seemly; whereupon,
'Vile woman that thou art!' cried he. 'In despite of thee I know what
thou saidst to him, and needs must I know the priest of whom thou art
so mightily enamoured and who, by means of his conjurations, lieth
with thee every night; else will I slit thy weasand.' She replied that
it was not true that she was enamoured of any priest. 'How?' cried the
husband, 'Saidst thou not thus and thus to the priest who confessed
thee?' And she, 'Thou couldst not have reported it better, not to say
if he had told it thee, but if thou hadst been present; ay, I did tell
him this.' 'Then,' rejoined the jealous man, 'tell me who is this
priest, and that quickly.'

The lady fell a-smiling and answered, 'It rejoiceth me mightily to see
a wise man led by the nose by a woman, even as one leadeth a ram by
the horns to the shambles, albeit thou art no longer wise nor hast
been since the hour when, unknowing why, thou sufferedst the malignant
spirit of jealousy to enter thy breast; and the sillier and more
besotted thou art, so much the less is my glory thereof. Deemest thou,
husband mine, I am as blind of the eyes of the body as thou of those
of the mind? Certes, no; I perceived at first sight who was the priest
that confessed me and know that thou wast he; but I had it at heart to
give thee that which thou wentest seeking, and in sooth I have done
it. Wert thou as wise as thou thinkest to be, thou wouldst not have
essayed by this means to learn the secrets of thy good wife, but
wouldst, without taking vain suspicion, have recognized that which she
confessed to thee to be the very truth, without her having sinned in
aught. I told thee that I loved a priest, and wast not thou, whom I am
much to blame to love as I do, become a priest? I told thee that no
door of my house could abide locked, whenas he had a mind to lie with
me; and what door in the house was ever kept against thee, whenas thou
wouldst come whereas I might be? I told thee that the priest lay with
me every night, and when was it that thou layest not with me? And
whenassoever thou sentest thy clerk to me, which was thou knowest, as
often as thou layest from me, I sent thee word that the priest had not
been with me. What other than a crack-brain like thee, who has
suffered thyself to be blinded by thy jealousy, had failed to
understand these things? Thou hast abidden in the house, keeping
watch anights, and thoughtest to have given me to believe that thou
wast gone a