What I think strangest of all, said Nomerfide, is that, when death and the cross were before his eyes, he should not have lost all desire to offend against God.
A brave argument! said Simontault. You would therefore not be surprised to see a man act wantonly provided he were a good distance from the church and cemetery?
You may laugh at me as much as you please, said Nomerfide; nevertheless the contemplation of death must greatly chill a heart, however young it may be.
I should indeed be of the same opinion as yourself, said Dagoucin, if I had not heard a Princess say the opposite.
In other words. said Parlamente, she told some story about it. If it be so, I will give you my place that you may relate it to us.
[Illustration: 225a. The Monk Conversing with the Nun while Shrouding a Dead Body]
[The Monk Conversing with the Nun while Shrouding a Dead Body]
_Whilst engaged in the last deed of charity, the shrouding of a dead body, a monk did also engage with a nun in the deeds of the flesh, and made her big with child_. (1)
In one of the finest towns of France after Paris there stood an hospital (2) richly endowed--namely, with a Prioress and fifteen or sixteen nuns, while in another building there was a Prior and seven or eight monks. Every day the monks said mass, but the nuns only their paternosters and the Hours of Our Lady, for they were occupied in tending the sick.
1 Gruget first printed this tale, which was not given by Boaistuau.--L.
2 It is impossible to say what town and hospital Margaret here refers to. Lyons is the scene of the latter part of the story; and we are inclined to think that the earlier incidents may have occurred at Dijon, where there was a famous hospital under ecclesiastical management, founded by Eudes III., seventh Duke of Burgundy.--L. and Ed.
One day it chanced that a poor man died, and the nuns, being all assembled with him, after giving him every remedy for his health, sent for one of their monks to confess him. Then, finding that he was growing weaker, they gave him the extreme unction, after which he little by little lost the power of speech.
But as he was a long time in passing away, and it seemed that he could still hear, the nuns continued speaking to him with the most comforting words they knew, until at last they grew weary, and, finding that night was come and that it was late, retired one after another to rest. Thus, to shroud the body, there remained only one of the youngest of the nuns, with a monk whom she feared more than the Prior or any other, by reason of the severity that he displayed in both speech and life.