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                          Part 9

     My gentleman had now put on his clothes and recomposed
himself, when giving me a kiss, and placing me by him, he sat
himself down as gingerly as possible, with one side off the
cushion, which was too sore for him to bear resting any part
of his weight on.

     Here he thank'd me for the extreme pleasure I had pro-
cured him, and seeing, perhaps, some marks in my countenance
of terror and apprehension of retaliation on my own skin, for
what I had been the instrument of his suffering in his, he
assured me, that he was ready to give up to me any engagement
I might deem myself under to stand him, as he had done me,
but if that proceeded in my consent to it, he would consider
the difference of my sex, its greater delicacy and incapacity
to undergo pain.  Rehearten'd at which, and piqu'd in honour,
as I thought, not to flinch so near the trial, especially as
I well knew Mrs. Cole was an eye-witness, from her stand of
espial, to the whole of our transactions, I was now less
afraid of my skin than of his not furnishing me with an oppor-
tunity of signalizing my resolution.

     Consonant to this disposition was my answer, but my
courage was still more in my head, than in my heart; and as
cowards rush into the danger they fear, in order to be the
sooner rid of the pain of that sensation, I was entirely
pleas'd with his hastening matters into execution.

     He had then little to do, but to unloose the strings of
my petticoats, and lift them, together with my shift, navel-
high, where he just tuck'd them up loosely girt, and might be
slipt up higher at pleasure.  Then viewing me round with
great seeming delight, he laid me at length on my face upon
the bench, and when I expected he would tie me, as I had done
him, and held out my hands, not without fear and a little
trembling, he told me he would by no means terrify me un-
necessarily with such a confinement; for that though he meant
to put my constancy to some trial, the standing it was to be
completely voluntary on my side, and therefore I might be at
full liberty to get up whenever I found the pain too much for
me.  You cannot imagine how much I thought myself bound, by
being thus allow'd to remain loose, and how much spirit this
confidence in me gave me, so that I was even from my heart
careless how much my flesh might suffer in honour of it.

     All by back parts, naked half way up, were now fully at
his mercy: and first, he stood at a convenient distance, de-
lighting himself with a gloating survey of the attitude I lay
in, and of all the secret stores I thus expos'd to him in
fair display.  Then, springing eagerly towards me, he cover'd
all those naked parts with a fond profusion of kisses; and
now, taking hold of the rod, rather wanton'd with me, in gen-
tle inflictions on those tender trembling masses of my flesh
behind, than in any way hurt them, till by degrees, he began
to tingle them with smarter lashes, so as to provoke a red
colour into them, which I knew, as well by the flagrant glow
I felt there, as by his telling me, they now emulated the
native roses of my other cheeks.  When he had thus amus'd
himself with admiring and toying with them, he went on to
strike harder, and more hard; so that I needed all my patience
not to cry out, or complain at least.  At last, he twigg'd me
so smartly as to fetch blood in more than one lash: at sight
of which he flung down the rod, flew to me, kissed away the
starting drops, and sucking the wounds eased a good deal of my
pain.  But now raising me on my knees, and making me kneel
with them straddling wide, that tender part of me, naturally
the province of pleasure, not of pain, came in for its share
of suffering: for now, eyeing it wistfully, he directed the
rod so that the sharp ends of the twigs lighted there, so
sensibly, that I could not help wincing, and writhing my
limbs with smart; so that my contortions of body must neces-
sarily throw it into infinite variety of postures and points
of view, fit to feast the luxury of the eye.  But still I
bore every thing without crying out: when presently giving me
another pause, he rush'd, as it were, on that part whose lips,
and round-about, had felt this cruelty, and by way of repara-
tion, glews his own to them; then he opened, shut, squeez'd
them, pluck'd softly the overgrowing moss, and all this in a
style of wild passionate rapture and enthusiasm, that ex-
press'd excess of pleasure; till betaking himself to the rod
again, encourag'd by my passiveness, and infuriated with this
strange taste of delight, he made my poor posteriours pay for
the ungovernableness of it; for now shewing them no quarter
the traitor cut me so, that I wanted but little of fainting
away, when he gave over.  And yet I did not utter one groan,
or angry expostulation; but in heart I resolv'd nothing so
seriously, as never to expose myself again to the like ser-
verities.

     You may guess then in what a curious pickle those soft
flesh-cushions of mine were, all sore, raw, and in fine, ter-
ribly clawed off; but so far from feeling any pleasure in it,
that the recent smart made me pout a little, and not with the
greatest air of satisfaction receive the compliments, and
after-caresses of the author of my pain.

     As soon as my cloaths were huddled on in a little de-
cency, a supper was brought in by the discreet Mrs. Cole her-
self, which might have piqued the sensuality of a cardinal,
accompanied with a choice of the richest wines: all which she
set before us, and went out again, without having, by a word
or even by a smile, given us the least interruption or confu-
sion, in those moments of secrecy, that we were not yet ripe
to the admission of a third to.

     I sat down then, still scarce in charity with my butch-
er, for such I could not help considering him, and was more-
over not a little piqued at the gay, satisfied air of his
countenance, which I thought myself insulted by.  But when
the now necessary refreshment to me of a glass of wine, a
little eating (all the time observing a profound silence) had
somewhat cheer'd and restor'd me to spirits, and as the smart
began to go off, my good humour return'd accordingly: which
alteration not escaping him, he said and did everything that
could confirm me in, and indeed exalt it.

     But scarce was supper well over, before a change so in-
credible was wrought in me, such violent, yet pleasingly irk-
some sensations took possession of me that I scarce knew how
to contain myself; the smart of the lashes was now converted
into such a prickly heat, such fiery tinglings, as made me
sigh, squeeze my thighs together, shift and wriggle about my
seat, with a furious restlessness; whilst these itching ar-
dours, thus excited in those parts on which the storm of dis-
cipline had principally fallen, detach'd legions of burning,
subtile, stimulating spirits, to their opposite spot and cen-
tre of assemblage, where their titillation rag'd so furiously,
that I was even stinging mad with them.  No wonder then, that
in such a taking, and devour'd by flames that licked up all
modesty and reserve, my eyes, now charg'd brimful of the most
intense desire, fired on my companion very intelligible sig-
nals of distress: my companion, I say, who grew in them every
instant more amiable, and more necessary to my urgent wishes
and hopes of immediate ease.

     Mr. Barville, no stranger by experience to these situa-
tions, soon knew the pass I was brought to, soon perceiv'd my
extreme disorder; in favour of which, removing the table out
of the way, he began a prelude that flatter'd me with instant
relief, to which I was not, however, so near as I imagin'd:
for as he was unbuttoned to me, and tried to provoke and
rouse to action his unactive torpid machine, he blushingly
own'd that no good was to be expected from it unless I took
it in hand to re-excite its languid loitering powers, by just
refreshing the smart of the yet recent blood-raw cuts, seeing
it could, no more than a boy's top, keep up without lashing.
Sensible then that I should work as much for my own profit as
his, I hurried my compliance with his desire, and abridging
the ceremonial, whilst he lean'd his head against the back of
a chair, I had scarce gently made him feel the lash, before I
saw the object of my wishes give signs of life, and presently,
as it were with a magic touch, it started up into a noble size
and distinction indeed!  Hastening then to give me the benefit
of it, he threw me down on the bench; but such was the re-
fresh'd soreness of those parts behind, on my leaning so hard
on them, as became me to compass the admission of that stupen-
dous head of his machine, that I could not possibly bear it.
I got up then, and tried, by leaning forwards and turning the
crupper on my assailant, to let him at the back avenue: but
here it was likewise impossible to stand his bearing so
fiercely against me, in his agitations and endeavours to enter
that way, whilst his belly battered directly against the
recent sore.  What should we do now? both intolerably heated;
both in a fury; but pleasure is ever inventive for its own
ends: he strips me in a trice, stark naked, and placing a
broad settee-cushion on the carpet before the fire, oversets
me gently, topsy-turvy, on it; and handling me only at the
waist, whilst you may be sure I favour'd all my dispositions,
brought my legs round his neck; so that my head was kept from
the floor only by my hands and the velvet cushion, which was
now bespread with my flowing hair: thus I stood on my head
and hands, supported by him in such manner, that whilst my
thighs clung round him, so as to expose to his sight all my
back figure, including the theatre of his bloody pleasure,
the centre of my fore part fairly bearded the object of its
rage, that now stood in fine condition to give me satisfaction
for the injuries of its neighbours.  But as this posture was
certainly not the easiest, and our imaginations, wound up to
the height, could suffer no delay, he first, with the utmost
eagerness and effort, just lip-lodg'd that broad acorn-fas-
hion'd head of his instrument; and still frenzied by the fury
with which he had made that impression, he soon stuffed in
the rest; when now, with a pursuit of thrusts, fiercely urg'd,
he absolutely overpower'd and absorb'd all sense of pain and
uneasiness, whether from my wounds behind, my most untoward
posture, or the oversize of his stretcher, in an infinitely
predominant delight; when now all my whole spirits of life
and sensation, rushing impetuously to the cock-pit, where the
prize of pleasure was hotly in dispute and clustering to a
point there, I soon receiv'd the dear relief of nature from
these over-violent strains and provocations of it; harmoniz-
ing with which, my gallant spouted into me such a potent over-
flow of the balsamic injection, as soften'd and unedg'd all
those irritating stings of a new species of titillation, which
I had been so intolerably madden'd with, and restor'd the fer-
ment of my senses to some degree of composure.

     I had now achiev'd this rare adventure ultimately much
more to my satisfaction than I had bespoken the nature of it
to turn out; nor was it much lessen'd, you may think, by my
spark's lavish praises of my constancy and complaisance, which
he gave weight to by a present that greatly surpassed my ut-
most expectation, besides his gratification to Mrs. Cole.

     I was not, however, at any time, re-enticed to renew
with him, or resort again to the violent expedient of lashing
nature into more haste than good speed: which, by the way, I
conceive acts somewhat in the manner of a dose of Spanish
flies; with more pain perhaps, but less danger; and might be
necessary to him, but was nothing less so than to me, whose
appetite wanted the bridle more than the spur.

     Mrs. Cole, to whom this adventurous exploit had more and
more endear'd me, looked on me now as a girl after her own
heart, afraid on nothing, and, on a good account, hardy enough
to fight all the weapons of pleasure through.  Attentive then,
in consequence of these favourable conceptions, to promote
either my profit or pleasure, she had special regard for the
first, in a new gallant of a very singular turn, that she pro-
cur'd for and introduced to me.

     This was a grave, staid, solemn, elderly gentleman whose
peculiar humour was a delight in combing fine tresses of hair;
and as I was perfectly headed to his taste, he us'd to come
constantly at my toilette hours, when I let down my hair as
loose as nature, and abandon'd it to him to do what he pleased
with it; and accordingly he would keep me an hour or more in
play with it, drawing the comb through it, winding the curls
round his fingers, even kissing it as he smooth'd it; and all
this led to no other use of my person, or any other liberties
whatever, any more than if a distinction of sexes had not
existed.

     Another peculiarity of taste he had, which was to present
me with a dozen pairs of the whitest kid gloves at a time:
these he would divert himself with drawing on me, and then
biting off the fingers' ends; all which fooleries of a sickly
appetite, the old gentleman paid more liberally for than most
others did for more essential favours.  This lasted till a
violent cough, seizing and laying him up, deliver'd me from
this most innocent and insipid trifler, for I never heard more
of him after his first retreat.

     You may be sure a by-job of this sort interfer'd with no
other pursuit, or plan of life; which I led, in truth, with a
modesty and reserve that was less the work of virtue than of
exhausted novelty, a glut of pleasure, and easy circumstances,
that made me indifferent to any engagements in which pleasure
and profit were not eminently united; and such I could, with
the less impatience, wait for at the hands of time and for-
tune, as I was satisfy'd I could never mend my pennyworths,
having evidently been serv'd at the top of market, and even
been pamper'd with dainties: besides that, in the sacrifice
of a few momentary impulses, I found a secret satisfaction in
respecting myself, as well as preserving the life and fresh-
ness of my complexion.  Louisa and Emily did not carry indeed
their reserve so high as I did; but still they were far from
cheap or abandon'd tho' two of their adventures seem'd to con-
tradict this general character, which, for their singularity,
I shall give you in course, beginning first with Emily's:

     Louisa and she went one night to a ball, the first in
the habit of a shepherdess, Emily in that of a shepherd:  I
saw them in their dresses before they went, and nothing in
nature could represent a prettier boy than this last did,
being so fair and well limbed.  They had kept together for
some time, when Louisa, meeting an old acquaintance of hers,
very cordially gives her companion the drop, and leaves her
under the protection of her boy's habit, which was not much,
and of her discretion, which was, it seems, still less.
Emily, finding herself deserted, sauntered thoughtless about
a-while, and, as much for coolness and air as anything else,
at length pull'd off her mask and went to the sideboard;
where, eyed and mark'd out by a gentleman in a very handsome
domino, she was accosted by, and fell into chat with him.
The domino, after a little discourse, in which Emily doubt-
less distinguish'd her good nature and easiness more than her
wit, began to make violent love to her, and drawing her in-
sensibly to some benches at the lower end of the masquerade
room, for her to sit by him, where he squeez'd her hands,
pinch'd her cheeks, prais'd and played with her fine hair,
admired her complexion, and all in a style of courtship dash'd
with a certain oddity, that not comprehending the mystery of,
poor Emily attributed to his falling in with the humour of her
disguise; and being naturally not the cruellest of her profes-
sion, began to incline to a parley on those essentials.  But
here was the stress of the joke: he took her really for what
she appear'd to be, a smock-fac'd boy; and she, forgetting her
dress, and of course ranging quite wide of his ideas, took all
those addresses to be paid to herself as a woman, which she
precisely owed to his not thinking her one.  However, this
double error was push'd to such a height on both sides, that
Emily, who saw nothing in him but a gentleman of distinction
by those points of dress to which his disguise did not extend,
warmed too by the wine he had ply'd her with, and the caresses
he had lavished upon her, suffered herself to be persuaded to
go to a bagnio with him; and thus, losing sight of Mrs. Cole's
cautions, with a blind confidence, put herself into his hands,
to be carried wherever he pleased.  For his part, equally
blinded by his wishes, whilst her egregious simplicity favour-
ed his deception more than the most exquisite art could have
done, he supposed, no doubt, that he had lighted on some soft
simpleton, fit for his purpose, or some kept minion broken to
his hand, who understood him perfectly well and enter'd into
his designs.  But, be that as it would, he led her to a coach,
went into it with her, and brought her to a very handsome
apartment, with a bed in it; but whether it was a bagnio or
not, she could not tell, having spoken to nobody but himself.
But when they were alone together, and her enamorato began to
proceed to those extremities which instantly discover the sex,
she remark'd that no description could paint up to the life
the mixture of pique, confusion and disappointment that ap-
peared in his countenance, joined to the mournful exclamation:
"By heavens, a woman!"  This at once opened her eyes, which
had hitherto been shut in downright stupidity.  However, as if
he had meant to retrieve that escape, he still continu'd to
toy with and fondle her, but with so staring an alteration
from extreme warmth into a chill and forced civility, that
even Emily herself could not but take notice of it, and now
began to wish she had paid more regard to Mrs. Cole's premon-
itions against ever engaging with a stranger.  And now and
excess of timidity succeeded to an excess of confidence, and
she thought herself so much at his mercy and discretion, that
she stood passive throughout the whole progress of his pre-
lude: for now, whether the impressions of so great a beauty
had even made him forgive her her sex, or whether her appear-
ance of figure in that dress still humour'd his first illu-
sion, he recover'd by degrees a good part of his first warmth,
and keeping Emily with her breeches still unbuttoned, stript
them down to her knees, and gently impelling her to lean down,
with her face against the bed-side, placed her so, that the
double way, between the double rising behind, presented the
choice fair to him, and he was so fairly set on a mis-direc-
tion, as to give the girl no small alarms for fear of losing
a maidenhead she had not dreamt of.  However, her complaints,
and a resistance, gentle, but firm, check'd and brought him
to himself again; so that turning his steed's head, he drove
him at length in the right road, in which his imagination
having probably made the most of those resemblances that
flatter'd his taste, he got, with much ado, to his journey's
end: after which, he led her out himself, and walking with
her two or three streets' length, got her a chair, when mak-
ing her a present not any thing inferior to what she could
have expected, he left her, well recommended to the chairman,
who, on her directions, brought her home.

     This she related to Mrs. Cole and me the same morning,
not without the visible remains of the fear and confusion she
had been in still stamp'd on her countenance.  Mrs. Cole's
remark was that her indescretion proceeding from a constitu-
tional facility, there were little hopes of any thing curing
her of it, but repeated severe experience.  Mine was that I
could not conceive how it was possible for mankind to run
into a taste, not only universally odious, but absurd, and
impossible to gratify; since, according to the notions and
experience I had of things, it was not in nature to force
such immense disproportions.  Mrs. Cole only smil'd at my
ignorance, and said nothing towards my undeception, which was
not affected but by ocular demonstration, some months after,
which a most singular accident furnish'd me, and which I will
here set down, that I may not return again to so disagreeable
a subject.

     I had, on a visit intended to Harriet, who had taken
lodgings at Hampton-court, hired a chariot to go out thither,
Mrs. Cole having promis'd to accompany me; but some indis-
pensable business intervening to detain her, I was obliged to
set out alone; and scarce had I got a third of my way, before
the axle-tree broke down, and I was well off to get out, safe
and unhurt, into a publick-house of a tolerable handsome ap-
pearance, on the road.  Here the people told me that the
stage would come by in a couple of hours at farthest; upon
which, determining to wait for it, sooner than lose the jaunt
I had got so far forward on, I was carried into a very clean
decent room, up one pair of stairs, which I took possession of
for the time I had to stay, in right of calling for sufficient
to do the house justice.

     Here, whilst I was amusing myself with looking out of the
window, a single horse-chaise stopt at the door, out of which
lightly leap'd two gentlemen, for so they seem'd, who came in
only as it were to bait and refresh a little, for they gave
their horse to be held in readiness against they came out.
And presently I heard the door of the next room, where they
were let in, and call'd about them briskly; and as soon as
they were serv'd, I could just hear that they shut and fast-
ened the door on the inside.

     A spirit of curiosity, far from sudden, since I do not
know when I was without it, prompted me, without any parti-
cular suspicion, or other drift or view, to see what they
were, and examine their persons and behaviour.  The partition
of our rooms was one of those moveable ones that, when taken
down, serv'd occasionally to lay them into one, for the con-
veniency of a large company; and now, my nicest search could
not shew me the shadow of a peep-hole, a circumstance which
probably had not escap'd the review of the parties on the
other side, whom much it stood upon not to be deceived in it;
but at length I observed a paper patch of the same colour as
the wainscot, which I took to conceal some flaw: but then it
was so high, that I was obliged to stand upon a chair to
reach it, which I did as softly as possibly, and, with a point
of a bodkin, soon pierc'd it.  And now, applying my eye close,
I commanded the room perfectly, and could see my two young
sparks romping and pulling one another about, entirely, to my
imagination, in frolic and innocent play.

     The eldest might be, on my nearest guess, towards nine-
teen, a tall comely young man, in a white fustian frock, with
a green velvet cape, and a cut bob-wig.

     The youngest could not be above seventeen, fair, ruddy,
compleatly well made, and to say the truth, a sweet pretty
stripling: he was--I fancy, too, a country-lad, by his dress,
which was a green plush frock and breeches of the same, white
waistcoat and stockings, a jockey cap, with his yellowish
hair, long and loose, in natural curls.

     But after a look of circumspection, which I saw the
eldest cast every way round the room, probably in too much
hurry and heat not to overlook the very small opening I was
posted at, especially at the height it was, whilst my eye
close to it kept the light from shining through and betraying
it, he said something to his companion and presently chang'd
the face of things.

     For now the elder began to embrace, to press and kiss the
younger, to put his hands into his bosom, and give him such
manifest signs of an amorous intention, as made me conclude
the other to be a girl in disguise: a mistake that nature kept
me in countenance for, for she had certainly made one, when
she gave him the male stamp.

     In the rashness then of their age, and bent as they were
to accomplish their project of preposterous pleasure, at the
risk of the very worst of consequences, where a discovery was
nothing less than improbable, they now proceeded to such
lengths as soon satisfied me what they were.

     The criminal scene they acted, I had the patience to see
to an end, purely that I might gather more facts and certainly
against them in my design to do their deserts instance jus-
tice; and accordingly, when they had readjusted themselves,
and were preparing to go out, burning as I was with rage and
indignation, I jumped down from the chair, in order to raise
the house upon them, but with such an unlucky impetuosity,
that some nail or ruggedness in the floor caught my foot, and
flung me on my face with such violence that I fell senseless
on the ground, and must have lain there some time e'er any
one came to my relief: so that they, alarmed, I suppose, by
the noise of my fall, had more than the necessary time to
make a safe retreat.  This they effected, as I learnt, with a
precipitation nobody could account for, till, when come to
myself, and compos'd enough to speak, I acquainted those of
the house with the whole transaction I had been evidence to.

     When I came home again, and told Mrs. Cole this adven-
ture, she very sensibly observ'd to me that there was no doubt
of due vengeance one time of other overtaking these miscre-
ants, however they might escape for the present; and that, had
I been the temporal instrument of it, I should have been at
least put to a great deal more trouble and confusion that I
imagined; that, as to the thing itself, the less said of it
was the better; but that though she might be suspected of
partiality, from its being the common cause of woman-kind, out
of whose mouths this practice tended to take something more
than bread, yet she protested against any mixture of passion,
with a declaration extorted from her by pure regard to truth;
which was that whatever effect this infamous passion had in
other ages and other countries, it seem'd a peculiar blessing
on our air and climate, that there was a plague-spot visibly
imprinted on all that are tainted with it, in this nation at
least; for that among numbers of that stamp whom she had
known, or at least were universally under the scandalous sus-
picion of it, she would not name an exception hardly of one
of them, whose character was not, in all other respects, the
most worthless and despicable that could be, stript of all
the manly virtues of their own sex, and fill'd up with only
the worst vices and follies of ours: that, in fine, they were
scarce less execrable than ridiculous in their monstrous in-
consistence, of loathing and condemning women, and all at the
same time apeing all their manners, air, lips, skuttle, and,
in general, all their little modes of affectation, which be-
come them at least better than they do these unsex'd male-
misses.

     But here, washing my hands of them, I re-plunge into the
stream of my history, into which I may very properly ingraft
a terrible sally of Louisa's, since I had some share in it
myself, and have besides engag'd myself to relate it, in point
of countenance to poor Emily.  It will add, too, one more
example to thousands, in confirmation of the maxim that when
women get once out of compass, there are no lengths of licen-
tiousness that they are not capable of running.

     One morning then, that both Mrs. Cole and Emily were gone
out for the day, and only Louisa and I (not to mention the
house-maid) were left in charge of the house, whilst we were
loitering away the time in looking through the shop windows,
the son of a poor woman, who earned very hard bread indeed by
mending stockings, in a stall in the neighbourhood, offer'd us
some nosegays, ring'd round a small basket; by selling of
which the poor boy eked out his mother's maintenance of them
both: nor was he fit for any other way of livelihood, since he
was not only a perfect changeling, or idiot, but stammer'd so
that there was no understanding even those sounds his half-
dozen, at most, animal ideas prompted him to utter.

     The boys and servants in the neighbourhood had given him
the nick-name of Good-natured Dick, from the soft simpleton's
doing everything he was bid at the first word, and from his
naturally having no turn to mischief; then, by the way, he
was perfectly well made, stout, clean-limb'd, tall of his age,
as strong as a horse and, withal, pretty featur'd; so that he
was not, absolutely, such a figure to be snuffled at neither,
if your nicety could, in favour of such essentials, have dis-
pens'd with a face unwashed, hair tangled for want of comb-
ing, and so ragged a plight, that he might have disputed
points of shew with e'er a heathen philosopher of them all.

     This boy we had often seen, and bought his flowers, out
of pure compassion, and nothing more; but just at this time
as he stood presenting us his basket, a sudden whim, a start
of wayward fancy, seiz'd Louisa; and, without consulting me,
she calls him in, and beginning to examine his nosegays,
culls out two, one for herself, another for me, and pulling
out half a crown, very currently gives it him to change, as
if she had really expected he could have changed it: but the
boy, scratching his head, made his signs explaining his in-
ability in place of words, which he could not, with all his
struggling, articulate.

     Louisa, at this, says:  "Well, my lad, come up-stairs
with me, and I will give you your due," winking at the same
time to me, and beckoning me to accompany her, which I did,
securing first the street-door, that by this means, together
with the shop, became wholly the care of the faithful house-
maid.

     As we went up, Louisa whispered to me that she had con-
ceiv'd a strange longing to be satisfy'd, whether the general
rule held good with regard to this changeling, and how far
nature had made him amends, in her best bodily gifts, for her
denial of the sublimer intellectual ones; begging, at the
same time, my assistance in procuring her this satisfaction.
A want of complaisance was never my vice, and I was so far
from opposing this extravagant frolic, that now, bit with the
same maggot, and my curiosity conspiring with hers, I enter'd
plum into it, on my own account.

     Consequently, as soon as we came into Louisa's bed-
chamber, whilst she was amusing him with picking out his
nosegays, I undertook the lead, and began the attack.  As it
was not then very material to keep much measures with a mere
natural, I made presently very free with him, though at my
first motion of meddling, his surprize and confusion made
him receive my advances but aukwardly: nay, insomuch that he
bashfully shy'd, and shy'd back a little; till encouraging
him with my eyes, plucking him playfully by the hair, sleeking
his cheeks, and forwarding my point by a number of little
wantonness, I soon turn'd him familiar, and gave nature her
sweetest alarm: so that arous'd, and beginning to feel him-
self, we could, amidst all the innocent laugh and grin I had
provoked him into, perceive the fire lighting in his eyes,
and, diffusing over his cheeks, blend its glow with that of
his blushes.  The emotion in short of animal pleasure glar'd
distinctly in the simpleton's countenance; yet, struck with
the novelty of the scene, he did not know which way to look
or move; but tame, passive, simpering, with his mouth half
open in stupid rapture, stood and tractably suffer'd me to
do what I pleased with him.  His basket was dropt out of his
hands, which Louisa took care of.

     I had now, through more than one rent, discovered and
felt his thighs, the skin of which seemed the smoother and
fairer for the coarseness, and even dirt of his dress, as
the teeth of Negroes seem the whiter for the surrounding
black; and poor indeed of habit, poor of understanding, he
was, however, abundantly rich in personal treasures, such as
flesh, firm, plump, and replete with the juices of youth,
and robust well-knit limbs.  My fingers too had now got with-
in reach of the true, the genuine sensitive plant, which,
instead of shrinking from the touch, joys to meet it, and
swells and vegetates under it: mine pleasingly informed me
that matters were so ripe for the discovery we meditated,
that they were too mighty for the confinement they were ready
to break.  A waistband that I unskewer'd, and a rag of a shirt
that I removed, and which could not have cover'd a quarter of
it, revealed the whole of the idiot's standard of distinction,
erect, in full pride and display: but such a one! it was posi-
tively of so tremendous a size, that prepared as we were to
see something extraordinary, it still, out of measure, sur-
pass'd our expectation, and astonish'd even me, who had not
been used to trade in trifles.  In fine, it might have answer-
ed very well the making a show of; its enormous head seemed,
in hue and size, not unlike a common sheep's heart; then you
might have troll'd dice securely along the broad back of the
body of it; the length of it too was prodigious; then the rich
appendage of the treasure-bag beneath, large in proportion,
gather'd adn crisp'd up round in shallow furrows, helped to
fill the eye, and complete the proof of his being a natural,
not quite in vain; since it was full manifest that he inherit-
ed, and largely too, the prerogative of majesty which distin-
guishes that otherwise most unfortunate condition, and gives
rise to the vulgar saying "A fool's bauble is a lady's play-
fellow."  Not wholly without reason: for, generally speaking,
it is in love as it is in war, where longest weapon carries
it.  Nature, in short, had done so much for him in those
parts, that she perhaps held herself acquitted in doing so
little for his head.

     For my part, who had sincerely no intention to push the
joke further than simply satisfying my curiosity with the
sight of it alone, I was content, in spite of the temptation
that star'd me in the face, with having rais'd a May-pole
for another to hang a garland on: for, by this time, easily
reading Louisa's desires in her wishful eyes, I acted the
commodious part and made her, who sought no better sport,
significant terms of encouragement to go through-stitch with
her adventure; intimating too that I would stay and see fair
play: in which, indeed, I had in view to humour a new-born
curiosity, to observe what appearances active nature would put
on in a natural, in the course of this her darling operation.

     Louisa, whose appetite was up, and who, like the indus-
trious bee, was, it seems, not above gathering the sweets of
so rare a flower, tho' she found it planted on a dunghill,
was but too readily disposed to take the benefit of my
cession.  Urg'd then strongly by her own desires, and em-
bolden'd by me, she presently determined to risk a trial of
parts with the idiot, who was by this time nobly inflam'd
for her purpose, by all the irritations we had used to put
the principles of pleasure effectually into motion, and to
wind up the springs of its organ to their supreme pitch; and
it stood accordingly stiff and straining, ready to burst with
the blood and spirits that swelled it . . . to a bulk!  No!
I shall never forget it.

     Louisa then, taking and holding the fine handle that
so invitingly offer'd itself, led the ductile youth by that
master-tool of his, as she stept backward towards the bed;
which he joyfully gave way to, under the incitations of in-
stinct and palpably deliver'd up to the goad of desire.

     Stopped then by the bed, she took the fall she lov'd,
and lean'd to the most, gently backward upon it, still hold-
ing fast what she held, and taking care to give her cloaths
a convenient toss up, so that her thighs duly disclos'd, and
elevated, laid open all the outward prospect of the treasury
of love: the rose-lipt overture presenting the cock-pit so
fair, that it was not in nature even for a natural to miss it.
Nor did he, for Louisa, fully bent on grappling with it, and
impatient of dalliance or delay, directed faithfully the point
of the battering-piece, and bounded up with a rage of so vora-
cious appetite, to meet and favour the thrust of insertion,
that the fierce activity on both sides effected it with such
pain of distention, that Louisa cry'd out violently that she
was hurt beyond bearing, that she was killed.  But it was too
late: the storm was up, and force was on her to give way to
it; for now the man-machine, strongly work'd upon by the sen-
sual passion, felt so manfully his advantages and superiority,
felt withal the sting of pleasure so intolerable, that madden-
ing with it, his joys began to assume a character of furious-
ness which made me tremble for the too tender Louisa.  He
seemed, at this juncture, greater than himself; his counten-
ance, before so void of meaning, or expression, now grew big
with the importance of the act he was upon.  In short, it was
not now that he was to be play'd the fool with.  But, what is
pleasant enough, I myself was aw'd into a sort of respect for
him, by the comely terrors his motions dressed him in: his
eyes shooting sparks of fire; his face glowing with ardours
that gave another life to it; his teeth churning; his whole
frame agitated with a raging ungovernable impetuosity: all
sensibly betraying the formidable fierceness with which the
genial instinct acted upon him.  Butting then and goring all
before him, and mad and wild like an over-driven steer, he
ploughs up the tender furrow, all insensible to Louisa's com-
plaints; nothing can stop, nothing can keep out a fury like
his: with which, having once got its head in, its blind rage
soon made way for the rest, piercing, rending, and breaking
open all obstructions.  The torn, split, wounded girl cries,
struggles, invokes me to her rescue, and endeavours to get
from under the young savage, or shake him off, but alas! in
vain: her breath might as soon have still'd or stemm'd a storm
in winter, as all her strength have quell'd his rough assault,
or put him out of his course.  And indeed, all her efforts and
struggles were manag'd with such disorder, that they serv'd
rather to entangle, and fold her the faster in the twine of
his boisterous arms; so that she was tied to the stake, and
oblig'd to fight the match out, if she died for it.  For his
part, instinct-ridden as he was, the expressions of his animal
passion, partaking something of ferocity, were rather worrying
than kisses, intermix'd with eager ravenous love-bites on her
cheeks and neck, the prints of which did not wear out for some
days after.

     Poor Louisa, however, bore up at length better than could
have been expected; and though she suffer'd, and greatly too,
yet, ever true to the good old cause, she suffer'd with plea-
sure and enjoyed her pain.  And soon now, by dint of an en-
rag'd enforcement, the brute-machine, driven like a whirl-
wind, made all smoke again, and wedging its way up, to the
utmost extremity, left her, in point of penetration, nothing
to fear or to desire: and now,

     "Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,"
                                         (Shakespeare.)

Louisa lay, pleas'd to the heart, pleas'd to her utmost capa-
city of being so, with every fibre in those parts, stretched
almost to breaking, on a rack of joy, whilst the instrument
of all this overfulness searched her senses with its sweet
excess, till the pleasure gained upon her so, its point stung
her so home, that catching at length the rage from her fur-
ious driver and sharing the riot of his wild rapture, she
went wholly out of her mind into that favourite part of her
body, the whole intenseness of which was so fervously fill'd,
and employ'd: there alone she existed, all lost in those de-
lirious transports, those extasies of the senses, which her
winking eyes, the brighten'd vermilion of her lips and cheeks,
and sighs of pleasure deeply fetched, so pathetically ex-
press'd.  In short, she was now as mere a machine as much
wrought on, and had her motions as little at her own command
as the natural himself, who thus broke in upon her, made her
feel with a vengeance his tempestuous tenderness, and the
force of the mettle he battered with; their active loins
quivered again with the violence of their conflict, till the
surge of pleasure, foaming and raging to a height, drew down
the pearly shower that was to allay this hurricane.  The
purely sensitive idiot then first shed those tears of joy that
attend its last moments, not without an agony of delight and
even almost a roar of rapture, as the gush escaped him; so
sensibly too for Louisa, that she kept him faithful company,
going off, in consent, with the old symptoms: a delicious
delirium, a tremulous convulsive shudder, and the critical
dying Oh!  And now, on his getting off, she lay pleasure-
drench'd, and re-gorging its essential sweets; but quite
spent, and gasping for breath, without other sensation of
life than in those exquisite vibrations that trembled yet on
the strings of delight, which had been too intensively
touched, and which nature had been so intensly stirred with,
for the senses to be quickly at peace from.

     As for the changeling, whose curious engine had been
thus successfully played off, his shift of countenance and
gesture had even something droll, or rather tragi-comic in
it: there was now an air of sad repining foolishness, super-
added to his natural one of no-meaning and idiotism, as he
stood with his label of manhood, now lank, unstiffen'd, be-
calm'd, and flapping against his thighs, down which it reach'd
half-way, terrible even in its fall, whilst under the dejec-
tion of spirit and flesh, which naturally followed, his eyes,
by turns, cast down towards his struck standard, or piteously
lifted to Louisa, seemed to require at her hands what he had
so sensibly parted from to her, and now ruefully miss'd.  But
the vigour of nature, soon returning, dissipated the blast of
faintness which the common law of enjoyment had subjected him
to; and now his basket re-became his main concern, which I
look'd for, and brought him, whilst Louisa restor'd his dress
to its usual condition, and afterwards pleased him perhaps
more by taking all his flowers off his hands, and paying him,
at his rate, for them, than if she had embarrass'd him by a
present that he would have been puzzled to account for, and
might have put others on tracing the motives of.

     Whether she ever return'd to the attack I know not, and,
to say the truth, I believe not.  She had had her freak out,
and had pretty plentifully drown'd her curiosity in a glut of
pleasure, which, as it happened, had no other consequence
than that the lad, who retain'd only a confused memory of the
transaction, would, when he saw her, for some time after,
express a grin of joy and familiarity, after his idiot manner,
and soon forgot her in favour of the next woman, tempted, on
the report of his parts, to take him in.

                    END PART 9