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_TALE XXXIV_.

_Two Grey Friars, while listening to secrets that did not
concern them, misunderstood the language of a butcher and
endangered their lives_. (1)

Between Nyort and Fors there is a village called Grip, (2) which belongs
to the Lord of Fors.

1 This story is evidently founded upon fact; the incidents
must have occurred prior to 1530.--L.

2 Gript, a little village on the Courance, eight miles
south of Niort (Deux-Sèvres), produces some of the best
white wine in this part of France. Its church of St. Aubin
stood partly in the diocese of Poitiers, partly in that of
Saintes, the altar being in the former, and the door in the
latter one. This is the only known instance of the kind in
France. Fors, a few miles distant from Gript, was a fief
which Catherine, daughter of Artus de Vivonne, brought in
marriage to James Poussart, knight, who witnessed the Queen
of Navarre's marriage contract, signing himself, "Seigneur
de Fors, Bailly du Berry." He is often mentioned in the
Queen's letters.--See Génin's _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_,
pp. 243-244, 258-259, 332.--L. and M.