VOLUME I THE FIRST TEN TALES BY HONORE DE BALZAC CONTENTS TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE THE FIRST TEN TALES PROLOGUE THE FAIR IMPERIA THE VENIAL SIN HOW THE GOOD MAN BRUYN TOOK A WIFE HOW THE SENESCHAL STRUGGLED WITH HIS WIFE'S MODESTY THAT WHICH IS ONLY A VENIAL SIN HOW AND BY WHOM THE SAID CHILD WAS PROCURED HOW THE SAID LOVE-SIN WAS REPENTED OF AND LED TO GREAT MOURNING THE KING'S SWEETHEART THE DEVIL'S HEIR THE MERRIE JESTS OF KING LOUIS THE ELEVENTH THE HIGH CONSTABLE'S WIFE THE MAID OF THILOUSE THE BROTHER-IN-ARMS THE VICAR OF AZAY-LE-RIDEAU THE REPROACH EPILOGUE TRANSLATORS PREFACE When, in March, 1832, the first volume of the now famous _Contes Drolatiques_ was published by Gosselin of Paris, Balzac, in a short preface, written in the publisher's name, replied to those attacks which he anticipated certain critics would make upon his hardy experiment. He claimed for his book the protection of all those to whom literature was dear, because it was a work of art--and a work of art, in the highest sense of the word, it undoubtedly is. Like Boccaccio, Rabelais, the Queen of Navarre, Ariosto, and Verville, the great author of _The Human Comedy_ has painted an epoch. In the fresh and wonderful language of the Merry Vicar Of Meudon, he has given us a marvellous picture of French life and manners in the sixteenth century. The gallant knights and merry dames of that eventful period