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And the unhappy woman, wholly losing her head in her terror, as she imagined herself on the point of being strangled like Wisigarde, who owed her death to her refusal to light her husband and his night's companion to the conjugal bed, hastened to stammer: "On the contrary if monseigneur wishes, I shall light him to his bed with this lamp." "Oh, madam!" Morise whispered to her mistress.
"He will not kill you." "Bah! He would as soon kill me as any one else, if the fancy took him but you, madam, have in the meantime, beautiful dresses, rich jewels, slaves to serve you and besides, you are free." "I do not step out of the burg." "Because you do not wish to. Wisigarde rode on horseback and hunted.
I paid for my brother's death, I paid for the death of my wife Wisigarde, I shall pay still more to keep Wisigarde from haunting me! I shall to-morrow start the building of the chapel in the fastness of Allange; I shall have the villa of Bishop Cautin rebuilt! Lord! Good Lord God! Have mercy upon a miserable sinner! Deliver me from the devil and from the spectre of Wisigarde!"
Wisigarde herself or her spectre will perhaps appear this night before my bed and torment me! It is a warning from heaven or from hell. The devil must be conjured away!" And turning to Morise: "Run quick for the clerk! He shall pray at my side during the night he shall not leave me. The spectre of Wisigarde will not dare to approach me with a priest at my side."
His wife Wisigarde sat at a corner of the chimney. The seigneur count then had among us a washerwoman, named Martine, for his favorite. He said to Martine: 'Come, come, confounded wench let's to bed and you, Wisigarde, he added addressing his wife, 'take a lamp and light us." "That, certainly, was a great shame upon Wisigarde."
"No you killed one of your wives, one of your concubines and your brother Ursio you have expiated those crimes by endowing the Church you have received absolution. Nevertheless, coming to think of it, there is one thing that both of us have overlooked and it is of capital importance " "What is it, father?" "Your fourth wife, Wisigarde, died a violent death at your hands.
"You seem to forget the murder of your concubine Isanie, and of your fourth wife Wisigarde, whom you married when two previous ones were still alive, and you then took a fifth wife, Godegisele " "And did you not give me absolution for all those sins? By the faith of the Terrible Eagle, my glorious ancestor!
Do not kill me!" and she dropped upon her knees. "Oh, do not kill me, your servant, as you killed Wisigarde." The count suddenly grew as pale as his wife, and, stricken with a terror that stimulated his inebriety, he cried: "She knows that I strangled Wisigarde! She is uttering the same words that Wisigarde uttered when I killed her! This is the work of some evil spirit!
"I would like to make you some little present, but monseigneur never lets me have any money. He keeps all his money under lock and key in his coffers, and for only morgen-gab, the morning present that it is customary in our country for the husband to make to his wife, the count has given me the robes and jewels of his fourth wife, Wisigarde.
"I shall grant your request. For twenty years prayers shall be recited at the altar for the repose of the soul of Wisigarde, but only under condition that you pass over to me the corner of your woods that is separated from your domains by the stream " "Give again to your Church! Ever give! Ever!" "Would you prefer to be tormented by nocturnal phantoms?"
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