Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/197

Rh burn herself as evidence of her grief and love; or else be deposited alive, in his sepulchre. And therefore I think that it is no error to kill myself for the love of my husband." The father answered, "When you said that you were bound by an oath, you should have remembered that such an obligation is not binding, because its end is deprivation of life. An oath should always be consistent with reason; and therefore your's being unreasonable is of no force. As for the other argument, that it is praiseworthy in a wife to die with her husband, it avails you not. For although they are one in the body, united by carnal affections, yet they are two persons in soul, and are really and substantially different. Therefore, neither does this afford any resource." When the lady heard these words, she could argue no farther, but complied with the request of her parent. She refrained from soliciting destruction; but though apprized of her husband's existence soon after, she neither returned to, nor forgave him.