“That is always the end of your speeches,” said Ennasuite; “they begin with honour and end with the contrary.  However, if all the gentlemen present will tell the truth of the matter, I am ready to believe them on their oaths.”

Hircan swore that for his own part he had never loved any woman but his own wife, and even with her had no desire to be guilty of any gross offence against God.

Simontault declared the same, and added that he had often wished all women were froward excepting his own wife.

“Truly,” said Geburon to him, “you deserve that your wife should be what you would have the others.  For my own part, I can swear to you that I once loved a woman so dearly that I would rather have died than have led her to do anything that might have diminished my esteem for her.  My love for her was so founded upon her virtues, that for no advantage that I might have had of her would I have seen them blemished.”

At this Saffredent burst out laughing.

“Geburon,” he said, “I thought that your wife’s affection and your own good sense would have guarded you from the danger of falling in love elsewhere, but I see that I was mistaken, for you still use the very phrases with which we are wont to beguile the most subtle of women, and to obtain a hearing from the most discreet.  For who would close her ears against us when we begin our discourse by talking of honour and virtue? (8) But if we were to show them our hearts just as they are, there is many a man now welcome among the ladies whom they would reckon of but little account.  But we hide the devil in our natures under the most angelic form we can devise, and in this disguise receive many favours before we are found out.  And perhaps we lead the ladies’ hearts so far forward, that when they come upon vice while believing themselves on the high road to virtue, they have neither opportunity nor ability to draw back again.”

     8 This sentence is borrowed from MS. No. 1520 (Bib.  Nat.)—­
     L.

“Truly,” said Geburon, “I thought you a different man than your words would show you to be, and fancied that virtue was more pleasing to you than pleasure.”

“What!” said Saffredent.  “Is there any virtue greater than that of loving in the way that God commands?  It seems to me that it is much better to love one woman as a woman than to adore a number of women as though they were so many idols.  For my part, I am firmly of opinion that use is better than abuse.”

The ladies, however, all sided with Geburon, and would not allow Saffredent to continue, whereupon he said—­

“I am well content to say no more on this subject of love, for I have been so badly treated with regard to it that I will never return to it again.”

“It is your own maliciousness,” said Longarine, “that has occasioned your bad treatment; for what virtuous woman would have you for a lover after what you have told us?”