Thelady has agreed, you will remark,
          That in a room where ev’ry part is dark,
          (Perhaps to ’scape the keeper’s prying sight,
          Or shame directs exclusion of the light,)
          She will receive your gay inconstant spouse;
          Now, take her place; the case deceit allows;
          Make Jack your friend; nor haggle at the price;
          A hundred ducats give, is my advice;
          He’ll place you in the room where darkness reigns;
          Think not too fast, nor suffer heavy chains;
          Do what you wish, and utter not a word;
          To speak, assuredly would be absurd;
          ’Twould spoil the whole; destroy the project quite;
          Attend, and see if all things be not right.

          Theproject pleased Catella to the soul;
          Her wrath, no longer able to controul,
          She Richard stopt; enough, enough, she cried;
          I fully understand:—­leave me to guide;
          I’ll play the fellow and his wanton lass
          A pretty trick-shall all their art surpass,
          Unless the string gives way and spoils my scheme;
          What, take me for a nincompoop?—­they dream.

          Thissaid, she sought excuse to get away,
          And went in quest of Jack without delay. 
          The keeper, howsoe’er, a hint had got;
          Minutolo had schooled him for the plot;
          Oft cash does wonders, and, if such the case
          In France or Britain, when conferred a grace,
          The bribe is taken, and the truth abused,
          In Italy it will not be refused;
          There this sole quiver Cupid useful finds,—­

          A purse well stored—­all binds, gunlocks, or blinds: 
          Jack took the pelf from Richard and the dame;
          Had Satan offered—­’twould have been the same. 
          In short, Minutolo had full success,
          All came about, and marked the spark’s address.

          Thelady had at first some warm dispute
          To many questions Jack was even mute;
          But when he saw the golden charms unmasked,
          Far more he promised than Catella asked.

          Thetime of rendezvous arrived, our spark
          To Jack’s repaired, and found the room quite dark;
          So well arranged, no crevice could he find,
          Through which the light might hurt what he designed.

          Notlong he waited, ere our jealous dame,
          Who longed to find her faithless husband, came,
          Most thoroughly prepared his ears to greet. 
          Jack brought the couple presently to meet. 
          The lady found, howe’er, not what she sought: 
          No guilty spouse, nor Mrs. Simon caught;
          But wily Richard, who, without alarms,