, promising to visit
me in this way every night, she passed her hand through the hole. Alas! I
could not leave off kissing it, for I thought that I had never in my life
touched so soft, so delicate a hand. But what bliss when she begged for
mine! I quickly thrust my arm through the hole, so that she could fasten
her lips to the bend of the elbow. How many sweet liberties my hand
ventured to take! But we were at last compelled by prudence to separate,
and when I returned to my room I saw with great pleasure that the keeper
was fast asleep.

Although I was delighted at having obtained every favour I could possibly
wish for in the uncomfortable position we had been in, I racked my brain
to contrive the means of securing more complete enjoyment for the
following night, but I found during the afternoon that the feminine
cunning of my beautiful Greek was more fertile than mine.

Being alone in the yard with her master, she said a few words to him in
Turkish, to which he seemed to give his approval, and soon after a
servant, assisted by the keeper, brought under the balcony a large basket
of goods. She overlooked the arrangement, and in order to secure the
basket better, she made the servant place a bale of cotton across two
others. Guessing at her purpose, I fairly leaped for joy, for she had
found the way of raising herself two feet higher; but I thought that she
would then find herself in the most inconvenient position, and that,
forced to bend double, she would not be able to resist the fatigue. The
hole was not wide enough for her head to pass through, otherwise she
might have stood erect and been comfortable. It was necessary at all
events to guard against that difficulty; the only way was to tear out one
of the planks of the floor of the balcony, but it was not an easy
undertaking. Yet I decided upon attempting it, regardless of
consequences; and I went to my room to provide myself with a large pair
of pincers. Luckily the keeper was absent, and availing myself of the
opportunity, I succeeded in dragging out carefully the four large nails
which fastened the plank. Finding that I could lift it at my will, I
replaced the pincers, and waited for the night with amorous impatience.

The darling girl came exactly at midnight, noticing the difficulty she
experienced in climbing up, and in getting a footing upon the third bale
of cotton, I lifted the plank, and, extending my arm as far as I could, I
offered her a steady point