Volume IV Part 43 (2/2)

We passed into a large room, where we found the earl with the party he had asked to supper As soon as he saw uests There were seven or eight girls, all of them pretty, three or four castrati who played women's parts in the Roman theatre, and five or six abbes, the husband of every wife and the wives of every husband, who boasted of their wickedness, and challenged the girls to be irls were not co, and vice considered as a fine art The kind of society ined when I say that I found oing, prince?” said the earl to a respectable-lookingfor the door

”I don't feel well, o out”

”What prince is that?” said I

”The Prince de Chiain permission to marry, lest his family should become extinct”

”I admire his prudence or his delicacy, but I am afraid I should not imitate him”

There were twenty-four of us at table, and it is no exaggeration to say that we emptied a hundred bottles of the choicest wines Everybody was drunk, with the exception ofbut water The coy which I should never have conceived possible, and which no pen could describe, though possibly a seasoned profligate irl of al room, and to lie on their backs, in the sauess which hich

We all went in and nobody could pronounce froht which was male and which was female, so I bet the earl fifty crowns that I would point out the wouessed correctly, but payy ended with the prostitution of the two individuals, who defied everybody to accoreat act All, with the exception of Poinsinet and myself, made the attempt, but their efforts were in vain

The second act displayed four or five couples reversed, and here the abbes shone, both in the active and passive parts of this lascivious spectacle I was the only person respected

All at once, the earl, who had hitherto remained perfectly motionless, attacked the wretched Poinsinet, who in vain attempted to defend himself He had to strip like my lord, as as naked as the others

We stood round in a circle Suddenly the earl, taking his watch, pro the the prize excited the iirls, and the abbes all did their ut to be the first They had to draw lots This part interested hout this almost incredible scene of debauchery I did not experience the slightest sensation, although under other circue, but all I did was to laugh, especially to see the poor poet in terror of experiencing the lust of the flesh, for the profligate nobleman swore that if he made him lose he would deliver him up to the brutal lust of all the abbes He escaped, probably through fear of the consequences

The orgy ca the watch The secret of the Lesbians was only eirls, wishi+ng to be able to despise those whoso I suspect they were actuated by pride rather than shaht possibly have eusted e ofthat ered, for the only arm I had was my sword, but I should certainly have used it if the earl had tried to treat me like the others, and as he had treated poor Poinsinet I never understood hoas that he respected me, for he was quite drunk, and in a kind of Bacchic fury

As I left, I promised to come and see him as often as he pleased, but I proain

Next day, he came to see me in the afternoon, and asked me to ith him to the Villa Medici

I complimented him on the immense wealth he had inherited to enable hihed and told me that he did not possess fifty piastres, that his father had left nothing but debts, and that he himself already owed three or four thousand crowns

”I wonder people give you credit, then”

”They give me credit because everybody knows that I have drawn a bill of exchange on Paris to the tune of two hundred thousand francs But in four or five days the bill will be returned protested, and I a for that to happen toprotested, I advise you to e a sum it may be taken up before it is due”

”No, I won't do that; I have one hope left I have written to tell my mother that I shall be undone if she does not furnish the banker, on whom I have drawn the bill, with sufficient funds and if she does that, the bill will be accepted You know my mother is very fond of me”

”Yes, but I also know that she is far froh, and between you and me I think he is my father Meanwhile, irls you saw yesterday would giveme to make them a handsome present in the course of the week, but I won't abuse their trust in ed to cheat the Jeants , as I know it is only worth one thousand”

”He will send the police after you”

”I defy him to do whatever he likes”