THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
wondering what she could have found so desirable in Rupert de Launay. But he died soon after, expressing to the last a poor opinion of wedlock, and exhorting his son to feel his way very carefully when he came to have truck with womenfolk. As for Eva and her paramour they are stated to have fled to France, and to have lived a merry life there, meeting with no particular misfortunes, but getting off scot-free in this world at any rate. And there is certainly in Picardy a right noble and illustrious house of that name, who dwell in a fine castle, and trace their line to one of Charlemagne's Paladins; but whether this family had its root in the unlawful love of Eva and Rupert does not certainly appear. But there is trouble when seventy is matched with seventeen.
Thus the Seigneur of Roche-Nemours brought his tale to an end, and as he finished the strange musick that had sounded brokenly all the while, came clearly on the cool breeze of evening to our ears, and died away to a wistful singing close. And we all praised the story, but the Cursal Canon could not bear that Eva and her leman should escape their temporal punishment. And he urged my lord to mend this, if he recounted it again, and to drown the pair of lovers within sight of France, especially if any illiterate persons were within earshot. "For" (said he) "though the dull and gross idiots are slow enough to extract morality from what they hear, they snuff out lechery, give tongue, and follow after it as briskly as a good hound scents the fox. And the very same folk are the worst
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