hown, though
the abbey has become a prison, and its church a refectory.--
Ed.

Together with this change of life there was wrought also a great change
of heart, so that he now began to cast glances upon countenances which
aforetime he had looked at only as a duty; and, contemplating charms
which were rendered even more desirable by the veil, he began to hanker
after them. Then, to satisfy this longing, he sought out such cunning
devices that at last from being a shepherd he became a wolf, so that in
many a convent, where there chanced to be a simple maiden, he failed
not to beguile her. But after he had continued this evil life for a
long time, the Divine Goodness took compassion upon the poor, wandering
sheep, and would no longer suffer this villain's triumph to endure, as
you shall hear.

One day he went to visit the convent of Gif, (4) not far from Paris,
and while he was confessing all the nuns, it happened that there was one
among them called Marie Heroet, whose speech was so gentle and pleasing
that it gave promise of a countenance and heart to match.

4 Gif, an abbey of the Benedictine order, was situated at
five leagues from Paris, in the valley of Chevreuse, on the
bank of the little river Yvette. A few ruins of it still
remain. It appears to have been founded in the eleventh
century.--See Le Beuf s _Histoire du Diocese de Paris_, vol.
viii. part viii. p. 106, and _Gallia Christiana_, vol. vii.
col. 596.--L. and D.

The mere sound of her voice moved him with a passion exceeding any that
he had ever felt for other nuns, and, while speaking to her, he bent
low to look at her, and perceiving her rosy, winsome mouth, could not
refrain from lifting her veil to see whether her eyes were in keeping
therewith. He found that they were, and his heart was filled with so
ardent a passion that, although he sought to conceal it, his countenance
became changed, and he could no longer eat or drink. When he returned
to his priory, he could find no rest, but passed his days and nights in
deep disquiet, seeking to devise a means whereby he might accomplish his
desire, and make of this nun what he had already made of many others.
But this, he feared, would be difficult, seeing that he had found her
to be prudent of speech and shrewd of understanding; moreover, he knew
himself to be old and ugly, and therefore resolved not to employ words
but to seek to win her by fear.

Accordin