[Illustration: 017a.jpg Bernage observing the German Lady's Strange Penance]

[Bernage observing the German Lady's Strange Penance]

[Illustration: 017.jpg Page Image




_TALE XXXII_.

_Bernage, learning in what patience and humility a German
lady submitted to the strange penance laid upon her for her
unchastity by her husband, so persuaded the latter that he
forgot the past, showed pity to his wife, and, taking her
back again, afterwards had by her some very handsome
children_.

King Charles, eighth of the name, sent into Germany a gentleman called
Bernage, Lord of Sivray, near Amboise, (1) who to make good speed spared
not to travel both by day and night. In this wise he came very late one
evening to a gentleman's castle, where he asked for lodging, a request
which was not granted him without great difficulty.

1 Bernage, Bernaige, or Vernaiges, as the name is diversely
written in the MSS. of the _Heptameron_, was in 1495 equerry
to Charles VIII., a post which brought him an annual salary
of 300 livres.--See Godefroy's _Histoire de Charles VIII_.,
p. 705. Civray, near Chenonceaux, on the Cher, was a fief of