THE SCENE: Who needs fancy technology when a clerk with a smooth tongue can serve as a perfectly adequate lie detector?
THE TEXT: A certain knight, in consequence of something he had witnessed, suspected his wife of transferring her affections from himself to another. He interrogated her on the subject, but she firmly denied it. Not satisfied with her assertations, the knight inquired for a cunning clerk; and having found such as he wanted, he proposed to him the question which disturbed his rest. The clerk answered, ” Unless I am permitted to see and converse with the lady, I cannot take upon me to decide.” “I pray you, then,” said the knight, ” dine with me today, and I will give you the opportunity you require.” Accordingly the clerk went to the knight’s house to dinner.
The meal being concluded, our clerk entered into conversation with the suspected lady, and spoke to her on various topics. This done, he took hold of her hand; and, as if accidentally, pressed his finger upon her pulse. Then, in a careless tone, adverting to the person whom she was presumed to love, her pulse immediately quickened to a surprising degree, and acquired a feverish heat. By and by the clerk mentioned her husband, and spoke of him in much the same way as he had done of the other; when the motion of her pulse abated, and its heat was entirely lost. Whereby he plainly perceived that her affections were alienated; and, moreover, that they were placed upon the very person respecting whom she had been accused. Thus, by the management of a learned clerk, the knight ascertained the truth of his suspicion.
– Gesta Romanorum, 13th Century AD
