Heptameron

The morning of day six, Oisille changes her morning Scripture lesson to teach the Epistle of Saint John the Evangelist instead of what she had been reading, the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans. Oisille also begins the day of storytelling with a warning to trust not in man, but only in God.

In Story 51, the Duke of Urbino’s son is in love with a girl from a good family; however, he must speak to her through a messenger. He asks a man in his service to help, and that man gets a woman he loves to pass messages for the son. This messenger is in the service of the Duchess herself, and when the Duke, who himself “was more concerned with furthering the interest of his family than with pure and noble love” (429), discovers the communications, he demands the girl be brought to him. The Duchess helps the girl flee to a convent, but when the Duke lies that he will treat her kindly, the Duchess begs her to return. When she does, the Duke has her imprisoned and executed to everyone’s misery.

Story 52 takes place in a small town near Alençon where on a cold morning, the Seigneur de Tirelière walks into town to meet a lawyer named Antoine Bacheré.