ch folk find it
possible to lie? I declare to you that I do not think that there can
be greater lies than theirs. Those, indeed, who speak on behalf of the
whole community are not to be blamed, but there are some among them who
forget their vows of poverty in order to satisfy their own greed."

"Methinks, Hircan," said Nomerfide, "you must know some such tale, and
if it be worthy of this company, I pray you tell it us."

"I will," said Hircan, "although it irks me to speak of such folk.
Methinks they are of the number of those of whom Virgil says to Dante,
'Pass on and heed them not.' (6) Still, to show you that they have not
laid aside their passions with their worldly garments, I will tell you
of something that once came to pass."

6 _Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa_ (Dante's
_Purgatorio_, iii. 51). The allusion is to the souls of
those who led useless and idle lives on earth, supporting
neither the Divinity by the observance of virtue, nor the
spirit of evil by the practice of vice. They are thus cast
out both from heaven and hell.--Ed.

[Illustration: 049.jpg Tailpiece]

[Illustration: 051a.jpg The Grey Friar introducing his Comrade to the
Lady and her Daughter]

[The Grey Friar introducing his Comrade to the Lady and her
Daughter]

[Illustration: 051.jpg Page Image]

_TALE LVI_.

_A pious lady had recourse to a Grey Friar for his advice in
providing her daughter with a good husband, for whom she
proposed making it so profitable a match that the worthy
father, hoping to get the money she intended for her son-in-
law, married her daughter to a young comrade of his own. The
latter came every evening to sup and lie with his wife, and
in the morning returned in the garb of a scholar to his
convent. But one day while he was chanting mass, his wife
perceived him and pointed him out to her mother; who,
however, could not believe that it was he until she had
pulled off his coif while he was in bed, and from his tonsure
learned the whole truth, and the deceit used by her father
confessor_.

A French lady, whilst sojourning at Padua, was informed that there was
a Grey Friar in the Bishop's prison there, and finding that every one
spoke jestingly about him, she inquired the reason. She was told that
this Grey Friar, who was an old man, had been confessor to a very
honourable and pious widow lady, mothe