She dashed her hand across her eyes as if to fend off a sudden storm of tears; then threw her arms round my neck and pressed me close to her bosom.  She kissed me a thousand times, eagerly and warmly.  “I love you, my lord, I love you, my saviour and king.  If you are kind to me, I shall die.  Beat me, misuse me, neglect me, be unfaithful—­it is your right—­ and I shall serve you the better for it.  But if you love me I cannot bear it.  I shall suffocate with joy—­my heart will crack.  O Francis, Francis, wilt thou never understand thy poor girl?” All this time she was straining me to her with frenzy, kissing me, almost blind with tears.  She was frantic, panting and struggling for breath.  I had seen her before in possession of this dangerous ecstasy of love, and though I could not but love her for it in my turn, it was not the kind of happiness I wished her to enjoy.  Her scene ended in a very passion of weeping, distressing to witness, but no doubt soothing; after which, moaning like one sore beaten, she lay lax and languid in my arms.  Deeply touched, I laid her down upon the grass and watched her fade off into a quieter sleep.  In this state she lay for an hour of more, and awoke refreshed, her usual shrewd and reticent self.

Therefore, loving, and being passionately loved in return, working diligently at a clean trade, living in the sweat of my brow, owing no man anything, the next few months of my life—­few as they were, not more than six all told—­were some of the happiest I have ever spent.  They recalled those weeks at Pistoja, but only to excel them; for then I was idle and Virginia not satisfied.  Then I had none of the sweet uses of domestic life—­the hearth in common, and the heart too; the nuptial sacraments of kiss and embrace, the united outlook, the rational hope of increase.  We forgot the world, which had forgotten us; our appetites were simple and easily satisfied; we fed each other and knew deep content.  Happy, happy days at Lucca, too soon ended!  We shared the uses of a single room with a couple as young and newly wedded as ourselves, rose at five in the morning, and worked at our employment until late in the evening.  We ate frugally, drank a little wine and water, loved temperately, and slept profoundly.  On Sundays and festivals we went to Mass together, and spent our leisure in excursions in the fields and pleasant groves with which Lucca is engirdled.  We never ventured outside the territory of the Republic, but felt secure within it, trusting to our honest intentions, our simplicity and complete insignificance.  Ah, blessed content!  Blessed, thrice blessed obscurity!  Would to God that you had been assured to us for ever!  On rare occasions one or other of us had sight of the Cavaliere Aquamorta, who maintained the same magnificence at the Albergo del Sole, and was reputed to be making large sums with his faro-bank.  A new scheme of his for a State lottery upon a scale never before conceived by this thrifty little State was said to be under