Languedoc and in most of those of Provence, where they
perambulate the streets playing their instruments. They are
in great request at all the country weddings and other
festive gatherings, as their instruments supply the
necessary accompaniment to the ancient Provençal dance, the
_farandole_.--Ed.

The maid-servant, however, was loth to consent, and finding herself hard
pressed, she went to her mistress, told her of the matter, and begged
leave to go home to her kinsfolk, since she could no longer endure to
live in such torment. Her mistress, who had great love for her husband
and had often suspected him, was well pleased to have him thus at a
disadvantage, and to be able to show that she had doubted him justly.
Accordingly, she said to the servant--

"Remain, my girl, but lead my husband on by degrees, and at last make an
appointment to lie with him in my closet. Do not fail to tell me on what
night he is to come, and see that no one knows anything about it."

The maid-servant did all that her mistress had commanded her, and her
master in great content went to tell the good news to his friend. The
latter then begged that, since he had been concerned in the business,
he might have part in the result. This was promised him, and, when the
appointed hour was come, the master went to lie, as he thought, with the
maid-servant; but his wife, yielding up the authority of commanding for
the pleasure of obeying, had put herself in the servant's place, and she
received him, not in the manner of a wife, but after the fashion of
a frightened maid. This she did so well that her husband suspected
nothing.