pressed it so closely
that she at once knew him, for he had often done the same at the dance.
From that moment, the lady thought of nothing but how she might speak
to him in private; and contrived to do so that very evening, for, being
invited to a banquet, to which her husband wished to take her, she
pretended that she was ill and unable to go.

The husband, being unwilling to disappoint his friends, thereupon said
to her--

"Since you will not come, my love, I pray you take good care of my
horses and hounds, so that they may want for nothing."

The lady deemed this charge a very agreeable one, but, without showing
it, she replied that since he had nothing better for her to do, she
would show him even in these trifling matters how much she desired to
please him.

And scarcely was her husband outside the door than she went down to the
stable, where she found that something was amiss, and to set it right
gave so many orders to the serving-men on this side and the other, that
at last she was left alone with the chief groom, when, fearing that some
one might come upon them, she said to him--

"Go into the garden, and wait for me in a summer house that stands at
the end of the alley."

This he did, and with such speed that he stayed not even to thank her.

When she had set the whole stable in order, she went to see the dogs,
and was so careful to have them properly treated, that from mistress she
seemed to have become a serving-woman. Afterwards she withdrew to her
own apartment, where she lay down weariedly upon the bed, saying that
she wished to rest. All her women left her excepting one whom she
trusted, and to whom she said--

"Go into the garden, and bring here the man whom you will find at the
end of the alley."

The maid went and found the groom, whom she forthwith brought to the
lady, and the latter then sent her outside to watch for her husband's
return. When the Lord of Avannes found himself alone with the lady, he
doffed his groom's dress, took off his false nose and beard, and, not
like a timorous groom, but like the handsome lord he was, boldly got
into bed with her without so much as asking her leave; and he was
received as the handsomest youth of his time deserved to be by the
handsomest and gayest lady in the land, and remained with her until her
husband returned. Then he again took his mask and left the place which
his craft and artifice had usurped.

On entering the courtyard the gentleman he