t we will do what
he commanded at his death, and in still better fashion than he himself
would have done if had he lived a fortnight longer. But no living person
must know aught of the matter."

When she had received the servant's promise to keep it secret, she said
to him--

"You will go and sell the horse, and when you are asked, 'How much?'
you will reply, 'A ducat.' I have, however, a very fine cat which I also
wish to dispose of, and you will sell it with the horse for ninety-nine
ducats, so that cat and horse together will bring in the hundred ducats
for which my husband wished to sell the horse alone."

The servant readily fulfilled his mistress's command. While he was
walking the horse about the market-place, and holding the cat in his
arms, a gentleman, who had seen the horse before, and was desirous of
possessing it, asked the servant what price he sought.

"A ducat," replied the man.

"I pray you," said the gentleman, "do not mock me."

"I assure you, sir," said the servant, "that it will cost you only a
ducat. It is true that the cat must be bought at the same time, and for
the cat I must have nine and ninety ducats."

Forthwith, the gentleman, thinking the bargain a reasonable one, paid
him one ducat for the horse, and the remainder as was desired of him,
and took his goods away.

The servant, on his part, went off with the money, with which his
mistress was right well pleased, and she failed not to give the ducat
that the horse had brought to the poor Mendicants, (2) as her husband
had commanded, and the remainder she kept for the needs of herself and
her children. (3)

2 The allusion is not to the ordinary beggars who then, as
now, swarmed in Spain, but to the Mendicant friars.--Ed.

3 In Boaistuau's and Gruget's editions of the _Heptameron_
the dialogue following this tale is replaced by matter of
their own invention. They did not dare to reproduce Queen
Margaret's bold opinions respecting the clergy, the monastic
orders, &c., at a time when scores of people, including even
Counsellors of Parliament, were being burnt at the stake for
heresy.--L. and Ed.

"What think you? Was she not far more prudent than her husband, and
did she not think less of her conscience than of the advantage of her
household?"

"I think," said Parlamente, "that she did love her husband; but, seeing
that most men wander in their wits when at the point of death, and
kn