r even Colette Passage. On learning that
she had consistently betrayed him, and that now she would never betray
him again, he experienced a grief and a mental perturbation which, far
from being appeased, daily increased in violence. So intolerable were
his sufferings that he contracted a malady which caused his life to be
despaired of.

The physicians, having employed various medicines without effect,
advised him that the only remedy proper to his complaint was to take a
young wife. He then thought of his young cousin, Angele de La Garandine,
whom he believed would be willingly bestowed upon him, as she had no
property. What encouraged him to take her to wife was the fact that she
was reputed to be simple and ignorant of the world. Having been deceived
by a woman of intelligence, he felt more comfortable with a fool. He
married Mademoiselle de La Garandine, and quickly perceived the falsity
of his calculations. Angele was kind, Angele was good, and Angele loved
him; she had not, in herself, any leanings toward evil, but the least
astute person could quickly lead her astray at any moment. It was enough
to tell her: "Do this for fear of bogies; comes in here or the were-wolf
will eat you;" or "Shut your eyes, and take this drop of medicine," and
the innocent girl would straightway do so, at the will of the rascals
who wanted of her that which it was very natural to want of her, for
she was pretty. Monsieur de Montragouz, injured and betrayed by this
innocent girl, as much as and more than he had been by Blanche de
Gibeaumex, had the additional pain of knowing it, for Angele was too
candid to conceal anything from him. She used to tell him: "Sir, some
one told me this; some one did that to me; some one took so and so away
from me; I saw that; I felt so and so." And by her ingenuousness she
caused her lord to suffer torments beyond imagination. He endured them
like a Stoic. Still he finally had to tell the simple creature that she
was a goose, and to box her ears. This, for him, was the beginning of
a reputation for cruelty, which was not fated to be diminished. A
mendicant monk, who was passing Gulllettes while Monsieur de Montragouz
was out shooting woodcock, found Madame Angele sewing a doll's
petticoat. This worthy friar, discovering that she was as foolish as she
was beautiful, took her away on his donkey, having persuaded her that
the Angel Gabriel was waiting in a wood, to give her a pair of pearl
garters. It is beli