o did not seek merely an hour's delight, would not take her
by force, but forthwith said to her--

"Mistress, be not afraid; you are in the hands of him who, of all living
men, loves you the most."

So saying, he took off his long robe, beneath which he wore a shorter
one, which he gave to the lady, telling her that if she did not take it,
she should be numbered with those whom she saw lying lifeless before her
eyes.

More dead than alive already, the lady resolved to feign obedience,
both to save her life, and to gain time, as she hoped, for her husband's
return. At the command of the friar, she set herself to put off her
head-dress as slowly as she was able; and when this was done, the friar,
heedless of the beauty of her hair, quickly cut it off. Then he caused
her to take off all her clothes except her chemise, and dressed her in
the smaller robe he had worn, he himself resuming the other, which he
was wont to wear; then he departed thence with all imaginable speed,
taking with him the little friar he had coveted so long.

But God, who pities the innocent in affliction, beheld the tears of
this unhappy lady, and it so happened that her husband, having arranged
matters more speedily than he had expected, was now returning home by
the same road by which she herself was departing. However, when the
friar perceived him in the distance, he said to the lady--

"I see your husband coming this way. I know that if you look at him he
will try to take you out of my hands. Go, then, before me, and turn
not your head in his direction; for, if you make the faintest sign, my
dagger will be in your throat before he can deliver you."

As he was speaking, the gentleman came up, and asked him whence he was
coming.

"From your house," replied the other, "where I left my lady in good
health, and waiting for you."

The gentleman passed on without observing his wife, but a servant who
was with him, and who had always been wont to foregather with one of
the friar's comrades named Brother John, began to call to his mistress,
thinking, indeed, that she was this Brother John. The poor woman, who
durst not turn her eyes in the direction of her husband, answered not a
word. The servant, however, wishing to see her face, crossed the road,
and the lady, still without making any reply, signed to him with her
eyes, which were full of tears.

The servant then went after his master and said--"Sir, as I crossed the
road I took note of the f