the subjects of love and wine. We took up our lodging the first night
at a peasant's house not far from Abbeville, where we were entertained
with an excellent ragout, cooked by our landlord's daughters, one
of whom was very handsome. After having eaten heartily and drank a
sufficient quantity of small wine, we were conducted to a barn, where we
found a couple of carpets spread upon clean straw for our reception.
We had not lain in this situation above half-an-hour, when we heard
somebody knock softly at the door, upon which Balthazar got up, and
let in our host's two daughters, who wanted to have some private
conversation with him in the dark. When they had whispered together some
time, the capuchin came to me, and asked if I was insensible to love,
and so hard-hearted as to refuse a share of my bed to a pretty maid who
had a tendre for me? I must own to my shame, that I suffered myself to
be overcome by my passion, and with great eagerness seized the occasion,
when I understood that the amiable Nanette was to be my bedfellow. In
vain did my reason suggest the respect that I owed to my dear mistress
Narcissa; the idea of that lovely charmer rather increased than allayed
the ferment of my spirits; and the young paysanne had no reason to
complain of my remembrance. Early in the morning, the kind creatures
left us to our repose, which lasted till eight o'clock when we got up,
and were treated at breakfast with chocolate and l'eau-de-vie by our
paramours, of whom we took a tender leave, after my companion had
confessed and given them absolution.

While we proceeded on our journey, the conversation turned upon the
night's adventure, being introduced by the capuchin, who asked me how I
liked my lodging; I declared my satisfaction, and talked in rapture of
the agreeable Nanette, at which he shook his head, and smiling said, she
was a morceau pour la bonne bouche. "I never valued myself," continued
he, "upon anything so much as the conquest of Nanette; and, vanity
apart, I have been pretty fortunate in my amours." This information
shocked me not a little, as I was well convinced of his intimacy with
her sister; and though I did not care to tax him with downright
incest, I professed my astonishment at his last night's choice, when, I
supposed, the other was at his devotion. To this hint he answered that,
besides his natural complaisance to the sex, he had another reason to
distribute his favours equally between them, namely, to p