more ingenious, and to complete all, extremely well made.  They loved each other tenderly, and the good disposition of both could not fail to render their union durable, if some lover did not derange it.  They informed me they were going to Toune, an old castle belonging to Madam Galley, and implored my assistance to make their horses cross the stream, not being able to compass it themselves.  I would have given each a cut or two with the whip, but they feared I might be kicked, and themselves thrown; I therefore had recourse to another expedient, I took hold of Mademoiselle Galley’s horse and led him through the brook, the water reaching half-way up my legs.  The other followed without any difficulty.  This done, I would have paid my compliments to the ladies, and walked off like a great booby as I was, but after whispering each other, Mademoiselle de G——­ said, “No, no, you must not think to escape thus; you have got wet in our service, and we ought in conscience to take care and dry you.  If you please you must go with us, you are now our prisoner.”  My heart began to beat—­I looked at Mademoiselle Galley —­“Yes, yes,” added she, laughing at my fearful look; “our prisoner of war; come, get up behind her, we shall give a good account of you.”—­“But, mademoiselle,” continued I, “I have not the honor to be acquainted with your mother; what will she say on my arrival?”—­“Her mother,” replied Mademoiselle de G——­ is not at Toune, we are alone, we shall return at night, and you shall come back with us.”

The stroke of electricity has not a more instantaneous effect than these words produced on me.  Leaping behind Mademoiselle de G——­, I trembled with joy, and when it became necessary to clasp her in order to hold myself on, my heart beat so violently that she perceived it, and told me hers beat also from a fear of falling.  In my present posture, I might naturally have considered this an invitation to satisfy myself of the truth of her assertion, yet I did not dare, and during the whole way my arm served as a girdle (a very close one, I must confess), without being a moment displaced.  Some women that may read this would be for giving me a box on the ear, and, truly, I deserved it.

The gayety of the journey, and the chat of these girls, so enlivened me, that during the whole time we passed together we never ceased talking a moment.  They had set me so thoroughly at ease, that my tongue spoke as fast as my eyes, though not exactly the same things.  Some minutes, indeed, when I was left alone with either, the conversation became a little embarrassed, but neither of them was absent long enough to allow time for explaining the cause.