and the holy water,
and who had not spoken for two days, began to cry out as loudly as her
feeble voice enabled her--

"Ah! ah! ah! I am not dead yet!" And threatening them with her hand, she
repeated--"Villain! monster! I am not dead yet!"

On hearing her voice, the husband and maid rose up, but she was in such
a rage against them that her anger consumed the catarrhal humour that
had prevented her from speaking, and she poured upon them all the abuse
that she could think of. And from that hour she began to mend, though
not without often reproaching her husband for the little love he bore
her. (3)

3 This story was imitated by Noel du Fail de La Herissaye
in his _Contes d'Eutrapel_ (ch. v._ De la Goutte_), where
the hero of the incident is called Glaume Esnaut de
Tremeril. "It is said," writes Du Fail, "that the wife of
that rascal Glaume of Tremeril when at the point of death,
on seeing Glaume too familiar with her serving-woman,
recovered her senses, saying, 'Ah! wicked man, I am not yet
so low as you thought. By God's grace, mistress baggage, you
shall go forth at once.'" Curiously enough, the 1585 edition
of the _Contes d'Eutrapel_ was printed at Rennes for Noel
Glame, virtually the same name as Glaume.--M.

"By this you see, ladies, the hypocrisy of men, and how a little
consolation will make them forget their sorrow for their wives."

"How do you know," said Hircan, "that he had not heard that such was the
best remedy his wife could have? Since his kindly treatment availed
not to cure her, he wished to try whether the opposite would prove any
better, and the trial was a very fortunate one. But I marvel that you
who are a woman should have shown how the constitution of your sex is
brought to amendment rather by foul means than by fair."

"Without doubt," said Longarine, "behaviour of that kind would make me
rise not merely from my bed, but from a grave such as that yonder."

"And what wrong did he do her," asked Saffre-dent, "by comforting
himself when he thought that she was dead? It is known that the
marriage-tie lasts only through life, and that when this is ended it is
loosed."

"Ay," said Oisille, "loosed from oath and bond, but a good heart is
never loosed from love. The husband you have told us of was indeed quick
to forget his grief, since he could not wait until his wife had breathed
her last."

"What I think strangest of all," said Nomer