their advice
was that the lady should say nothing to her children, for they, being
in ignorance, had committed no sin, but that she herself should continue
doing penance all her life without allowing it to become known.

Accordingly, the unhappy lady returned home, where not long afterwards
her son and daughter-in-law arrived. And they loved each other so
much that never were there husband and wife more loving, nor yet more
resembling each other; for she was his daughter, his sister and his
wife, while he was her father, her brother and her husband. And this
exceeding love between them continued always; and the unhappy and deeply
penitent lady could never see them in dalliance together without going
apart to weep.

"You see, ladies, what befalls those who think that by their own
strength and virtue they may subdue Love and Nature and all the
faculties that God has given them. It were better to recognise their own
weakness, and instead of running a-tilt against such an adversary, to
betake themselves to Him who is their true Friend, saying to Him in the
words of the Psalmist, 'Lord, I am afflicted very much; answer Thou for
me.'" (5)

5 We have failed to find this sentence in the Psalms.
Probably the reference is to _Isaiah_ xxxviii. 14, "O Lord,
I am oppressed; undertake for me."--Eu.

"It were impossible," said Oisille "to hear a stranger story than this.
Methinks every man and woman should bend low in the fear of God, seeing
that in spite of a good intention so much mischief came to pass."

"You may be sure," said Parlamente, "that the first step a man takes in
self-reliance, removes him so far from reliance upon God."

"A man is wise," said Geburon, "when he knows himself to be his greatest
enemy, and holds his own wishes and counsels in suspicion."

"Albeit the motive might seem to be a good and holy one," said
Longarine, "there were surely none, howsoever worthy in appearance, that
should induce a woman to lie beside a man, whatever the kinship between
them, for fire and tow may not safely come together."

"Without question," said Ennasuite, "she must have been some
self-sufficient fool, who, in her friar-like dreaming, deemed herself so
saintly as to be incapable of sin, just as many of the Friars would have
us believe that we can become, merely by our own efforts, which is an
exceeding great error."

"Is it possible, Longarine," asked Oisille, "that there are people
foolish enough to h