ress, informed him that he had perceived a
laced hat lying upon a marble slab in her apartment; and that when
she came out of her own chamber to receive the letter, she appeared in
manifest disorder. From these hints of intelligence our young gentleman
suspected, or rather made no doubt of, her infidelity; and being by this
time well nigh cloyed with possession, was not sorry to find she had
given him cause to renounce her correspondence. That he might therefore
detect her in the very breach of duty, and at the same time punish the
gallant who had the presumption to invade his territories, he concerted
with himself a plan which was executed in this manner. During his next
interview with his dulcinea, far from discovering the least sign of
jealousy or discontent, he affected the appearance of extraordinary
fondness, and, after having spent the afternoon with the show
of uncommon satisfaction, told her he was engaged in a party for
Fountainebleau, and would set out from Paris that same evening; so that
he should not have the pleasure of seeing her again for some days.

The lady, who was very well versed in the arts of her occupation,
pretended to receive this piece of news with great affliction, and
conjured him, with such marks of real tenderness, to return as soon as
possible to her longing arms, that he went away almost convinced of her
sincerity. Determined, however, to prosecute his scheme, he actually
departed from Paris with two or three gentlemen of his acquaintance,
who had hired a remise for a jaunt to Versailles; and having accompanied
them as far as the village of Passe, he returned in the dusk of the
evening on foot.

He waited impatiently till midnight, and then, arming himself with a
brace of pocket-pistols, and attended by trusty Tom with a cudgel in his
hand, repaired to the lodgings of his suspected inamorata. Having given
Pipes his cue, he knocked gently at the door, which was no sooner opened
by the lacquey, than he bolted in, before the fellow could recollect
himself from the confusion occasioned by his unexpected appearance; and,
leaving Tom to guard the door, ordered the trembling valet to light
him upstairs into his lady's apartment. The first object that presented
itself to his view, when he entered the antechamber, was a sword upon
the table, which he immediately seized, exclaiming, in a loud and
menacing voice, that his mistress was false, and then in bed with
another gallant, whom he would ins