- Come, Come, Continued He, After Having Fastened The Door, Let
Us Go To Bed; - I Will Save Your Modesty, By Pulling Your Cloaths Off
Myself.
In speaking this he catched hold of her again, and attempted to
untye a knot which fastened her robe de chambre at the breast.
On this
she gave such shrieks, and stamped with her feet so forcibly on the
ground, that the innkeeper fearing the incensed husband, as he supposed
him to be, was going to kill her, ran hastily up stairs, and called to
have the door opened, saying, he would have no murder in his house.
The artful count immediately let him in, and told him, he need be under
no apprehensions, his wife was too dear to him to suffer any thing from
his resentment; and all the noise you heard, said he, was only because I
insisted on her going to bed! By these words Louisa discovered how he
had imposed upon the man, and cried out she was not his wife; but as she
spoke very bad Italian, and the man understood no French, the count
being very fluent in that language, had much the advantage, the
innkeeper was fully satisfied, and they were again left alone, having a
second opportunity to prosecute his villanous attempt.
You see, said he, how much in vain it is for you to resist: - would it
not be wiser in you, therefore, to meet my flames with equal warmth; - to
feign a kindness even if you have none, and thereby oblige me to use you
with a future tenderness: - believe I love you now with an extravagance
of fondness: - it is in your power to preserve that affection for
ever: - give me then willingly that charming mouth.
He had all this time been kissing her with the utmost eagerness, so that
with all her struggling she had not been able either to disengage
herself from his embrace, or to utter one word; and he was very near
forcing from her yet greater liberties, when all at once heaven gave her
strength to spring suddenly from him, and running to a table where he
had laid his sword, she drew it out of the scabbard with so much speed,
that he could not prevent her, and making a push at him with one hand,
kept him from closing with, or disarming her, till with the other she
had plucked back the bolt of the door.
In this posture she flew down stairs, and reached the hall before he
overtook her, quite breathless and ready to faint. He was going to lay
hold of her, when he found himself seized behind by two persons, whom,
on turning to examine the reason, he found was monsieur du Plessis and
the innkeeper. He started at the sight of that gentleman, and was going
to say somewhat to him in French, when the innkeeper told him, the young
woman should be molested no farther till he knew the truth of the
affair; for, said he, there is a person, meaning monsieur du Plessis,
who is just come in, and says she has no husband, and belongs to an
English lady of quality now at Venice:
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