_TALE XX_.

_The Lord of Riant, being greatly in love with a widow lady and finding
her the contrary of what he had desired and of what she had often
declared herself to be, was so affected thereby that in a moment
resentment had power to extinguish the flame which neither length of
time nor lack of opportunity had been able to quench._ (1)

1 The unpleasant discovery related in this tale is
attributed by Margaret to a gentleman of Francis I.'s
household, but a similar incident figures in the
introduction to the _Arabian Nights_. Ariosto also tells
much the same tale in canto xxviii. of his _Rolando
Furioso_, and another version of it will be found in No. 24
of Morlini's _Novella_, first issued at Naples in 1520.
Subsequent to the _Heptameron_ it supplied No. 29 of the
_Comptes du Monde Adventureux_, figured in a rare imitation
of the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ printed at Rouen early in
the seventeenth century, and was introduced by La Fontaine
into his well-known tale _Joconde_. On the other hand, there
is certainly a locality called Rians in Provence, just
beyond the limits of Dauphiné, and moreover among Francis
I.'s "equerries of the stable" there was a Monsieur dc Rian
who received a salary of 200 livres a year from 1522 to
1529.--See the roll of the officers of the King's Household
in the French National Archives, _Sect. Histor_., K. 98.
Some extracts from Brantôme bearing on the story will be
found in the Appendix to this vol. (A).--L. and En.