incontynente
to seke hys mayster, and at the laste founde hym wyth hys companye; and
whan he saw hym he came to hym, and sayd thus: mayster, by cottes plut
and her nayle! I haue stande yonder this two hourys, and I colde se
neuer a male but a lytell male that a man had hangynge at his sadell
bow, and thet I haue goten, and lo here it is; and toke his master the
boget whiche he had taken away from the forsayd man, for the whiche dede
bothe the mays