th. The husband immediately suspected the trick, and said to her--

"'Fore God, wife, I will keep watch on you no more, for in thinking to
deceive you, I have myself met with the cunningest deception that ever
was devised. May God mend you, for it is beyond the power of man to put
a stop to the maliciousness of a woman, unless by killing her outright.
However, since the fair treatment I have accorded you has availed
nothing for your amendment, perchance the scorn I shall henceforward
hold you in will serve as a punishment."

So saying he went away, leaving his wife in great distress. Nevertheless
by the intercession of his friends and her own excuses and tears, he was
persuaded to return to her again.(2)

2 Although Queen Margaret ascribes the foregoing adventure
to one of the officers of her husband's household, and
declares that the narrative is quite true, the same subject
had been dealt with by most of the old story-tellers prior
to her time, and Deslongchamps points out the same incidents
even in the early Hindoo fables (see the _Pantcha Tantra_,
book I., fable vi.). A similar tale is to be found in the
_Gesta Romanorum_ (cap. cxxii.), in the _fabliaux_ collected
by Legrand d'Aussy (vol. iv., "De la mauvaise femme"), in P.
Alphonse's _Disciplina Clericalis_ (fab. vii.), in the
_Decameron_ (day vii., story vi.), and in the _Cent
Nouvelles Nouvelles_ (story xvi.). Imitations are also to be
found in Bandello (part i., story xxiii.), Malespini (story
xliv.), Sansovino (_Cento Novelle_), Sabadino (_Novelle_),
Etienne (_Apologiepour Herodote_, ch. xv. ), De la Monnoye
(vol. ii.), D'Ouville (_Contes_, vol. ii.), &c.--L. & B. J.

"By this tale, ladies, you may see how quick and crafty a woman is in
escaping from danger. And if her wit be quick to discover the means of
concealing a bad deed, it would, in my belief, be yet more subtle in
avoiding evil or in doing good; for I have always heard it said that wit
to do well is ever the stronger."

"You may talk of your cunning as much as you please," said Hircan, "but
my opinion is that had the same fortune befallen you, you could not have
concealed the truth."

"I had as lief you deemed me the most foolish woman on earth," she
replied.

"I do not say that," answered Hircan, "but I think you more likely to be
confounded by slander than to devise some cunning means to silence it."

"You thin