[Illustration: 073a.jpg Sister Marie and the Prior]

[Sister Marie and the Prior]

[Illustration: 073.jpg Page Image]




_TALE XXII_.

_Sister Marie Heroet, being unchastely solicited by a Prior
of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields, was by the grace of God
enabled to overcome his great temptations, to the Prior's
exceeding confusion and her own glory_. (1)

1 This story is historical, and though M. Frank indicates
points of similarity between it and No. xxvii. of St. Denis'
_Comptes du Monde Adventureux_, and No. vi. of Masuccio de
Solerac's _Novellino_, these are of little account when one
remembers that the works in question were written posterior
to the _Heptameron_. The incidents related in the tale must
have occurred between 1530 and 1535. The Abbey of Saint-
Martin-in-the-Fields stood on the site of the present
Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris.--Ed.

In the city of Paris there was a Prior of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields,
whose name I will keep secret for the sake of the friendship I bore him.
Until he reached the age of fifty years, his life was so austere that