t the hour she had appointed. He added that she had
wrought an evident miracle, since with one word she had cured a man of a
sickness for which all the doctors were not able to find a remedy.

The longed-for evening being come, the gentleman repaired to the
appointed place with such extreme joy as must needs come soon to an end,
since increase of it were not possible. He had waited but a short time
after his arrival, when she whom he loved more dearly than his own soul
came to meet him. He did not occupy himself with making long speeches,
for the fire that consumed him prompted him to seek with all speed that
which he could scarcely believe to be at last within his power. But
whilst, intoxicated beyond measure with love and joy, he was in one
direction seeking a cure that would give him life, he brought to pass
in another the hastening of his death; for, heedless of himself for his
sweetheart's sake, he perceived not that his arm became unbound, and
that the newly-opened wound discharged so much blood that he was, poor
gentleman, completely bathed in it. Thinking, however, that his weakness
had been caused by his excess, he bethought himself of returning home.

Then love, which had too closely united them, so dealt with him that, as
he was parting from his sweetheart, his soul parted from his body, and,
by reason of his great loss of blood, he fell dead at his lady's feet.

She, on her side, stood there in astonishment, contemplating the loss of
so perfect a lover, of whose death she had herself been the sole cause.
Reflecting, on the other hand, on the shame and sorrow that would be
hers if the dead body were found in her house, she carried it, with a
serving-woman whom she trusted, into the street in order that the matter
might not be known. Nevertheless, she felt that she could not leave it
there alone. Taking up the dead man's sword, she was fain to share his
fate, and, indeed, to punish her heart, which had been the cause of all
his woe, she pierced it through and through, so that her dead body fell
upon that of her lover.

When her father and mother came out of their house in the morning,
they found this pitiful sight, and, after making such mourning as was
natural, they buried the lovers together.

"Thus, ladies, may it be seen that excessive love brings with it other
woe."

"This is what I like to see," said Simontault, "a love so equal that
when one died the other could not live. Had I, by the grace of God