upon her ev’ry leisure hour,
          His tender cares unfruitful were not long;
          Beyond his hopes the soil proved good and strong;
          In short our Pater Abbas justly feared,
          To make him father many signs appeared.

          Since’twere improper such a fact were known;
          When proofs perhaps too clearly might be shown,
          So many prayers were said and vigils kept,
          At length the soul from purgatory crept,
          So much reduced, and ev’ry way so thin
          But little more he seemed than bones and skin.

          A thing so strange filled numbers with surprise,
          Who scarcely would believe their ears and eyes. 
          The friar passed for saint:—­Feronde his fruit;
          None durst presume to doubt nor to dispute;
          A double miracle at once appeared
          The dead’s return:  the lady’s state revered. 
          With treble force Te Deum round was sung;
          Sterility in marriage oft was rung,
          And near the convent many offered prayers,
          In hopes their fervent vows would gain them heirs.

          Thehumble spouse and wife we now shall leave
          Let none, howe’er, suppose that we conceive,
          Each husband merits, as our soul, the same,
          To cure the jealous fears his breast inflame.

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: 

Perhaps one half our bliss to chance we owe
The more of this I think, the less I know
Though expectations oft away have flown
When husbands some assistance seemed to lack

*** End of the project gutenberg Ebook tales and novels of Fontaine, V18 ***

*********** This file should be named lf18w10.txt or lf18w10.zip ***********

Corrected editions of our eBooks get a new number, lf18w11.txt versions based on separate sources get new letter, lf18w10a.txt

This eBook was produced by David Widger widger@cecomet.net

Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the us unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.  Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, even years after the official publication date.

Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.  The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment and editing by those who wish to do so.