The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. V | Page 8

them."
"Then," said Dagoucin, "you praise a lady's hypocrisy no less than her virtue?"
"Virtue would be far better," said Longarine, "but, when it is lacking, recourse must be had to hypocrisy, just as we use our slippers (7) to disguise our littleness. And it is no small matter to be able to conceal our imperfections."
8 Tourets-de-nez. See ante, vol. iii. p. 27, note 5.--Ed.
7 High-heeled slippers or mules were then worn.--B. J.
"By my word," said Hircan, "it were better sometimes to show some slight imperfection than to cover it so closely with the cloak of virtue."
"It is true," said Ennasuitc, "that a borrowed garment brings the borrower as much dishonour when he is constrained to return it as it brought him honour whilst it was being worn, and there is a lady now living who, by being too eager to conceal a small error, fell into a greater."
"I think," said Hircan, "that I know whom you mean; in any case, however, do not pronounce her name."
"Ho! ho!" said Geburon [to Ennasuite], "I give you my vote on condition that when you have related the story you will tell us the names. We will swear never to mention them."
"I promise it," said Knnasuite, "for there is nothing that may not be told in all honour."
[Illustration: 022.jpg Tailpiece]
[Illustration: 023a.jpg The Lord des Cheriots flying from the Prince's Servant]
[The Lord des Cheriots flying from the Prince's Servant]
[Illustration: 023.jpg Page Image]

TALE LIII.
_By her dissimulation the Lady of Neufchastel caused the Prince of Belhoste to put her to such proof that it turned to her dishonour_.
King Francis the First was once at a handsome and pleasant castle, whither he had gone with a small following, both for the purpose of hunting and in order to take some repose. With him in his train was a certain Prince of Belhoste, (1) as worshipful, virtuous, discreet and handsome a Prince as any at Court. The wife he had married did not belong to a family of high rank, yet he loved her as dearly and treated her as well as it were possible for a husband to do, and also trusted in her. And when he was in love with anybody he never concealed it from her, knowing that she had no other will than his own.
1 The Bibliophile Jacob surmises that this personage may be one of the Italian grandees at that period in the service of France, in which case the allusion may be to John Caraccioli, Prince of Melphes, created a marshal of France in 1544. Queen Margaret, however, makes no mention of her Prince being a foreigner. "Belhoste" is of course a fictitious name invented to replace that which the Prince really bore, and admits of so many interpretations that its meaning in the present instance cannot well be determined. From the circumstance, however, that the Prince's wife was of inferior birth to himself, it is not impossible that the personage referred to may be either Charles de Bourbon, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yonne and Duke of Beaupr��au, or John VIII., Lord of Cr��qui, Canaples and Pontdormi, and Prince of Poix. The former, who married Philippa de Montespedon, widow of Ren�� de Mont��jan, and a lady of honour to Catherine de' Medici when Dauphiness, took a prominent part in the last wars of Francis I.'s reign, and survived till 1565. The latter, generally known at Court by the name of Canaples, was a gentleman of the chamber and an especial favourite of Francis I. Brant?me says of him in his Homines Illustres that he was "a valiant lord and the strongest man of arms that in those days existed in all Christendom, for he broke a lance, no matter its strength, as easily as though it were a mere switch, and few were able to withstand him." In 1525 the Prince of Poix married a Demoiselle d'Acign�� or Assigny, of petite noblesse, who in 1532 became a lady of honour to Queen Eleanor. She died in 1558, surviving her husband by three years. See Rouard's rare _Notice dun Recueil de Crayons �� la Biblioth��que M��janes d'Aix_, Paris, 1863.--Ed.
Now this Prince conceived a deep affection for a widow lady called Madame de Neufchastel, (2) who was reputed the most beautiful woman it were possible to see; and if the Prince of Bel-hoste loved her well, his wife loved her no less, and would often send and bid her to dinner, for she deemed her so discreet and honourable, that, instead of being grieved by her husband's love for her, she rejoiced to see him address his attentions to one so full of honour and virtue.
2 M. Lacroix thinks that this lady may be Jane de Hochberg, only daughter of Philip, sovereign Count of Neufchatel. According to the custom of the time, she was commonly called Madame