One morning toward the end of November, the advocate came with Angelique's intended and paid me a visit.
The young man invited me warmly to spend a day and a night at Tivoli with the same company I had entertained at Frascati.
I accepted with pleasure, for since the feast of Saint Ursula I had found no chance of being alone with Lucrezia. I promised to be at Donna Cecilia's door at daybreak with the same vis-à-vis.
We had to set out early, for Tivoli lies sixteen miles from Rome and contains enough sights to occupy many hours.
Since I was to remain there the night, I asked leave of the Cardinal himself. He heard with whom I was going and told me that I was perfectly right not to miss so fine an occasion of seeing so splendid a place in such agreeable company.
At the first light of dawn I was at Donna Cecilia's door with my vis-à-vis and my four horses. She came with me as before.
The charming widow, though strict enough in her morals, appeared sincerely pleased by my attachment to her daughter.
The rest of the family followed in a large phaeton hired by Don Francisco, which easily held six persons.
At half past seven we stopped at a little inn where Don Francisco had ordered an excellent breakfast to be ready for us. It was meant to replace our dinner, since at Tivoli we were likely to have time for nothing more than supper. We ate heartily.
I wore Lucrezia's ring upon my finger. On the back I had set a little enamel, on which appeared a caduceus with a serpent between the letters Alpha and Omega.
This device became the talk of the breakfast table.
Don Francisco and the advocate tried in vain to discover its meaning, while Lucrezia, who knew the secret perfectly, amused herself by watching their mistakes.
We then resumed our road and reached Tivoli at ten.
We began with Don Francisco's villa, a handsome little house, and spent the next six hours wandering among the antiquities of Tivoli.
At one point Lucrezia leaned to speak a few words to Don Francisco, and I took the occasion to tell Angelique that after her marriage I should be happy to spend a few days with her during the fine season.
"Sir," she replied, "I give you fair notice that the moment I become mistress in this house you will be the very first person to be excluded."
"I feel greatly obliged to you, signora, for your timely notice."
But the most amusing part of the affair was that I construed Angelique's wanton insult into a declaration of love.
I was astonished. Lucrezia, seeing my confusion, touched my arm and asked what had happened. When I told her, she answered at once.
"My darling, my happiness cannot last long; the cruel moment of our separation is drawing near. When I have gone, pray undertake the task of compelling her to acknowledge her error. Angelique pities me, be sure to avenge me."
I forgot to mention that at Don Francisco's villa I praised a very pretty room that opened upon the orange-house. The good host overheard me and at once came over to say that it should be mine for the night.
Lucrezia gave no sign of hearing him, but I understood her well enough. It was her clue to Ariadne, for during our whole stay at Tivoli we were to remain together and had no chance of a tete-a-tete.
I have said that we spent six hours among the antiquities of Tivoli. I ought to confess that I, for my part, saw very little of them.
It was not until twenty-eight years later that I came to know the place properly.
We returned to the villa toward evening, tired and hungry. An hour's rest before supper restored us. That supper lasted two hours and was a very noble one, with excellent dishes, exquisite wines, and above all the fine wine of Tivoli.
By the end of it, everyone wanted nothing more than a good bed and the freedom to enjoy it according to his own taste.
No one wished to sleep alone. Lucrezia therefore said that she would take Angelique with her in one of the rooms near the orange-house, while her husband might share a room with the young abbé, his brother in law, and Donna Cecilia might keep her youngest daughter with her.
This arrangement pleased everyone.
Don Francisco took a candle, led me to my little room beside the one where the two sisters were to sleep, and showed me how I could lock myself in. He then wished me good night and left me alone.
Angelique had not the least suspicion that I was lodged close beside her. Lucrezia and I, without exchanging a word on the matter, had understood each other perfectly.
I watched through the keyhole as the two sisters entered their room, preceded by the polite Don Francisco, candle in hand. He lit their lamp, wished them good night, and withdrew.
Then, once the door was locked, my two beauties seated themselves upon the sofa and began their toilette for the night, which in that fortunate climate, is similar to the costume of our first mother.
Lucrezia, knowing that I was waiting to join her, placed her sister on the side nearest the window.
The virgin, having no idea that she was exposing her most secret beauties to my profane eyes, crossed the room in a state of complete nakedness.
Lucrezia extinguished the lamp and lay down beside her innocent sister.
Happy moments which I can no longer enjoy, but the sweet remembrance of which death alone can make me lose!
I believe I never undressed myself as quickly as I did that evening.
I opened the door and found myself in the arms of my Lucrezia. She whispered to her sister, "It is my angel, my love; never mind him, and go to sleep."
What a delightful picture I could offer to my readers if it were possible for me to paint voluptuousness in its most enchanting colours!
What ecstasies of love from the very onset!
What delicious raptures succeed each other until the sweetest fatigue made us give way to the soothing influence of Morpheus!
The first light of day slipped through the cracks of the shutters and woke us out of our refreshing slumbers.
Like two knights who have rested only to take up arms again, we renewed the contest with increased ardour, we lost no time in giving ourselves up to all the intensity of the flame which consumed us.
"Oh, my beloved Lucrezia! how supremely happy I am! But, my darling, mind your sister; she might turn round and see us."
"Fear nothing, my life; my sister is kind, she loves me, she pities me; do you not love me, my dear Angelique? Oh! turn round, see how happy your sister is, and know what felicity awaits you when you own the sway of love."
Angelique was seventeen, and the night must have been long enough to torment her curiosity as well as her heart. She seized the occasion to show that she had forgiven her sister.
Turning toward us, she covered Lucrezia with kisses and confessed that she had not closed her eyes all night.
"Then forgive likewise, darling Angelique, forgive him who loves me, and whom I adore," said Lucrezia.
Unfathomable power of the god who conquers all human beings!
"Angelique hates me," I said. "I dare not..."
"No, I do not hate you," replied the charming girl at once.
"Kiss her, my darling," said Lucrezia, pushing me toward her sister, and delighting in the sight of her in my arms, still and almost languid.
But sentiment, still more than love, forbids me to deprive Lucrezia of the proof of my gratitude, and I turn to her with all the rapture of a beginner, feeling that my ardour is increased by Angelique's ecstasy, as it was her first time witnessing the amorous contest.
Lucrezia, dying of enjoyment, entreats me to stop, but, as I do not listen to her prayer, she tricks me, and the sweet Angelique makes her first sacrifice to the mother of love.
It is thus, very likely, that when the gods inhabited this earth, the voluptuous Arcadia, in love with the soft and pleasing breath of Zephyrus, one day opened her arms, and was fecundated.
Lucrezia was astonished and delighted, and covered us both with kisses.
Angelique, as happy as her sister, expired deliciously in my arms for the third time, and she seconded me with so much loving ardour, that it seemed to me I was tasting happiness for the first time.
Phoebus had left the nuptial couch, and his rays were already diffusing light over the universe; and that light, reaching us through the closed shutters, gave me warning to quit the place; we exchanged the most loving adieus, I left my two divinities and retired to my own room.
A few minutes afterwards, the cheerful voice of the advocate was heard in the chamber of the sisters; he was reproaching them for sleeping too long!
Then he knocked at my door, threatening to bring the ladies to me, and went away, saying that he would send me the hair-dresser.
After many ablutions and a careful toilet, I judged myself fit to appear, and entered the drawing room coolly.
The two sisters were there with the rest of our company, and I was pleased to see how bright their faces had become.
Lucrezia was open and gay, her happiness plainly visible. Angelique, fresh as morning itself, shone even more than usual, though she was restless and took care not to meet my eyes.
My little efforts to catch her gaze only made her smile, and I told her mother, with a mischievous air, that it was a pity Angelique used paint upon her face.
The trick succeeded.
She protested at once, and in order to prove the contrary, I was made to pass a handkerchief over her cheek.
That obliged her to look at me.
I begged her pardon, and Don Francisco seemed greatly delighted that the complexion of his intended had come off so well under examination.