sin in loving
him, and that holy water would suffice to wash away such a peccadillo.

Believing in him more than in God, she again some time afterwards
yielded to him, and so became big with child. At this she was in deep
grief, and entreated the Prioress to have the monk turned away from his
monastery, saying that she knew him to be so crafty that he would not
fail to seduce her. The Abbess and the Prior, who understood each other,
laughed at her, saying that she was big enough to defend herself against
a man, and that the monk she spoke of was too virtuous to do such a
deed.

At last, urged by the prickings of her conscience, she craved license
to go to Rome, for she thought that, by confessing her sin at the Pope's
feet, she might recover her virginity. This the Prior and Prioress very
readily granted her, for they were more willing that she should become
a pilgrim contrary to the rules of her order, than be shut up in the
convent with her present scruples. They feared also that in her despair
she might denounce the life that was led among them, and so gave her
money for her journey.

But God brought it to pass that when she came to Lyons, my lady the
Duchess of Alencon, afterwards Queen of Navarre, being one evening after
vespers in the roodloft of the church of St. John, whither she came
secretly to perform a novena with three or four of her women, (3)
heard someone mounting the stairway whilst she was kneeling before the
crucifix. By the light of the lamp she saw it was a nun, and in order
that she might hear her devotions, the Duchess thereupon withdrew to the
corner of the altar. The nun, who believed herself to be alone, knelt
down and, beating her breast, began weeping so sorrowfully that it was
piteous to hear her; and all the while she cried naught but this--"Alas!
my God, take pity on this poor sinner."

3 See _ante_, Tale LXV., note i.

The Duchess, wishing to learn what it meant, went up to her and said,
"Dear heart, what ails you, and whence do you come, and what brings you
to this place?"

The poor nun, who did not know her, replied, "Ah, sweet, my woe is such
that I have no help but in God; and I pray that He may bring me to speak
with the Duchess of Alencon. To her alone will I tell the matter, for I
am sure that, if it be possible, she will set it right."

"Dear heart," then said the Duchess, "you may speak to me as you would
to her, for I am one of her nearest friends."

"Forgive me