her house and said to the man: 'This is the lady!' whereupon the man jumped up, caught hold of her, and ravished her. When morning came, the man addressed the old woman as follows: ' owe you an acknowledgment: nevertheless I am heartily sorry and displeased that you should have made mischief between man and wife.' The old dame replies to the man: 'Don't be sorry, for I'll manage a trick to make the matter smooth (lit. love) between them: only you go to her husband and stay with him; and as soon as he questions you concerning the cloak, you answer that you were covering yourself with it by the fire, and while you were seated, the fire reached the cloak and burnt it in three places: you were very sorry about it, and gave it to an old dame, to take it to someone to mend. And the old dame took it, and you've seen nothing further of it, and don't know what has become of it. The man will tell you to fetch the old dame to whom you gave the cloak, and I'll give the reply.' So the man went and did as she told him, and took a seat in the shop belonging to the lady's husband; the old woman to whom he had given the cloak came by, he called her, and asked her about the garment. But she craftily answered the merchant: 'For God's sake I beg of you deliver me from this fellow, because he gave me a cloak to take to the tailor, to have it patched and mended. I made a call at your wife's, having the garment with me; and I don't know whether it remained in your house, or in another place.' Now when the merchant heard this from the old woman, he said: 'God knows that both I and my wife have had great annoyance on account of this cloak.' And he gave it to the man and to the old woman; and the merchant went and became reconciled to his wife, and gave her presents; but it was with difficulty that she suffered herself to be reconciled to him. And now, my sovereign lord, realise that there is no end to the baseness of women."
And when the king heard it, he gave orders that his son should not be killed.
