Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/179

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OF CONFIDENCE IN WOMEN.
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head and arms of the murdered pilgrim have been deposited in a sack: the body he has buried in his stable." Search was accordingly made; and digging where the wife directed, they were astonished to find manifest tokens of a calf's flesh. The attending nobles, recognizing in this the wit of the man, greatly extolled him; and he was ever after exceedingly valued and honoured by his feudal lord.


APPLICATION.

My beloved, the knight is any sinner who finds favor with the Lord; and who upon certain conditions pardons his offences. The pedestrian and equestrian condition is our nature, partly human and partly celestial; the dog typifies man's good angel, or a priest; who is wounded as often as the soul sins. The joculator, that is the infant, is conscience; the wife is the flesh.