y such an
excess of fucking in bouts of _double jouissance_, in which not only my
adored and most lascivious wife came in for her full share, but both
the Count and myself enjoyed the double bliss in our turn. We carried
on to such an excess that we were quite knocked up, and were so
overpowered with sleep the next evening that by common consent we
quietly went to bed, and deferred till morning any fresh deeds in the
fields of love and lust.

We found this so refreshing to our powers of fucking that we regularly
adopted the system of lying fallow the earlier portion of every other
night.

We passed a most agreeable time with walks and rides through the lovely
scenery, and explorations of the old castles.

The Count himself had two, but the one immediately above his house was
by far the most interesting and was the original seat of his ancestors,
wild robber barons of their day; and a black deed was reported in the
traditions of the peasantry around.

The castle, although in a valley between the hills, stood on a high
perpendicular isolated rock some hundred-and fifty feet above its base;
it was crowned with a very high building to make up for want of space
at the foundation, and had besides a very lofty and bold round tower,
rising high enough above the sides of the valley to serve as a lookout
beyond them. The habitable part was reached from the main gate by a
steep stair, at one of the landings was a trap door opening upon a
profoundly deep shaft; tradition said that this was a trap for personal
enemies, who, on pretence of reconciliation were invited to the castle;
on passing over the trap it opened, and they were precipitated to the
bottom. It was the common tradition of the peasantry that wheels with
scythes attached chopped them to pieces at the bottom.

It is a curious fact, and one showing how tradition may preserve a
truth where least expected. Our friend the Count for six months lay
hidden in the secret recesses of this old castle at the time a price
was set on his head for treason. This had led him to all sorts of
explorations, in which he had discovered many hiding places.

Knowing of this tradition about the cutting up of bodies at the bottom
of this deep shaft he got his two younger brothers to let him down by a
long cord, and really found the remains of machinery and wheels with
rusty blades attached.

After he had finally escaped, a more regular search was made, and it
was discovered that a comm