At a quarter to seven I was already a prisoner.  I found a seat in my cell, otherwise I should neither have been able to lie down or to stand up.  It was a regular hole, and I knew by my sense of smell that hams and cheeses were usually kept there; but it contained none at present, for I fell all round to see how the land lay.  As I was cautiously stepping round I felt my foot encounter some resistance, and putting down my hand I recognized the feel of linen.  It was a napkin containing two plates, a nice roast fowl, bread, and a second napkin.  Searching again I came across a bottle and a glass.  I was grateful to my charmers for having thought of my stomach, but as I had purposely made a late and heavy meal I determined to defer the consumption of my cold collation till a later hour.

At nine o’clock I began, and as I had neither a knife nor a corkscrew I was obliged to break the neck of the bottle with a brick which I was fortunately able to detach from the mouldering floor.  The wine was delicious old Neuchatel, and the fowl was stuffed with truffles, and I felt convinced that my two nymphs must have some rudimentary ideas on the subject of stimulants.  I should have passed the time pleasantly enough if it had not been for the occasional visits of a rat, who nearly made me sick with his disgusting odour.  I remembered that I had been annoyed in the same way at Cologne under somewhat similar circumstances.

At last ten o’clock struck, and I heard the pastor’s voice as he came downstairs talking; he warned the girls not to play any tricks together, and to go to sleep quietly.  That brought back to my memory M. Rose leaving Madame Orio’s house at Venice twenty-two years before; and reflecting on my character I found myself much changed, though not more reasonable; but if I was not so sensible to the charms of the sex, the two beauties who were awaiting me were much superior to Madame Orio’s nieces.

In my long and profligate career in which I have turned the heads of some hundreds of ladies, I have become familiar with all the methods of seduction; but my guiding principle has been never to direct my attack against novices or those whose prejudices were likely to prove an obstacle except in the presence of another woman.  I soon found out that timidity makes a girl averse to being seduced, while in company with another girl she is easily conquered; the weakness of the one brings on the fall of the other.  Fathers and mothers are of the contrary opinion, but they are in the wrong.  They will not trust their daughter to take a walk or go to a ball with a young man, but if she has another girl with her there is no difficulty made.  I repeat, they are in the wrong; if the young man has the requisite skill their daughter is a lost woman.  A feeling of false shame hinders them from making an absolute and determined resistance, and the first step once taken the rest comes inevitably and quickly.  The girl grants some small favour, and immediately makes her friend grant a much greater one to hide her own blushes; and if the seducer is clever at his trade the young innocent will soon have gone too far to be able to draw back.  Besides the more innocence a girl has, the less she knows of the methods of seduction.  Before she has had time to think, pleasure attracts her, curiosity draws her a little farther, and opportunity does the rest.