“Unhappy woman that you are, here is He who suffered death and agony for you, and in His presence I ask you whether, as you have ever affirmed to me, you are indeed a virgin?”

She boldly replied that she was.

“How is it possible that you can be with child and yet be still a virgin?”

“I can give no reason,” she replied, “except that the grace of the Holy Ghost has wrought within me according to His good pleasure; nevertheless, I cannot deny the grace that God has shown me in preserving me a virgin without ever a thought of marriage.”

Forthwith her brother said to her—­

“I offer you the precious Body of Jesus Christ, which you will take to your damnation if it be not as you say; and the gentlemen here present on behalf of my lord the Count shall be witnesses thereof.”

The maiden, who was nearly thirty years of age, (3) then swore as follows:—­

“I take this Body of Our Lord, here present, to my damnation in the presence of you, gentlemen, and of you, my brother, if ever man has touched me any more than yourself.”

And with these words she received the Body of Our Lord.

Having witnessed this, the Master of Requests and the Almoner went away quite confounded, for they thought that no lie was possible with such an oath.  And they reported the matter to the Count, and tried to persuade him even as they were themselves persuaded.  But he was a man of wisdom, (4) and, after pondering a long time, bade them again repeat the terms of the oath.  And after weighing them well, he said—­

“She has told you the truth and yet she has deceived you.  She said that no man had ever touched her any more than her brother had done, and I feel sure that her brother has begotten this child and now seeks to hide his wickedness by a monstrous deception.  We, however, who believe that Jesus Christ has come, can look for none other.  Go, therefore, and put the priest in prison; I am sure that he will confess the truth.”

3 In the MS. followed for this edition, as well as in Boaistuau’s-version of the Heptameron, the age is given as “thirteen.”  We borrow the word “thirty” from MS. 1518 (Bethune).—­L.

4 Charles of Angouleme, father of King Francis and Queen Margaret, had received for the times a most excellent education, thanks to the solicitude of his father, Count John the Good, who further took upon himself to “instruct him in morality, showing him by a good example how to live virtuously and honestly, and teaching him to pray God and obey His commandments.”—­Vie de tres illustre et vertueux Prince Jean, Comte d’Angouleme, by Jean du Port, Angouleme, 1589, p. 66.  That Count Charles profited by this teaching is shown in the above tale.—­ED.

This was done according to his command, though not without serious remonstrances concerning the putting of this virtuous man to open shame.