rs when he was roused by the
sound of the horn and the cry of the hounds. The but which afforded him
a retreat, joining, as we before said, to the park wall, he called his
host, to know what was the occasion of that hunting, which made a noise
as if the whole pack of hounds had been in his bed-chamber. He was told
that it was my lord hunting a hare in his park. "What lord?" said he,
in great surprise. "The Earl of Chesterfield," replied the pea sant.
He was so astonished at this that at first he hid his head under the
bed-clothes, under the idea that he already saw him entering with all his
bounds; but as soon as he had a little recovered himself he began to
curse capricious fortune, no longer doubting but this jealous fool's
return had occasioned all his tribulations in the preceding night.

It was not possible for him to sleep again, after such an alarm; he
therefore got up, that he might revolve in his mind all the stratagems
that are usually employed either to deceive, or to remove out of the way,
a jealous scoundrel of a husband, who thought fit to neglect his law-suit
in order to plague his wife. He had just finished dressing himself, and
was beginning to question his landlord, when the same servant who had
conducted him to the garden delivered him a letter, and disappeared,
without waiting for an answer. This letter was from his relation, and
was to this effect:

"I am extremely sorry that I have innocently been accessary to bringing
you to a place, to which you were only invited to be laughed at: I
opposed this journey at first, though I was then persuaded it was wholly
suggested by her tenderness; but she has now undeceived me: she triumphs
in the trick she has played you: her husband has not stirred from hence,
but stays at home, out of complaisance to her: he treats her in the most
affectionate manner; and it was upon their reconciliation that she found
out that you had advised him to carry her into the country. She has
conceived such hatred and aversion against you for it, that I find, from
her discourse, she has not yet wholly satisfied her resentment. Console
yourself for the hatred of a person, whose heart never merited your
tenderness. Return: a longer stay in this place will but draw upon you
some fresh misfortune: for my part, I shall soon leave her: I know her,
and I thank God for it. I do not repent having pitied her at first; but
I am disgusted with an employment which but ill agrees with my way of