ir
different ages, and marched in their respective bodies into the three
great roads that lay before them. As I had a mind to know how each of
these roads terminated, and whither it would lead those who passed
through them, I joined myself with the assembly that were in the flower
and vigour of their age, and called themselves, "The Band of Lovers." I
found to my great surprise, that several old men besides myself had
intruded into this agreeable company; as I had before observed, there
were some young men who had united themselves to the Band of Misers, and
were walking up the path of avarice; though both made a very ridiculous
figure, and were as much laughed at by those they joined, as by those
they forsook. The walk which we marched up, for thickness of shades,
embroidery of flowers, and melody of birds, with the distant purling of
streams, and falls of water, was so wonderfully delightful, that it
charmed our senses, and intoxicated our minds with pleasure. We had not
been long here, before every man singled out some woman to whom he
offered his addresses and professed himself a lover; when on a sudden we
perceived this delicious walk to grow more narrow as we advanced in it,
till it ended in many intricate thickets, mazes and labyrinths, that
were so mixed with roses and brambles, brakes of thorns, and beds of
flowers, rocky paths and pleasing grottoes, that it was hard to say,
whether it gave greater delight or perplexity to those who travelled in
it.

It was here that the lovers began to be eager in their pursuits. Some of
their mistresses, who only seemed to retire for the sake of form and
decency, led them into plantations that were disposed into regular
walks; where, after they had wheeled about in some turns and windings,
they suffered themselves to be overtaken, and gave their hands to those
who pursued them. Others withdrew from their followers into little
wildernesses, where there were so many paths interwoven with each other
in so much confusion and irregularity, that several of the lovers
quitted the pursuit, or broke their hearts in the chase. It was
sometimes very odd to see a man pursuing a fine woman that was following
another, whose eye was fixed upon a fourth, that had her own game in
view in some other quarter of the wilderness. I could not but observe
two things in this place which I thought very particular, that several
persons who stood only at the end of the avenues, and cast a careless
eye