mal, which the Normans call Garwolf;
into whose form men were often formerly metamorphosed; and during such
times were the most ferocious and destructive inhabitants of the forest.

There lived formerly in Bretagne a baron, comely in his person, wise,
courteous, adored by his neighbours, much beloved by his sovereign, and
married to a noble and beautiful lady, for whom he felt the warmest
affection, which she appeared to return. But she had observed, her
husband was regularly absent during three days in the week; and,
suspecting there must be something mysterious in this periodical
disappearance, resolved, if possible, to extort the secret. She
redoubled her expressions of tenderness, bitterly lamented her frequent
intervals of solitude, and, affecting to be persuaded that they were
spent with a mistress, conjured him to calm her apprehensions by a
disclosure of the truth. The good baron in his turn begged her to desist
from an enquiry which would only lead to their permanent separation,
and the extinction of all her fondness; but her tears and blandishments
prevailed, and he confessed that, during half the week, he became a
Bisclaveret. The lady, though she felt a secret horror at finding
herself the wife of a wolf, pursued her enquiry;--Were his clothes also
transformed at the same time? the baron answered, that he was naked:
where, then, did he leave his dress? To this question he endeavoured to
avoid giving an answer; declaring, should that be discovered, he should
be condemned to wear his brute form through life; and observing that, if
she loved him, she could have no wish to learn a secret, useless to her,
and in its disclosure fatal to himself. But obstinacy is always an
over-match for rational argument: she still insisted; and the
good-natured husband ultimately told that, "by the side of an old
chapel, situated on the road to the thickest part of the forest, was a
bush, which overhang and concealed an excavated stone, in which he
constantly deposited his garments." The wife, now mistress of his fate,
quickly sent for a gallant, whose love she had hitherto rejected; taught
him the means of confirming the baron's metamorphosis; and, when their
friends had renounced all hope of his return, married her new favourite,
and conveyed to him a large inheritance, the fruit of their joint
treachery. In about a year the king went to hunt in the forest, and
after a chase which lasted the whole day, had nearly run down the
u