the Court to hear this strange trial, which much pleased the lords of
the said Parliament, as much for the strangeness of the case as for the
allegations and arguments of the parties debating therein, which were
not only curious but amusing.

To many folk was this strange and amusing case known, and was often
adjourned and left undecided by the judges, as is their custom. And
so she, who before this was renowned for her beauty, goodness, and
gentleness, became notorious through this cursed disease of piles, but
was in the end cured, as I have been since told.


*****


[Illustration: 03.jpg Story the Third -- THE SEARCH FOR THE RING.]




STORY THE THIRD -- THE SEARCH FOR THE RING. [3]

By Monseigneur de la Roche

_Of the deceit practised by a knight on a miller's wife whom he made
believe that her front was loose, and fastened it many times. And the
miller informed of this, searched for a diamond that the knight's lady
had lost, and found it in her body, as the knight knew afterwards: so he
called the miller "fisherman", and the miller called him "fastener"._