cousin the Bastard would spend four or five hours each day in reading
this fine book. Straightway there came into the lady's mind the
reason why he acted thus, and she charged the servant to hide himself
somewhere, and take account of what the Bastard might do. This the man
did, and found that the Bastard's book was the window to which Rolandine
came to speak with him, and he, moreover, heard many a love-speech which
they had thought to keep wholly secret.

On the morrow he related this to his mistress, who sent for the Bastard,
and after chiding him forbade him to return to that place again; and in
the evening she spoke of the matter to Rolandine, and threatened, if she
persisted in this foolish love, to make all these practices known to the
Queen.

Rolandine, whom nothing could dismay, vowed that in spite of all that
folks might say she had never spoken to him since her mistress had
forbidden her to do so, as might be learned both from her companions and
from her servants and attendants. And as for the window, she declared
that she had never spoken at it to the Bastard. He, however, fearing
that the matter had been discovered, withdrew out of harm's way, and was
a long time without returning to Court, though not without writing to
Rolandine, and this in so cunning a manner that, in spite of the Queen's
vigilance, never a week went by but she twice heard from him.

When he no longer found it possible to employ monks as messengers, as
he had done at first, he would send a little page, dressed now in one
colour and now in another; and the page used to stand at the doorways
through which the ladies were wont to pass, and deliver his letters
secretly in the throng. But one day, when the Queen was going out into
the country, it chanced that one who was charged to look after this