riar's companion. He is not Brother John, but
is very like my lady, your wife, and gave me a pitiful look with eyes
full of tears."

The gentleman replied that he was dreaming, and paid no heed to him; but
the servant persisted, entreating his master to allow him to go back,
whilst he himself waited on the road, to see if matters were as he
thought. The gentleman gave him leave, and waited to see what news he
would bring him. When the friar heard the servant calling out to Brother
John, he suspected that the lady had been recognised, and with a great,
iron-bound stick that he carried, he dealt the servant so hard a blow in
the side that he knocked him off his horse. Then, leaping upon his body,
he cut his throat.

The gentleman, seeing his servant fall in the distance, thought that he
had met with an accident, and hastened back to assist him. As soon as
the friar saw him, he struck him also with the iron-bound stick, just
as he had struck the servant, and, flinging him to the ground, threw
himself upon him. But the gentleman being strong and powerful, hugged
the friar so closely that he was unable to do any mischief, and was
forced to let his dagger fall. The lady picked it up, and, giving it to
her husband, held the friar with all her strength by the hood. Then her
husband dealt the friar several blows with the dagger, so that at last
he cried for mercy and confessed his wickedness. The gentleman was
not minded to kill him, but begged his wife to go home and fetch their
people and a cart, in which to carry the friar away. This she did,
throwing off her robe, and running as far as her house in nothing but
her shift, with her cropped hair.

The gentleman's men forthwith hastened to assist their master to bring
away the wolf that he had captured. And they found this wolf in the
road, on the ground, where he was seized and bound, and taken to the
house of the gentleman, who afterwards had him brought before the
Emperor's Court in Flanders, when he confessed his evil deeds.

And by his confession and by proofs procured by commissioners on the
spot, it was found that a great number of gentlewomen and handsome
wenches had been brought into the monastery in the same fashion as the
friar of my story had sought to carry off this lady; and he would have
succeeded but for the mercy of Our Lord, who ever assists those that put
their trust in Him. And the said monastery was stripped of its spoils
and of the handsome maidens that