obedience to them, I will hide
nothing of the truth."

[Illustration: 020.jpg Tailpiece]

[Illustration: 021a.jpg The Lord de Riant finding the Widow with her Groom]

[The Lord de Riant finding the Widow with her Groom]

[Illustration: 021.jpg Page Image]

_TALE XX_.

_The Lord of Riant, being greatly in love with a widow lady and finding
her the contrary of what he had desired and of what she had often
declared herself to be, was so affected thereby that in a moment
resentment had power to extinguish the flame which neither length of
time nor lack of opportunity had been able to quench._ (1)

1 The unpleasant discovery related in this tale is
attributed by Margaret to a gentleman of Francis I.'s
household, but a similar incident figures in the
introduction to the _Arabian Nights_. Ariosto also tells
much the same tale in canto xxviii. of his _Rolando
Furioso_, and another version of it will be found in No. 24
of Morlini's _Novella_, first issued at Naples in 1520.
Subsequent to the _Heptameron_ it supplied No. 29 of the
_Comptes du Monde Adventureux_, figured in a rare imitation
of the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ printed at Rouen early in
the seventeenth century, and was introduced by La Fontaine
into his well-known tale _Joconde_. On the other hand, there
is certainly a locality called Rians in Provence, just
beyond the limits of Dauphine, and moreover among Francis
I.'s "equerries of the stable" there was a Monsieur dc Rian
who received a salary of 200 livres a year from 1522 to
1529.--See the roll of the officers of the King's Household
in the French National Archives, _Sect. Histor_., K. 98.
Some extracts from Brantome bearing on the story will be
found in the Appendix to this vol. (A).--L. and En.

In the land of Dauphine there lived a gentleman named the Lord of Riant;
he belonged to the household of King Francis the First, and was as
handsome and worshipful a gentleman as it was possible to see. He
had long been the lover of a widow lady, whom he loved and revered so
exceedingly that, for fear of losing her favour, he durst not solicit
of her that which he most desired. Now, since he knew himself to be
a handsome man and one worthy to be loved, he fully believed what she
often swore to him--namely, that she loved him more than any living man,
and that if she were led to do aught for any gentleman,